Jax sat across from Chloe at the restaurant and smiled as Chloe ate another mouthful of food. "Is the food good?" he asked her.

Chloe grinned widely at him. "Oh yes, the food is delicious!"

Jax smiled. "How's the wine?"

"Even better!" Chloe replied.

"Good."

"This is a really nice restaurant, Jax. How did you find it?"

"My brother suggested it. He said the food was great here, and my brother loves to eat."

"Tell me more about your brother."

Jax looked at her suspiciously. "Did I not warn you about Jerry?"

Chloe laughed. "I just mean, tell me more about your family; your brother, your mother, your father…I don't really know much about them."

"Well, other than our love for business, Jerry and I are nothing alike."

"You're both charming."

"Well yes, but in different ways. See, I'm charming because I'm such a great guy." Chloe laughed softly. "Jerry, on the other hand, is only charming when he's always trying to lure some innocent beautiful woman into his bed."

Chloe cocked an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

"I'm serious. He's a player, through and through. If you asked him to give the surnames of the last five women he's slept with, he probably wouldn't be able do it."

"How is it that you two are related and yet, you're so different?"

"I'm afraid that is just one of the great mysteries of life." Jax laughed.

Chloe laughed with him. "What about your parents? What are they like?"

"Well, my parents are pretty interesting. John and Lady Jane...hmm. Hovering, I guess, would be a good word to describe them. They're always checking up on me. They don't check up on Jerry as much, and that's either because I'm their youngest son or they just gave up on trying to control Jerry years ago."

Chloe laughed again.

"But other than that, my parents are really great. They're the kind of parents that want nothing more than to see their children happy. Like, when they met Brenda, they didn't even know her for ten minutes and they already loved her. They saw that she made me happy, and if she made me happy, than that was all that mattered to them."

"That's how my mom is."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. She's always told me that I could do whatever made me happy, and she always supported me. In high school, I told some of my teachers that I was going to go into designing as a career choice, and they would always say, 'Chloe, that is such a wonderful dream to aspire to, but the business is very competitive. Do you have something to fall back on?' I would hate it when people said that! It was almost as if they didn't believe I could make it. And the truth is, I didn't have anything to fall back on. Why would I? There was nothing else that I wanted to do."

"Well looks like you showed them, huh?" Jax laughed.

"I sure did. My mom always told me not to listen to people who try to discourage me from doing what I wanted. She said I had to be true to myself, and do what my heart told me to do. She's the reason I'm successful today. I want to be that kind of mother to Molly. I want her to know that she can do whatever she wants to do, whatever makes her happy, provided of course that it's not dangerous!" Jax laughed. "She could be a scientist or a doctor or maybe even a designer like me! Or even better, an actress, because that child definitely likes to be the center of attention!"

"Well, I'm sure that whatever Molly chooses to be, she'll be successful at it. She has a wonderful mother to learn from and look up to."

Chloe blushed. "Aww. Thanks. Oh, speaking of Molly, are you free on Saturday?"

"Sure. I have the whole day open."

"Oh good! Would you like to come to Molly's birthday party?"

"Would she like for me to come?"

"Oh yes! She's been begging me all week to ask you!"

"Really?" Jax was stunned.

"Yes, Jax. She adores you!"

Jax was all smiles. "Wow, I don't think I've ever been 'adored' by a three-year-old before."

Chloe grinned. "So? Will you come?"

"I wouldn't miss it. I would love to come."

"Thank you so much, Jax. Just so you know, there will be other adults there. It won't be all kids!"

Jax laughed. "So, what time does the party start?"

"Two o'clock…but…" Chloe looked at Jax like she was about to ask a huge favor.

"What?"

"Maybe…do you think you could come early to help me set up? You can say no if you don't want to, but it would really help me out."

"I'll be there, no problem."

"Thanks, Jax. I've just been under so much stress this week, buying all of her presents. Of course it's my fault…I do everything last minute. And I haven't even wrapped them yet! And one of the things she wanted, I couldn't find…so it's been quite a week, and it's only Tuesday!"

"What couldn't you find?"

"You know those beanie babies?"

"Yeah, I'm familiar with them. I noticed Molly had quite a collection of them when I saw her room."

"Yes, she a huge collection of them. Well anyway, she's been begging for the princess one, you know, the purple bear in honor of Princess Diana?"

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about."

"Well, there in limited supply. They're pretty rare actually. I can't find one anywhere. Molly's going to be so disappointed. But maybe it's for the best. I don't want to spoil her or anything. She really wants that bear though."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it's okay. She's got enough toys anyway. Once in a while though, I like to buy her something like this. I hate to spoil her, but I can't help it. I just love her so much!"

"Well there's nothing wrong with buying your child some toys. If it makes her happy, then what could be wrong with that?"

