Chapter 19

"So he knew all along?" Carter asked in a surprised tone, Daniel finally returned after helping Angela settle down in the new location and helping her talk to her son and explain everything to him, and finally, with Daniel back Carter could catch up on everything that happened on his side of the whole thing.

"Yeah, apparently he overheard something Mrs. Bell said to Mr. Bell - she was trying to convince Mr. Bell to let him stay at Angela's place for a few days, and he heard something about her being his mom - at first he tried ignoring it apparently but turns out he really couldn't so when Mrs. Bell left for an appointment and Mr. Bell was on a business trip he did some snooping, and he found his original birth certificate" Daniel explained, leaving Carter in shock.

"So he knew? And didn't say anything?" Carter asked, a little confused, if the kid knew why didn't he say anything to them. Why didn't he go to Angela and tell her he knew?

"Well apparently he thought Angela didn't want him, Angela was quite cold to him and kept him at a distance at times, so when he found out he could only think that the only reason her parents raised him was because she didn't want him," Daniel said, his voice filled with a hint of sadness.

"I guess that makes sense, I just hope with them being together now things will get better and their relationship will improve, and that they will make many memories together," Carter said with a smile, Daniel couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Now all the sadness aside... we really should finish painting this wall," Daniel said waving the paintbrush around, splashing paint onto the wall and on the tarp on the floor, some even got on his face which caused Carter to laugh.

"Let's paint the wall and not ourselves, Danny" Carter said as he wiped the paint off Daniel's face and then turned back to the wall in front of them.

They finally had time to redo the nursery for Andrea and though it took some time they were making progress, they were finally on the last wall of the painting job but still their arms hurt which was the main reason they got to talking since they wanted to distract themselves but in the end they felt it was worth it since it would mean a lot more to do it themselves than to have someone else do it for them.

"I guess you're right," Daniel said, laughing, and returned to painting.

It didn't take too long, but they eventually finished the wall, and they were done for the day. Once, they placed their paintbrushes in the bucket of water again and fell to the ground.

"That's over finally," Daniel said with a sigh, he had fun while painting, and sure the thought of Andrea enjoying her room as she got older was really nice but still the whole process was a little exhausting, he was just thankful that once Ms. Abbot heard about the whole remodeling of the room, she decided to take Andrea for two days while they painted the walls since she didn't want Andrea to be in a house filled with the smell of wet paint.

"Tomorrow we just have to do the curtains, put up the shelves, and move in furniture," Carter said and yawned soon after, both felt tired, they woke up quite early to prepare the walls for the paint, and then they had to start the whole process of painting, it was their first time doing it, so there was a bit of trial and error, but they were happy with the final results.

"How about we get takeout?" Carter suggested while throwing his hand to slap Daniel playfully.

"Sounds good to me," Daniel said happily returning the slap.

After exchanging a few playful hits the two finally got up off the floor, both groaning as they hadn't laid on the floor in a few years and their bodies most definitely felt it.

"Yeah I am getting too old for this" Carter muttered, Daniel couldn't help but laugh.

"Carter you're in your 30s it's not that bad" Daniel joked and Carter shook his head.

"No I am strongly approaching 40, 30 is long gone," Carter said as he stretched hoping to relieve some of the pain.

"Whatever then, old man, I am going to order some food for us," Daniel said, getting his phone out of his pocket and leaving the room to order food.

As Daniel left, Carter looked around the room and sighed a bit before starting to clean up the mess they made. Once Daniel was done placing their order he hurried back to help out with cleaning up.

After cleaning up the mess they made their food arrive, both still covered in paint from their painting adventure, the two decided to sit on the floor to eat as it was a lot easier to get paint off the floor than it would be to get it off the furniture.

The two ate their food and watched some TV, they didn't talk much as both of them were quite tired, they were just happy that they didn't have work the next day, so it meant they could sleep in a little.

"Hmm, I've been thinking about this a while, how about we invite my family and Abi for a barbecue?" Carter said in between bites.

"It doesn't sound bad, it might be a fun time, plus everyone gets to spend time together" Daniel nodded as he thought it would be a good thing since everyone could bond a little more, he wanted to be closer to Carter's family, they have helped him a lot even before he had Andrea, so he wanted to at least get to know them properly.

"When should we do it?" Daniel asked and Carter thought for a bit, they still had a few things left to do tomorrow for the nursery, but it wouldn't take them the whole day to get sorted, and it wouldn't be the end of the world if they didn't finish it by tomorrow.

"How about tomorrow? We do what we can in the nursery and then once we are done with what we can get done, we go pick up a few things and do it tomorrow night?" Carter suggested.

"Sounds good to me, plus we can have the groceries delivered as well, so even if we don't have time to run to the store we can manage to get everything," Daniel said with a smile, "I will call Abi after I took a shower," Daniel said happily and Carter nodded with a big smile.

"Great, I will call Gavin and Lisa, and I'll call my mom as well. I will go pick her up for the party and bring Andy home as well since we would have gone to pick her up tomorrow anyway" Carter said with a smile and Daniel nodded in agreement.

Once the two finished eating, they both went to wash up and make their phone calls.

"Hello, Danny" Abigail's voice rang through the speaker.

"Hi Abi, I wanted to find out if you are busy tomorrow?" Daniel asked her curiously.

"No... why? Is something wrong?" she asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"No, no nothing's wrong," Daniel said quickly and laughed a little, "Carter wanted to have a barbecue with you and his family, I think he actually wanted to say I should bring my family but since he knows how my relationship with mom is he decided I should invite you over instead," Daniel said smiling a little, he could tell that there was a bit of hesitation when Carter said Abigail and he could tell it wasn't because he was sure if Daniel would want Abigail there rather it seemed like he was trying to cover something he was about to say.

"Then I will be happy to come over, I also have a little something for Andy," She said, Daniel could tell she was smiling from how she spoke.

"Great, I will let you know the exact timing, or just feel free to come over whenever you want, Carter and I are working on Andy's nursery... if you want you can give us a hand" Daniel offered and there was a bit of silence.

"I will let you know when I am heading over... thanks Danny," She said softly and Daniel hummed in response.

The two ended their call after that, Daniel smiled a little, he was really happy with how things were slowly going in the right direction.