At 6:30 that evening, the entire Lopez-Fitzgerald and Bennett clans gathered at the Bennett's dining room table. There was much activity, and much chatter, everyone had their own little conversation going, until they started to eat. Then the compliments began to fly, on how wonderful everything was.

"Mrs. Bennett, this is all so wonderful! Thank you so much for doing all of this. And I can smell the tomato soup cake in the kitchen!"

"It smells a lot better than you one you made when you were 10, right Theresa?" Luis couldn't help but bring up Theresa's baking fiasco of years ago.

The entire room began to roar.

"Hey! That's not fair! I tried really hard to make a perfect cake!"

"Yeah, perfect." laughed Miguel. "So perfect, that you put real whole tomatoes in the cake, because Mama didn't have any tomato soup!"

Again the room filled with laughter.

"Theresa, please tell me you didn't!" cried Sheridan.

As everyone in the room was laughing, Theresa looked over at Ethan, who was sitting next to her. He was laughing and smiling, and trying hard not to make eye contact with Theresa.

"Well, the only reason I did it is because Ethan told me it would work!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't know you were really going to try it!"

"Ethan", said Grace, "Theresa would have done anything for you back then. She used to follow you around like a little lost puppy!"

Both Theresa and Ethan began to blush.

"That's true Grace," Sam replied. "Do you remember the time that I took Ethan, Noah, Luis and Miguel on a camping trip, and Theresa was so upset to see us go, that she ran all the way down the street after our station wagon?"

"I was running because I didn't wan to see my brother's go." Theresa said firmly.

"Mija, you were running after Ethan," Pilar said. "I heard you screaming at Sam as the car went down the road. You said, 'Chief Bennett, can't you just leave Ethan here? My brothers can go, but can't Ethan stay and play with me?'"

"All right, you guys are full of it!" Theresa said, with sly grin on her face, because she knew it was true.

"Um, Theresa?" said Kay. "I hate to tell you this, but I was there, and that's exactly what you said!"

"Yeah, you would know, Kay! Because you were screaming the same thing about Miguel! 'Daddy, let Miguel stay! Please? And make sure you don't come back with Ethan or Noah so I can have my own room!'"

Again, the room erupted in laughter. As the laughter died down, Grace got up and started to clear the table. Ethan started to help her, and Theresa followed not far behind.

"See, some things never change!" Sam said.

Theresa turned around and stuck her tongue out at the entire table.

In the kitchen, after all the dished were brought in, Ethan offered to start filling the dishwasher, and Theresa offered to help him. After Grace went back in to the dinning room, they started their job.

"I can't believe everybody remembered the tomato soup cake fiasco!" Theresa said, taking a plate from Ethan and setting it in the dishwasher.

"I can't believe that you remembered I put you up to it!"

"Of course I remembered. But what I can't remember is why you wanted me to do it, and not your mother?"

Ethan turned crimson. Should he tell Theresa the real reason he asked her to make the cake? That at 16 years old, he had developed feelings for his best friend's kid sister, and that they haven't gone away yet? That seeing her again yesterday, grown and mature, and ready to start a new chapter of her life, made his feelings for her grown even stronger?? He had never admitted his feeling for Theresa to anyone, not even his father or Grace.

"Well, I had just come home from my mother's house, and I missed Grace's cooking, so I asked her to make a cake, but she was busy with Dad upstairs painting Kay and Jessica's bedroom."

"Oh! I remember when they got their bedroom painted! It was the most beautiful color of purple! I begged Mama to let me paint my room that color, but she said no. She said there was no need to paint my walls again, when all I was going to do was hang posters up on them." Suddenly Theresa got quiet. If she was 10 when she made the cake,...but she didn't start hanging posters on her wall until she was about 13, then that couldn't have been when Kay's bedroom got re-painted.

From Theresa's silence, Ethan knew that she was doing the math in her head, and soon she would realize that his story was just a cover up.

"Hey Ethan...." Theresa started.

"So, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies tonight?" Ethan said quickly, before Theresa got a chance to finish her sentence.

Theresa was surprised by Ethan's invitation. First lunch, now the movies, she thought to herself.

"What's playing?"

"Well, I don't know if you want to see it or not, but "Spiderman 2" is playing. I have been dying to see it!"

"Oh my God, me too! I loved the first one, Toby McGuire is hot!"

Ethan laughed to himself. "Sorry it's all about Kirsten Dunst for me."

"Then I guess it's a date!" Is it really, she thought? "What time does it start?"

"9:20, and its 7:30 now, so we've got some time. I was trying to ask you today after lunch, but Gwen showed up."

"Ahh yes, the lovely Ms. Hotchkiss. I can see now why you're in no hurry to go out with her again. Although I'm sure she really is a nice person."

"Well, she's not bad. But she's very spoiled. My mother thinks I should find a wife from her social class, that way Julian and Alistair would accept me more."

"You mean they still haven't accepted you?"

"More like tolerate me."

"No offense, Ethan. But I can't see you spending your life with a woman just so that Ivy's husband and father in law will be nice to you. I always imagined that my husband and I would both love each other's family, just like we love our own."

"That reminds of that case I had today."

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I forgot to ask you how your trial went today? Did you win?"

"Yes actually, I did. But it wasn't a great victory for me, personally. I hate representing divorce cases. But the couple's main reason for divorce, was the way their spouses families treated them."

"Yikes! Tell me that wasn't the only reason!"

"No, I think they actually just weren't happy together anymore. It's just sad to see a marriage end. I know that when I get married, it will be forever." As Ethan made his last statement, he looked deep in to Theresa's eyes.

"I feel the same way", Theresa said, getting lost in Ethan's deep blue eyes. When she realized she was staring, she snapped out of it. "But right now, what I'm really feeling, is a piece of Mrs. Bennett's tomato soup cake. Let's make some coffee and go have some!"

Theresa moved quickly, before Ethan had the chance to realize that she was getting caught up in Ethan's eyes.

"Great idea!", Ethan smiled, knowing full well what the dreamy look on Theresa's face meant.