Here's a Krista & Rizzo that popped into my head one night as I was falling asleep. This one is a couple of years after Caitlin is born…

It was a nice fall afternoon, unusually warm for New England at this time of year, and Krista was strolling around Boston Common with little Caitlin, now 2, and the newest addition to the family, Anthony Maguire Eruzione, who was just three months old. She sat down on a bench in a little park to feed the baby while Caitlin went to play on the swings. She took a bottle out of the diaper bag she carried and lifted Tony from his stroller.

"Krista Collins? Is that you?" a voice called from down the street.

Krista turned to see who it was, but didn't recognize any of the faces walking by on the sidewalk.

"Krista! It is you!" A tall, young-looking man said as he approached her.

"Eric?" Krista asked in amazement, recognizing her old boyfriend from college.

He smiled. "Yeah, it's me." He sat down on the bench beside her and made a move as if to hug her before noticing the baby she was holding, and had to settle for a gentle squeeze of her shoulder. "How have you been?"

"I've been good," she told him smiling, nodding toward little Tony.

"Yours?"

"Mmhmm. This is Tony and my little Caitlin is over on the swings."

Eric looked over at Caitlin. "She's beautiful, Krista…she has your smile."

Krista smiled. "Thanks."

"How funny it is that I should see you here. I was just thinking about you the other day…" Eric mused. "About how much I missed you and how good we were together."

"That's all in the past, Eric," she reminded him gently. "I'm a married woman now."

Eric smiled a little wistfully. "So who's the lucky guy?"

"He's a high school teacher and a hockey coach," she told him, noticing the slightly superior expression forming on his face. "We met in Minnesota, but he's from Winthrop, so we moved when he was offered a job out here."

"And what are you doing for a living these days?"

"I've been working as a substitute teacher for a few years now," she told him.

"A sub? Oh, Krista, you could do so much more than that," Eric replied sadly.

"I like being a sub," she said, bristling a little. "And it gives me the flexibility I need to take care of my family."

"But you were going to go to graduate school…"

"I'm still planning on going to grad school. We just don't have the money for it right now. My children need food and clothing more than I need a master's degree." She frowned and she decided to change the subject. "So what are you doing these days?"

"I'm a stock broker on Wall Street," Eric smiled. "Our firm has an office in Boston, so I travel here on business once or twice a month."

"A stockbroker? Very nice," she commented.

"Yeah, I have a townhouse in Manhattan and a little red BMW to drive around."

She ignored that and continued, "How about family? Have you found that special girl yet?"

"I found her once, but I was stupid and let her get away," he said quietly, brushing a hand across her cheek.

Krista gave him a disapproving look. "Eric, don't." They were quiet for a moment before she asked, "How are your parents? Sill have that cabin out in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota?"

Eric laughed a little. "Yeah, they do. Dad kept asking me for about a year after we broke up when I was going to invite you back."

Krista smiled, remembering the miserable week she'd spent in that cabin. She could easily adapt her more urban ways to the country, but, she used to joke, not to the last century. "Do you talk to them often?"

Eric nodded. "I do. Dad's retired now and he and mom spend most of their time golfing and gardening down in Florida."

His parents had always been like family to her, even after the breakup. "Say 'hi' to them for me the next time you speak to them."

"I will," he told her. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder again. "I should probably get back to the office. Would you mind if I called you sometime when I'm in town?"

"Let's get one thing straight here, first. We are not getting back together…"

"Of course not."

"You are not going to make me feel bad because we broke up. You cheated on me, Eric, remember? You couldn't keep your hands off the sisters of Phi Kappa Delta."

Eric looked down at his shoes for a moment. "I know…"

"And I am a happily married woman with two children."

He looked at her again. "I know. And believe me, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that for you. I just thought that maybe we could have coffee once in a while, like old friends."

"That's all?" she asked, unconvinced.

"That's all."

She nodded after a moment. "All right." She scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper he produced from his briefcase. "Don't call after 8:00 at night, though. That's when we start getting the kids ready for bed."

Eric smiled, envisioning her tucking the little ones in. "Okay. I gotta go…I'll be in town for a couple of more days, so I'll call you." He leaned over and pecked her on the cheek, then rose from the bench and began to walk away. He paused after a few feet and turned around. "Do you ever think about what it would have been like if we'd stayed together?" he asked her.

She looked up at him. "I used to," she said softly. "I loved you, Eric. I would have stayed with you forever."

"You would?"

