Two weeks passed in a flurry of activity for the Stetson-King family. Lee and Amanda spent their days continuing their work project to get everything cleared away so they could enjoy their vacation worry-free while spending their late afternoons with the boys looking at houses. After what felt like they'd looked at every house on the market, they finally came across one that would suit their needs only three blocks away that the entire family agreed on.

While the boys explored the upper part of the house, Lee and Amanda listened somewhat inattentively on their second tour of the downstairs as the overly exuberant realtor droned on, "As I said it's got five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a finished basement that's been turned into a rec room with a half bath-"

Amanda interrupted the sales pitch by asking, "Excuse me, Miss Barnes, when we spoke on the phone, didn't you also say it's got a finished apartment over the garage?"

The woman smiled, "Yes, I did. Full kitchen, bathroom-"

"That's fine," she cut the woman off again with a wave of her hand. Amanda had had more than had enough of her trying to sell them on every single house they'd looked at and just wanted to be able make a decision without so much pressure on her.

"You're thinking about your mom," Lee commented.

"Lee, it's perfect," Amanda gushed, much to Miss Barnes' delight. "And the boys won't even have to change schools.

"It seems to be," Lee concurred. "But we should still get Phillip and Jamie's thoughts on it."

"Considering that they're already upstairs picking out their rooms, I don't think we'll have a problem talking them into it," she laughed. She then turned to the realtor accusingly. "Why didn't you show us this one first instead of dragging us all over town?"

"Well, this one was only listed yesterday," she explained. "The owner was recently widowed and with her children grown, she decided it was just too big for her alone and moved in with her daughter to help with her grandchildren. Her son-in-law is a Navy man, so isn't home much."

"Boy, does that sound familiar," Amanda commented. She became more convinced than ever that this was the house for them.

"I know that look, Amanda." Lee grinned broadly. "You think this is the house, don't you?"

"Well, don't you?"

Before he had a chance to answer, Phillip and Jamie raced each other down the stairs with cries of, "This place is so cool," and "Can we get this one?"

Their parents laughed and in unison replied, "Sold."

Both boys gave loud whoops of elation and then Phillip challenged his brother, "Race you to the backyard."

"You're on," Jamie replied as the two hurried off again.

"I think your boys are really going to like it here," the realtor said. "Plus, it's got plenty of room if you decide to have more children and-"

"Listen, Miss Barnes," Amanda began sweetly, "You've made your sale. There's no need to keep pushing, but what I would like is if you could give me and my husband a moment alone to discuss things."

She nodded. "Of course. I'll just go get the paperwork out of my car so we can get the offer started."

"Amanda..." Lee drawled her name with an edge of concern in his voice. "Don't you think you were a bit hard on her? She's just trying to do her job."

"Lee, I was perfectly polite."

"Oh, I know...and I know your 'perfectly polite' when you're on the verge of snapping, so instead you kill 'em with kindness."

"Well, she got the message, didn't she?"

"Yes, but why do I get the sense that the message wasn't just directed at her, but me too? I mean, I know you were already irritated with her because it felt like a wild goose chase looking at all these house, but the second she brought up having more children, you chased her off. I can't help thinking that was more about me than her. You said almost the same thing to me when we were talking about having a baby."

"Okay, maybe it was...a little. I'm sorry, but you have to admit you were being a little pushy."

"And I haven't said a word about it since right after I talked to Billy about the whole situation. Hell, I even apologized to you for not really trying to understand your point of view, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did, Sweetheart." She planted a firm kiss on his lips. "I really am sorry. I'm just still a little...I don't know...on edge about all this family stuff. But this..." She did a slow turn as she gestured around the room. "This house is so perfect that I-"

He slipped his arms around her waist and in a hopeful tone, inquired, "So, does this mean you're really thinking about what we talked about? No pressure or anything, but I'm thinking with a place this size, we're going to have extra rooms to fill, especially if your mom ends up moving into the garage apartment. That would leave us two extra bedrooms."

"You're right," she admitted. "And I was thinking about it just like I promised I would..."

"Yeah?" His eyes lit up at the prospect.

