A/N: Denny and Darya Phillips are also characters in my story 'Summer Of My Russian Sailor' except that in that story they are only eighteen and are just meeting one another for the first time.

June 1998

"Mommy, why is Carly getting married?" asked Rebecca. The family was in the car on the way to the park where's Carly's wedding was to be performed. They had made the two-day journey to Oregon, where Carly was going to marry her long-time boyfriend, Ben Levin. The two of them had been living together for a couple of years and had finally decided that they were ready to make their relationship more permanent.

"Carly and Ben love one another, and sometimes when two people love one another very much, they decide to get married so that everyone else will know that they want to spend the rest of their lives together," Cindy explained.

"Just like you and Daddy?" asked Rebecca.

"That's right!" Cindy smiled.

"Well, here we are," Gary said as he parked the car.

"Why are Ben and Carly getting married under a tent?" Jonathan asked loudly.

"Sh! It's called a chuppah, and it's a Jewish tradition," Gary whispered.

"Dad! Cindy!" Carly exclaimed, embracing first Gary, then Cindy. She was beautiful in her frilly white wedding gown, and with her face shining with happiness, she was positively radiant. Since she had moved to Oregon, Gary and Cindy rarely saw her except on holidays.

"Dad! Cindy!" called a deeper voice, and they turned to see Jake's smiling face. At twenty-one, he was a tall, good-looking man who bore more than a passing resemblance to his father. He was a junior in college in Miami, and he had flown to Oregon for his sister's wedding with his Stern grandparents and his Uncle Phil and his family.

"It's great to see you again, Jake!" Cindy told him. He hugged them both, then said hello to the twins.

"You know Ben's parents, Rose and Bill, and his sister Stephanie," Carly continued. Bill was a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair, spectacles, and a mustache, and Rose was a grandmotherly-looking type with curly bleach-blonde hair and a maternal smile. Stephanie was a tall, slender brunette who looked bored.

"How do you do," Gary and Cindy said to the Levins.

"This is my best friend, Darya Phillips, and her husband Denny." Carly introduced Gary and Cindy to a tall man with dark blonde hair and an obviously pregnant blue-eyed brunette.

"Is very nice to meet you." Darya's smile lit up her whole face.

"Don't tell me, let me guess. You're from Sweden, right?" Gary asked her.

"Not even close." Darya laughed. "Russian Federation."

"Really? My grandmother immigrated from Russia when she was a child," Gary said. "We may be distantly related somehow."

"Maybe." Darya laughed.

"Did you come to the U.S. as an exchange student?" Cindy wanted to know.

"Oh, no," Darya told her. "I come to United States of America when I was eighteen because my father was on vacation here. He came to find his friend from a long time ago. Her name was Alison, and he knew her before he met my mother. He was here for little while, met her, then have to go back. After awhile he met my mother, marry her, they have me. My mother, she got cancer and die. Many years later, my father come back, find Alison again. They fall in love and get married. Denny is Alison's son, I fall in love with him and we get married too, four years ago."

"What a sweet story!" Cindy exclaimed. "It's so romantic!"

"Your kids are so cute! Are they twins?" asked Darya.

"Thank you, and yes, they are," Cindy replied. "This is Rebecca, and this is Jonathan. They just finished kindergarten. When's your baby due?"

"October," Darya said. "It will be the first grandchild for both my father and Denny's mother."

"I come from a family of six, three boys and three girls," Cindy said. "My parents have...let's see...fourteen grandchildren in all."

"Wow, that's a lot!" Denny chuckled. "How do they keep up with all the birthdays?"

"It's a bit of a challenge, I'm sure, but they never forget any of us," Cindy laughed.

It was just about time for the ceremony to begin, so everyone became quiet. As Cindy watched her stepdaughter exchange vows with her groom, she was transported back in time to her own wedding eight years previously. To her it seemed not so terribly long ago, although so much had happened since that day. She looked at Gary and saw that, to her surprise, there were tears in his eyes.

The ceremony was followed by music, dancing, and mounds and mounds of food. Everything looked so delicious that Cindy had to really restrain herself for fear of looking like a pig. She and Gary chatted some more with the Levins and their other guests, and then Rebecca and Jonathan became restless so they drove back to the motel.

"You can't imagine how hard that was for me," Gary told Cindy when they were back at the motel. "I feel as though, in a way, I've lost her."

"But you didn't really lose her," Cindy assured him. "She just grew up, that's all."

"I know," Gary said. "It's just that a part of me wishes that I could keep her with me forever."

"My mom must have felt the same way about me when we got married," Cindy mused.

"I suppose everyone does." Gary sighed. "It just goes with the territory, I guess."

"At least I won't have to worry about it for a long time yet," Cindy observed as she watched the twins chase one another around the motel room.

"I know it sounds selfish, but a part of me wishes that they'd just stay little forever," Gary said.

"If they did, then we'd never get to see them grow up," Cindy pointed out.

"You can always think of just the right thing to say to cheer me up." Gary grinned.

"It's one of my many talents." Cindy laughed.