After stealthily making his way around to the rear of the house, Lee stopped several strides short of the back door. He subconsciously reached for his carefully concealed lock pick and found himself confronted by a memory of Amanda and the last time he'd attempted to pick this very lock.

The day was bitingly cold and the sheets of freezing rain that were hitting him from behind were making his fingers nearly numb. He muttered a few choice swear words, rubbed his hands together, and then hunched closer to the lock when the door was suddenly opened from the inside startling him.

"Jeez, Amanda, you shouldn't sneak up on a guy," he admonished her.

"Even if I catch the guy breaking into my house," she questioned, with a good natured sparkle in her eyes.

"Hmm, in that case it would depend upon how well you know him," he parried, while still remaining on the doorstep.

"I know him intimately," she replied saucily. In one swift motion, she dragged him inside and planted a long kiss on his freezing lips.

"Wow," he uttered breathlessly, when oxygen deprivation forced an end to their passionate kiss. "If this is the kind of reception I can look forward to I'll do this more often," he said huskily, while pushing dampened wisps of her hair off of her cheek with his thumb.

"Don't even think about it, Buster! What if the boys or Mother had caught you instead of me," she scolded him half-heartedly.

"Good point," he acknowledged contritely, "but what if I really do need to let myself in?"

Noticing that water dripping from his jacket was creating a growing puddle on her floor, he removed it and went to place it on a hook in her laundry room. As soon as he was out of sight, she rushed to a kitchen drawer and pulled out a spare set of house keys. Lee returned to Amanda, who at that point was his brand new fiancée, looking dejected and avoiding eye contact with her.

"Amanda, I know I'm still new to navigating family dynamics and boundaries."

She'd known that he wouldn't have an easy time getting to know her family up close, rather than from a safe distance, but she hadn't expected him to look so lost.

"I, uhh, we need to find a compromise here," he entreated her, as he roughly raked his left hand through his sandy locks. "I don't want to intrude on anyone's privacy but their safety may depend upon my being able to get into the house quickly."

"I think these," dangling the keys in his direction, "will address the issue. I should have given them to you sooner, but I wasn't sure that you were-"

"Ready for that much of a long term commitment to a family that I barely know," he continued when she hesitated to give full voice to her concerns.

This time it was her turn to not be able to maintain eye contact with him. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and began to aggressively blot up the puddle on her floor. He knelt next to her and gently stilled her hands with his larger ones.

"Don't feel bad about having those doubts about me- I wasn't ready until very recently. You can trust me with the keys, and with your families hearts, I won't let any of you down."

Lee was briefly buoyed by the pleasant memory. He reached for his prized house keys, which he rarely had the opportunity to use and made his way to the back door in time to hear raised adolescent voices arguing inside. Hoping that he was ready to wade into the fray on his own, he entered the key into the lock and let himself in. The secret step-father was in time to hear Phillip attempting to sway an unconvinced Jamie to believe that something was very wrong.

Author's note: Thanks for sticking with this story. Comments and constructive criticism are invited.