A bump in hiding (reserved)

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

This wasn’t fair. It was complete nonsense that Angela, the poor girl, was being followed by strange men and their stupid cameras. Charlotte was a lot of things, but before anything she was a mother. Her maternal instincts kicked in and, although she wasn’t her own child, she felt the need to protect Angela. She reached for the shopping basket that Angela was holding and practically pulled it right from the pretty girl’s hands. Then, with an ‘it’s okay, I’ve got this’ wink, she dumped the contents of the basket into her own shopping cart, abandoning the basket on a display of baby formula.

“There’s a perfectly good reason why I would be shopping for baby supplies. I’ve got the proof right here,” she said, patting Landon on the top of his head. “You’ve clearly met me here to help me shop for my grandson, right?”

It made sense to Charlotte. If the stupid photographers could believe that the things Angela was planning on buying were for Charlotte and Landon, not Angela and unknown baby, then the photos would make sense and everything would be just lovely.

“Everyone is doing really well, actually,” she answered Angela’s question. She knew that Tristan hadn’t been the only one in the family who had adored Angela, and she was pretty sure that Angela loved them right back. “Lucas and Amanda – I don’t think you’ve actually met her – just bought a house not too far from here. I couldn’t stand to be so far away from this little man right here,” she stopped to smile down at her grandson, who had taken to gnawing on the bear again. “So I sold the company, which I was thinking about doing anyway, packed everything up, moved out here and bought a diner. Garrett… well he’s just being Garrett. I haven’t seen him in months. He sent a postcard a few weeks ago from Costa Rica. I guess he’s building houses down there or something.”

Sometimes it broke Charlotte’s heart to think that she had hardly seen her son at all in the last ten months. He had come home for two days, just two days, for Christmas, but that was it. But this was a happy reunion for Charlotte and Angela and she wasn’t about to let things go south with talk about her second son. She missed him so much, bur he was a big boy and could make his own decisions, even if it hurt the rest of the family.

“And Tristan is doing wonderful. He’s grown up so much in the last six months, Angela. I’m so proud of him. He completely reconstructed my diner by himself. He wouldn’t let me hire a single person to do anything. You know him, though. Once he starts a task, he won’t stop until it’s finished. And you should see him with Landon.” The baby seemed to perk up at his name. “He’s so good with him. He loves this baby more than anything. It’s so adorable.”

Should she tell Angela what had been going on since she had broken Tristan’s heart? Clearly Angela had moved on - the girl was engages and pregnant, so that made it perfectly acceptable to go on with what had really been going on in her son’s life, right?

“He was seeing this really great girl for a while. Really smart. Cute. So nice. Things were going really well for them but then she found out that she was going to school on the east coast and they broke it off. It’s a shame because he really liked her. Everyone liked her. But now he’s just spending a lot of time with his friends and with his brother.”

[✿ngela wingrose]

Angela was going to protest Charlotte removing her basket from her, but then realized what it was she was doing. She sent the woman a grateful smile and payed Landon some extra attention. She also flipped her ring around so only the band was visible.

As Charlotte began to speak about the family, Angela loosened up. The photographer seemed to have everything he wanted, and at last relinquished her, which also eased her nerves. When Charlotte mentioned Lucas and Amanda, Angela remembered when Tristan came to her, extremely aggitated over the whole affair. After he had to go, she thought of what she would do if it happened to them. But then she pushed those thoughts away - she wasn't ready for sex or anything like that, and she was saving herself for marriage anyway. Then there would be no possible way something like that would happen.

And look where she was now.

"I'd love to meet her," Angela piped up, hoping that Lucas's feelings had altered for the better after the addition to their family. Then Charlotte casually mentioned selling the company and buying a diner, and her eyes widened considerably. "You what? Omigosh that is huge!" While Charlotte contemplated Garrett, Angela's mind was overrun with memories of Charlotte and her company.

