Ch. 19: I’m Sorry
~Kelsey POV~
“So, I’m kind of surprised you called me today.” Anthony said, twirling the glass of wine in his hand and giving me a soft smile.
Okay, so he was actually pretty attractive and so far things have been going fairly good at the moment. I knew that wouldn’t last long, but I was going to let it while it lasted. “I am too, honestly.” I chuckled lightly. “I… I didn’t think I would.”
“Oh.” He looked a little disappointed. “What made you decide to call me, if you don’t mind me asking?”
I sighed and looked down at my own glass of wine. “The truth?”
“Preferably.” He said.
“My mother in…uh… my mother.” I said and took a nice drink of the wine, gulping down my almost slip up. I hadn’t told him yet that I was previously married or the fact that I have a kid. The topic just hasn’t come up yet. Not that I was ashamed of either, but I wanted to protect Cameron, and I didn’t know how he would react to knowing I actually was already married. I didn’t exactly want the date to end yet, now that I was finally here.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Oookayy…” He pulled out the word making it longer. “Well, I guess whatever it took for you to call me, it was worth it.” He shrugged and took the last drink of his wine. “Are you ready?”
I looked at my glass and took the last swig of mine and nodded my head. “Yep. I guess so.”
“Well, I have something else planned, that’s the only reason why I ask.” He smiled and held his hand out for me to take.
Reluctantly, I took it and let him pull me up out of my chair and lead me to the door and to his car. When we got out to his car, he started it up and pulled out of the parking lot. “So, tell me more about yourself.” Anthony started in. “I feel like we haven’t talked about much that would lead to me knowing who you are.”
“What do you want to know?” I asked.
He shrugged and glanced over at me. “I don’t know. Anything. What you like to do for fun, what you do for a living, do you work? Are you in school? Anything.”
“Oh…well…no I’m not in school. I’m a physical therapist and I absolutely love my job. Umm… I love anything to do with sports, and try to practice as much as I can.” I shrugged. I guess this was the time to tell him I have a son. I gulped and thought about how I was going to tell him, but I was stopped when we pulled up to a park. “Where are we?”
“I figured we could just walk around and talk for a little while.” He smiled and looked at me. “Is that okay with you? If you get scared, I’ll protect you.” He winked at me and then climbed out of his car and walked around to my side of the car to open my door. I rolled my eyes in the process.
“I won’t get scared.” I said flatly to him. “I just didn’t expect to come to a park is all.”
“Right.” He smiled. “So, anything else I should know about you?”
“Why are you being so nosy?” I asked a little too sharply.
He stopped and looked at me, “Because if I want to hang out with you and maybe get together or something with you then I need to know stuff about you. You’re very closed off, I’ve definitely noticed that.” His tone became a little angry, but I couldn’t blame him for that.
I sighed, “I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap like that; it’s just…I’m not good at letting a lot of people in these days.”
“Why is that?” He asked.
I took a deep breath, here goes nothing. “I guess it’s just because…” I started but this time was interrupted by my phone ringing. “Sorry.” I said and looked at the screen. It was Zach, or maybe Cam. “I have to take this. I’m sorry.”
“Hello?” I asked into the phone.
Sure enough it was Cam. “Hi mommy!” He was such a hyper boy all the time, but he was my hyper boy.
“Hey baby. What’s up?” I asked, and saw the very confused look on Anthony’s face.
“I’m ready to come home.” He said into the phone. “I can come home, right?”
I laughed a little, “Of course you can. Its home. Who would try to stop you from coming home?”
“I don’t know.” He laughed on the other side. “Dad said he’d bring me home.”
“Okay, well, tell daddy to wait about twenty minutes before taking you home, okay? That way I can be sure to be there when you get there.”
“Okay. Love you, mommy! Bye!” He shouted into the phone.
“Ow. Love you too Cammy.” I said and hung up.
“Umm…” Anthony said and looked confused and not sure of what to ask.
I felt guilty all of a sudden. “That’s what I was about to tell you. I actually have a child, and at this very moment he wants to come home, so I hate to cut this date short, but I sort of have to get back home before he gets dropped off.” I gave him a soft smile to hopefully soften the whole thing up a little.
“Well, why didn’t you tell me about him? It’s things like that, that I want to know about.” Anthony said after a moments silence as he walked over to me and grabbed my hand.
I carefully wiggled my hand out of his and gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, just…not yet.” I said, and then, “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you about him.” I started walking back towards his car so that we could get back to my place before Zach got there. “I guess I’m just a really weird, over-protective mother and I didn’t want to tell you about him yet because I guess I wanted to see where this would go before I did. I don’t know.” I shrugged.
“I guess I can understand that. I promise I won’t hurt your kid, though. So, what’s uh… their name?” He stuttered.
I smiled, “His name is Cameron. He’s six. He’s my whole world.”
He watched me and then smiled. “I can tell just by the look in your eyes while you talk about him.”
“I don’t know what I would do without my son. He’s my everything and I would do anything for him.” I continued on.
