as jack took his place on the couch next to her, abigailās eyes drifted to his knee, noticing his leg sat differently than the other. she quickly brushed this off, and listening to what he said. as he asked her to tell him what heād missed, her eyes darted to a picture of dennis and ally, and an idea popped into her head.Ā āi think it would be better if i showed you what youāve missed, actually,ā she said, running to the closet in the kitchen and grabbing a few scrapbooks. she sat back down on the couch, clutching the books tightly to her person.Ā āthese are the scrapbooks i made. they fill up every few years, and sometimes i forget about them butā¦ā she opened one to the first page, showing newborn twins laying next to each other.Ā āthatās dennis. thatās ally. ally is older by about seventeen minutes and she never lets dennis forget it. i had them eight months after you left.ā she looked at him, trying to gauge his reaction, before continuing on.Ā āally looks a lot like me. sheās kind of my spitting image. but dennis⦠dennis has your lip, and your personality, and having dennis here while you were gone made me feel like you never even left.ā she was crying now, just a bit. a few tears dripped onto the plastic-protected pages of the scrapbook, and she quickly wiped them away. she set aside the baby album and produced a more up to date album.Ā āthis is them now. youāre welcome to look at the other albums, too, but i thought you might want to see what they look like now. theyāre nine, turning ten next month.ā she considered if there was anything else she should tell him.Ā āiām a stay-at-home mom. my dadās still around, he helps me out with the kids sometimes. he also helps me with finances⦠a lot. stay-at-home-momming doesnāt pay the bills, but i also sing still. thatās how i make money, every friday and saturday i go out and i sing.ā she looked down at her ring finger, then at her ankle.Ā āi didnāt get married. i didnāt plan to. i didnāt think i could ever love someone the way i lovedālove you. i have been dating, though, although nothing has been serious.ā she failed to mention that johnny, her current boyfriend, was serious⦠because now that jack was here, could she really be all that serious about johnny?
eventually his knee decided to lay how he waned it to, hoping she didnnāt notice it or had noticed, period.. instead he turned his face to look at her as she spoke up again.. saying sheād much rather show him what heād missed out on, which at firstĀ he was worried it would be something bad but instead instead she got up, disappeared for a moment before returning with a book, explaining what it was before opening it, and in it his eyes instantly landed on the small bodies of two babies then one picture of what he could only assume was each baby alone on the side.. his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, but swallowed hard and just listened. and it was a lot... he didnāt know there were two-- and their names were dennis and ally.. the man swallowed hard, taking a deep breath as he felt something at the bottom of his throat building up.. then as he listened to abigail say how the boy was just like him, the waterworks turned itself on, and the lump in his throat released. small drops of tears rolled down his cheek as he smiled.. ā-- wow..ā he said under his breath before reaching up to wipe some of the tears away..Ā ā--Ā i didnāt know...ā he said quietly to himself, before a new album showed up but those kids were a lot bigger.. hearing abigail explain how they were all rather recent photos, and he couldnāt help but watch them while listening to her talk, part of him really hurt knowing heād been gone, missed 10 years of their lives.. and now that he saw them, the woman was right.. dennis looked just like him, while, ally the little girl couldnāt have been any more like her mother.. both spitting images of each other.. all these thoughts almost made him forget to listen to what she had to say after that, but as he mentally returned, what he did catch was her saying she was dating someone.. heād always thought to himself that he had wanted that for her.. but hearing it come from her was a lot different.. ā-- im just glad everything's good.. though im sorry for leaving.. ā he said, sending yet a few drops running from his eyes as he tried to force a small smile...