The next couple of days seemed to go by in a blissful blur to Reba. Now that she had relented to cooperating with the whole situation, it seemed less and less fiascos popped up and things were starting to feel…well…normal around there, which was a huge miracle for that anything-but-normal family. They ate more dinners together, there was less bickering, and everything just seemed to be in total harmony. Even Reba's blood pressure seemed to calm down a bit, to her incredible amazement (though still not to the point where she could abandon her pills). Things were starting to turn out the way Reba had always envisioned her life would turn out, and that was just fine with her.

But there were still some nagging little feelings that were tugging away at her heart; things she never thought would bug her, like the fact that Barbra Jean was missing from the picture. As much as she hated to admit it, Reba had grown to love that goofball of a blonde that she had once only viewed as the tramp who stole her husband. She supposed she couldn't help it. Despite all the wrong Barbra Jean ever did, Reba could see that there was still an innocence and naivety about her that could cause you to forgive her for even the most inexcusable of sins. Like everyone else, Reba had grown to see the good person at the very core of that tall blonde; it just took Reba a little longer to separate that part of Barbra Jean from the adulterous part. Once she did though, she couldn't help but find the charm of the woman irresistible…incredibly annoying at times as well, but still irresistible.

But now that Brock was back in her life and not tied to Barbra Jean anymore, Reba feared that that would erase her from the picture completely. Plus there was the question of what Barbra Jean would do without Brock in her life anymore. She had proven that she was capable of taking care of herself like Reba had during her and Brock's separation, but Barbra Jean was still just a little girl at heart and was still the kind that needed someone to be there for her. Reba would hate to see her end up all alone.

She sighed deeply as she turned those thoughts over in her head. She was the happiest she had been in a while, but it came at the price of the happiness of another. She imagined that this was probably how Barbra Jean must have felt when she and Brock had gotten married some seven years ago. And what a horrible feeling it was.

"You okay Reba," she heard Brock ask as he fiddled with the chess piece he held in his hand. Reba blinked a bit at him and tried to interpret what he just asked her.

"Oh yes, I'm fine! It's still your move," she said once she was finally able to focus her attention. Brock smiled and squared his eyes at the chess board sitting between them, deep in concentration. Reba pressed her lips together to keep a giggle from escaping them. She had had the original intention of playing a game of checkers with him, but he was the one who insisted on playing chess instead, apparently determined to beat her at the game. Now he was paying the price. If she knew him like she thought she did, he would move his piece in that certain place she had her eye on and she would have him right where she wanted him.

Sure enough, a chess piece replaced the empty square where her eyes rested. She kept a cool expression on her face as she saw Brock smile smugly at her.

"Check," he told her triumphantly as he crossed his arms in front of him. Reba gave him a smug smile of her own as she grabbed her queen and knocked Brock's king off the chessboard.

"Checkmate! I win," she announced as she moved to gather the cookies they had been betting with. She dragged them over to her already mounting pile and happily stuck one in her mouth. Meanwhile, Brock's victorious smile had been replaced with a look of astonishment.

"You cheated," he cried out accusingly.

"Did not," Reba responded defensively, her words slightly distorted by the cookie she was eating. "See there? My queen beat the crap outta your king!"

"You're supposed to call out 'check' before you get my king!"

"So what? You had me in check too! I had to get you before you got me!"

"That's not part of the rules, honey. Therefore you cheated!"

"Oh let it go, Brock. You lost….again! Just accept it," Reba told him with a self-satisfied smile. She grabbed another cookie and popped it in to her mouth.

"I did not lose, and those are my cookies! Give 'em here!" He outstretched his hand, but instead of obeying Reba pulled them closer to her.

"No way! These are my cookies! I won them fair and square!"

"Reba, give me the double stuffs," Brock told her, his voice a bit on the threatening side. She picked up another cookie and twirled it with her fingers.

"You really want a cookie, Brock," she asked with a sly smile. He nodded silently. "Well…alright," she consented, but instead of handing it over to him she tossed the cookie with a smooth flick of her wrist. It sailed through the air and hit Brock square in the forehead before he had a chance to avoid it. Reba laughed with incredible delight as she watched him rubbed the injured spot on his forehead, sticking another cookie into her mouth in the process. She expected him to whine a bit more at her, but instead he surprised her by pulling a move she would have never seen coming. He leaped up from his seat at the head of the dining room table and ran over to her end.

As stunned as she was Reba was still quick to the defense, gathering her cookies up quickly in her hands and turning in her chair to keep them away from him.

