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“That was an interesting dinner.” He said as we entered our hotel room. “So what do you think about Zoey being home?”

“I think that it is a waste of money, it is just like her to start something then quit half way through. It just bugs me.” Joel gave me a hug.

“You seem stressed babe. What’s wrong?”

“It’s just the way my mom said that I don’t have to ask to see my children. I just feel like she thinks that I am abandoning them.”

“Your not abandoning them, you are a great mother, and they love you. Your just doing what you think is best for them, ok?” He said giving me a kiss. I knew he was right but I felt so bad, because I loved my kids so much but they were starting school this year and I didn’t want them to miss any because of the tour. “Hey why don’t we stay one more night, pick Ronan and Brooklyn up early tomorrow, go for breakfast, maybe go shopping and get them stuff for school then out for lunch?”

“That is a great idea, I’m sure they would love it.” I gave him a kiss then grabbed my bag and got my red shorts and red and white angel wings shirt and changed. Joel took off his cloths and got into bed in his boxers. I climbed in beside him and he wrapped his arms around me, and we both drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up early and climbed out of bed without waking up Joel. I grabbed a change of underwear, a white skirt and a black halter top out of my bag and headed for the bathroom, grabbing my cell phone on the way. I placed my cloths on the counter. I turned on the water and began to brush my teeth. When I was done I dialed my mom’s phone number, it began to ring then someone picked up, “Carter Residents, Brooklyn Carter speaking.” I just smiled.

“Good morning, baby, how are you?”

“Mommy” I heard her scream into the phone.

“Brooklyn not so loud baby, what are you doing?”

“Going to get dressed then down to the kitchen to have breakfast.” She replied.

“Ok, can you put grandma on the phone?” I heard her call grandma, then my mom answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey mom, it’s me.”

“Yes, I’m sure the whole house knows it is you,” she said laughing.

“Listen, Joel and I are just getting ready then we were going to take them out for breakfast then go school shopping ok? So we will be over in about half-an-hour?”

“Ok, I will have them ready.”

“Thanks mom. Love you.” I hung up the phone and got changed. I left the bathroom and Joel was getting dressed, “Hey did I wake you?”

“No, but that is the second time that u slipped out of bed with out waking me up. Don’t make it a habit.”

“I won’t,” I smiled, “I called and told my mom we would be over soon.”

“Yeah I heard. You ready to go?” he asked putting his shoe on and standing up grabbing his phone and sweater.

“Yeah,” I grabbed a white mesh long sleeved shirt out of my bag and put it on. I walked over to the table and grabbed my bag, following him to the door and out, down the hall. “So where did you want to go for breakfast?”

“I don’t care, why don’t we wait pick up the kids and see where they want to go?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” We got into the car and drove to my parent’s house. Joel pulled into the drive way and before I got out of the car I seen my beautiful daughter, Brooklyn, running towards the car. I climbed out and picked her up in a big hug.

“Mommy, I’ve missed you!” she said giving me a kiss.

“I’ve missed you too baby,” I said almost in tears, “and look who I brought with me.”

“Uncle Joel,” she said practically jumping to him, “where’s Benji?”

“He is in Canada still, but he sends his love and says that he misses you very much.” We walked into the house, my mom greeted us at the door, and Zoey was walking through the room and stopped.

“Hey mom, Zoey what’s up?” I said giving them a hug, “where is Ronan?”

“He’s still in bed,” Brooklyn said before anyone could answer.

“I’m going to go wake him up,” I said walking towards the stairs, “make sure you ready to go Brooklyn.”

“Ok, Mommy, want to see my new bike, Uncle Joel?”

I walked up and down to the room with the sign ‘Ronan & Brooklyn’s Room’ I smiled to myself and walked into their room. I walked over to his bed and saw him sprawled out across it. I sat down beside him and shook him slightly, he pushed my hands away and moved onto his side. I shook him again, and this time I got a response, “get lost Brooklyn.”

“I’m not Brooklyn, Ronan” he sat up almost immediately and turned around.

“Mommy,” he said wrapping his arms around me.

“Hey Baby, I missed you.”

“I missed you too, mommy. What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn’t be home for a while.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be, but Joel and I came down for the weekend, and thought it would be nice if we took you and Brooklyn out for the day and got all of the stuff you need for your first day of school. New cloths and a school bag. What do you think, is it a plan?”

“Yeah!” he said jumping out of bed and ran to his bedroom door.

“Ronan!”

“What?”

“Don’t think you should get dressed first?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.”

“Ok, I and going to go downstairs and make sure Brooklyn is ready and talk to Gramma and Aunt Zoey for a bit so when you are all ready come down and we will get going ok?”

