"Who's grandpa's girl? Who's grandpa's pretty little pea?"
Dad and I were sitting on the floor. Brenna was smiling up at him with her pretty green eyes.
Mason eyes.
After what I had thought was perpetual darkness, I was seeing the light. I was loving being a mom.
Not that it was easy. I would never tell anyone that becoming a mom at seventeen was a walk in the park. I knew that I was luckier than most girls. I had a tight-knit family that was emotionally and financially supportive.
And I had ended up with the most caring and responsible teenage guy in the whole world.
Brenna was three months old. Mom continued to remark about how much she looked like me. But when I looked down at her, I focused on all of those little things Mason contributed to the gene pool - her nose, her eyes, a minute dimple in her left cheek.
"Hey McLean, you're hogging all the grandpa time."
Kevin had come down to officially sign off on Mason's enrollment papers for school. Tomorrow I was starting back at art school and Mason would start Jefferson High. He had also found a part time job helping out at the hospital with Dr. Tresher. He was loving it. His future as a doctor was looking more and more like reality.
Besides being down here on 'business,' Kevin was utilizing part of his trip to spoil Brenna. He knelt down, lifted her little pink t-shirt and blew a raspberry on her belly.
She squealed. Kevin's eyes sparkled.
"Does Brenna love her grandpa?"
Her fingers wrapped around his nose. I stood up with a smile and drifted off towards the kitchen.
Even though my diet plan hadn't called for ice cream, I still drifted downstairs in the middle of the night a couple times a week. Of course, things had changed a little bit.
There was now a tiny third party joining dad and I at the table now.
"When Bren's old enough she can have her very own bowl," dad kept saying. He was eager to keep the tradition alive. It was hard not to imagine a little red haired girl with melted chocolate ice cream all over her face. The thought made me feel all warm and maternal.
I got a bottle out of the refrigerator and warmed it in the microwave. As I waited, Joe came over and hopped on the counter.
"Sup?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said. He watched the bottle turn in a circle through the microwave door.
"Hey Shel?"
"Yeah?"
"I am really glad you stayed."
I glanced over at him in surprise. He smiled.
"I love you," he added.
"I love you too, Joe."
He paused a moment, then leaned over and hugged me.
Then he took off. I think he had reached the limit of sweetness for his lifetime.
"SHELBY I NEED SHOES!"
Brayden ran in with his tennis shoes in hand. I stopped the microwave, knelt down and wiggled his feet into them. As I was tying them, I felt his little hands pat the top of my frizzy head.
"Are you going to put Brenna's shoes on when she gets growed?"
I looked up at him and smiled. "Yup."
Brayden wiggled his foot. "You do a good job!"
Then he ran off.
I took the bottle and tested the liquid on my hand. Just right. I headed back into the living room.
"Who wants to feed her?" I asked.
Kevin and dad both looked up, but Ally was coming down the stairs and intercepted.
"It's Aunt time," she declared.
I smiled and watched the little scene unfold in the living room. Brenna's whole existance might have been the result of one second of carelessness, but you would never define her that way by looking at my family now.
In fact, if she suddenly wasn't here, there would be a big gaping hole.
She belonged.
-----------------------------
"Look at the way she flexes her fingers when she sleeps," Mason whispered.
"I know. It's like baby karate."
"I think I might want to be an OB. Who knows, maybe I could deliver our next baby."
"You mean ten years from now?"
Mason laughed. "Yeah, something like that."
He wrapped an arm around my waist. I leaned into him. We shared a kiss. We hadn't always agreed during the last three months, but we always seemed to find a way to work through it. It was something we had always done.
"It's been a long trip, Shel," Mason said. I snuggled up against him. He was warm and safe. I loved sleeping next to him...even if we were jumping up to take care of our little wailing daughter every couple hours.
"Yeah, a long crazy trip," I agreed.
"And it's not over."
I smiled. Some people might think it's ridiculous to say that you could find your soul mate at five years old.
But the world was an endless mysterious marvel and somehow the stars had aligned perfectly the day we met out in that front yard back in Kentucky.
That's when our story had begun.
As far as I was concerned, we had a long way to go before the end.
And, somehow, I believed that even the end wouldn't be the last of Mason and Shelby.
Because, for soul mates, there was only forever.
