Silver Lining

"Me, too," Kellie said rather quietly before turning around and getting in.

"Drive safe," he told her again as he closed her door.

"Bye, Steve. And...thank you being there for me."

He leaned down then smiled and said, "My pleasure. And Kellie? I'll be there for you for as long as you'll let me."

Her hand was shaking as she put the key in the ignition and started the car. She took a deep breath, smiled at Steve then put it in reverse as he stood there watching until she drove off.

On the way home, her rush of excitement became another mass of internal confusion as she now had to confront a whole different set of emotions that were based on reality rather than possibility.

But by the time she got ready to leave for dinner, a sense of calm came over like she'd never experienced before. It was as though she somehow just innately knew that this was meant to be. It might very well just be the effects of the woman on the TV show doing the talking, but she no longer cared how old (or young) Steve Nash was. All she cared about was the way he made he feel, and no one but her late husband had ever done that.

When Steve mentioned a dinner guest, Brianna looked surprised. Her mother obviously hadn't told her she was coming over, and that surprised him.

"Do we have enough for one more?" he'd asked.

"Uh-huh. No problem," she assured him.

But curiosity got the best of her as her female intuition told her there was a woman involved.

"So, Mr. Nash, is this a kind of business dinner?" she asked, trying to be very casual.

"No. It's social," he told her, knowing she was fishing, and having a good idea as to why.

"Oh, okay. So maybe an old friend?" Brianna asked as she kept working on dinner.

"Well, we've know each other for quite awhile, but we only recently became friends."

"I see. Do I know him?" she asked, stressing the word 'him'.

"Him? It's not a him, Brianna. It's a her," he informed her.

"Oh. Okay. I see."

"Why?" Steve asked as he felt the despondency in her voice.

"No reason," she told him even as she felt like she might cry.

"Is that a problem?" Steve asked very politely.

"No. Of course not. I guess I maybe just hoped that, you know..."

On the verge of being unable to talk, Brianna stopped in mid-sentence, and when Steve realized she was upset, he gave up the charade.

"I asked your mom to join us for dinner," he told her.

Brianna stopped moving, set the knife she'd been chopping with down, then turned around and looked at her 'boss'.

"I take it that's okay?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow and a little smile.

Brianna didn't answer him. She just flung her arms around him and held him as the first tears fell.

"I uh, I really like your mom," he told her quietly.

"You do?" she asked as she pulled away, not caring that tears were running down her cheeks.

"Yes. I don't know if she likes me the same way, but I think your mom is amazing."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. And I think you are, too," he told her just as the doorbell rang.

"You dry your eyes and I'll get the door, okay?" Steve suggested.

"Mr. Nash?" Brianna called out as she grabbed a hand towel to dab her eyes.

"Yes?"

"She does like you," the teen said. "She won't admit it, but I know my mom, and I can tell she really like you, too."

Steve didn't mention her mom had already made his day, but he told Brianna she'd done just that before the bell rang a second time.

"Okay, okay!" he said loudly as he walked to the door.

Steve opened it and said, "Geez. Hold your horses al..."

"Oh...wow!" he said when he saw her.

"Hi," she said as she stood there waiting to be asked to come inside.

"You...you look...wow!" he told her before remembering to move aside.

"I should have worn this last night and last night's outfit tonight, but I wanted to look my best tonight, so..."

"No. You did everything just right," Steve told her as he invited her in.

"Mom! You look amazing!" Brianna said.

She'd been peeking around the corner, unable to resist seeing how Steve and her mother interacted.

"Hi, honey. Are you surprised to see me?" her mom, who was wearing a beautiful dress, asked.

Brianna was getting emotional again as she walked over to her mom.

"In the best possible way," she told her mother as she hugged her.

"Hey? Why are you crying?" Kellie asked.

She'd felt the little 'hitch' and knew her daughter was or was about to.

Brianna blinked several times then said, "I don't know. I'm just...happy. That's all."

The way her mother smiled at her told her she was, too.

"It'll be another 15 minutes or so, okay?" Brianna told them both before going back into the kitchen.

"I think she likes the idea of you and me...dating?" Steve said, making it a question with the last word.

"Are we?" Kellie asked with a smile and two raised eyebrows.

Steve put his arms around her then said, "I hope so. If that's what you want."

Kellie put her hands on his chest, smiled then said, "I do."

Almost immediately she changed her reply.

"Not...I do. I mean, I'd...like that. A lot."

