I didn't want to update No Regrets and then not get back to it for another year so I did mark it complete, but if something changes in Stephanie and Ranger's Miami life … I'll still write and add it. All familiar characters and events are Janet's. Warnings for a little bedroom fun.

Chapter 12

I lifted my head from the breasts I can't stop nibbling on and grinned up at Stephanie as she stretched her arms above her head. A fortunate move for me because it pushed her nipple up and against my lips. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to enjoy any part of my wife or the body I still can't get enough of, I drew her nipple into my mouth and didn't release it until it was hard, wet, and thoroughly heated from the attention I gave it ... like she is further down where my dick also refused to leave her body alone.

"You were supposed to clear my mind and get me into peak fighting-shape," my wife accused, "but now all I want to do is take a nap and then do this all over again, and possibly again after you feed me."

I nudged my hips forward and felt myself get even harder inside her. "I'm up for it."

"You definitely feeeel like you are," she purred, squeezing my body in a way that more than suggests she's already very satisfied with how our morning has gone so far.

She put her legs to good use by wrapping them around mine at the same time her arms lowered from her head and ensnared my shoulders. I know she's going to try to roll me, so I was a gentleman and flipped us just so she can conserve her energy and spend it on wearing us both out again.

I sank deeper as she sat up straighter, long past being shy or self-conscious with me. It took more time than it should have, but she finally understood that I really do love everything about her ... inside and out. Her fingertips dug into the skin of my rapidly dampening chest as she began to torture us both by slowly raising and then lowering her hips back down onto me. I was the one feeling like I could stay in bed all day as I gripped the twin spots where the top of her thighs join the hips I have extremely detailed dreams about, and I brought us both to completion.

Her upper body fell heavily onto my chest, my wife clearly not caring that she's going to be covered in beads of my sweat. Since she's responsible for causing them, I'd guess that makes them less bothersome to her. Her arms curled tightly around my neck, causing a rift between me and my pillow as she milked the last ripples of pleasure our bodies create every time we're together like this.

"Wow," she whispered into our early morning air.

"Do you feel up to taking on the world now?" I asked. "Or at least your sister?"

"I'd still prefer a nap and you ... and then sleep, and you again, but we do have to get to the airport by ten."

"A shared shower could cut down on time," I suggested.

"Not when we're talking about us. We would add at least another half hour to our typical separate shower times."

She has a point. "You can go first. I'll just relax here and enjoy the view until it's my turn."

She grinned against the pulse in my neck. "Then it'll be my turn to drool over what I'm looking at. I'll be back before you miss me."

"Not likely, but I'll get up in a minute and put a pot of coffee on. It'll be ready when you come out."

"I love you!"

"I know. And being able to make coffee is only a fraction of the reason why."

"Another reason may be how you look naked or half-naked while you're grinding the coffee beans."

She continues to put a smile on my face in bed and out.

"Don't believe that this will be an easy sell, Babe," I warned Stephanie a few hours later, as we and Edna passed through the airport doors.

"Sorry. If you wanted me to remain realistic, you should've stopped showing me that I can have everything I want in life if I just mention it in front of you or work really hard at getting it."

"I can't regret you discovering your own worth, but I hate thinking of you getting hurt or feeling let down."

She smiled over at me. "I'm prepared for every argument. Valerie doesn't know what's about to hit her."

"You want my purse?" Edna asked her. "I got a five-pound brick of French Toast fudge from my roomie Annice in here that'll knock some sense into Valerie if she don't wanna listen to us."

I grinned at Edna, approving of some of the ways she chooses to get her point across.

"There will be no hitting anyone," my wife told Grandma Mazur. "And I'm not just saying that because I was promised half of that fudge-brick. I don't want to be looking at a head-dent while I'm working on achieving a major sugar buzz."

"So your concern is for the candy, not your sister?" I teased.

"Hey ... I grew up with Val. Her head is as hard as they come. The thickness of her skull rivals our mother's, thankfully in a different way though."

Grandma Mazur gave her a 'Good one' nudge with her bony elbow, and I was fighting another grin at picturing Helen's head nailing a brick to a wall as we met the Kloughns' plane. I braced myself for the impending activity, but nothing can really prepare a person for the Kloughn family descending on you en masse.

"Aunie Steffie!" Lisa shouted, struggling to get her hand free from her mother and run to her Aunt when she spotted Stephanie amid the crowd of people arriving and departing.

