Sophie smiled and squeezed her husband’s hand. “A good marriage takes two. You and I have made our share of mistakes, but I hope we’ve shown our children that love and family can survive anything. I love you more today, Dale, than I did when I agreed to marry you—and I was head-over-heels smitten with you then. More than anything else, that’s what I want for our children. I want them to find someone who stands with them no matter what challenges their bond.”
Dale’s eyes shone with emotion. “I would do it again, Sophie. Every last moment. The good. The bad. It was all worth it because you were at my side.” He looked around the room. “As I watch our children growing up and starting families of their own, I hope they do a hundred things better than we did, but one thing the same. I hope they always end each day grateful to have each other. Every one of us in this room has done something we regret, but if we work through it, we become stronger because of it.”
For the second time that night Lance’s perception of his parents was challenged. Yes, their marriage had its flaws, yet its foundation was not only solid but had strengthened over time. That’s what he wanted for himself and Willa.
From the phone, Emily said, “Am I the only one bawling?”
Kenzi called out, “I’m right there with you.”
Grant cleared his throat. “So, what are we doing now?”
“Hang on a minute.” Lance walked out of the living room into his father’s office and returned with a white board and dry erase marker. In much the same fashion that he’d outline a timetable for work projects—with lines that jutted out to boxes where he listed possible complications along with solutions to each—he charted his relationship with Willa. He kept the details to a minimum referring only to their intimacy as the times they connected.
He stood back, studied the diagram and said, “As you can see, I need a clear plan of action to break this pattern.”
Dax said, “That’s quite a chart you have there, Lance.”
Ian studied the details of it. “Why is Lexi in a box with an asterisk?”
“That’s when she pretended to be Willa, and I didn’t realize it.”
“Tell me you didn’t sleep with her sister,” Asher said abruptly.
Sophie gasped. Dale’s eyes flew to Lance’s but he didn’t say anything.
Lance erased the asterisk. “One kiss, but it was enough to screw everything up the first time.”
Dax rubbed a finger and thumb over his eyes before looking up at the chart. “This is how you think? You’re not making this up?”
Lance shrugged. “I can’t wing it this time. I need to look at this problem from all angles.” He added a mathematical equation that he’d toyed with mid-week. “This is my calculation of the length of time it’ll take her to forgive me for not calling her this week. I based it on how long she was angry the first time, then factored in the similarities and differences between each event. I think we should figure out this portion before I move on to the proposal.”
Dax looked around at the other men as if gauging the likelihood that one of them would announce he was being pranked. When there was no confirmation, Dax turned his attention back to Lance. “You’re serious about all of this?”
Kenzi laid her head on his arm. “He loves her. Don’t even pretend it wasn’t confusing for you when you realized you loved me.”
There was a general chuckle around the room.
Lance lowered the dry erase board and sat heavily on the arm of one of the couches. “Laugh all you want, but I can’t lose her again. I’ve been in love with her for a long time. I just couldn’t see it.”
Ian said, “I don’t know how you missed it when it was clearly there in the subcategory of your third bulleted list of reasons you belonged together.”
Lance glanced down at his diagram, shocked he’d missed that, only to realize that his brother had made it up.
“Ian,” Dale said, using his son’s name in reprimand.
Waving his hands in the air, Ian defended himself. “Dad, what do you expect? This is ridiculous.”
With a shake of his head, Dale said, “Love humbles a man, Ian, especially while you’re working things out the way Lance is. Ask Asher and Dax.”
“I could have used a diagram when I was trying to figure out if I’d burned Emily’s museum down,” Asher said with self-deprecating humor.
Emily chimed in. “That was not a fun time for any of us. I thought it might be over between us right up until the moment you proposed.”
“Falling in love is hell,” Dax confirmed.