"Are you nervous?" Ryder asked. "Yes i'm nervous that's why i'm pacing, i can't stop pacing." I said. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto the couch. "Look your mom will be a little bit. Why don't you take a deep breath." He said. "I'm trying." I took a few deep breaths. "See there, now it's all going to be fine. Look your mom went to rehab that's still awesome. You just have to hope she learned something while she was there." He said.

"Yea, cause if she's faking i'm done i'm out. I can't take care of her forever. Ya know she's grown and i'm only helping her to get back onto her feet. She has to do the rest." I said. "Yea but you have to trust her until she gives you a reason not to." He said. "I know and it's not just her i'm worried about. She's had all these guys in and out of here all of my life. I'm worried they'll try to mess this up for her." I said. A car pulled up into the driveway. "Hey, i love you." He said taking my hand and squeezing it. "I love you too." I said.

I sighed standing up. "Well here goes nothing." I said. I walked to the door and opened it for her. She got out of the van and walked up to the front porch. "Land sakes this can't be my house!" Said my mom. Her eyes landed on me. "Oh my sweet Sydney." My mom said coming up and giving me a hug. She looked clean. She even smelled clean.

I pulled back. "Mom this is my boyfriend Ryder, Ryder this is my mom Gale." She wrapped him up in a quick hug. "It's so nice to meet you Ryder." She said. "You too." He said. "Okay let me show you the house." I said pulling the door open. "So let's start here in the living room. I fixed the fireplace. New couch and the floors are new." I said. "Oh i like this color." She exclaimed. I led her into the kitchen. "Oh honey this is simply beautiful." She said running her fingers along the cabinet.

I showed her the rest of the house and she oohed and aahed over everything. "You went above and beyond. You didn't have to do this. I just..." She took a shaky breath. "I just needed help with bills, but i'm going to work and pay you back!" She said. "Okay, but i did all of this because i didn't know what to do to help. So i looked online and they said coming back to the place where your addiction occurred is hard. It's easier to go back to that place. So i just gave it a little face lift." She pulled me into a hug wiping at her eyes. "Thank you." I pulled back.

"Okay i also stocked the fridge i wasn't sure what you liked but i got all the basics. I hope you find something you like." I said. "Oh! I'm sure whatever you have is great." She said. "Okay, why don't we go and let you get settled?" I asked. "Oh sure sure. Before you go. Take this." She held out a card. "This is Pete's number. He's my sponsor that I was telling you about. You should call him and just touch base." She said. "Thanks i'll do that." I said taking the card.

"Oh and one last thing. I had an alarm system put in while i was doing the work on the house. I thought it might be nice to keep it so none of your ah friends of the male variety try to come over." I said. I pulled the panel open and showed her how to use it. "To set hit the red button then put in your code which is 3678 and you're good to go. To disarm it hit the green button and the code again. So it'll give you about fifteen seconds to turn the alarm off once the door has been opened. Otherwise the alarm will trigger." "Oh that's neat. Thanks baby. See you soon." I waved and we left.

Ryder drove us home and i decided to go ahead and call Pete. I needed to just touch base. "Hello this is Pete." "Hey Pete my name is Sydney, my mom Gale said you were her sponsor and she wanted me to call you and touch base." "Oh hey Sydney yea, she said she'd have you give me a call. Is there any chance you'd wanna meet for coffee or something later so we can talk about your mom's recovery?" He asked. "That would be great, text me an address and i'll meet you there."

"Okay six thirty okay?" He asked. "Perfect." We hung up. "So this is great. It sounds like you'll finally have a support system." He said. "Yea, maybe. But i'm okay with calling him a glorified babysitter." I said laughing. "Well that works to then." He laughed. Once we got home it was time fore lunch. I had put a brisket in the crock pot that morning and another one with nacho cheese. Brisket nachos. I even made my own bbq sauce. When we walked in i saw Ethan at the crock pot with a piece of brisket hanging from his mouth.

"Dude you couldn't of waited." I said. "Wha...?" Ethan tried to hide the evidence. "Busted sucker, get out of that!" Ryder said. I laughed. "Give me five minutes and it'll be done." I said. Ryder helped me put drinks on the table as i filled bowls full of chips. I poured on the cheese and added some meat. Then i added a few squirts of bbq sauce. I set them on the table and started to call the guys to dinner but they were coming out of all corners of the house. I chuckled to myself.I loved that they enjoyed my cooking so much. And i feel terrible they were subjected to the concoctions that Caleb made.

"So how was your mom?" Caleb asked. "You know, she seemed okay." I said. "I'm going to meet with her sponsor later for coffee." I said. "Great, well then now that graduation is over and your mom is home i say we leave next Saturday." Caleb said. "Yea that sounds good, i'll start packing." Ethan said. "How much stuff do you need?" I asked laughing. "Hey i might find me a babe i need to be prepared." He said. Liam rolled his eyes. "Good luck with that buddy." He said patting him on the arm.

We talked a bit more about the trip and our game plan. "The gas masks and tear gas came in yesterday. So were good to go. I just hope this goes off without a hitch that we can get in and get out quickly." Jake said. "Me too, I've finished the Motorcycle i'm just getting the trailer to carry it hooked up." Ethan said. "Great, and I've got my USB ready to go. I'll get it get the stuff and get out." I said. "Yes, while you're doing that i'll get photos of everything." Jake said. "This is almost to easy!" Said Ethan.

"I think it'll be harder than you think, i mean just think about it not one of the missions we've gone on was perfect." I said. "Accept for maybe the first one." Ryder noted. "Ah yes."

