Please, Remember The Bench (BY: Book 3)

Frankie

Stef's POV

After a little while, once I managed to stop crying, I put myself together and decided to go upstairs to find Lena. I needed to apologies to her.

I get up the stairs very carefully and I know if she knew I was doing this without help she would scream at me, but anyway.

I approach her room and the door was open. All the kids were around her and holding her. I can tell they love her to death, and they have a lot of respect and admiration for her.

I knock on the door softly and they all turn around to look at me.

"May I come in?" I ask as Brandon smiles at me, as if to say that I was doing the right thing, so I smiled too as all the kids kiss their mama and then got up from the bed to get out of the room, everyone passing next to me, the last one being Jude.

"We love you. Don't make our mama cry again." he whispers before he gently kisses my cheek which was nice.

I then look at Lena that didn't even dare looking at me, as I could tell she had been crying and I hate that I did this to her.

So I approached her bed and manage to take a sit right next to her.

"I'm... I'm sorry Lena... I didn't know... but it... it was no excuse. I'm really sorry." I say, sincerely as she still doesn't look at me.

"I know...it's okay." she says, her voice cracking and so sensitive as she's trying to dry her own tears which I didn't see that often and she's... at this moment right now, I allowed myself to see how beautiful that woman really is... as she's playing with the ring that is always on her finger... probably her wedding ring...

"It's not okay Lena... I don't mean to hurt you but that's what I'm doing and I... I wanted to tell you that I'm very sorry for the way I have been treating you and that... I'm... I'm gonna do better." I say and that's when her glassy brown eyes finally met mine.

"Thank you." she says as we stare into each other's eyes for a few seconds, for the first time no one was angry at the other and I could finally see that softness that they all talk about when they talk about Lena.

"Ma told me that... she told me to ask you how we were going to name our... our baby." I find the courage to say as at this she smiles so damn tenderly, like... even I was melting.

"Well, it was a little girl. We were going to name her Francesca, and call her Frankie, after your dad." She says as at this my heart breaks and my eyes immediately filled with tears...

"I'm so sorry Lena..." I say again, my voice breaking as she looks at me with such compassion when I'm the one who just hurt her and then she put her hand softly resting on mine and for once I didn't reject her... it even felt... nice?

"Don't be so sad... I'm sure she's up there somewhere... probably with Frank actually... we'll find her again." she says so softly as this made a flash come into my head... a flash of my dad, like I saw him up there or something.

"I wish I could remember..." I spill out for the first time to her, I think.

"I know... maybe to help with that we could hum... we could go through all our photo albums while the kids are here. Maybe it could bring back some memories." She suggests as I smile at her for that's actually a good idea.

"I think I would love that." I say softly.

"Did you hum... did you got up there by yourself?" she asks, for she can't help it, I noticed that's really stronger than her, my safety is like priority number one in this house.

I look at her now with a small smile and a guilty look on my face for I kind of saw it coming and I admit that it feels good that for once, I knew how to read her the way she reads me all the time.