"Give me those cookies," Brock cried out as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and trying to pry them out of her hands. Reba began to giggle uncontrollably, feeling the tickle of his breath on her neck as he struggled with her.

"No, their mine," she protested as she tried her best to squirm out his hold on her. But it was to no avail. His taller and stronger build easily overpowered her, and all she could do was pull her cookies as close to her as she could and fight the urge to give in to the tickling. After a brief struggle, Brock managed to penetrate her hold on her cookies with a couple of fingers and was about to win when Kyra suddenly walked in the front door.

"What are you guys doing," she asked, giving them both looks of bewilderment. Brock quickly pulled away from Reba and gave his daughter a sheepish smile. Reba tried to assume a look of innocence but all the while laughter danced in her eyes.

"Your mother and I were just playing chess," Brock explained, walking over to his end of the table and resuming his seat. Reba nodded in confirmation.

"Sure you were," Kyra replied doubtfully.

"Honey, your father was just trying to steal my cookies…." Reba began to explain, but Kyra held her hand up.

"I don't hear about it, just be sure to take it upstairs next time." Brock laughed off her comment, but there was a trace of anger in her voice only her mother could detect. Before Reba could say anything further Kyra was on her way to the kitchen. Reba excused herself from Brock's company and quickly followed.

"Kyra, your father and I weren't doing anything…"

"It sure didn't look like anything," Kyra interrupted as she grabbed a yogurt from the refrigerator.

"We were just messing around! It was perfectly innocent! Besides, I have to do all this stuff! He still thinks we're married!"

"Oh yeah, Mom," she scoffed, "I could totally tell that you weren't enjoying that one bit!" Reba shot her a dirty look.

"Kyra stop it," she commanded as she handed her a spoon. "You should know better than to think I would do anything like that." Kyra stared deep into her mother's eyes for a brief second before sighing.

"I know, Mom. I'm sorry," she finally relented, "I just don't want to see you get too attached to this loony world we all have to live in now. It'll only make it more painful when he leaves."

"I know that Kyra, and I promise you I'm not getting attached," Reba assured her. "I'm just playing along, that's all! There's no harm in that!" Kyra gave her a look, but Reba did her best to ignore it. "And I know my boundaries, so everything is fine."

"You better," Kyra warned as she stuck a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth.

"I do," Reba cried defensively. "Besides, he hasn't even tried anything for a while. I told him it was that time of the month, so that'll buy me at least another week."

"Ew, too much info," Kyra cried out as she made a beeline for the living room. Reba rolled her eyes at her daughter's dramatic nature and headed back to the dining room, where she found Brock setting up another game of chess.

"How about a rematch," he asked when he caught sight of her.

"How about bed," she retorted. "I'm exhausted." She made a move to gather up her double-stuffed winnings when she saw something was amiss. After a quick inventory of her cookies, she narrowed her eyes at Brock in suspicion.

"Did you take one of my cookies," she asked accusingly. She watched as his eyes grew wide with faux innocence and he held his hands up defensively.

"I would never do such a thing!" The naïveté dripping from his voice only convinced her further that he was lying.

"Smile for me then," she commanded, taking a few ominous steps towards him. Brock pressed his lips together and shook his head. Reba shrugged her shoulders, pretending to give up.

"Alright fine," she consented, but then assumed a sly smile, "mo-ron."

That did it. Brock's lips parted and he grinned widely, never able to resist finding the way she said that word amusing. Reba obviously knew it too, for she had succeeded in making him smile and caught sight of the cookie residue that stained his teeth.

"Aha," she cried out, "I knew you were lying!"

"I was not," he denied, jumping up from his seat in protest. "I would never, ever steal from my own wi-," but before he finished his sentence, he darted for her end of the table and grabbed a fistful of cookies before Reba had a chance to react. He gave her a quick mischievous smile before making a mad dash towards the stairs.

"Brock," she cried out with surprise, her voice breaking with laughter a bit. She darted after him to retrieve her cookies, but after cornering him in their bedroom and tossing a pillow at his head as a token of revenge, all thoughts of the cookies were abandoned and a pillow fight ensued between the couple. It went on until, exhausted, both flopped onto the bed giggling. They wrapped their arms around one another and that's where they fell asleep.

The next morning, Reba awoke to find Brock's side of the bed empty. She looked over at the clock on her nightstand and was surprised to find that it was approaching ten o'clock; she had overslept more than she realized. Thanking her lucky stars it was a Saturday, she threw back the covers and went to take a quick shower.

