Sam knocked on the door of his mom's house and was greeted with tears and smiles before being pulled in. Then he got the surprise.

"Tito! It's so great to see yo-mom is there something you want to tell me?"

She walked over and held the heavy hawaiian's hand and said "Surprise, honey. We've been dating a few weeks."

"Congratulations you guys. I'm so glad you both found someone, who would've thought you'd actually get over your nerves and get together." He walked over and hugged both of them.

"Oh Sammy, I'm so glad you're happy about it. I wasn't sure how you would take it so I didn't tell you sooner. I know you two have always been close so I didn't think you would be ok with us being involved."

"It's ok, we're all adults here now. Might have been weirder when I was younger, but we've all seen the awkward moments between you two. But who made the move on who? Raymundo might owe me 20 bucks."

"I asked her out, little cuz," Tito told him. "There was just a day where I knew I had to take a plunge, same as when you decided you wanted to surf like the rest of the kids."

"What did you say, mom? Yes obviously but how did it go?" He sat down in a chair and his mom and older friend took the love seat together.

"I was more surprised by the forwardness than you were to find out we are dating, to say the least. Once the 'am I dreaming' rush faded I told him I'd love to. Thing have been casual but he treats me so well. We're taking it slowly, we both agreed we're a bit old to rush into anything that might make things strange for you."

They heard an excited knock at the door and Paula answered the door.

"Hi, Ms. Dullard, it's great to see you again. Where's Sammy? Did you tell him? What did he say?"

She heard Tito and Sam start laughing. She ran over and hugged the man who'd been close like flesh and blood her entire life.

"Tito! I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too. All of you little cuzzes are like family to me."

"So what did you say Sammy?" She turned around expecting some permanently stuck face of shock but just saw her normal calm boyfriend still chuckling a little.

"I approved and told them I'm happy for them. Don't forget, when we were all younger talking about them being awkward about each other, I was one of the few who thought they would actually start dating someday."

"Oh yeah, I wonder if Raymundo remembers that he bet Tito would never have the nerve and owes you like 20 for losing" Reggie went and sat in the chair on Sam's lap while Paula and Tito both sat back down.

"Brudda Ray bet against ME? Its like he forgot about the fearless, oh who am I kidding, I was petrified until she said yes. But I couldn't keep going on without trying."

"And I'm so glad he did or we never wouldve broken the ice." Paula gave Tito a small kiss. The younger people didn't let it show but both still felt a bit weird seeing it.

"Anyway, dad and Noelani wanted us to invite you guys over for dinner tonight. Twister is asking the Rodriguez's too but, well you know."

"Oh we'd love to. We'd just planned to go out to dinner but spending some time with everyone will be much more fun," Paula replied.

Everyone got up to go, but Sam held back a bit. "Um, Reggie, can you take my mom over? I kind of want to talk to Tito alone a minute."

"Sure thing Sam." Reggie looked inquisitive but figured whatever it was it was something Sam wanted to say man to man.

Sam and Tito went out the back door to the yard.

"What's on your mind, Sammy?"

"I, um, I just want to thank you for everything while I was growing up. You were kind of like a second dad to me. Raymundo was fun to be around, but you just seemed to get me. You always knew the right thing to say to us kids and what lessons we needed to learn from the adults or when to learn from our mistakes. I know you guys just started dating, but if things do get serious, I would be totally ok if you married my mom."

"That means a lot. Of all the things I did with my life, helping all you kids grow up into good strong people means the most to me."

The two men shared a heartfelt hug and walked around the building to join the ladies up front, Sam recalling Tito once saying one should never keep a lady waiting.