“OK”

I walked down stairs to find every one out front, Brooklyn was showing Joel her new bike, mom and Zoey were standing at the door.

“Ronan is getting dressed he’ll be down in a minute. So Zoey, how are things?”

“There fine. What is there deal with you and Joel?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, this is the first time I think I have ever seen you and Joel alone? So there has to be something going on, where is Benji?”

“Benji is with the rest of the group on there way to Montreal.”

“Ok and what is going on with you and Joel? Why didn’t he go with the rest of the group?”

“Why didn’t you stay in school? Why did you come home?”

“Riley and Zoey, stop it, I am not going to listen to you too arguing.” My mom said before Zoey could reply. There was silence for a couple of minutes. Then I finally said, “Joel and I are now dating, and we had some extra time so we came down, we are leaving tomorrow morning.”

“How long have you guys been dating?” Zoey said, with a surprised look on her face.

“Like three days,”

“You guys have only been dating three days and you go on a romantic weekend together. Moving little fast, aren’t you?” Zoey interrupted.

“Not that it is any of your business, Zoey, but Joel and I have known each other our whole lives so it isn’t moving fast and no one said it was a romantic weekend. I wanted to come home and he came with me, if it was a romantic weekend do you think I would be here or went to dinner with mom and dad last night?”

“I’m ready mommy,” Ronan said walking out the door, I always thought my son had perfect timing. Brooklyn and Ronan said good-bye to mom and Zoey and we climbed into the SUV. Joel could tell that I was a little on the annoyed side, as we started to drive he took my hand in his. I turn around to see Brooklyn and Ronan staring out their windows.

“So where did you guys want to go for breakfast?” Joel said looking through his rearview window, both of the kids turned and looked at us.

“Can we go to Acme?” Ronan asked.

“Sorry baby, Acme isn’t a very good breakfast place. But maybe we can go there for lunch. How would you like that, Ronan?” A smile spread across his face as she shook her head. “Where would you like to go for breakfast, Brooke?”

“Mom, Gramma says that my name is Brooklyn and isn’t proper to call me Brooke or Lyn” she said very politely.

“Well, I am your mom and I will call you whatever I want, I can even call you weirdo if I wanted to,” I said, “So where do you want to go for breakfast?”

“McDonalds? Gramma doesn’t let us go there anymore.”

“McDonalds it is,” Joel said turning the corner. We drove to the nearest McDonalds and ate, then began our long day of shopping. First we went to Kohl’s and walked around until the kids finally started to find stuff that they liked. Then they ran in every direction.

“Brooklyn, watch where you are going,” I called as she ran into a gentlemen in the isle.

“Babe, why don’t you go with Brooklyn and I’ll take Ronan and we can meet at the change rooms in half-an-hour.” Joel suggested as I began to walk towards Ronan.

“Ok, if you need anything just call my cell, Ronan takes a size five and he will tell you what he likes.”

“Ok.” As Ronan and Joel walked in one direction I grabbed Brooklyn’s hand and we walked the other way.

“Mommy can we go look at shoes first?” She asked pulling me towards the shoe department.

“Baby, why don’t we find some cloths first so that you can match the cloths with the shoes?”

“Ok,” She said turning towards the girls cloths, the one thing that I loved about my daughter where that they were just like me, in so many ways. “Mommy?”

“Yes, Brooklyn.” I said picking up some pants and showing them to her.

“Why did you come home with Joel and not Benji? I miss Benji!”

“Well sweetie, Benji got hurt so he stayed with everyone else. Hey do you like these?” She shook her head with approval. “Why don’t we go look at some dresses?”

“Ok,”

We walked through the girls wear and picked out a lot of different things. Then headed for the change rooms to meet Joel and Ronan. When we got there Joel was sitting out front with his eyes closed. Brooklyn went up and jumped on him, startling him.

“Ronan trying things on?” I asked sitting beside him.

“Yeah, and he isn’t happy about it.”

“Yeah as long as the sizes are right I don’t make them try things on.”

“You could have told me that.” Ronan came out with an arm full of clothing and an angry face on. I put his cloths into the cart and we went to the shoe department and got everything that we needed at Kohl’s and paid. We all piled back into the SUV and began to head for our next destination. They wanted to go to Naptown Market. We walked around for a while and they picked out a few things and they went on the merry-go-round, Joel and I sat on the bench watching them.

“They seem happy,” Joel said.

“Yeah, I guess they are. But it is going to be hard saying bye.”

“Why don’t you ask your mom if maybe, they can drive us to the airport in the morning? We can drop the Range Rover off at my mom’s tonight and get your mom and the kids to pick us up tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I will.”