Shattered Dreams - Broken Promises

Chapter 13

Rhonda's View

"Hello?" I answered the phone.
"Hey Rhon - its Nick. Howie is in the studio at the moment but he wanted me to call you to see if you and the kids wanted to join him at his mom's house for dinner. I guess it's Angie's birthday."
"And why isn't he calling and asking me?"
"He's finishing up his part...just go over there for a little while. It won't hurt."
"Nick - his family doesn't know what's going on. They don't know that he's not living here anymore."
"But...what am I suppose to tell him?" Nick asked.
"Ugh! Okay, tell him I'll go."
"Um...okay...I'm also supposed to ask you to stop sometime today and pick up a gift for her. He said that he would pick you guys up around 6:00. Hey I gotta go. I'll see you at home tonight."
"Great," I thought as I hung up the phone. "I have to go pretend to have a perfect marriage and get his sister a present."

"Okay guys," I said to Nikki and Jacob, "do you guys want to go see grandma and grandpa tonight?" Of course I wasn't expecting an answer from them but without Howie in the house anymore and Nick spending most of the time in the studio, I had to have a conversation with someone.

***

Howie showed up at the house at 5:45. I think that he learned not to be late anymore. It was really strange for me to have to let him in the house, but since he got an apartment, he decided it would be best to knock each time he came over.

"Hi," Howie said as I opened the door. He had a dozen white roses in his arms. "These are for you."
"Thanks," I said taking the flowers from him. "Come on in. I'm just about ready."
"You look nice."
"Thanks. So do you."
Howie stood in the foyer as I headed towards the stairs. "You can go further into the house you know," I laughed. "The kids are on the floor in the living room. Why don't you get their stuff together? I should only be a couple of minutes."
Howie nodded and headed towards the living room.

***
During dinner, Howie and I pretended to do the 'happy family' thing. It was difficult at times, especially with his mom asking questions about the kids that Howie didn't know the answers to. When I mentioned that Jacob was starting to scoot across the floor, Howie seemed as excited as his mom did.
"How do you not know that your son is starting to crawl around?" Paula asked.
"I...we've been in the studio a lot lately. They are in bed by the time I get home," Howie answered. Howie looked at me as if to see if that was the right response.
"And I'm usually in bed as soon as I put them down," I chimed in.
"And she doesn't talk in her sleep like I do," Howie laughed.
"Why don't we have some cake?" I asked hoping to get off of this subject.
"Yeah cake sounds good to me!" Howie's brother John said. Everyone followed John into the kitchen. Howie and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"How much longer are we going to stay?" I whispered.
"Another half hour. Is that okay?" he asked.
"Okay. Half an hour."

Howie and I said our good-byes to his family and packed the kids up into the car.
"So Jacob is starting to crawl around?" Howie asked.
"Yep. It's really cute. He does this little butt shaking thing...and it's usually when he's trying to get one of his toys." Howie and I actually talked the whole way back to the house. The kids fell asleep in the car so Howie helped me take them upstairs. We came back downstairs and Howie looked at the door and then over to me.
"Um...do you want me to leave or can we talk a bit?" he asked.
"You can stay...do you want me to make some coffee or something?"
"No - I'm good for now."
Howie followed me into the living room where we found Mere sitting by the back door. "I'm sorry baby! I guess Nick didn't come home and let you out huh?"
Howie and I sat out on the back porch talking about things. We tried to start off with the general things that have been going on, but we both knew that eventually the conversations would lead back to our relationship. "I really miss you and the kids," Howie said leaning over to me. "I would really like to spend more than a couple of hours with you guys every couple of days."
"Howie...I'm not ready for you to move back in."
"I'm not asking that...I just...if we're going to really try to make this work, I'm just asking to spend more time with you guys."
"Are you asking to stay over tonight?" Even though it's been a couple of weeks since he's been out of the house, I still could tell what he was thinking.
"Yeah I do. I would love to stay here with you. I would love to hold you in my arms again."
"Howie...I'm not..."
"Just sleep...I know you're not ready for more than that. I just want to be able to hold you again."

Chapter 14
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