Chapter 54

Opening his hand, he saw that the coin had come up heads! "Its heads!" he announced.

There was a round of cheering, but as he was going to put the coin away so he could put the ring on her finger, Jen stopped him. "I want that quarter back, Harm!" she told him a bit sharply.

"Why? What's so special about this quarter?" Harm asked confused.

"Well…it's a…lucky quarter now…" Jen lied.

Getting suspicious at her obvious lie, he took another look at the coin in his hand. Turning it over he saw that both sides had heads on it! "It was rigged!" he exclaimed.

Grinning at him, she teased, "Well, at least I said 'heads' would be 'yes'…"

"But why go through all this and not just say 'yes'?" he asked, indicating the quarter she was putting back in her pocket.

Shaking her head sadly, she said, "I guess it all goes back to how hurt I was when you and Mac were engaged. I loved you so much I would have given anything to have been in her shoes then and you two were deciding major things with coin flips."

Harriett gently spoke up, "But remember, Jen, if things had turned out differently you wouldn't have had your time with Mike or have the boys."

"That's true," she conceded.

"And I think we're all forgetting something very important here…" AJ interjected. "No matter how she did it, she did say 'yes' to your proposal Harm."

"Yes she did!" he exclaimed, brightening at the reminder. Holding out the ring to her, Harm waited for Jen to give him her hand. When she did, he slid it in place and rose to his feet to take her in his arms. The kiss they shared was tamer than either of them would have liked, but since they were in public, the need for restraint was clear. Jen did get a chance to whisper a promise in his ear before they broke apart that had Harm wanting to leave the party right then.

However, with all their friends present that was not to be. In fact the simple holiday party instead turned into a celebration. Even the teens came up from the basement to find out what all the laughter and cheering was about.

With everyone together it's always a child that will come up with an awkward question. Because Evan had been in the first set of children AJ and Mac had adopted, he'd witnessed the arrival of all the kids that became his brothers and sisters. There was always a question presented to each child, old enough to understand, when they came into the family. They were asked, would they want to keep their own last name or take the Chegwidden name? In his family everyone was now a Chegwidden and he was proud to carry that fine name. Because of that, he wanted to know, "So are Rusty and Buddy going to become Rabbs, or will they stay Robertsez?"

"EVAN!" AJ and Mac were both quick to scold.

But Jen gave his question the serious thought that it should have and said, "I don't really know, Evan. We hadn't talked about that yet. What do you think we should do?"

Glad she was talking to him as if he were an adult, he answered, "Well, Buddy's too young to ask, but Rusty's already in school. You should ask him cuz he'd have to change all that school stuff and learn a new name, even though it starts with the same letter. And so Buddy's not different, you should do the same for him. That's what we did in our family and it worked out great!"

"That's very good advice," Jen told him. "Thank you."

Both AJ and Mac were proud of their son, he had been a bit forward with his question, but had dealt with it in a considerate and thoughtful manner. They had raised him right it seemed.

It was much later than everyone had planned when the party finally broke up, and then there was the problem of getting all the children sorted out and into the proper vehicles to get them home. Bud and Harriett wouldn't have minded them all staying, but with the next day being Christmas morning they were sure each of the children would want to wake in their own beds to see what Santa had brought them. That reminded AJ that he still had to pick up the puppy that Santa was bringing for their kids.

Everyone said their good-byes and promised that they would all get together again soon. Not wanting to leave it with just that and no formal plan. Mac suggested that the next get together be at their new house, a housewarming party. They all said they would be there and the night ended with Merry Christmas wishes for all, and a good night.

THE END