Krista nodded. "Back then, yes. But not anymore. I have a different life now, and I love my husband."

"But if you'd met us both at the same time, who would you have chosen?"

"I think it's time for you to leave," Krista told him firmly, not wanting to get into it with him again. "I need to take my children back home."

He nodded dejectedly. "Good-bye Krista."

She watched him walk away down the sidewalk for a minute, then gathered the kids' things and called Caitlin over for the walk back to the car.

When they arrived home, Rizzo was home from school, sitting on the living room floor surrounded by note cards.

"Working on the lineup for tomorrow's game?" Krista asked as she walked through the door.

Rizzo put down the cards he was holding and walked over to his wife, picking Caitlin up and kissing Krista softly. "Yeah…just trying to find some new line combinations that might work."

Krista grinned. "Channeling Herbie, again, eh?"

Rizzo laughed. "I guess I am."

"Mommy made a friend at the park today," Caitlin told her father with the impeccable timing of a toddler.

Rizzo looked at Krista. "A friend?"

"I ran into an old friend of mine at the park today," she told him.

"He kissed you!" Caitlin giggled.

"He what?"

Krista looked at her husband, who was not pleased. "He kissed me on the cheek when he left…it was nothing. I'll tell you all about it later, honey, I promise." She ran a hand over his shoulder and kissed him again.

Caitlin squirmed, and Rizzo put her down, kissing her on the top of the head. She ran off into her bedroom to play with her favorite toy—a hockey stick her father had modified to fit her small stature, complete with a little plastic puck.

Krista picked little Tony up out of the stroller and began to walk toward their bedroom where his crib was located.

"Wait a minute," Rizzo said, touching her shoulder. "Can we talk about this 'old friend'?"

"Let's put the little one down first," she said.

Rizzo followed her into the bedroom and stood beside her while she laid their son in the crib. They spent a few moments watching their second child sleep peacefully, but Rizzo didn't put his arm around his wife they way he usually did. Krista sighed.

"Why don't we go out into the living room," he said.

She nodded and let him lead her out to the couch. They sat down, smiling at the sound of Caitlin slapping her puck around her room.

Krista sighed again. "The guy in the park was an old boyfriend of mine," she said quietly, taking his hand again and playing with his wedding ring. "His name is Eric. We were together for a year and a half, and broke up eight or nine months before I even met you."

"This is the guy that cheated on you…" Rizzo replied, vaguely remembering being told the story.

Krista nodded. "Yeah. He's a stockbroker in New York now, and travels to Boston on business sometimes. He was cutting through the park this afternoon when the kids and I were there."

"And?"

"That's it. We talked for a few minutes while Caity played on the swings, he asked if we could have coffee sometime, and he kissed me good-bye on the cheek."

"Did you tell him you were married?" Rizzo asked.

"I wear your ring for a reason, honey," she smiled. "Of course I told him I was married. I said it several times, in fact."

Rizzo relaxed a little and slid an arm around Krista. He trusted her completely, but the old boyfriend he didn't. "He didn't ask you to leave me for him?" he smiled, trying to joke about it.

"Actually, he did hint at it," she replied, frowning. "He asked me who'd I'd have picked if I met you both at the same time."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

"And what did you tell him?"

She laid her head on his shoulder. "I told him to leave."

Rizzo tightened his arm around her and fell silent.

"You want to know, too, don't you?" Krista asked after a while.

"Now I'm thinking about it…and I know how much you cared about him…"

Her expression turned thoughtful. "I loved him back then," she said softly. "But I wouldn't trade what I have with you for anything in the world."

"He could give you all the things I can't…the big house, a nice car, a nanny to help with the kids…"

Krista laughed. "I don't need any of those things," she said. "And he can't give me any of the things you can."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You love me more than he ever could," she told him kissing his shoulder. "You've given me two beautiful children, and no nanny could be as devoted to them as you are."

He smiled, thinking of the kids. "We still live in a tiny little apartment and drive cars that are at least ten years old," he persisted, the smile disappearing.

She reached up and touched his face. "No house or car could ever mean anything to me without you."

"You're happy with the way your life turned out?"

She smiled and kissed him, the long, soft, sweet kiss that they had only ever shared with each other. When she drew back he was smiling.

"I'll take that as a yes," he grinned.

A loud bang came from Caitlin's room, and they could hear her yell "score!"

Krista and Rizzo looked at each other and laughed.

"With a family like this, how could I not be happy?"