Mary Alice and Angie headed towards us with a harried-looking Valerie not sure if she should follow her kids or hang back to watch out for Albert. That's a no-brainer for me. I'd trust the girls over Kloughn any day.

My wife leaned down and lifted Lisa up while hugging Angie, Mary Alice, and Valerie, with her free arm. I shook Albert's hand but stared hard at him when he was debating whether or not to attempt to embrace Stephanie. That he once delusionally thought he had even the remotest shot at dating my woman is still laughable, yet I don't want him touching her knowing the attraction had been there on his end. He loves his wife, but it's possible that I will kill him if he even thinks about touching mine.

"You guys are bunking with me," Edna told her granddaughter. "Stephanie offered to put you up, but her and Ranger probably need lots of alone-time. I know I'd need lots of time if I had a go at him."

"Grandma!" Steph said, embarrassed yet happy to have the type of relationship we have that warrants plenty of privacy. "And ewww to the second part of that."

"What? I'm cuttin' you a break here. Don't get all huffy with me."

"Some things change," Valerie said to them, "but a lot stays the same. We're glad to be rooming with you, Grandma. It seems like you've wanted to have your own place forever."

"Only since I was sixteen, but the times I grew up in, marriage, and your mother, got in my way."

"We could stay in a hotel ..." Valerie began.

"Heck no. I want you sharing my space with me," Edna stated. "We're gonna have us a time. Annice has been cleanin' and preenin' for days now."

"But we're hanging out at our house first," Stephanie interjected. "I wanted to talk to you about something, and there's plenty of places and spaces for the girls to play and explore while we do."

Valerie looked wary, while Albert remained as clueless as ever.

"It's alright, Val. I'll break you in gently," my wife teased.

In the afterglow of that warning, I gestured to Albert that we should collect their luggage so we can get their visit underway. I suppressed a smile when Mary Alice trailed along to help us out. I got their bags without needing assistance even as I appreciated her company. We all made it out of Miami International with no mishaps. We dropped the suitcases off at Edna's place and reissued the warning to Annice that the Kloughn family will be returning to their semi-shared space in only a few hours.

I provided a vehicle for Valerie so they could navigate the city independently, and the family tested it out by following us back to our home. When Albert was wandering the grounds with the girls, Steph sat her sister down for a heart-to-heart.

"Val," my wife said, framing up her case, "you know that I want the best for you and my nieces ..."

"I know what you're going to say, but Mom promised me she'd lay off the girls ..."

"That you just had to say that, speaks volumes. Mary Alice calls me every other day to let off some steam and to tell me what Grandma Plum said to her that day," Stephanie interrupted. "The Burg isn't good for them. Mom isn't good for them. I moved down here just to get away from her ... well and to be closer to Julie and have more time with Ranger. I don't want my nieces to feel forced to escape the same way I did as soon as they're legally able to."

"It's different with them ..."

"How so? Since you moved back to Jersey, Mom's told Mary Alice to literally stop 'horsing around' and start acting like a lady. She tells Angie not to sound like such a know-it-all, that it turns people - especially boys - off when she can prove that she's smarter than they are. Angie also told me that Mom is trying to bully you about what toys Lisa should play with and who she should and shouldn't have play dates with, which keeps the cycle going if Lisa has no access to people or influence outside of the Burg. You may not want to say it out loud, but we both know that since I'm out of her control, she's targeting the girls with renewed enthusiasm. You owe it to them to protect them from her. They don't deserve to feel like our parents made us feel ... either always wrong or generally invisible."

Valerie went quiet. My wife, I'm proud to say, was anything but.

"Look out that door, Val," she told her sister, pointing to one of the glass doors overlooking the pool area where Angie and Mary Alice were inspecting everything Julie said we needed for the pool, while Albert and Lisa looked on out there and Steph made her pitch in here. "The girls will be happy here, and not just because Ranger, Grandma Mazur, and I, will be nearby again. Julie's been an unending resource for me since we moved to Miami, plus you've said yourself that you and Kloughn had the time of your lives when you and the kids ran away to Disney World instead of going through with your Burg-approved wedding. We can make that an every weekend thing."

"There are a few homes in - or located close to - our neighborhood that I'm sure you and Albert will find satisfactory," I added.

Valerie's eyes made a trip around our kitchen. "We can't afford anything like this. You have a freakin' balcony in your living room, Steph!"