About an hour later she was showered, had her make up applied, and her hair straightened but with a bit of a curl at the ends. All that was left was to pick out an outfit for the day. Standing in her closet with a bathrobe wrapped around her, she scanned her rows of blouses, jeans, and dresses for just the perfect outfit.

A skirt would probably be an overkill, she thought as she pulled out one of her favorite skirts, only to replace it a second later. She instead removed a pair of her favorite jeans from its hanger and slipped them on. With half her outfit complete, she scanned the top rack of her closet for a top.

I haven't worn this one in a while, she thought as she pulled out her red beaded cardigan, and it is supposed to be a bit chilly today. She removed her robe and was about to slip it on when her favorite color caught her eye. She set the cardigan aside and fingered a satin turquoise top that she had purchased a couple of weeks ago but never got to wear. She removed it from its hanger and held it up to her, turning slightly to scrutinize herself in her full length mirror behind her closet door. She stared longingly at the cardigan she had originally admired and then turned back to her reflection, contemplating between the two.

Brock always did like me in this color, she thought as she stared at the top in hand, recalling an instance where he commented how great it went with her complexion and hair color. She smiled a bit as she put on the top and admired herself. He'll definitely like this. She smoothed down the blouse and nodded approvingly, but her smile soon faded when she reviewed what she had just thought in her head.

"What am I doing," she reprimanded herself aloud, pulling the top quickly over her head and instead slipped on her original choice. It was silly of her to fish for Brock's approval when they weren't really even married. What did she care what he thought of her appearance?! She smoothed down the cardigan but frowned a bit.

Oh who's gonna know anyway, she reasoned as she quickly pulled the cardigan off and replaced it with the turquoise top. After a quick hair and makeup readjustment, she exited her room and went downstairs in search of her family.

It wasn't until she came to the kitchen that she realized the house was empty. Thoroughly confused, she was on the verge of calling her daughter's house when suddenly she spotted a note on the counter. She picked it up and immediately recognized Brock's lazy scrawl.

Dear Reba,

Van called early and invited me to play a round of golf with him while Cheyenne went baby stuff shopping with Kyra and Elizabeth. I would have told you before I left but I didn't have the heart to wake you. Don't worry about breakfast and lunch, and I'll be back later in the afternoon.

Love, Brock

Oh yeah! And I took Jake with me.

Reba sighed and set the note aside. So much for all the grooming she went through that morning; there wasn't even anyone around to impress! Not that that was my intention, she quickly reminded herself. She sighed once more and rolled her eyes, feeling the slightly eerie stillness of her big empty house close in on her. Why was it that she never got peace and quiet until she didn't want it? How annoying.

Suddenly she felt her stomach complain, and she realized she was hungry. Cooking, however, was the last thing in the world she wanted to do at the moment, so she figured she might as well go out and get her a bite to eat from the deli downtown. It was quite a drive, especially in the morning traffic, but it wasn't like there was anything around there that needed her attention. So she exited the kitchen and gathered her purse, keys, and a couple of CDs she could listen to during the drive to calm her nerves. She was feeling a bit annoyed by the fact that Brock could just leave her like that just to go off and play golf with their son-in-law…especially since he had the gall to tell her not to worry about breakfast or lunch for him. God forbid he would worry about those meals for her! The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she would become.

And this is good, she reasoned as she headed out the front door and locked it behind her. She needed to keep reminding herself about all the things that bugged her about him when they had been married, like all the times he would leave her to take care of the kids while he went to play golf with his buddies. It would help her keep everything in prospective and act as sort of a counterbalance to all the good moments, like their little chess game and pillow fight last night. She had no idea where all that lovey dovey stuff came from, but she knew it had to be dangerous. Being annoyed with Brock was a good little reality check.

Reba unlocked her car and hopped into the front seat. She set her CDs and her purse in the passenger seat and was about to start the car off when a red thing caught her eye. She leaned forward a bit and discovered, to her incredible surprise, a single red rose sitting atop of the dashboard just behind the wheel. Next to it sat a note, which Reba quickly picked up and read.

I'm sorry I had to leave you alone this morning, honey. I promise I'll make it up to you with dinner tonight. I love you.

Brock

A pleasant smile spread across Reba's face as she brought the rose to her nose and took in its scent. She couldn't believe he had done something so sweet; she would have never expected it. He had been known to pull things like this before, such as the time he recreated the first time they had walked on the beach together, but that was early on in their marriage. Towards the end their romance had all but fizzled out. Now there he was again doing something like this. It was a simple gesture, but an incredibly loving one at that. Reba could feel those warm fuzzy feelings she had been getting last night and a couple of instances over the last few days rise up again…and she liked it.

