Chapter Three:

He watched from the door as she rolled over mumbling, "I love you Bo," a small 'Bo Buchanan' grin crept over his young face, as he turned and left the room. A noise woke her and as she looked around noticing it was all a dream, she pulled the pillow to her chest, as a small tear escapes, "No one can stay away from you forever." She sat up and turned on the light, immediately noticing the picture of the three of them from the baseball game.
 
She smiled at the memory, and realized they needed to tell Matthew the truth, the real truth; for his sake, and for theirs. She wanted them to be a family and that was the first step. She looked past the picture to the clock right behind it, "Oh, hell, he should be up." She picks up the phone and starts to dial his familiar number...
 
He rolled over when he heard his cell phone ring; glancing at the clock, not realizing he had slept so late. "Buchanan...."
 
Suddenly, thinking this might have been a mistake, she starts to hang up the phone, "Nora, is that you?"
 
Caught. He knew her; he knew her all to well. She paused but why did she pause? Now she had no choice but to say something. She felt so silly, it was Bo. It was only Bo. That mere fact calmed her fears. Sheepishly and feeling silly she laughed lightly "Yeah it’s me."
 
"Umm...well....I guess I was wondering if we could get together and maybe talk privately." She held her breath as she waited for his answer.
 
"Sure, breakfast at the Palace? I could meet you down there in say an hour?"
 
"Yeah an hour sounds good. See you then." She hangs the phone up with a smile and yells down the hallway, "Come on Matthew, you're going to MaryAnn's."
 
~ *~
 
She takes one last look in the mirror before heading out, running the brush through her hair, slamming it down, "What am I doing, this is ridiculous...it's only Bo."
 
"What's only Bo, mom?" Her eyes staring back up at her, with HIS smile, full of mischief.
 
"Nothing, get your stuff, we need to go."
 
"Is Bo gonna come over tonight? He owes me a rematch, there’s no way he can beat me on the x-box."
 
She laughed and ruffled his hair "I'm, sure he will be, actually I can tell you right now you'll see him more often."
 
Bo was already sitting at their table, waiting for her by the time she showed up. He saw her first and wondered what she wanted to talk about...
 
She notices him sitting at the table and slowly walks over to him, her heart racing in anticipation of what she wanted to talk to him about. He stands up and pulls out her chair, "Good morning, Red." She smiled at the familiar nickname not realizing until just then how much she had missed hearing it.
 
"Morning Bo." She says as she sits down, and immediately begins playing with her napkin.
 
He places his hand over hers, "Nora, why don't you just tell me what it is that's bothering you?"
 
She averted his gaze. "What makes you think anything’s wrong? Maybe I have to talk to you about a case I'm working on." She looked down at the table and returned to playing with the napkin.
 
"Nora..."
 
"What?"
 
"Talk to me, you obviously have something to say." She swallowed hard and nodded on agreement
 
"It’s just..." She looked at him
 
"It’s just what, Red?"
 
Nora finally blurts it out, "I think it's time that we tell Matthew that you’re his father."
 
He looks up at her, surprised that that is what she wanted to talk to him about. He looked down at her hand that was now fidgeting with the fork beside her plate, "I think you're right, it's time." Placing his hand on top of hers settling it, "When do you want to do this?"
 
"Tonight, if that's okay with you."
 
He nods, "Absolutely, tonight it is. I'll come by your place right after work, I'll even pick up a pizza from Sal's"
 
She looks at him, her eyebrows raised, "No sm…"
 
He laughs, "I know, I know, no foul little fish."
 
"I know you know; I just had to make sure you remembered." Their hands met in the center of the table, their fingers intertwining.
 
"How could I forget anything about you? I'll see you tonight." He got up so did she, their fingers still intertwined.
 
As they were about to leave, Asa walked up to them...He looks down at their hands resting naturally in each others and a huge smile crosses his face, "Well Bo, my boy looks like you've finally come to your senses and roped this filly again. "Nora, honey welcome back to the family, not that you ever really left it."
 
They let go of each other's hands as if burned, "Pa, it's not what you think."
 
Nora looks between the two men, "If you'll excuse me."
 
Asa watches Bo watch Nora leave, laughing, "Well you may not have roped her yet, but she's ready to be roped, and you sure as hell want to."
 
Not really paying attention to Asa as he watches Nora stop to talk to someone on her way out. "Yeah. Excuse me Pa, I've got to go..."
 
"You've got to go chase after that girl of yours." Asa watches Bo walk away and smiles. He's waited a long time for those two to get their heads on straight and get back together.
 
He shook his head and walked over to where Renee was standing, She looks up at him and smiles, "What are you smirking at cowboy?"
 
"The Buchanan's are finally getting back what was theirs...that's all."
 
~ * ~
 
Later that night Matthew was sitting in the living room playing a game on the x-box, when the doorbell rang. He jumped up and ran to answer the door. "Finally! I've been waiting forever!!" Matthew grabs Bo's hand almost knocking the pizza out of the other, "I've been waiting for our rematch", shouting to Nora who's in the other room, "Mom....Bo's here."
 
She walks out of her office; pencil behind the back of her ear, "Matthew I told you not to shout in the house."
 
"Sorry mom," he looked over at Bo, "So you wanna play?"
 
"Not so fast young man, first your fa…" she looks at Bo who just winks at her.
 
"First we need to eat pizza, and chat, then I’ll take you up on your x-box challenge."
 
Matthew looked between Nora and Bo, "Did mom tell you she loved you? Is that what we need to talk about?"
 
They exchanged looks, both curious as to where that came from. Not sure what to say to him, he looked so hopeful, Nora said "Well buddy, I've always loved Bo, just like I've always loved you."
 
His look changed to disappointment and all he could say was "Oh."
 
Bo looked at Nora before turning his attention to Matthew and said "I already know your mom loves me."
 
Matthew looked up in confusion, "How could you know she loves you when she just said it this morning in her sleep?" Bo looked up at Nora, noticing the blush rise up her neck.
 
TBC…