Chloe smiled at Jax. How did he always do that? It seemed like every time he smiled at her, her insides would turn to jelly, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to avoid it.

The thought had never crossed Jax's mind until now, but as he sat on Chloe's living room couch Friday afternoon, he realized just how much time he had been spending with Chloe lately. He had been here at her apartment every night this week, except that night he took her out to dinner and they had gone back to his place for a movie.

"Hey, Jax, not to sound too much like Carol Brady, but I made some lemonade. Would you like some?"

Jax laughed. "Sure."

Chloe went back into the kitchen.

Molly then came running down the stairs, her hands full of all sorts of goodies and wearing a paper crown on her head.

"Ah, you're back," Jax said. "What do you have here?"

"Look, Jax!" Molly held a basket and set it down on the couch beside him. "Miss Laurie, she gave me this for my birthday! And then my whole class had a birthday party for me even though my birthday is not today but tomorrow! And I got to wear this crown all day long because I'm the birthday girl!"

"Wow, Molly, that was really nice of everyone."

"See what I got?" Molly showed Jax the contents of the basket. "I got candy and a little doll and a hairbrush for my doll and a dress for her and look, a little bunny too! All because it's my birthday, but not really because it's tomorrow, but Mommy, she don't take me to the preschool on Saturday because there isn't school that day, and that's the day I go to work with her. So I don't have school on Saturday, so they gave me a party today!"

"You have lots of cool things, Molly. Are you excited about your party tomorrow?"

"Yeah! It's gonna be so much fun! And I'm gonna get presents and balloons and all of my friends will be there. And guess what! Guess what!"

"What?"

"Mommy's getting me a cake and guess what flavor it is! Chocolate! And it's gonna have writing on it saying 'Happy Birthday, Molly!' and the writing is made from yummy icing! That's the best part!"

Chloe walked into the living room with the lemonade she had just made. She sat the tray down on the table. "Okay, Molly, I put yours in your juicy cup."

"I want sugar in it, Mommy."

"There is sugar in it, baby."

"No, I want LOTS of sugar!"

"There is lots of sugar in there. I put in extra sugar, just for you."

Molly took the lemonade and started to drink it. "Mmm, this is good, Mommy!"

As soon as Chloe sat on the couch, there was a knock at the door. Chloe got up to answer it.

When she opened the door, she was a little surprised. It was her mother. "Mom! Hey!" Chloe threw her arms around her.

Jax watched in curiosity. He had almost forgotten that Chloe said her mother would be coming over today. Now that he finally saw her in person, he could definitely see the resemblance between she and Chloe.

"Mom, I didn't think you would be here until later tonight."

"Well Ricky let me off early so--"

"NANA!" Molly interrupted as she ran to her grandmother and held up her arms, begging to be picked up.

"There she is! There's my birthday girl!" Becky scooped Molly up, giving her several kisses on her cheek. "Well, look at you, Miss Molly! You've have grown so much since I last saw you. I thought I told you to stop growing!"

Molly laughed. "Look at my crown, Nana! I got it at school today!"

"Is that right?"

"Yeah. They gave it to me because of my birthday. Let me show you what else I got!" Becky put Molly down and she ran over to the couch to gather her birthday presents and her basket.

"It's so good to see you, Mom. And now that you're here, there's someone I want you to meet."

"Oh?" Becky looked into the room and saw a very handsome blonde man. She knew that had to be Jax.

Chloe led her mother into the living room. "Mom, this is Jax."

Jax stood up and shook Becky's hand. "It's nice to meet you face to face," he said with a smile.

"It is so good to finally meet you too! Now I can finally put a face to a name!"

"Nana." Molly patted her grandmother's leg. "Nana, look at my basket."

Chloe picked up her daughter and kissed her on the cheek, softly reminding her of the rule about not interrupting adults when they were talking.

"You know, you're much taller than I had pictured you," Becky laughed.

"Well I have to say, now that I see you in person, I can definitely see where your daughter gets her beautiful looks from."

Both Chloe and her mother blushed. Jax just knew all the right things to say.

The adults ended up sitting down to have a long chat, which Molly eventually got bored of and went off to the corner to play with her new toys.

Becky didn't need for her daughter to tell her; she could see it in her eyes. Chloe was falling in love. And even though she had just met Jax, her instincts were usually right, and she knew that Jax had to be a wonderful man.

After a while, they all got hungry, so they decided to go out for dinner at Soleito's. Molly insisted on wearing her birthday crown.

"Can I wear it, Mommy? Please!"

Chloe gave in. "Okay, Molly, you can wear it, but if you lose it, it's gone forever. Mommy won't be able to find it for you."

"I won't lose it, Mommy," Molly assured her mother.

