There's Nothing Holding Me Back

Chapter 21

It was a little past eight in the morning when Evelyn opened her eyes and got herself ready for the day. It was Sunday and she still had an hour till she had to go to work. It was one of those lazy mornings when you just wish you could stay in bed and daydream all day. After making her bed she started out the door and went downstairs to find her father sitting on the couch hunched over what looked like old photographs. Hearing her footsteps he spun around and gave her a smile. She smiled back walking over to him.

"Hi dad..."

"Good morning baby," he sighed turning his eyes back to the pile of photos.

"Mind if I peek?" Evelyn said carefully inching her way towards the couch. He motioned for her to come and sit down. She did. Her eyes scanned across the photographs and she noticed they were ones she never saw before. Her eyes lifted up to meet her father's.

"You seem curious." He teased, his fingers outlining one of the photographs that showed a picture of himself in his toddler years.

Evelyn smiled looking down at it. "Yeah I have to admit... Is that you?"

"I was only three." He smiled, nostalgia noticeable in his dark eyes. "I think you look like me when you were little. You grew up looking like you're beautiful mother."

She smirked giving a nod. "I never saw these pictures." Evelyn picked up a picture of a couple kissing. Her heart did a leap, "this is so cute! Who are they?"

"Those are my parents on their wedding day." Steven explained. "They sent us a whole box of old pictures yesterday in the mail... Brings back lots of memories."

"Yeah..." Evelyn picked up another picture of a boy building a sand castle by the ocean.

"That's your uncle Roger when he was seven, he was a real mischief." Steven chuckled remembering his younger brother who now lived in Texas and worked as a real estate agent.

"I love him. He's so funny." Evelyn smiled down at the picture which she now held in her hands.

"Guess who these are?" Steven asked placing a picture of two people holding hands on Evelyn's lap. Evelyn placed the picture of her uncle Roger down as she picked up the other one. She stared at it for a long time trying to make out who they were. The girl looked to be about fifteen and the boy looked not much older. The corners of her lips lifted up as she took the wildest guess. "You and mom?"

"Yes."

Evelyn smiled wider now. "How old were you?"

"Seventeen, like you right now."

Evelyn stared at the picture for longer and grinned carefully wondering about how they had met. "You two knew each other from before? I mean obviously... you met mom before you were seventeen?"

"I met your mom when we moved to Pittsburgh I was about ten years old at the time. She lived down the block and we'd play all the time." Steven recounted. Evelyn listened with understanding. It reminded her of Levi and herself. She swallowed looking up at her father who seemed to be deep in thought trying to remember those moments. "We were great friends." He then picked up another picture and handed to Evelyn. She curiously fixed her eyes on the photograph and saw that it was on their wedding day. This was actually the first time she saw a picture of her parents on their wedding. "You both look so young... How old were you when you got married?"

"I was twenty and Erika was eighteen... We married young but Erika didn't give birth to you until much later... She wasn't able to have children." He gave a wan smile looking at his beautiful daughter. "We were so in love." He told her. Evelyn stared at her father admiringly. She wanted to ask him so many questions but he looked too dreamy to interrupt. He picked up a picture of him and Erika kissing and Evelyn stifled a giggle. He laughed.