"Yeah, I was worried about living in a place with its own scenic viewing post, but Julie has fun with it."

"I bet. But Miami life is too expensive for the paychecks Albert and I take home."

"Who did you hear that from? Mom ... because she heard that I'd love it if you guys moved down here?"

"I did get annoyed with her one day and said that at least you'd be happy to have me living nearby ... when you won't even talk to her on the phone."

"Bet that went over well," my wife said.

"She froze for a second, but pretended she didn't hear me, even when I apologized."

"You had nothing to apologize for," I told my sister-in-law. "If Stephanie was brought up, Helen had to have had an agenda that you were supposed to aid her in. That you did silence her, means you didn't give her what she was after. Good job."

"I still don't understand why we can't just be a normal family, with everyone wanting everybody else to be happy."

"Because you genuinely love your family, even Albert, you wouldn't," I told Valerie. "I hate to say this to you almost as much as I hated telling Stephanie, but your mother doesn't want you or Stephanie to be happy, or your girls for that matter. She wants what's best for herself. She always has been and will always be her own bottom line. You can't change her, you can only choose not to sacrifice yourself or your family in order to satisfy her, which is a futile effort at best since she will never be satisfied despite what you do for her."

"Don't get Ranger started," Steph advised. "He doesn't hold back when it comes to this particular subject."

"Because I love you, and it still pisses me off that you got stuck with what you did," I told her.

"I may not have been the woman you wanted to marry if I hadn't grown up where I did," she pointed out.

"You can think that if you'd like, but my take is you would be the same caring, adventurous, smart-mouthed, woman you are now ... you just would have been able to admit that you loved me a hell of a lot sooner."

She cut her eyes to Valerie. "You can see he's lacking in the confidence-department. I'm doing what I can to fix that."

"Joke all you want, Babe, but I also believe you would've accepted from the start that I will always love you more … if your parents had shown you any."

She gave me a smile that I easily read as a 'thank you' combined with her usual 'I freakin' love you, Batman!' expression, before she turned back to Valerie.

"Anyway, if it'll help sway your thinking ... I can't afford a house like this one either, but Ranger got me around that. He knows people who will show you homes that you're not only comfortable in, but something you'll be comfortable paying for."

When I heard a vehicle pull into our driveway, I briefly excused myself to greet Julie. I arranged for her to visit when my nieces would be over, partly because I want Mary Alice and Angie to see that they already have an ally in Miami besides their Aunt and I.

"Did Steph convince them yet?" My daughter asked me, after a hug for me and a wave to her parents as they backed out.

"She's in the process of it," I shared. "We're now at a ninety-five percent chance of convincing them."

"Where are Mary Alice and Angie?"

"With Albert and Lisa by the pool."

"That's where I'm heading then. I'll do what I can and meet you guys inside."

I wanted to shake my head in wonder at what I helped to create. She's so much like me at times, it worries me as much as she makes me proud. I escorted her up our driveway and through the gate into the backyard.

"Head's up, Uncle Ranger!" Mary Alice yelled, expertly serving a volleyball to me.

I aimed my body so when the pass hit off my hands, the ball sank into the net of our pool version of a basketball hoop.

"Show-off," Julie deadpanned, but she had an unmistakable look of pride on her face.

"I try."

She snorted in true Steph-fashion. "That's the problem, you don't have to try ... you're just impressive naturally."

I looped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "The same can be said about you."

Her smile said what she doesn't need to. The best parts of me have been passed onto her, while the absolute worst has been omitted from her genealogical makeup.

"Incoming," Angie warned, but I was already prepared for the slight weight about to hit my right leg.

I looked down and grinned at Lisa. "Nice tackle-attempt, little lady. Are you girls coming back inside with me? I was told we have popsicles if it's too warm outside for you."

"We'll head back inside in a few minutes," Mary Alice told me.

"I wanna blue popsicle," Lisa replied. She then laughed a herself. "It makes my mowf blue."

I picked her up and turned towards Julie. "Would you like a snack, drink, or anything else?"

"I'm good."

I nodded and Lisa and I passed through the patio doors and back into the kitchen to where the conversation is likely heating up.

"We have a request for a blue-raspberry popsicle," I said, putting Lisa down to go to the freezer and fill her order.

Once she was settled next to Edna on a kitchen stool, I turned to Steph and waited to be caught up.

