Broken Vows

Chapter 10

The following week life returned to a sense of normal, for the most part.  Bates and Derek left Sunday to return to Pittsburgh and Erin returned to work on Monday morning.  Brody would be spending the day working out the details of a rebuild with the insurance agency and hopefully finding a demolition and construction crew.

Kelly mentioned that she and Tobey were planning to go to the 4th of July fireworks coming up that weekend and wondered if Erin thought Brody would want to go.  Erin thought it sounded like a good idea.  Brad and Jamie would be going as well.

She also wondered if Erin had told Brody about her pregnancy.  Erin assured her that she hadn’t; mostly because she’d been too focused on other things to even consider it.  Kelly told her it was okay to let him know so that he didn’t ask too many questions when she didn’t drink with the rest of them.  Brad and Jamie still didn’t know and she wasn’t ready to tell them.

Erin talked to Brody almost every night but she spent her time at home with Alyssa in the evenings, trying to make up for all the time away the previous week.  When Brody found out she wouldn’t be working at all on Friday he suggested a lunch date, for all three of them.  Erin was surprised and a little reluctant, but she agreed.

She knew she had to explain her relationship with Brody to Alyssa.  It was obvious that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon and she couldn’t hide him forever.  Alyssa needed to know.

So, instead of sending her to daycare on Friday they hung out together in the apartment, finally deciding to make a lamp from all the seashells.  Erin figured there was no better way or time to bring Brody up than now, especially when they’d be having lunch with him.  Later that evening, after Alyssa went to Tyler’s, they would be meeting everyone else for the fireworks.

Most of the seashells went into an empty glass bottle but Alyssa wanted to glue some onto the lampshade as well.  She felt that the more colorful ones would look pretty when the light was glowing behind them.  Erin had to admit she was probably right.

“Alyssa, sweetie, I want to talk to you about something.” Erin approached her, watching as she worked to glue a seashell to the lamp shade.  Her tongue stuck out as she concentrated.  It was a trait she’d gotten from her father.

“What do you want to talk about?” Alyssa asked, looking back at Erin once she had the seashell in the perfect spot.

“I want to talk to you about Brody.”

"Oh.  Okay.  What about him?”

“Do you like him?”

Alyssa nodded.  She moved on to the next seashell then, applying glue liberally.  “He’s really nice.  And I liked his sister because she played tea party with me.”

Erin smiled, remembering.  “That’s good because I like them a lot too.”  Erin paused, trying to decide what to say next.  “Alyssa, you know about boyfriends and girlfriends, right?”

Alyssa paused to look at her Mom, as if to say “duh”.  “Yes, Mommy.  People are boyfriend and girlfriend before they get married.  They hold hands and stuff.  Nana says that Papa was her boyfriend when they were much younger.”

Erin couldn’t help but grin.  Alyssa was too intelligent for her own good.  And she picked up words like a sponge.  What other four year old talked this way?

“Yeah, two people usually date for a while and are boyfriend and girlfriend before they decide to get married.  But being boyfriend and girlfriend is different than being just friends.  It usually means that they like each other a lot more than friends do.  And you’re right.  They like to hold hands and sometimes they kiss.  They like to do stuff with each other like go see a movie or go to dinner.”