ODDS OF LOVE - SEASON THIRTEEN

Episode 121

Alice Rose Norris walked gingerly into her great grand son's bedroom and suppressed a sigh over how messy it was. A J. was a very good boy although that they and them stuff confused her at times. She tried but she had been a high school English teacher and loved the language so much it hurt her heart to mangle it. Of course she loved that boy dearly so she always referred to him by his chosen pronouns in person. In her head though he was her great grand son from Aiden and some faceless nameless surrogate mother who had signed away her rights at his birth.

A.J. looked up at her from the desk where he sat doing his homework. She often marveled at how pretty he was. More like a girl really than a boy. He always had been. His hair was so long with blond glimmering among his brown curls. His grey eyes were surrounded by the longest eyelashes. And he had the smoothest porcelain pale skin she had ever seen outside of the dolls her mother had once collected in their Virginia home so long ago. Sometimes she worried about him. Him with his feminine looks and gentle way of moving and love of bright colors and dangly jewelry. She might be just an old broad but she wasn't stupid. As much as people claimed that the world had changed she knew it really hadn't in a lot of ways. She didn't want the thirteen year old boy hurt.

She didn't want his father hurt either. Aiden tried so hard to be tough. It was why he wanted to be more than an obituary writer although she thought his obits were just lovely to read. They flowed like a story to her. They made the people all feel so relatable to her. Like she had once really knew them. They made her mourn the dead he wrote about. But it was not enough for him. Nothing was ever enough for her grandson. Aiden always wanted more. He wanted a child so he and that man had had A.J. Then That Man broke his heart. Now she saw him drifting into some type of infatuation with the man in the wheelchair across the street. Spencer. The man was not appropriate for Aiden and not just because he was married with children.

No. For other reasons. A relationship between them would truly be wrong in the eyes of God. Because she knew the truth. They were cousins through their fathers.

Daniel, her son.

And , Andrew. Her other son. Her older son who she had given away, no , had snatched from her youthful arms , so long ago, to be given to another couple. Then her parents had sent her away to an all girl Catholic boarding school in New York City. Even though she had moved on to find love with her husband Roger and had three wonderful children, two boys and a girl, she had never forgotten her first child.

Or his father.

" Are you okay, Granny? ," A.J. asked as he kept looking at her with his usual intelligent curiosity. "Do you need anything? "

Alice Rose smiled gently at him. " I do actually need you for something. I don't know much about those computer things. You know that. I can just barely manage my smartphone device. You're so smart at it. I was wondering if you could find an address for me. "

A.J. looked confused. " An address? Sure. No problem. That's easy. But for who? And , can't you just ask Daddy? He's a reporter. "

Oh , dear God, no , she thought to herself. She didn't want Aiden to find out. Not yet. Not until she met with him. With Andrew.

" I don't want Aiden to know. Not yet. It's a ...... a surprise. And, the name of the person, dear , is Andrew Norland. He actually does live in Maryland so it shouldn't be all that difficult for you. "