Hours later Reba had returned home and had begun cleaning up around the house just to keep her busy. Rose still in hand, she absentmindedly hummed a merry tune while dusting the furniture and a huge grin adorned her face that she didn't even notice was there. Suddenly the front door burst open and Van came breezing in, his arms raised with triumphant. Brock, Cheyenne, Elizabeth, Kyra and Jake soon followed.

"Say hello to the new golf champion…me," he cried out.

"You beat Brock," Reba asked incredulously as she rose from her kneeling position and threw a questioningly look at Brock. He in turn rolled his eyes.

"Only by a few strokes," he answered, prompting a scoff from his son-in-law.

"Since when is twenty strokes considered just a few," he asked with a smug smile. Brock raised one of his golf clubs in the air threateningly, and Van immediately responded by scooping up daughter in his arms for protection.

"Come on honey! Daddy's hungry," he told the little girl as he quickly scurried to the kitchen. Cheyenne shook her head a bit with amusement and followed her family. Meanwhile, Kyra and Jake flopped down on the couch while Reba sauntered over to the entry way to join Brock's side, holding her rose up before her.

"Got stuck with Jake on your team, huh," she asked him with a sly smile.

"You know it," Brock responded quietly with a laugh. "So I see you found my surprise." Reba nodded and approached him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're such a sweetheart," she told him before leaning forward and giving him a sweet tender kiss. Brock responded happily with a deeper kiss of his own and wrapped his arms around her waist. She could have let this continue for a while, but all of a sudden she heard a poignant clearing of a throat from behind her. She ceased kissing and turned her head slightly to see Kyra and Jake giving her menacing looks, and knew immediately she had to end it. So reluctantly she parted from her husband….or rather ex-husband's arms.

"I think I left something on in the kitchen," Reba told him lamely, and before he could say anything she rushed off to join the Montgomery's.

"Hey Mom, where'd the rose come from," Cheyenne asked when she caught sight of her mother. Reba fingered the rose and smiled a bit as she made her way to the refrigerator.

"Your father gave it to me," she answered as she opened up the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Dad gave you the rose," Cheyenne replied incredulously, obviously as surprised as Reba had been when she found it.

"Yes, he left it on my dashboard in my car this morning."

"Really," Van said in an insinuating tone, "and what did we do to merit this rose, hmm?" Cheyenne's face distorted with disgust as she launched one of the peanuts she had been eating at her husband from her seat at the table.

"Van, gross! You're talking about our parents!" Van smiled even more mischievously and picked up the peanut she had thrown to pop it in his mouth. Meanwhile, Reba gave them both withering looks.

"Stop it, the both of you," she told them. "Nothing happened and I don't know how you kids think anything like that could ever happen. He just wanted to do something sweet for me. That's all."

"Wait, are we still talking about Mr. H.," Van asked with confusion. Reba gave him another dirty look.

"Don't you guys have a house of your own that you could be annoying in?"

"Alright Mom, we get the point," Cheyenne said as she stood up from her seat to leave, her daughter in tote. "Come on Van, let's go hang out in the living room."

"Coming," he cried out fearfully, his eyes never straying from the look his mother-in-law was giving him. He ran around the opposite end of the island to avoid her and sprinted quickly from the kitchen. Reba shook her head at her children's antics and suspicions as she headed over to the table to pick up the mail. She didn't understand what the big deal was. So what if he gave her a rose? So what if she had been the one who initiated their most recent kiss instead of him? He believed they were married and Reba was just doing everything she could to not let him think otherwise. So what? No harm could come from it.

As she sifted through the pile of mail she held in her hands, her eyes suddenly came to rest on the corner of a suspicious looking envelope. It was marked with the seal from the Harris County Courthouse, and it was addressed to Brock. A cold spot appeared in her stomach as she immediately recognized what it must be.

His final divorce papers. Inside that little envelop contained the document that broke Brock's ties to Barbra Jean. He was a free man, which suddenly meant that everything Reba had been feeling just a few minutes ago became twice as dangerous. She wanted to kick herself for allowing herself to get in so deep in the first place.

