"How have you been doing?" Brooke wondered in a soft tone of voice as she got comfortable in the seat across the booth from her mother.
She thought the older woman was glowing, literally...
With a soft smile, Stevie nodded her head lightly. "A lot better now that I get to see you." She felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and everything else came second at the moment.
She was just happy to be back in the company of her daughter, who had always held the moon and the sun in her eyes. She was everything and nothing hurt worse than being on bad terms with one of her most favorite people in the entire world.
"I meant with the baby..." Brooke let out a soft laugh, already feeling bad enough about the way things had been in the last couple of months.
"Oh," Stevie chuckled as well, glancing down at her tummy and just then realizing that she'd had one hand resting on it the entire time. "Well, it's a growing baby, that's for sure." She teased, which caused Brooklynn to giggle again. "But really, we've been good." She assured a moment later with a little shrug of her shoulders. "The baby is healthy and I haven't had nearly as many problems as the doctors originally warned us about." She was very appreciative of that and it was clear just how important it was by the tone lingering in her voice.
She was more relaxed, even though she was six months pregnant and maybe a little uncomfortable... It was clear that she was enjoying this and that was all Brooke needed.
She needed to see that this is where Stevie belonged to feel content with the undeniable changes and she was, already.
After all, it was only Stevie that had moved on... Tom had already introduced the kids to his new girlfriend as well.
"I'm so glad to hear that." She admitted, even though she wasn't exactly sure how to react to it.
She was sad to see one chapter come to an end- the one involving the two people that had raised her. But they were already in the middle of their divorce and to make either of them feel bad about it would have been incredibly unfair.
She wanted the older woman to find peace and if there was another man out there that could give that to her, than who was Brooklynn to get in the way of that with a bad attitude over what could have been?
"And are you happy?" Brooke wanted to ask, even though there was something in those familiar brown eyes that already proved that she was... She just needed to hear her say it.
Stevie paused for a second, heart starting to beat a little bit faster as her eyes casually wandered over to Lindsey.
He was still sitting at the bar, already eating dinner and randomly chatting with some guy next to him, which made her smirk softly...
"I'm happier than I have been in a really long time, sweet girl." She wasn't afraid to admit that, not even to Brooklynn, who she knew was having a hard time adjusting.
But it was true and her kids were grown, so hiding that sort of stuff would just be silly... It was clear, for quite a few years that things were off in her marriage with Tom, so it shouldn't have come as too much of a shock and honestly, it didn't.
Most married couples don't comfortably live across the country from one another and have a strong relationship... It just doesn't work well and it didn't for them.
Brooke smiled lightly, feeling a small hint of emotion begin to wash over her but trying her very best not to let the tears fall. "And he's a good guy, right?" Brooke had heard about him a couple of times, but mainly from Courtney, who wasn't scared to be a little more nosey during her phone calls with her mother- in- law.
She wanted to know what was actually going on and for a long time she was the only one that did. Courtney was not nearly as surprised as everyone else to find out about the divorce, not when Stevie had voiced her martial issues aloud on more than one occasion...
"He is great," Stevie had the most gentle, sincere smile of her face as her eyes stayed locked with Brookes. "He is kind and caring..." she lingered, biting down on her lower lip lightly. "And he wants to share a life, with me." She added with a little shrug of her shoulders. "He's everything I never knew that I needed." She concluded in a sympathetic tone, not wanting to make it sound like she was being hard on Tom, but instead just trying to be honest.
Their marriage had never been perfect... There had always been something missing or lacking, and for the first time ever, Stevie was convinced that she'd found it, even though it was with another man.
"I'm really happy for you." Brooke assured as the tears finally began to roll down her red cheeks, even though she still had a weak smile on her face.
"Oh, sweet girl." Reaching across the table, Stevie took her daughters hand in hers. "Honey, let's talk about-"
"I went to meet my mother." Brooklynn cut her off, needing to get that off her chest as her tears continued to run down her cheeks.
Stevie's heart sank instantly, mouth falling open very slightly. "Oh..." shocked was probably an understatement- she was totally stunned to hear that.
Brooklynn had never, ever shown any type of interest in knowing her birth mother... or at least not when Stevie and Tom had sat down with them asked them about it once they were both eighteen.
"I found her and I reached out." Brooke shrugged her shoulder lightly, bringing one hand up to her face to wipe some of the tears as the other hand stayed locked with her moms. "She's still in San Diego, so I made the trip out there a few months ago, right after I found out that you were divorcing." She announced as her stomach began to twist into tight knots. "She has three kids, mom." She mumbled in such a distraught tone of voice that it caused Stevie's heart to break a little. "She has three other kids that she's raised and she just left us..." she was upset- she had been for weeks, but she couldn't tell anyone.
Her older brother had told her that he didn't want any part of it- he already had a mom, so their birth mother didn't mean much to him. And Brooke couldn't tell her father because he had always been so against even talking about his first wife, so she felt like she was stuck... The only person she ever trusted enough to talk about everything with was Stevie and their relationship had been so weird, she didn't know how to bring it up.
"Brooklynn," Stevie shook her head, brown eyes growing heavy as she ran the pad of her thumb back and forth across her knuckles. "I am so sorry." She was, but she already knew that... She had for many years.
"And then I got worried that I'd lose you, too." She whispered, voice cracking and bottom lip trembling.
Suddenly, she didn't look like she was a twenty- six year old woman in that moment... She looked like the little girl that had fallen off her bike and ran into the kitchen with a scrapped up knee, crying for her mom. And she also reminded Stevie of the kid that used to beg her not to leave when she would drop her off in the first grade- she just wanted to go back home.
Brooklynn was still just the little girl that wanted to be wherever her mom was.
"I would never, ever leave you or your brother like that." Stevie could definitely promise that, because she knew, no matter how hectic life got, they would always hold a piece of her heart.
They were still her world, even if they had grown up and moved away.
"And I'm sorry that she did that to you," Stevie was and she kind of wished that she had told her sooner... maybe it would have saved her a little disappointment. "But just because I'm not going to be married to Tom and I'm having a new baby, that doesn't mean I'm going to be any less of a mother to you." She assured, staring deep into those sweet green eyes. "I've gone from two kids to five kids..." she lingered with a playful look of fear on her face, which immediately caused Brooke to chuckle in return. "And we'll be okay."