"Valerie thinks I'm exaggerating the severity of our mom's 'take no prisoners-attitude' on the girls ... and on her as a daughter and a mom."

"I admit, she was too hard on you, Steph," Valerie began, putting the Burg-crap on repeat, "but she doesn't act like that around everyone."

"She was pretty tough on me, too," Edna added. "And I was an old lady able to take it. But I tell ya ... I've sloughed off fifteen years moving down here. Imagine how much younger I'll feel if I have my great-granddaughters around everyday to keep me going."

"Grandma, we're not supposed to be using guilt," Steph chided. "Val, I'd believe Mom was better if Mary Alice wasn't sharing how upset she gets after visiting her Grandma. I want to say that I'm the only one Mom hates, and I'm fine that she does ... I know I'm not for everybody ..."

"Stop there, Babe," I ordered her. "Everyone loves you. It takes the right kind of people to fully appreciate you and adore you accordingly."

She reached out, grabbed my hand, and tugged me closer to her. "Thanks for that. You just rebooted my argument." I left my hand on the base of her neck, gently massaging her tension away as she pinned Valerie with an under-a-microscope stare. "I know you don't see it yet, being 'the perfect daughter' before Steve, but I really don't want Mary Alice ... or Angie or Lisa to have to fight for the right to feel loved like I have."

My wife took a breath and I could see every issue from her past pass across her face now.

"It sounds stupid, I know," Steph continued, "but you'd get exactly what I mean if you'd had to live it. Let me put it this way ... if Ranger - and then the guys and his family through him - hadn't happened to me, it's possible that I would've stayed in my rat-hole apartment until I was eventually browbeaten into marrying Morelli. And I would've woken up every morning hoping I'd die. Whereas now ... I wake up every morning with a smile on my face and a frown on it when the day comes to a close because I don't want to give them up even to sleep. Do you want to put your girls through them hating their own lives? I can tell you from decades of past experience ... it isn't fun."

For an answer, Valerie got Lisa a toy out of her bag to play with once her popsicle was gone, and then walked to the doors leading to the patio.

"Girls!" Valerie called. "Grab Albert and come back inside. I'm calling a family meeting!"

"What's going on?" Albert asked, after everyone was back in our kitchen, which felt considerably smaller than it had only moments ago.

"It seems that Stephanie, Grandma Mazur, and I guess Ranger too, want us to think about making a change."

"What sorta change?" He asked.

"Moving to Miami."

Everybody went silent except Stephanie and I.

"It's not such a crazy idea," my wife began. "I did it ... and I never pictured myself living anywhere except Trenton."

"Same here," Edna said, backing her granddaughter up.

"Is this about me?" Mary Alice asked. "Because I've been talking to Aunt Steph a lot lately?"

It broke my heart all over again how children will always find a way to blame themselves for what adults choose to do.

"No," Steph, Valerie, and I, all replied in unison.

"I miss seeing you guys," Steph said to them. "And I thought because I really love living down here, maybe you all would too. You'd have me and Uncle Ranger, Grandma Mazur, plus Julie and our Rangeguys, to make the transition easier and also pretty fun. You'd be out of the cold and we'd have you here. I've tried not to put pressure on your Mom or you girls, but I miss you all like crazy."

Again, more silence. But in only a few moments outside ... Julie had worked her own unique magic, which caused Mary Alice to speak up now.

"If we move here," my niece started, "can we get a dog? Julie told us that her best friend's family adopted a dog that no one wanted because she was pregnant ... and they have one puppy left from the litter to find a home for. We could be that home if we have one with a yard."

"We could find a house and give her one too," Angie added.

I cut my eyes to my daughter. "We've already discussed this, Julie."

She's been hanging around Stephanie so long now, the shrug and faux-innocent eyes are automatic.

"You can't blame a girl for trying to help a poor, defenseless, completely adorable puppy ... who really, really likes me, get adopted. Well, you can blame me, but you shouldn't," my daughter said as part of her closing argument.

Steph quickly caught her laugh so she could choose the appropriate side without upsetting the losing party.

"Gianna's dog, and the subsequent puppy she has from her, are Australian cattle dogs," I reminded Julie. "I've explained what that puppy, who will quickly grow up into an intelligent and extremely active dog, will require."

"But she is a pretty red/rust color."

I just stared at her, not swayed at all by that.