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I pulled into the address Pete sent me. Once inside the coffee shop i looked around. I saw an older guy and thought that was him but then an older lady walked up and hugged him. I looked around. A few ladies and one ambercrombie and fitch model. I walked up to the counter assuming i was early. I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see the model. "Hi, i'm Pete." He said. "Are you sure?" I asked eyeing him suspiciously. "Uh, yea?" He looked confused. I laughed and took my coffee from the girl. "It's just you're not what i was expecting." I said walking to take a seat at the table he was at.

"I get that all the time. I used to have a real bad drug problem in college it got so out of hand i started flunking most of my classes. Once i got clean i knew i needed to help others with their journey. Talking to people and keeping them accountable is a big part of that. Ya know people often wonder what's the point of staying clean? My job is to remind them of what they stand to lose. And it helps when i can reach out to family like you so we are on the same page." He said.

"Well i am happy to help in any way i can. As a child my mom was out of it for most of the time. I don't know why i think i can save her." I said sighing. He placed his hand on mine. "You can't. Your mom has to save herself but you can help. And you being on the same page with her treatment will really help her. See when you go back home and nobody checks up on you to make sure you're doing the right thing it's easy to fall back into those old patterns. Ya know people who don't have family don't have someone like you to keep push them to rehab." He said pulling his hand back.

"Well my mom only stayed thirty days. The girl i spoke with on the phone recommended 90 days. I'm worried that she didn't stay long enough." I said. "She may not have. But your mom knows if she's struggling and needs to go back she just has to call." He said reassuringly. "Good, so she's going to start training and have a real legit job. This is...different." "She is, and we'll being doing random drug tests just to make sure she stays clean. That's what her and i agreed upon when she wanted to just stay the thirty days." He said. "Well good." I said. "Is there anything else you're worried about?" He asked.

"Well my mom likes men, she didn't hit on you did she?" I asked. "No, besides your more my type." He said giving me a look. "Oh, OH! I've actually got a boyfriend but i'm flattered. I just want to make sure my mom changes her ways. That's how she kept getting into trouble." I said shaking my head. "Well she did a lot of therapy on ways to change her behavior. And thinking of what triggered her to use. Once she figured out what triggered everything she's learned to make changes." He said. "I sure hope so. Thank you so much for meeting with me. I'll admit i was nervous when she came back." I said. "

"It's normal to feel that way. Look you have my number you can call me anytime. Day or night." He said giving me another luck. "Still have a boyfriend. But thank you. I will call you if i need. It's nice to have somebody to talk to who's been through this themselves." I said. "Of course." I stood up. "I should get going but thank you again." I said. "Let me walk you out." He said picking up his cup. "Thanks again." I said. "No problem. Talk with you soon." He said. I waved and got into my car.

Once i got home i threw some pizza's in the oven. I knew the guys could eat a lot. "Ryder came up behind me as i jumped up on the counter to wait for the pizza to get done. So i could put the others in. "Hey you, how did things go with Pete?" He asked. "Good, he gave me some helpful incite." I said. He laughed and covered his mouth. "I'm sorry i was imagining you having coffee with a hippy old guy..." He shook his head. "Actually he looked like a model, he's a few years older than us." I said. "Oh, well now i don't know how i like you having coffee with him." He said smiling.

"Why? You're not jealous are you?" I asked. "Maybe a little, you're gorgeous." He said. "Well then i won't tell you he hit on me." I said. "Oh, well i'm not surprised." He said. "I am." I said shaking me head and pulling him to me. "I'm sorry you had to tell him no. I mean if he's a model and what not." Said Ryder nodding as he smiled. "Please no you aren't, and for your information YOU could be a model." I smiled with him. "Oh you flatter me." He said. "It's true, and you have nothing to worry about." I said. "Well i wasn't worried per say but it's hard when you get hit on." He said. "I know just like that girl at Texas road house. You know i think when you see somebody who you think is attractive you just put on blinders. I mean i was sitting RIGHT there. We were holding hands for Pete's sake." I said.

"Pete...really?" He asked. "Oh sorry." I covered my mouth giggling. "I love you." He said stepping between my legs and pressing a gentle kiss to my lips. I pulled back. "I love you too." I said wrapping my arms around him and kissing him again. After a bit he pulled back. "Is it getting hot in here or is it just us?" He asked. I jumped from the counter. "The pizza's!" I exclaimed. They were done so i pulled them out setting them on the table. After i put the new pizza's in i took a seat on the couch.

"It was your fault for being distracting." I said. "Me? It's you. Just look at you, no wonder Pete hit on you." He said running his hands up my bare thigh. I giggled. He pushed me back and kissed me passionately. "I smell pizza...hey you two get a room!" Said Jake coming into the kitchen. "Yea we got one thanks." Ryder said waving him off. "Yea i kind of meant one where we didn't have to watch you two make out." He said. "We're good." Ryder said. I giggled. Jake came over and sat on the side of the couch.

"Okay then, Sydney thanks for dinner and a show." Jake said placing his chin in his hands. I pushed Ryder off of me and stood up fixing my hair. "Maybe he's got a point." I said. "I hate when he has a point." Ryder said. I leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Yes, but wouldn't you rather do this later...alone?" I asked. He ran his hands up my sides. "Yes, yes i would." He said wrapping his arms around me. "Let's go." He said. "No, i have to go get the pizza. Get off me." I laughed. I pulled the pizzas out and we started to eat.

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