"Yes, BUT, I was also thinking that we talked about adopting a child too, so either way, we'll still need at least one extra room and the fifth one could be...I don't know...maybe a guest room so when Aunt Lillian or your uncle come to visit, they'll have a place to stay."

"Good point," he agreed.

"Then you're okay...that I'm still, you know...thinking?"

"Yes," he assured her. "Take all the time you need to think."

"Thank you for understanding." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her for a sweet, lingering kiss.

"Ahem," a voice behind them broke the moment. "I...um...I'm sorry," Miss Barnes sputtered. "I...um...I have your paperwork, but if you need another moment, I-"

Amanda shook her head. "No." She smiled warmly at her husband. "I think we're done talking...for now."

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Following the decision on the house, Amanda made a meticulous list of all the things that would need to be done in the coming months before the sale of their new house closed while Jamie made a smaller list of everything he and his brother would need to pack for their vacation since he knew if Phillip were left to his own devices he would just hurriedly throw things in a suitcase at the last minute and then gripe about whatever he'd forgotten the whole time they were gone.

"Good for you," Lee beamed with pride as he clapped his younger stepson on the shoulder.

"Well, it's not like my bonehead brother will think to do it for himself and I don't feel like having our Christmas ruined when all he wants to do is complain about whatever he didn't think to bring with him."

"Great idea. You're growing up so fast." Too fast, he thought dismally.

When Jamie saw a look of sadness flicker across Lee's face for just a brief moment, he asked, "Hey, Lee, are you okay?"

He smiled brightly at Jamie and replied, "Sure. Fine. Just looking forward to this trip with you guys so we can spend some real time together without the pressures of work or school getting in the way."

"Sure, right," Jamie replied skeptically, shooting his stepfather a 'don't con me' look. "I thought it might be about the whole baby thing again. You know, how you want one and Mom doesn't."

"Jamie..." he began, but paused not really knowing what to say. While he hadn't directly been thinking about that topic, his mind had drifted back to his fear that he'd just missed too much with the boys to really impact their lives.

"Come on, Lee, don't try to snow me. You've been getting that look a lot lately; ever since I asked Mom if she was pregnant."

Lee fidgeted nervously. "What look? There's no look!"

"Lee, don't, okay? I'm not just some dumb kid and you and Mom promised after your big secret came out that you'd never keep stuff from us again."

"You're right, we did. You are just too damn perceptive for your own good," he replied with a chuckle as he affectionately tousled the boy's hair.

Jamie shrugged. "I just notice stuff, sometimes stuff other people don't even think about."

"Yeah, you get that from your mom. She's like that too."

"Look, if you don't wanna' talk about it, I get it. I was just...I don't know...kinda' worried about you."

"I know the feeling, Kid. I worry about you guys all the time too. That's just part of being a family, but listen, I'm really okay. Your mom and I made an agreement; she said she'd think about it and I said I'd give her time to think."

"That's good, right?"

"Right." Lee nodded. "Anyway, I just came up here to see if you needed any help with this stuff since your mom's keeping Phillip busy picking out a few Christmas ornaments to take with us for decorating the tree when we get there."

"Sure," Jamie replied eagerly. "It's not like Phillip will help me without Mom threatening to ground him."

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Amanda cringed as she heard a thump and the distinctive sound of breaking glass when Phillip entered the family room from the garage. "Phillip, please tell me you're not throwing those boxes of ornaments around. Some of them are fragile."

"It was an accident, Mom," Phillip replied sheepishly. "I swear. I was just trying to close the door because I know how much you hate it when we leave doors open and I lost my grip on the boxes."

"Boxes?" She hurried to the family room where Phillip was standing in front of the French doors, three boxes on the floor in front of him. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to remain calm. "Why were you trying to carry three at once?"

"So I didn't have to make a bunch of trips back and forth," he answered as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "But then it kind of backfired when I couldn't see over the top one to close the door and I tried to...to sort of...kick it closed and lost my balance a little and-"

"Okay, okay," she interrupted and gestured to the boxes. "Let's just look through these and see how bad the damage is, but be careful. I don't want you cutting yourself."

"I really am sorry, Mom."

