"How are my beautiful girls doing this evening?" He asked. Jacey smiled at the sound of his voice.

"Fine." Liz said, placing a gentle kiss on his mouth. "How was work?"

"It was ok." He picked Jacey up and hugged her close. "I missed you." He said, kissing her forehead. "Who brought the bed over?" He asked.

"My dad." Liz said. "I asked him to. I didn't think you'd want to drag over anything after work. I wanted us to be able to spend the night here though, so I asked him to bring it over."

"Thank you." He said, pulling her close. "You always think of everything."

The three of them laid together in silence. This is how it should always be, Max thought. As if she understood, Liz squeezed his hand.

Max turned to face her. "Let's go out tonight." He said. "We'll get Michael, Maria, Isabel, Alex, Kyle, Tess and Taye and do something fun. We haven't gotten to do anything together since we returned."

Liz smiled. "What about Jacey?" She asked.

"She can come too!" He pleaded. "Or my mom can watch her. She hasn't gotten to spend that much time with her."

Liz thought about it for a moment. "Ok." She said.

"OK?" Max asked.

"OK, we'll go." She continued. "If your mom doesn't mind watching her."

Max lifted Jacey above his head and spun her, making an airplane noise. She giggled and squealed for more. "You want to stay with grandma don't you?" He asked, spinning her some more.

"Max stop it." Liz protested. "She's gonna -" Before Liz could finish her sentence Jacey puked all over Max. Liz began laughing hysterically.

"Get me a towel!" He yelled, handing a smiling Jacey to her. "Damn it, where did that all come from?"

"I just fed her." Liz said through her laughter. "I tried to warn you." She handed Max a towel.

He tired his best to wipe the excess puke off of himself but it wasn't working. He still smelled awful. Liz was still laughing at him as she peeled off Jacey's clothes.

"You think that's funny, huh?" He asked, inching his way across the bed towards her.

"Max, no -" but before she could finish he had her pinned down and was tickling her.

"Stop." She screamed through her laughter. "I'm sorry!"

Max stopped tickling her and lowered his lips to hers. He kissed her passionately, not wanting to let her go.

"I'll take Jacey and myself to get cleaned up." He said after breaking the kiss. "Call everyone and see who's up for what."

He kissed her one more time before he left, carrying Jacey towards the bathroom.

Liz went downstairs to the pay phone. She figured she'd call Maria first. It had been a while since they'd done anything together. On the third ring she picked up.

"Hello." Maria said.

"Maria. Hi, it's Liz." Liz began.

"Hey." Maria replied back.

"Max and I were wondering if you and Michael wanted to go out with us tonight. We're going to call Tess, Kyle, Isabel, Alex and Taye too." Liz said.

"I'm sorry, Liz." Maria began. "Isabel and I already have plans tonight. Kyle and Tess were going out, too. You can call Alex, Michael and Taye though. I don't think they're doing anything."

Liz didn't let the disappointment appear in her voice. "That's ok, maybe some other time, huh?"

"Definitely." Maria replied back.

"Good, well I guess I'll talk to you later then." Liz said. "Goodbye."

"See ya." Maria said as she hung up.

For some reason it hurt that Maria and Isabel were so close. It was as if Liz didn't even exist anymore. She knew she shouldn't feel that way. Maybe Maria just thought she was busy with Max and Jacey.

She put a few more coins in the phone and dialed Michael's number. Taye answered.

"Hello?" He asked into the phone.

"Hi, Taye, It's Liz. Is Michael around?" She asked.

"You just missed him. He and Alex went to hang out. I guess Isabel's with Maria or something." He explained.

"Why didn't you go with them?" She asked.

She heard Taye laugh. "Cause they didn't ask me and I was too scared to ask them if I could go along."

Poor guy. He still didn't understand that he had to open his mouth if he wanted to do something.

"Look," She began. "I was calling around to see if we could all get together to do something tonight. Since everyone else is busy, would you want to come with Max and I? I'm not sure where we're going but I guarantee it'll be fun."

There was silence on the other end.

"Taye?" She asked. "Are you sure you want me to come along?" He asked.