The Godparent Trap

“Consider it received.” She laughed. “Damn Banks and his mugs!”

“You love it.”

“So do you.” She elbowed me as the kids tackled Banks to the ground. “Well, we went from no kids to three.”

“Yup.” I took a sip and winced. “That’s a splash of coffee and a whole lot of something else.”

“Banks,” we said together.

“He’s your best man for a reason,” she pointed out. “And I’m your best woman because you’re going to get lucky again tonight.”

“I better. I’m holding this stupid mug.”

“Is that why you’re smiling?”

“No.” I smiled wider.

The kids shrieked, then waved as Mrs. Harris came out with her chair and a billion layers of clothes on to watch them. She’d been instrumental in helping us as Colby healed.

And another piece of the puzzle had come together.

The kids called her Grandma now.

And since she’d never had kids, well, it was like the perfect fit.

Joy can follow sorrow.

“Kids!” Heather walked out of our house with an apron on and yelled, “Time for dinner!”

Her dad sped by her, bent down, and sent a snowball flying toward Banks’s face while Heather touched her swollen belly.

“Truth.” Colby sighed. “Stranger than fiction. It’s still weird they’re together, am I right?”

“She just needed someone like… him.”

Banks started another snowball war while we all laughed.

Until a snowball came flying toward my face, compliments of Banks, and it was on. “Sorry, best friend!” Banks yelled. “It slipped.”

“Slipped, my ass,” I ground out. “Here, hold this.” I handed Colby my mug and, for the first time since I was a kid, decided to beat a friend’s ass in a snowball fight.

“Uncle Rip!” Viera screamed. “Look! I made a butterfly in the snow!”

I stopped my assault and looked over at Colby.

And smiled.