"Are you still mad at us?"
Madeline looked into the rear view mirror, meeting her daughter's eyes. "I wasn't ever mad at you, honey. But I wanted you to have time to think about what you did and why it was wrong."
"I'm not ever, ever going anywhere with Jace again," Kyle said. He still, according to Janine, woke with bad dreams. Mostly they were of losing Ginger and not being able to find her.
"Well, I will, but I'll tell you first, Mama," Ginger said. No bad dreams for her. She had insisted on helping Jace and Denny with the added chores they'd been given, saying she'd been just as bad as them.
Madeline smiled a secret smile. Kyle might have inherited his father's genes for appearance, but Ginger had received all his adventuresome ones. Kyle was more like her, content to live a quiet life, with only moderate excitement once in a while.
"When will we know our surprise?" Ginger wanted to know. "As soon as we get home?"
"It's not exactly a surprise," Madeline told her. She and Erik had decided to bring the children back in from the Double J for a few days, giving them time to get to know him. She'd kept them away from him before, wanting him to be pain and pain-killer free for their first real encounter.
She hoped they would accept him. If they didn't... She refused to allow that thought completion.
They crossed Garnet Creek, the bridge timbers rumbling beneath the wheels of her minivan. Only a few more minutes.
Erik was sitting on her front steps. His bruises had faded to faint but colorful greens and lavenders and his walking cast wasn't nearly as dramatic as the plaster one had been. He held a bouquet of the fragrant pink roses that arched over her front gate.
Kyle was out of the front door almost before she stopped. Ginger was slower, unable to open the sliding side door. Madeline waited for her daughter, while listening to her son.
"Hi."
Erik grinned. "Hi yourself."
"Did you get all those bruises rescuing us?"
Madeline saw Erik's mouth twitch. "Nope. Only a few of them. The rest I got when I had a fight with a log."
"Logs can't fight," Ginger said. She was eyeing him suspiciously. "What are you doin' on our front steps?"
He looked at Madeline, his expression pleading. She smiled but refused to help him. He had to learn to deal with the twins all by himself.
"I was waiting for you two" he said finally, laying the roses aside. "I wanted to ask you a particular favor."
"What's that?" Ginger demanded.
"Yeah, what?" her brother said.
"I wanted to ask if I can marry your mother."
Kyle's mouth widened in a delighted grin. Ginger frowned suspiciously. "Why?" she said.
"Because I love her."
The little girl didn't move. She just kept staring, her eyes moving over Erik's face as if to memorize each feature. Finally she turned to look at Madeline. "Is he our father?"
"If you want him to be." Madeline wondered what convoluted pathways her daughter's mind followed.
Ginger nodded. "I pretended he was, ever since the Social. Kyle looks like him, a little." She turned back to Erik. "Okay. You can be our father."
"Will you come to my soccer games?" Kyle wanted to know.
Erik said, "You couldn't keep me away." He held out a hand to each child. Kyle immediately went to him, snuggling close as Erik awkwardly hugged him. Ginger moved more slowly, as if she sensed his lingering uncertainty about relating to a girl child.
"I love you, too, Ginger," he said softly, "and I'll be the very best father I can be."
Ginger let herself be drawn into his embrace. Once there she relaxed. Her eyes closed and an expression of sublime happiness covered her face.
Kyle looked up at him with eyes full of hero worship.
Erik's eyes closed and his arms tightened around the children. When he finally looked up at Madeline, she saw tears glistening on his cheeks. Three slow steps brought her toe to toe with him.
Although his arms were full, she knew there would always be room for her within them. Her love, her children, her family. All together at last.
~The End~