Melinda and Shane’s deaths were so unfair. Who in the universe would break up that beautiful family? Leave a little boy without his parents?
“Anyway,” Melinda tore her attention away from baby Ben and returned it to the camera, “we want you to know we’ve never considered anyone but you and Roy to take care of our son. If anything happens to us….”
Her husband chuckled. “Which it won’t.”
She nodded. “But if it ever does, we know you will pick up where we left off, teach him how to be a good man we can all be proud of.”
Teri paused the video and let herself go. She cried until her eyes were dry and sore, all the tears gone. Her sobs must have covered any noise because suddenly two pairs of arms embraced her, one small, the other big.
“Aunteri, are you okay? Are you crying?” Ben scrambled onto her lap and she cuddled him close, his little boy scent of sunshine and grass and dirt sweet relief.
“What’s wrong?” Roy’s deep voice offered an anchor, something to hold onto while she absorbed, at a whole other level, the loss of her other half. Glancing up, she saw the screen had gone blank.
Swiping at her eyes, she tried to muster a smile. “I was, a little, but I’m fine now.”
Roy’s serious gaze held hers. “You watched the video.”
She nodded.
Ben gave her a sloppy kiss and wriggled free and her husband sat beside her, tugging her into his warm, strong body. “You okay?”
Teri toyed with the arm of his sweatshirt, frayed, from college. She hadn’t even known he still had the thing but when their clothing and other goods arrived on the truck, it had been right on top of one box. Soft and ragged and reminiscent of their early dating days. And the man Roy had really always been, despite his GQ office attire at the law firm. Solid as a rock, body of a god, and heart of a lion.
“So, Teri and Roy, I—” The words rolled on, but Teri couldn’t take them in. Ben stood in front of the television, holding the remote.
She waited, and Roy tensed next to her. What would happen? Would the little boy be traumatized into silence again?
“Aunteri, Uncle, look! It’s Mommy and Daddy.” He waved at the screen. “Did they make me a movie? Who’s that baby?”
Roy recovered first and stretched out an arm. “That baby is you when you were very small. Want to come sit with us and watch?”
Ben backed up, keeping his focus on the screen, until he bumped against their legs. “Me? I was a baby Aunteri.”
Her lip quivered but she couldn’t give in to grief. Not when Ben had so much more to be sad about. “You were the best baby ever, Benny.”
“I’m glad I have a Mommy and Daddy movie.”
Roy lifted him between them and they watched together as Melinda and Shane shared their plans for Ben’s future. The details they could take in again later, and of course they had the paper version of the will. But the precious sight of her sister, alive and happy with her baby and husband could never be replaced.
Any more than the new family they had become. Far from where she’d ever expected to live, in a community unlike any she could have imagined. Corbin’s Bend. Where Roy would soon take over Sam’s law practice and where she’d found a much more balanced life…and thrown her birth control pills in the trash.
As the video ended and Ben hopped up to grab the DVD for movie night, Roy bent close to her and murmured, “You should have waited for me to watch it.”
Teri glanced up at him. “I’ve been bad.”
He grinned. “I certainly hope so.”
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