She sighed, again not unlike Stephanie would. "I know, I know ... she'll need lots of room to run, plenty of activity so she won't destroy the house, rigorous training, and she could nip if you look like a cow."

"Ummm," Valerie said, looking paler as she glanced her sister's way. "That sounds like more than we can handle. Right, Albert?"

"I always wanted a dog," he said, not catching the plea his wife was sending him via a desperate look in her eyes. "My parents said I wasn't responsible enough to have one, though." We all saw the moment the lightbulb went off in his head as he visibly brightened. "We could have one now if we had a backyard."

"Even with more outside space, we have kids to think about, Albert. I'm sorry, Mary Alice. Maybe we could get something less ... active in the future. We haven't even discussed how you feel about a move, so we really shouldn't be considering any pets until that's settled."

"Dad, you and Steph have plenty of room here, inside and out back," my daughter told me, expertly backing Steph and I into a corner. "And I know my Miami Uncles would be great at enforcing your training. Plus, when she's bigger ... she can herd them all into a group when you're ready to give them a pep talk or a lecture. After I get home from school and my homework's done, I'm sure Mom and Dad will let me come over and help out. This will be a great lesson for me, like Albert's parents sorta said, to teach me how to be responsible and to think of something other than myself."

"Of course you're agreeing to help. Though you laid it on a little thick with the last additions. You're already responsible and are always conscious of others. Those are just a couple of your traits that I'm most proud of," I replied, faintly amused and also dreading the next five minutes, as Julie weaves the threads of her web around us.

"I tried the same thing and same spiel with my parents when I was around your age, Jules," Steph told her. "And I ended up with a cat that quickly ran away."

"Can you blame it?" I asked my wife.

"Nope. And I was a little mad that she escaped and didn't take me with her."

"Your mom's not here now, Steph," Julie said, finding a new target and a different angle into getting the puppy her mother and father said they couldn't take for similar reasons as I and also Valerie presented. "You can have any pet you want. You don't need to stick with having just Rex. Dad will say yes to anything you want."

"Yeah, Aunt Steph," Mary Alice added, quickly catching on. "You deserve to have a puppy. And if we did move here ... Angie and I could come over and help Julie take care of her and tire her out."

"I think you've lost control of this family 'meeting'," I told Valerie.

"Not really," Stephanie said to me. "The girls are already making Miami plans. This is taking a very promising turn."

"We could call our puppy Jersey," Julie pressed. "Then your home state will be lovingly represented all the way down here."

"Oooh, you're good," my wife told our daughter.

"I've learned from the best."

"Are you talking about your Dad or me?"

"Mostly Dad, but you're pretty good yourself, Steph."

This wasn't the direction I saw Stephanie and I going, becoming dog owners after being able to hold Julie off for the last two weeks. But if having another 'Jersey' girl in my home will help ensure my nieces will be spared the life I helped get their aunt out of, I'll head to the pet store first thing tomorrow when it opens for round one of supplies. I'll even hunt down the collar Julie mentioned getting if she could actually have Gianna's puppy. I suppose a red collar studded with silver rhinestones is a fitting choice for a canine with New Jersey ties.

"Enough about pets," Valerie said to her family, "we need to get serious here ... would you guys actually consider a move from Trenton to Miami? Or are you happy in Jersey with your friends there and the school you're in?"

"I get picked on more at school than I do at Grandma's," Mary Alice shared. "And my friends are just co-time-killers, than friend/friends. I can take or leave Trenton."

"Why am I just hearing about you having school issues now?" Valerie asked her daughter.

"No one's asked me how life's going except Aunt Steph. That's why I've been talking to her more and more."

Steph reached over and squeezed her niece's hand in sympathy and in solidarity, having literally been in the same place as Mary Alice is now.

"I wanna live in a piiiink house," Lisa informed her parents.

"Good choice there, Lisa," Edna told her great-granddaughter. "A pink house would guarantee good times."

"Pink, huh?" I asked Lisa.

"Yups."

"I'm sure we could add a specific color to the list of requirements for the realtor."

"I'm NOT living in a Barbie house," Mary Alice stated, reminding me so much of how I picture Stephanie being as a younger version of the woman she is now.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Steph said. "One vote for pink, one for any color other than that one, but that's already two sorta-votes in Miami's favor. What are you thinking, Angie?"

"First, that we'd have to donate half of our clothes before we even thought about packing, and buy almost all new stuff. With no blizzards or Polar Vortexes down here ... that makes most of what we have for clothes useless."

