Chapter 2

The door slammed closed loudly and Ashley was jerked rudely awake. She groaned and groggily sat up from her bed slowly rubbing her aching head. She heard a small voice yell up the stairs to her but she couldn’t quite make out the words.

She opened her door silently, out of habit, and walked to the front of the stairs smiling as she stared down at her son who was jumping up and down in excitement. 

"Hey sport!"

"Mom! You will never guess what happened to me today," the boy began to ramble, "James and I were playing outside and then Sarah…"

"Hey bud," Ashley politely  interrupted, "I really want to heaer about this but we are gonna have a visitor in about," she glanced down at her wrist watch, "twenty minutes, so I’m gonna go take a shower." Her son’s head hung low in disappointment so she hastily added, "but as soon as I’m done I want to hear all about your crush!" 

Lance blushed, his face growing bright red, and shifted his feet embarrassed, "she is not my crush…" Ashley winked at him.

"Whatever you say hon…So why don’t you pour some OJ and I will be down in a second, okay?" Ashley said. Lance nodded and the brunette began heading down the hallway towards the shower.

As Ashley headed down the stairs she heard a strange unfamiliar voice make its way up the stairwell. The voice was soothing and pure bliss to the ears, Ashley stood there just savoring it for awhile. Then she heard her own son’s laughter mix with the sweet voice and she remembered with a shock that the owner of that soft voice was in there alone with her son. She rushed down the stairs and pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen and burst into the room.

Her eyes scanned the kitchen and fell on her son sitting at a table drinking a cup of orange juice, across from him, however, was the owner of that wonderful voice. Her blonde hair framed her face and her sparkling blue eyes shone with intelligence. 

Ashley felt her heart soar at the mere sight of this woman even though she had never met her. The raven haired boy looked up from his orange juice when he saw his mother storm into the kitchen.