"What's that your holding, honey," Brock suddenly called out from behind her. Reba let out a yelp of surprise as all the mail she held in her hand went flying everywhere. Her hand flew to her heart and she began to take deep breaths to steady her nerves. Brock, a bit taken aback, stared at her in astonishment and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that," he told her, putting a hand up to his own racing heart. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she assured him, taking in one last deep breath before going to scoop up the mail quickly.

"Where's that letter you were holding? It looked like it was addressed to me," he questioned as he searched for it through the mail he had picked up. Reba spotted it under the counter as soon as he said that and snatched it up before he had the chance.

"Oh it was nothing Brock," she assured him as she made her away around the island to the trash can.

"Are you sure? I thought it said 'courthouse'."

"Nope, it said uh….clearing house! Publisher's Clearing House," she retorted, making a show of looking at the letter and nodding her head as if to confirm. "They say you're already a winner but you know that's a lie." She chuckled nervously but stopped when she saw that she was only giving Brock further reason to be skeptical. "It's junk. I'll just toss it." She made a motion to toss it just to satisfy his suspicions.

"Alright," he replied, his tone still a bit wary. "Thanks honey."

"Uh huh," she responded lamely as she waited for him to exit the kitchen completely. As soon as he did, she sighed with relief and picked up the letter once more.

That was too close, she thought as she fingered the piece of mail. When she looked more closely she saw that the letter had been forwarded from Brock and Barbra Jean's house to over here; Reba only needed one guess by whom.

That blonde buffoon, she thought with annoyance. Apparently Barbra Jean hadn't taken into consideration what could have happened had Brock gotten to the letter before her. What had the woman been thinking?!

What had you been thinking, she reprimanded herself quickly. Before she went off on Barbra Jean for being so absentminded, she knew she had better take a good look at herself and her behavior the past couple of days first. What had started off as just agreeing to play along with this second chance at her old life was turning into all different kinds of emotions, most resembling the feeling of love. She was slowly letting her guard down, something she had promised herself she wouldn't do, and something she couldn't afford to do. She was so upset with herself.

It had to be a sign from Him, she figured. Absentmindedly flirting with Bill, her children's foreboding words, and now the divorce papers, they all had to be signs that she was letting reality slip away from her. She may have ignored the first two warnings, but the divorce papers had to be the last straw. She had to get her head out of the clouds and focus on the task at hand: get through this marriage until Brock got his memory back and then send him on home. That was it. Nothing more.

With a new found resolve, she tucked the letter deep in the back pocket of her jeans and covered it with her blouse before heading over to the living room to be with her family, but she soon discovered that she walked in at exactly the wrong time.

"Hey honey, we were just talking about you," Brock told her as she walked over to his side.

"Nothing bad, I hope," Reba responded.

"No, of course not! We were just discussing we could do for our anniversary."

"What anniversary," she asked ignorantly.

"Our wedding anniversary," he answered with disbelief. "You didn't actually forget that its next Saturday, did you?!"

Oh shoot, she thought inwardly with panic. With all that had gone on in the past few days, it had completely slipped her mind.

"Of course not," she replied instead, giving him an assuring smile. "I was just testing you." Brock smiled distrustfully but let it slide.

"So what do you want to do," he asked. Reba shrugged.

"I don't know. How about we just go out to our favorite restaurant and then catch a movie?"

"You mean like we did a couple of days ago? Come on Reba! I wanna do something special!" Reba tried her best to come up with something but she was drawing a complete blank. The last thing she wanted to do was something too special, it would totally fly in the face of everything she had just promised herself a few seconds ago. She was about to open her mouth to suggest another simple idea, but Van beat her to it.

"Hey, how about you guys have a second wedding ceremony like me and Cheyenne almost did," he suggested dumbly. Reba's eyes widened at the shock of the notion, but to her chagrin Brock's face lit up with excitement.

"That's a great idea," he told him with an appreciative slap on the back. Van smiled, obviously quite pleased with himself.

"Oh Brock, that would be too much to do," Reba argued as gently as she could. "Its not like it's our thirtieth anniversary, it's only our twenty-sixth! What's so special about that?!"

"What are you talking about Reba? Every anniversary is special! Besides, I don't remember doing anything special for our twenty-fifth anniversary. This could make up for it," he pointed out.

We didn't do anything because we were divorced, she wanted to scream out, but she held back. She had to find some other less obvious way to deter him from the idea.

"But what about all the money it's gonna cost, huh?"

"It won't cost that much if we plan smart, Reba. Besides, we can just have a simple ceremony. A cake, a few flowers, the small church down the street, how much can it all cost?! Plus we'll only invite our closest friends and family. It'll be fun!"