"Add another point for Miami," Julie said to us, as she stood by Lisa and absently started braiding her little cousin's pigtails.

That Steph's nieces are related to us by marriage only isn't a fact my daughter cares about. She prefers to just care about people, not the titles given to them.

"You'll have to put that point in the hurricane column," Angie countered. "I saw some coverage on the news ... and those are scarier than snow, with the flooding, ripped-up trees, and knocked-down homes."

"Spoken like a kid who hasn't been given shoveling-duty yet," Steph teased. "But seriously, your Uncle Ranger and I have been living here for a little while now, and all I've had to complain about is the sun coming into my window too early in the morning. Any house you have here, like back in Trenton, will be Rangeman-guaranteed safe from bad guys and Mother Nature."

"As safe as it's possible to make a structure," I corrected.

I protect what's mine, but as my mother likes to remind me ... I'm not God.

"Will we still see Grandma and Grandpa?" Angie asked Val.

"We'd go back and visit, it just won't be every day like you're used to seeing them."

Mary Alice's eyes caught her Aunt's, and she and my wife shared a similar relieved expression at having time and distance between themselves and Helen.

"You're forgettin' about me," Edna added. "If you girls lived in Miami, you'd get me to watch you, and also get to eat my chocolate chip and walnut cookies after school."

Enter a teenage eyeroll. "We're not babies, Grandma Mazur," Mary Alice pointed out. "We don't need a babysitter."

"But Lisa does when Albert and I have to work," Valerie said, getting down to business. "Speaking of ... Mom aside, I do know it has to cost more to live here than in Trenton, and our income was coming from Albert's office. I doubt Miami is in desperate need of Albert's legal mind."

She has a point, no one is desperate for Kloughn's advice, insight, or his time, but as Steph and I discussed as we put this intervention into place, I knew I could provide some assistance since it's clear to us both that Val won't be interested in accepting the monetary kind.

I glanced to where Albert was standing off to the side, not approving at all of him taking such a passive role in his family's future and well-being. As much as Mary Alice reminds me of Stephanie, Albert Kloughn has too many similarities to Frank Plum ... and that needs to change immediately.

"I have a legal team who are willing to work with you and personally guide you on how to become better than you are at what you do," I told Kloughn. "And then you'll be able to land clients who will actually pay you for your services, or possibly be offered a job working in an already respected firm. That way Valerie can get paid appropriately for the hours she's put in on helping to establish you." I glanced over at my sister-in-law. "Or this could be your chance to focus on yourself for a change and pursue a career in whatever interests you. This doesn't have to be a life-change for only the girls. Yours can improve as well."

Valerie remained quiet as all the possibilities hit her, while Albert stopped playing statue and finally showed a vested interest in his life and his family.

"Your people are really willing to help me?" He asked me.

"Yes, but you need to remember something very important here ... you're getting this favor because you're family. If you don't put any work or effort in, or you take their help for granted, you're on your own. My advice is to soak up and write down everything they tell and teach you, and use that knowledge to take care of your family. No one knows you or your reputation here. Moving to Miami would give you a clean slate and one hell of an opportunity to become the lawyer you pictured yourself being when you decided on law school."

I felt my wife's arms around me before they even circled my midsection. "You could've been a lawyer yourself," she told me, "by the way you just closed this case." She glanced at Valerie. "You are going to pack up and head South, aren't you?"

"I don't know, Steph. This is a big decision and we'll need more time to think about and discuss it."

"That's fair," I told her. "But we'd like you to keep an open mind and check out a few homes in our area over the next week while you're here visiting."

"It can't hurt to see what you'd be gaining or what you won't mind missing out on," my wife tacked on.

Valerie hugged her girls and rolled her eyes at Stephanie. "Fine, but I am not promising anything."

"You don't have to. I was exactly where you are, and Ranger had me ready to kiss Trenton goodbye with one pass through this place." She looked Julie's way. "And I haven't regretted a single moment of our life here. I'm confident you'll feel the same if you do decide to take the Florida-plunge."

Valerie kept her promise. In-between lunches or dinners at our place, visits to the Rangeman building to see the guys they first became attached to in Trenton, tours of the city that often included Steph and Julie plus Edna, and time at Edna's place with Annice fussing over them all, the Kloughns did walk-throughs of a few four-bedroom homes I believed they'd be able to afford with or without my influence.