But the conversation kept moving, and it took a turn in Tristan's direction. Angela tried to act normal, but for some reason whenever Tristan's name came up she grew uneasy and more attentive. "Wow... that's impressive," she murmured while Charlotte praised her youngest son's hard work. And she could imagine what Tristan was like around Landon. The way his face lit up when he showed Angela his baby picture and how his voice softened... he would be amazing with children. She remembered him freaking out when Amanda was pregnant because he was terrified he wouldn't be a good uncle. She had comforted him and assured him that he would just 'know', and that there was no way he would mess up. It startled her, how fond she was of these memories.

Then Charlotte was talking about Tristan... dating. Her throat tightened and all she could do was nod and smile as casually as she could. She really had no right to be feeling this. But Tristan had always been a sore spot, a bruise that never healed located right in the centre of her heart. The more Charlotte praised the other girl, the more it felt like she was beating that bruise with a hammer. Angela's stomach twisted.

"Everyone, wow," She tried not to let her voice shake. Did Charlotte praise Angela like this in front of other people? She didn't think so. Until today, Angela had felt like a stranger to the Dell family. She looked away and knew that if she changed the topic, she'd look seriously affected. And she didn't want to appear that way, not over one of Tristan's new girlfriends. She looked at Landon.

"Did you like her too? Was she really pretty?" She spoke in baby-talk so she wouldn't sound like she really cared, even though she wanted to know everything about this girl. Was she pretty? Prettier than Angela? Did Tristan's family like her more than they liked Angela? Was she really smart? Did Tristan love her as much as he had loved Angela? Did he love her more?

Angela cringed, her stomach bothering her again. She didn't feel like shopping anymore. She wanted to go home and curl up with a Billy Joel CD and an InStyle magazine. Home... she looked at Landon and gave the boy a big, slightly contrived smile. Then she looked to Charlotte.

"Uhm... it's getting a bit late," the sun was still hanging high, "and I told Travis I'd be home by six," it was three, "and uhm, I wanted to make a nice dinner, to you know, soften the news," Angela was a terrible cook, and everyone knew it, "so I should probably get going... I don't think I'm going to get those after all," she reached into the cart where Charlotte deposited her items and placed them on a display table nearby.

"It was nice seeing you again," Angela said, and it was the only genuine piece in her hurried goodbye, "really nice. And I'll call you before I drop in. I'd love to see you in a couple days, if that's alright," in all actuality, it would only be a couple more hours, "so uhm yeah... I'll call! Bye Charlotte. Oh, you too, Landon!" She planted a quick but adoring kiss on the little boy's forehead and rushed out of the aisle, waving goodbye to Charlotte and feeling absolutely stupid.

"What is wrong with you?" She scolded herself, but when the image of Tristan kissing some mystery girl popped into her head, she remembered what had got her so upset. Angela pushed out of the store and paused in the spot where the photographer had been camping out in. She didn't look inside to where Charlotte and Landon were when she left them. She was a little too absorbed in her own feelings to notice, and she pulled her phone out of her purse. She punched in a number and as it dialed, she felt the burning behind her eyes and the wetness on her cheek. She wiped this away and snapped her mobile shut and, not caring if anyone saw, she levitated off the ground and then skyrocketed into the air.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

From the moment Angela said that she needed to go, Charlotte realized that she had said too much. Angela hardly gave her a chance to say goodbye before she sped off out of the store. Clearly something she had said hit a never with Angela, and judging from the girl’s reaction, it was pretty obvious what that nerve was.

Tristan. Charlotte thought that it would be safe to bring up her son because, and anyone talking to an engaged and pregnant girl would think the same thing, she was sure that it wouldn’t bother Angela. Why should it bother her? She had moved on, so why couldn’t he? Angela had asked how everyone had been, so Charlotte told her how everyone had been. Tristan had been great, and Olivia Toretto had been one of the biggest reasons why.

With a huff, Charlotte gathered all the items that Angela had put back on the shelf and returned them to her cart. She stared at Landon, who looked like he was about to fall asleep at any moment, almost as though she was waiting for the baby to say something that would put her at ease and not feel bad for making Angela run off. She shrugged and started to push the cart toward the front of the store.

She had to go warn her son that they might have a visitor in the next few days…