“What would you think about having me as a neighbor?”
“What?” Had she heard right?
“There’s a nice little lake house just down the road that’s for sale. It needs work, but that’s okay.”
“What about Baines & Baines?”
He sighed. “Fact is, the work’s no fun without your mother. Thanks to you, I’m fixed to retire early and I’m thinking that’s what I’d like to do. Get away from those cold New York winters. Do some fishing-I used to win prizes in bass tournaments. I bet you didn’t know that.”
No, she didn’t. “Oh, Dad, I’d love to have you down here. Aunt Carol would love it, too. And if you get bored you could do some work for me.”
“I’ll do it, then.”
Russ joined them at the picnic table. He had a grass stain on his shoulder and a piece of grass in his hair, which Sydney lovingly removed. Her handsome husband. She had to pinch herself hourly, because she was so happy it almost had to be a dream. And now her father would be close by.
Her whole family. Russ didn’t yet know, but there would be another family member come next November. She smiled a secret smile, anticipating the look on his face when she told him. They’d been reasonably careful about birth control…though there was that one time. That was all it took, apparently. Her future son or daughter was just as stubborn and determined as his or her father.
And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Kara Lennox