Lisa didn't get her Barbie-pink home, but the one Valerie and all the girls fell in love with was a terra cotta-colored stucco one - that with a promise of a pink-painted bedroom - had Lisa excited. Mary Alice was happy with just us having a dog, but she did appreciate getting her own bedroom plus having Steph's daily affection over Helen's constant rejection. Angie's equally happy to have her own space, but she genuinely relaxed knowing she'll be enrolled in a good school system and has Julie ready to help them transition yet again ... since she and Mary Alice had been California girls, then became Jersey ones, and now are going to learn what being Miamians entails.

As if she heard my thoughts on how our life is about to change again, Steph picked up my arm and looked down at my watch. "Crap ... that was a mistake. I know it doesn't do me any good to look at a watch that likely resembles what the inside of your brain looks like … with too many dials, gears, and time zones, to keep track of. But I'm pretty sure we're close to the time we need to be leaving to pick Julie up."

"It is close ... just ten minutes earlier than planned."

"I'm ready, the house is ready, and Grandma and everybody else are coming over in about an hour ..."

"Let's go then. After you."

We swung by the Martine's home and got our daughter, and then I took my Jersey girl to go get our new puppy, collectively named Jersey. I had absolutely no plans of being a pet owner, but seeing every inch of Julie's face involved in her smile when Jersey licked her in greeting as soon as she was picked up by my daughter, I felt a twinge of guilt for not allowing this to happen sooner.

"No regrets," Steph reminded me, still surprising me at how well she's able to detect what I'm feeling. "Our family became what it needed to be at the time that was right for us. Clearly Jersey was meant to be ours when our Jersey family was ready to be our almost-neighbors. All we need is a miracle to get Mary Lou, plus her and Lenny's family, to want to migrate ... and then convince your family to stay indefinitely when they come down here for Julie's school vacations."

The Plums weren't mentioned in Steph's relocation project, and I remain happy about them staying excluded. They are when the real 'miracle' would happen if Helen could manage to stop blaming Stephanie for everything, and Frank could stop letting Helen get away with everything. My mother-in-law's hit list continues ... now that Edna moved here and she's likely heard that Valerie and her family have a move-by-date plus a house already being primed for the Kloughn-invasion.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Julie asked me, holding Jersey out for me to hold.

I let my eyes trace my daughter's face and then move over to do the same to Stephanie's. "Yes," I answered, causing a blush in both ladies.

Jersey was no less affected by me than every other dog I've encountered, and she proceeded to lick my jaw repeatedly ... and enthusiastically-enough to have me concerned that I'd be missing skin if she continued.

"Hey!" Steph told our puppy. "Being my home state's namesake, you should know that we don't share our mates. You need to put that tongue away."

The attention and the tone, told our dog that my wife's words were said for show only. Jersey made a rapid-fire succession of yips before trying to wash Steph's face too.

"Guess she likes you guys," Julie said to us.

"Just in case," Steph said to her, "let's make a break for it before your friend or your Dad changes their minds."

I thought she was kidding, but Julie did hug her friend and say goodbye to Gianna's parents, and then hurry to the door to fling it open for Steph and Jersey to pass through.

Back at home an hour-and-a-half later ... my wife settled back into me on one of the lounge chairs on our patio. We watched Julie, Mary Alice, and Angie, playing ball in the pool as Edna and Lisa entertained Jersey on the chair opposite of ours. Albert and Valerie had wanted to get one last look at their new home before returning to the one they're about to say goodbye to.

As a surprise for us all, Tank showed up on D-day - Dog day in our case - and agreed to hang around and play lifeguard for the girls so Steph and I could relax. I know more men will be showing up over the next couple of hours, and an impromptu family barbecue will be how our evening will be spent. I can predict with one-hundred-percent accuracy that Binkie and Banger will be staying the longest after Tank. They've changed the events of the day they were shot on the job, and now claim that they 'allowed' themselves to take a bullet or two because they knew it'd lead to Stephanie and I getting together.

I ran my fingertips below the shorts to the bare leg my wife had drawn up to rest her chin on. "What are you thinking, Babe?"

She didn't answer me right away, still sorting through her thoughts to find the ones to share with me that'd explain how she's currently feeling.

"The only thing I can say that comes close to describing what's going on in my head right now is ... this is not something - or the kind of life - I knew how to wish for, but every molecule in my body wants to thank you for giving it to me."