Steve chuckled then said, "And I'd really like to kiss you again."

"Well, I believe we're alone, so I think that might be very nice."

Just as their lips met, they heard a giggle along with a loud sucking sound of someone inhaling very fast.

"My dad just kissed your mom!" they heard Mason say very loudly.

"You weren't supposed to say anything, Mason!" Brianna said as the adults turned her way.

"Were we being spied on?" Kellie asked Steve.

"Kind of?" her daughter replied with a little wince. She'd gone to get Mason but told him to be very quiet. He'd done just fine until the kiss then lost the battle.

Mason ran over to both of them, and his dad picked him up. The boy was all smiles and his dad asked him why.

"Because I was right!" he told his father.

"You were? What were you right about?"

"I asked if you were going to marry Brianna's mom, and you said 'no'. But I knew I was right!"

"Wait! Hold on here!" Kellie said as Brianna walked over to join them.

"See? I told you," she said to Steve.

That comment caused her mother to try again.

"Okay. Someone needs to tell me what's happening."

She stared right at her daughter who was trying not to laugh.

"I just told Mr. Nash that I thought you liked him, too."

"Too?"

Brianna looked at Steve who said, "Maybe we should all sit down and talk."

"Yes. Maybe we should," Kellie agreed as she stared at her daughter in that way that said 'everything's okay'.

Within five minutes they'd established that Steve and Kellie both like each other—very much—and that, at this point anyway, that's all it meant.

All Mason heard was 'we like each other' while Brianna understood more than the adults themselves.

"Sure. If that's what you say," she told her mom before going back to get something out of the oven.

Mason was on his dad's lap and Kellie was sitting next to him.

"Can I sit on your lap, Mrs. Grantham?" he asked very shyly.

"Of course you can, honey!" she told him as she reached over for him. "But I'd like it if you'd call me 'Kellie'. Is that okay?"

Mason slid over then looked at his dad who said, "That's fine with me."

"Okay! I will," the boy told her.

Kellie wrapped her arms around him and said, "I'm very glad because I think you are a wonderful young man."

She pulled him close and Mason pretended it was too tight, but the truth was he couldn't get enough of her attention. Yes, she was beautiful, but more importantly, she was a woman, and Mason Nash desperately needed the love of a woman who loved him back, so when she held on even tighter he ate up the attention.

After dinner, Brianna offered to get Mason ready for bed, and neither adult pretended not to know why.

Once the kids were gone, Kellie said, "I want to tell you about a TV show I watched."

Steve sat and listened, and when Kellie asked what he thought, he told her, "I'm glad you stuck it out. And I'm also glad it made such a positive impression on you."

"Yeah?" she asked, relieved to know that's how he felt.

"Uh-huh, because I don't have the slightest concern about dating you."

"No?"

"No. None."

"I still don't know how old you are, though," she said very gently.

"Will it matter?" he asked with a smile.

Kellie thought for a moment then smiled back.

"No. No, it won't," she told him, knowing that it wouldn't.

So when he told her his age, she took it stride then said, "I think I feel just like the woman I saw on television."

"But she said she knew she was in love after their first date," Steve pointed out.

"Yes. Yes, she did," she said very sweetly and with another amazing smile.

Steve understood the implication immediately.

"I didn't watch the show, but I have to admit I feel the same way," he told her as he brushed back her long, blonde hair.

Kellie sat there looking into his eyes and more than anything, she wanted to tell him she loved him, but this wasn't television. It wasn't, but for Kellie Grantham, it was becoming clear that real life was better than any TV show, and she leaned over and kissed the handsome, younger man she already knew she loved.

The four of them went swimming the following weekend, and the weekend after that they spent most of their time completely refurbishing the room her recently-evicted, one-time tenant had trashed. The smell was worse than the mess, and the mess was formidable. But thanks to some respirators for the adults who did all the heaving lifting, they got everything cleaned out.

By Sunday evening all of the holes in the drywall had been repaired, broken cupboard doors had been fixed, the carpets had been thoroughly cleaned, and the apartment had been repainted.

"I couldn't have done this without you," Kellie told Steve as they stood there looking at a completely redone apartment.

Steve put his smelly arms around her odiferous body and told her, "I couldn't do...life without you."

She smiled, kissed him, then laid her head on his sweat-stained tee shirt. She almost said those three little words but didn't.

She didn't have to because as Steve held her tight he said, "I love you, Kellie."

She didn't flinch or react at all. She just squeezed him tighter and said, "I love you, too, Steve."

