Meg, who was just a few months younger than Jake had a two year old daughter.  Meg had dated a guy when she was at college.  He had become abusive and they had broken up.  Then, after the break-up, she’d discovered she was pregnant.  She hadn’t even told him.  She’d moved back in with her parents, gotten the job as Lane’s assistant and quit the job she had at Dillard’s.  Mrs. Kelly helped Meg by providing very low cost day care for Abbey.

Jake who was the oldest of Lane’s three children had already grown pretty attached to Abbey who was a chubby little blonde haired, blue eyed cherub.  The night he’d met Meg, he’d asked Ben’s opinion about dating a woman with kids.  Ben had told him that until Lane, he’d avoided women with kids like the plague.  But with Lane he just didn’t care that kids were part of the package, even when he thought they were all still rug rats.  He told Jake the truth was it would have been his loss all the way around if he’d run the other way.  But Ben had said it was something Jake had to decide for himself.

Lane, Jess and Jamie rode home together and talked about their plans for tomorrow, which was Labor Day.  Jake had made plans with Meg and Abbey for Monday morning, so the rest of the Parkers were on their own.  Lane said she wanted to do some research on Carol Anne.  Maybe see if she could figure out why she’d come back to Kansas.

Jess looked at her mother.  “I met her once.  Did I ever tell you?” Lane shook her head.

“It was homecoming at Rockhurst.  Remember, just a few weeks after we moved?  I went to homecoming with two other couples.  One of the guys thought he made reservations at the Capitol Grill but he’d screwed up somehow and we couldn’t get in.  I suggested that we could go to Bellini’s and while they thought I was nuts, I guess they thought it was a way to put me in my place or something and they agreed to go.  It was a Friday night and when we got there, at first, they told us there wasn’t a table.  But then Enzo recognized me and took us all to the Board Room.  Ben was there with Carol Anne.  I waved at him.  Then Papa came to our table and talked to me.  The kids were all whispering to each other.  And then to top it all off, when it was time to leave, there was no check because Ben had taken care of it.  So I went over to his table to thank him and that’s when he introduced me to Carol Anne.  I thought she was kind of rude.  I think she said something to Ben like.  ‘Oh, so now it’s your responsibility to take care of Lane Parker’s kids’.  It was a little weird.” Jess shook her head.  “Anyway, back in the Limo the kids were still all whispers and stuff, and then they asked how I knew the Bellinis.  They told me everyone in town knows that Bellini’s is a mob hang out.  It got me some serious respect.”

Lane thought back to the year they’d moved to Kansas.  She remembered that the Homecoming dance was the weekend after she’d met Carol Anne at the fund raiser.  It was about then that Ben had broken it off with Carol Anne.  After hearing Jess’s story, she was fairly certain she knew the reason.

As was her habit, after she got home, she called Ben to let him know they were home.  Tonight, she made the call from her bedroom. She dialed his number and he answered on the first ring.

“Are you naked,” he asked.

She laughed.  “Ben.”  She admonished him.  “You’re lucky it wasn’t Jess on the phone.”

“You’re right, I never would have lived it down,” he said knowing that if he’d made the mistake it would have cost him a small fortune in shoes to keep her quiet.

“Speaking of Jess, she told me an interesting story on the way home.”

“Really what was that?”

“She told me about the night of the Rockhurst Homecoming dance, three years ago, when she and some friends ran into you and Carol Anne at Papa’s.”

“I seem to recall a conversation that you and I had a few hours ago during which you told me I didn’t need to make a blanket confession.  Are you about to retract that statement?”

“As I recall, I said something like ‘I don’t want or need to know about other women unless it has some impact on my life now.’ And this has some bearing on my life now. As I remember the events, you broke up with Carol Anne right after that. Did you break up with Carol Anne because of me and my family?”

Ben didn’t have to wrack his brain to remember that night.  After Jess left Papa’s that night, Carol Anne had gone round the bend accusing him of having a romantic relationship with Lane.  She was jealous, practically in a rage, because he’d paid for dinner for Jess and her friends.  As if what he did with his money was any of her business anyway.  Then she’d started in about all of the time he spent with Lane, and the time he spent talking to and about Lane. And how she’d been wasting her time thinking that he would ever propose to her, since he quite clearly already had a nice little family of his own.  It had been quite a wake-up call.  There was absolutely nothing going on between him and Lane then, and at the time all he thought was that a woman, any woman, but this woman in particular, had no business getting between a man and his friends.

He took a breath.  “In a way, yes.  She was furious that night, jealous of the relationship I had with you and with your kids.  She told me to choose, and so I did.  Red, I’m always going to choose you.  I was a fool for not knowing then that I love you.”

Lane had snuggled up on her bed as they talked.  She was now comfy and cozy and wishing that he was here for her to snuggle up with. Without thinking about it she said, “And, I love you.” And when she heard the words come out of her mouth, she realized she was no longer afraid of saying them.

“I can be there in ten minutes.  Faster if I drive.  I need to hear those words again.  Live and in person.  Am I coming there or are you coming here?”

“You have Paul there. You can’t leave him alone.”

“Pauli’s a big boy.  I repeat are you coming here or am I coming there?  Never mind.  I’m already out the door.”  He had carried the land line phone to his SUV and he continued to talk until he was out of range.

It was far less than ten minutes later when he entered the code and opened her garage.

Jamie met him in the hall near the kitchen. “Ben, what are you doing here?”

“Your mother loves me,” Ben replied as he attempted to make his way past.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t answer my question. And while we’re at it, why are you here dressed like that? You’re lucky the cops didn’t see you.”  Jamie eyed Ben suspiciously.  Ben was standing in the hallway in nothing but his boxers and an undershirt.

Jess who had stepped in front of her brother saw the Tiffany’s box Ben held in his hand.  “What the hell do you think you’re going to do with that?  You are not going in there to propose to my mother in your underwear.  That’s something some unemployed trailer trash loser would do. Come flying over in his underwear with a ring from a Cracker Jack box that the woman bought anyway.  You’re a Bellini for God’s sake.  You want to have to tell Nonno that you burst in here in your underwear?”  She glared at him.    “Besides, I think you’re forgetting something.  Like asking for her hand.”

She looked at Jamie.  “Has he asked you if he could marry our Mother?  Because he sure as hell hasn’t asked me.”

Jamie was still looking at Ben who seemed to have finally realized he was standing there talking with the two younger Parkers in nothing but his underwear. “He hasn’t asked me.”

Jamie hit speed dial and called Jake. “Has Ben asked you if he could marry Mom?”

God these kids were more Italian than some Italians Ben knew.  He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

“All right.  I’d like your permission to ask your Mother to marry me.”

“Permission granted.” Jamie answered.

“It’s about time,” Jake said through the speaker.