"It's okay. Just next time, set the boxes down first, then close the door. Or maybe don't try to carry so many at once, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

As she began shifting the boxes, she said, "Now, since you had them stacked, chances are good that the bottom one got the worst of it, so let's just start there, okay?"

"Well, actually I didn't drop the whole stack," he explained.

"I thought you said you lost your grip," she replied.

"Sort of. When I lost my balance, I didn't really have a good hold on the top one and it just kinda' slid off the top of the stack. The other two I just set down so they should be okay."

"Well, let's go through it first then so we can get the broken pieces out of the way before we sort them out by what we're taking with us and what we're not."

"Okay," Phillip agreed as he carefully delved into the box in question.

"Be careful," Amanda reiterated.

"I am, Mom," he assured her.

"Good," she nodded as she got to work helping him clear out the undamaged decorations to see where the damaged ones were. Together, they carefully laid aside the intact ones.

"So far, it doesn't look like much got broken except the generic colored ones," he informed her. "You know, the kind that come in a matching set."

"Oh, look at this." Amanda smiled as a wave of nostalgia hit her when she showed one of the ornaments to her son. "It's a good thing this one made it through unscathed. It's irreplaceable. It's a special one your dad had made for you for your first Christmas. We didn't have a lot of money then for decorations, so not nearly as many ornaments as we have now, but just having this one made our first Christmas as a family was worth more than any amount of money could buy."

"Right," Phillip snorted in disbelief. "If you ask me, that's one that could have been busted into a million pieces."

"Phillip!" she scolded.

"I mean it, Mom! I get that it means something to you and maybe it meant something to Dad back then, but where's that kind of feeling from him now?"

"You know your father loves you," she attempted to console him.

"Sure, but he loves his new wife more," he spat bitterly.

"Now, you know that just isn't true," she argued.

"Then why did he have to make me and Jamie choose between them and you guys? If he really cared that much, he coulda' stayed here and taken that trip with Carrie another time."

"Is that why you told him you didn't want to go? You're upset that he got married again?"

"No, I'm mad that the second he did, she took over everything. We just got him back in our lives and now his whole life is about her."

"You're sounding an awful lot like Jamie when he was jealous of all the time I was spending with Lee," she teased him.

"No, Mom, I'm not jealous. I'm just...I'm just mad that no matter what, Dad always chooses something else over us. When he decided to go on that trip, he didn't think once about how it made us feel that we had to choose between you or him or what it would be like for us if we spent our first Christmas ever without our Mom. I could deal with him not being here because I've pretty much gotten used to that, but it was selfish of him to even ask us something like that when you're the one who's always been there when he hasn't. That's why I didn't want to go."

Amanda frowned at Phillip's unhappiness. "Are you sure you want to go on this trip with us then? We can cancel if you really don't want to go."

"No, Mom. I wanna' go. I don't wanna be here and have to keep thinking about Dad not being here as usual, 'cause I still remember what it was like when he did want to be around. I think it's really good that we're getting a new house because then there won't be so many reminders of when he was here, you know?" He nodded to the ornament. "Like that. Let's not take that one on our trip, okay?"

"Yeah. Probably a good idea," she readily agreed and wrapped it back in tissue paper. "But I'll...uh...I'll just set it aside, you know, in case you want it another time."

"Thanks for understanding," he replied gratefully.

She smiled at him. "You're welcome."

They worked in silence for a moment longer gingerly picking through the shards of broken glass until Phillip spoke up in a hesitant voice, "Mom...?"

"Yes, Sweetheart?"

"Do...do you...uh...do you think Lee would be like that if he had a kid of his own?"

"Like what?" She tilted her head and looked at him curiously wondering where he was going with his question.

"Well, like Dad is now. I mean, I know he's been like Dad was when I was a baby, you know, super happy and trying real hard to make us feel like a family. But it seems like he really wants his own kid. If that happened, do you think he'd be like Dad is now, you know, not thinking about us as much, but only about the new person in his life?"

"No, I don't think that at all," Amanda assured her son. "He loves you and Jamie very much and he has worked pretty hard to make sure that you know that. I don't think that would change a bit if he and I had a child together. It would just give him one more person to love." She tapped the boxes. "Now, come on. Let's get this done."