The traffic was horrendous with it being rush hour, but they were lucky to get a cab as soon as they walked outside. The three adults squeezed into the backseat with Molly sitting on her grandmother's lap. And as Molly looked out the window and Chloe's mother started up talking once again, Jax's hand slipped into Chloe's.

Carmen led the four to a booth in the corner with Molly sitting beside her grandmother and Jax and Chloe sitting on the opposite side.

"It's wonderful to see you again, Becky," Carmen said to Chloe's mother.

"Well it's good to see you too, Carmen! It's nice to be in the city again."

"Did you just get here today?"

"Yes, just earlier."

"Well Alberto will be with you all in just a little while. Molly, here is fun sheet just for you." Carmen handed a paper to her and a couple of crayons. "If you want some more crayons, just let me know."

"Cool!" Molly said as she immediately started coloring the pictures.

"Well, I had better get to the kitchen. Oh, and it's nice to see you again too, Jax." Carmen winked and walked back to the kitchen.

All throughout dinner, Becky kept noticing how close her daughter and her new boyfriend had become. She knew that her daughter was probably leery of jumping into a new relationship, especially after how Brian had hurt her years before, but she hoped that Chloe would at least try to take a chance at love again. What a happy family those three could make.

Molly suddenly brought Becky out of her reverie.

"Mommy, look!" Molly held up the maze she had been working on. A green crayon line was smeared completely across the middle of the maze. "I won!"

Chloe held back her laughter. "That's wonderful, baby! We'll put that on the refrigerator when we get back home."

"See, Nana!" Molly showed the maze to her grandmother. "Look, Jax! See, I won!" Molly showed Jax the maze, and he complimented her on it.

Carmen then walked to their table and smiled, giving Molly a small piece of cake, on the house, in honor of her birthday. Molly was very happy, and not just because she was getting a treat, but also because she was out eating with three of her most favorite people: her mother, her nana, and now, Jax.

It was after a little after midnight, and Chloe was sitting in the dimly lit kitchen eating chocolate pie with her mother. They always did this sort of thing when she visited. They would stay up late and talk, and usually over something sweet, like pie.

"Jax seems like a really wonderful man, Chloe."

"I know. He's great. He's so sweet to me and Molly is crazy about him."

"But something is troubling you, am I right?"

"I'm just being cautious, Mom. Brian was incredibly sweet when I first met him too, and look how he turned out."

"I don't think Jax is anything like Brian, sweetie. You see, I always sensed that Brian wasn't good enough for you. But Jax, Jax is different. I truly think he cares about you, Chloe. I mean, he ran into the middle of a busy street to save a little girl he didn't even know. Not everyone would be so brave to do that."

Chloe smiled. "You're right. But, it's not just that I'm worried about."

"You're worried that he's not ready for a relationship, aren't you?"

Chloe shook her head. "I don't want to rush Jax, Mom. His heart is probably still healing. The last thing I want to do is rush him into a relationship and scare him away."

"Mommy," Molly suddenly whined as she walked into the kitchen.

"Molly, baby, what are you doing up?"

"I can't sleep! I'm too excited about my birthday!" Molly climbed into her mother's lap.

Becky laughed softly, remembering that Chloe used to be the same way. Chloe smiled and kissed her daughter on the head.

"Well you know what, baby?" Chloe asked softly.

"What?"

"It's after midnight, so that means that it's already your birthday!"

Molly gasped in excitement. "You mean I'm already four years old?!"

Chloe laughed and hugged her. "Uh-huh. You wanna bite of this?" Chloe held her fork with some pie on it and offered it to Molly. Molly, who had inherited her mother's sweet tooth, graciously accepted the bite.

"So I assume Jax is going to be here for the party tomorrow."

Chloe shook her head. "He's going to come over early to help me set things up while you and Molly are out."

"I like Jax," Molly said.

"Do you really like Jax, Molly?" her grandmother asked.

"Mmm-hmm. He can make quarters come out of my ear!"

Becky laughed. "Quarters out of your ear?"

"Yeah. He just takes his hand and puts it to my ear and out comes a quarter! And he always lets me keep it. I'm gonna be rich!"

Both Chloe and her mother laughed. Molly took her mother's fork and helped herself to some more pie.

"So, Mom, what do you think I should do? About Jax?"

"Chloe, I don't think you should worry yourself about this. He's not going to do anything that he isn't ready for. It may take some time, but that's understandable, considering the circumstances."

"You're right again, as usual."

"Well I've just been around long enough to learn these things."

Chloe looked down at her plate and discovered that Molly had finished off every last morsel of her pie. "Hey you, you ate all of my pie!"

Molly just laughed as her mother tickled her.

Becky laughed too as she watched her daughter and granddaughter. She hadn't seen Chloe this happy in a long time, and she had a feeling it was all because of Jax.

To be continued…