"Not as much fun as you think," Reba muttered more to herself as she turned her face away to hide the dread. She quickly searched her brain for some plausible excuse to deny Van's idea but she couldn't come up with any. The fact that Brock's face contained so much excitement at the prospect of the idea wasn't help any either.

"Come on, honey. Cheyenne and I can plan the whole thing. It'll be my anniversary gift to you. What do you say?" Reba plastered a fake smile on her face and turned to face him.

"Well what else can I say but yes," she responded, prompting a huge grin from Brock.

"It's gonna be great Reba, I promise. And we'll keep it as simple as possible," he assured her before giving her a light kiss on the cheek. "I'm gonna go book the church before anyone gets to it."

"Good idea," Reba responded halfheartedly as she watched him sprint out of the living room and to the kitchen. As soon as the coast was clear Reba's fake smile completely disappeared from her features and was replaced by a death stare directed at her son-in-law. She took the letter from out of pocket and proceeded to smack Van upside the head with it. Van yelped with pain and rubbed his injured cranium.

"What was that for," he cried out.

"Why the heck did you go suggesting such a dumb idea like that, you mo-ron," she retorted hotly.

"What's the big deal? All I suggested was that you two renew your vows!"

"The big deal is since Brock's divorce with Barbra Jean is final if we have a second ceremony, our marriage will be legal!"

"So," Van retorted, but slowly (very slowly) realization spread across his face, "Oh…"

"Oh," Reba responded, her tone incredulous. "That's all you have to say, is oh?!" She made a move to smack him again, but Cheyenne stepped in between her and a now cowering Van.

"Alright Mom, just calm down. Van didn't know," she reasoned, but the fire in Reba's eyes didn't go away.

"I can't calm down, Cheyenne! What the heck am I gonna do now?!"

"There's nothing you can do, Mom. He's already all excited and if you say you don't wanna do it, he'll know something is up."

"But we can't just get married! Its creepy," Reba responded, her voice rising in pitch a bit with panic. She seriously didn't know how she was gonna get herself out of this one.

"Well why don't you just go through with it and then get it annulled later? You can say that Dad wasn't in the right state of mind," Cheyenne suggested.

"No Cheyenne, that's horrible! Marriage is a sacred institution; I can't just go through them like a Gabor sister!" Cheyenne chuckled a bit but gave her a stern look.

"Mom you have to do this. Its for the sake of Dad's health. If you don't it could cause him some serious head trauma stuff..." she reasoned while Van nodded dopily in agreement. Reba stared between the two and sighed deeply.

"I guess you guys are right," she relented. "Alright, I'll do it! But keep it as simple as possible! I don't want anyone making a big deal about this or anything."

"You got it, Mom," Cheyenne assured her. "Come on Van, let's go home and start planning."

"Wait, when did I get included in there? I thought you and Mr. H. were gonna plan this thing," he protested.

"Oh just shut up and come on," she snapped back as she grabbed his hand and pulled him up from his seat. With Elizabeth holding her other hand, she began to drag the two out the door.

"Pregnant woman are mean," Van whispered loudly to Reba as he was being pulled away. Reba gave him one last withering look before the family exited the house and left her alone in the living room. She could feel a splitting headache coming on so she made a move to go lie down on the couch, but before she could Brock reentered the scene.

"Well, the church is all confirmed and the minister said he would be more than happy to do the service," he informed her triumphantly.

"Great," Reba replied with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

"So what do you say we take the kids out to an early dinner, huh? I'm getting hungry already."

"Sure, why not," she agreed, again without much enthusiasm.

"Great! I'll go get dressed and tell the kids." He gave her arm a tender pat before heading for the stairs. But before he began his ascent, he turned back to her and smiled.

"By the way, that color looks great on you, honey." She turned her head and gave him a genuinely appreciative smile. He resumed his trek up the stairs and Reba smoothed down her top with a bit of pride. Despite herself, she began to feel her heart grow tender again, but she caught herself quickly and mentally kicked herself. She had to stop slipping up so easily, especially now with a wedding coming up.

A lovey dovey romantic little wedding with the man that left me seven years ago, she thought with the up most apprehension. Next Saturday they would be a legally married couple again, and Reba was finding herself dangerously attracted to him again. She flopped down on the couch and groaned.

"Craaaaaaap!"

Alright, I got a little lazy at the end, but I promised a friend I would have this updated before I left for school so I was kind of in a hurry. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the chapter though and I promise to update again as soon as possible. Gotta run now! Until the next update!