Ditched

Makayla stayed in little Enumclaw and continued living at home even after she went to work at Mutual of Omaha just like her mom. Her office was on the second floor while her mom worked on the third, but they drove to and from work and ate lunch together nearly every day.

And because their building was just across the street from City Hall and the police department, Jake often joined his girls for lunch, and occasionally Ross also came with him.

A year after Makayla graduated from high school, Jake passed the sergeant's exam and, and with less than six years on the force, one more than the minimum needed for the promotion, received a much-needed pay raise which allowed them to sell Lauren's house and move into a nicer place a little further out in the country.

As frightened as she'd been the day her daughter ditched her at the County Fair, Lauren Anthony knew that had that not happened, there was almost no chance she have ever fallen in love with Officer Jake Anthony, the handsome, younger man she loved with all her heart; the man who brought the once-elusive sense of a new normal back to her life.