“Absolutely.” He smirked and winked at me. “Can I meet him?”
I bit my lip and thought it over. “I don’t know…”
“Come on.” He urged. “Please?”
I looked over at Anthony. “I don’t know about tonight. I still want to see how this goes before I bring someone new into his life. I’m sorry. It’s just that he gets so attached to people so easily, so I don’t exactly want you to meet him and then something happen and have him wondering where you went. If that makes sense.”
He nodded. “Alright. I have to go with your wishes. I’m not going to push you into letting me that far into your life. I guess it is only our first date.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at him. We finally made it to his car. He unlocked it and opened up the door for me and I nodded, thanking him again. Once I was in, he shut the door and walked to his side.
When he got in the car, after starting it up and started back towards my house, he started in with the questions again. “So…” He seemed a little nervous. “You had him pretty young, right?”
“Yep.” I said. “I had him when I was 17, almost 18. You have something to say about that? It’s not like I haven’t heard it all before.” I looked over at him.
He jumped a little from my stare I suppose. “No, I was just curious.”
“Mhmm…” I hummed. “There’s a reason I don’t tell people that little fact, for the simple fact of people judging me. Not that I care what people say, but things being said get old.”
“Of course.” He agreed. “I’m not the type to judge someone. Things happen, you get caught up in the moment and then you get something that you aren’t expecting.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “So, it’s happened to you and you have a kid too?” I haven’t really asked him much; I don’t even know that much about him. Now I can see why he was asking me so many questions.
He glanced over at me before looking back at the road, chuckling. “Nah, it happened to my sister a few years back.”
“Oh.” I said and watched out the window as we pulled down my very long driveway. “So, have you ever been married?”
“Nah, I thought about it once, but then I found out that the girl had been cheating on me.” He shrugged.
“Oh man! I’m so sorry to hear that!” That was awful. “I can’t understand why people decide to cheat, I mean, what’s happened to common courtesy these days? I mean, at least just own up to the fact that you don’t want to be with that person and break it off before you go out and find someone new to suit your fancy.”
“Thank you for agreeing with me.” He grinned. “I told one of my friends that and they said, ‘I mean, it’s one thing to, you know, have something on the side like once or so, but to cheat for years…’ Come on now, what type of advice is that? Oh! And he also said, ‘some people are young and dumb and make mistakes’”
“Stupid advice.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t listen to that friend. And also, I wouldn’t write that off as being young and dumb. Yes, you can be young and dumb, but that’s not in that category, but I guess to each their own, even though that is stupid advice.” We had pulled up and parked in front of my house sometime during that conversation, and thank goodness we beat Zach and Cam here. I didn’t want to be pulling up and them waiting for me. “Well, thank you for the night; sorry I had to end it so soon.”
“It’s okay. I understand.” He smiled at me. “Can we do this again sometime soon, though? I’d love to get to know you better.”
I returned the smile, “I’d like that too. Text me sometime. Bye Anthony.”
“Bye Kelsey.” He said and then I got out of the car and walked up the steps to my front porch and watched as he pulled away.
I turned and walked inside to put my purse inside and my keys and everything. Just as I changed out of my jeans and t-shirt and threw on some comfy sporty shorts and a tank top, there was a loud yell from downstairs, “I’m home mommy!”
I smiled and grabbed my ring off my dresser and placed it back onto my finger. I knew it was almost stupid to do, but I couldn’t do without it all night. Not yet. It was bad enough taking it off just to go out. “Hey baby!” I smiled and walked down the stairs. “How was your day?”
He looked up at me and smiled, running over and jumping into my arms. “It was fun! We went to the toy store and then we went to chuck e cheese and ate some pizza, and then we went back to daddy’s house and played with the toys and put some Legos together!”
“Sounds like a blast!” I smiled. “Thanks so much, Zach.”
“Hey, it’s my pleasure to take my son out and do things with him. But I’ll get going so that you guys can get some rest. Night Kels. Night buddy.”
“Night daddy!” Cam wiggled out of my arms and ran over to Zach and gave him a hug.
“What do you say, Cam, for daddy taking you out today?” I reminded him.
He looked up at Zach, “Thank you, daddy.”
“You’re welcome, bud. Love you and I’ll see you soon.” Zach smiled and placed Cam back down.
“Okay!” Cam said and went and plopped onto the couch. I could see he was tired and knew he’d be out soon.
“Bye Zach. Until next time.” I smiled and followed him to the door.
“Bye Kels.” He said and went his way. I shut the door once he was in his car and turned around to see my sleeping child sprawled across the couch. I laughed quietly and walked over and picked him up, carrying him to his room. This kid. I swear can fall asleep anywhere, just like his daddy. Or, well, Derek anyway.
~~~
A/N: I haven't proof read this, so I hope it makes sense. I'll read it a little later tonight and fix things, though, that dont make sense. It's a little hard when you're writing, listening to music, and your great grandma keeps talking, so, trying to focus on all 3 things, I've probably messed something up somewhere.