That night, well after the kids had fallen asleep on the floor at Steve's house from sheer exhaustion, the happy couple made love for the first of many times to come.

The next four months flew by, and a very happy Steve Nash began leaving work no latter than 7 o'clock every day after letting his GM know he'd be leaving her in charge a lot more often.

"With an increase in pay, of course," Steve also told her.

During those months, Steve and Kellie became inseparable, and Brianna began calling him 'dad'. It was said jokingly at first, but one night when they were all outside on the patio after a barbecue, Steve said he wanted to ask her and her mother a question.

"This sounds serious," Kellie said with a smile as her daughter sat next to her.

Mason hopped up on her lap, and the three of them waited for this big question to be asked.

"I think you should move in with me. Here."

"Here and not my place?" Kellie teased as Brianna squealed with joy.

"Either-or," Steve teased back, knowing her place would be impossible.

"Do you mean...permanently?" she asked, already having decided she'd 'live in sin' with him were he to ask.

"Yes. Permanently," he told her.

"In fact..." he said as he stood up.

He was wearing cargo shorts and reached into the right side pocket and produced a small box.

Brianna shrieked and said, "MOM!!" as she reached for Mason and pulled him over onto her lap and quietly explained what was going on.

Steve got down on one knee, opened the box, then told Kellie how much he loved her.

"I'm not a speechmaker, so I don't have anything poetic to say. I just know I want you and Brianna in my life, and if you'll...both of you...will have me, I would love nothing more than for you to marry, Kellie."

Kellie had tears running down her face but didn't lose it.

"And nothing would make me happier than to marry you, honey," she told him.

Steve looked at Brianna who was hugging Mason and nodded furiously. She couldn't do anything else because she was crying harder than her mom.

Mason hopped down, and his dad asked him to help him slide the ring on.

Once it was in place Kellie grabbed the little boy and told him how much she loved him, too.

"Are you my mom now?" he asked as she squeezed him tight.

"I...I could be," she said. "Would you like me to be?"

"Uh-huh!" he told her, causing his new 'mom' to start crying again.

"In that case I'd be honored to be your mom," she told him as she put her hands on his cheeks before hugging him one more time.

Brianna was standing up and moved over to Steve. He turned her way and held out his arms, and Brianna fell into them and hugged him as hard as she could.

"So it's official now, right, Dad?" she asked with a smile.

Steve smiled back and told her it was and admitted he like hearing her call him that.

Brianna then bent down in front of Mason and asked him if he knew what that meant for them.

"Uh-uh," he said with a shake of his head.

"It means you're gonna be my little brother," she told him.

"Really?" he asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

"Yes. Really."

He threw his arms around her neck, and when he did, Steve and Kellie knelt down on either side and joined in.

"We're a family now," Steve said to his son as he smiled at his fiancé.

"A very happy family," Kellie agreed.

"Yeah! A very happy family!" Mason said, echoing his new mom's comment.

"Just think," Brianna said. "If that jerk of a tenant hadn't gotten himself evicted, none of this would have happened."

"Right. That's so true," her mom agreed.

"Talk about a silver lining," Steve said.

"Yes. A silver lining. That's exactly right, honey," Kellie said in agreement.

******

Not long after Kellie moved in with Steve, they discussed selling her house and the triplex.

"The house, yes. The triplex, no," she told her handsome fiancé. "I know you make good money, but I want to contribute, too."

Steve told her it was her call, and that this was just one more thing to love about her.

By the time they married that Fall, the house was sold, and the money that came from the sale went into a fund for Brianna's college education putting one worry to bed for good.

Kellie continued running and managing the triplex, but that changed a few months later when she found out she was pregnant at the age of 43.

For some reason, she was worried sick about telling Steve, but when she broke the news to her he picked her up and swung her around. He let her down, kissed her, and told her yet again how much he loved her.

Moved to tears by his love, Kellie told him she wanted to sell the triplex and devote her life to her family. Her duties only took up a few hours a week, but she wanted to spend every minute of her with her new husband and children from then on.

So the triplex went up for sale, but Kellie Nash continued running until her eight month when she took a 60-day during which she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

"Can we name her Brianna?" Mason asked excitedly the first time he saw her.

"Probably not, buddy," his father gently told him.

"But she's just as beautiful as my big sister and my mom," the boy insisted.

Brianna and his parents all laughed then said they'd think about it as Mason carefully got up in bed with his mom then, with her help, got to hold his baby sister for the first time.