CHAPTER NINE

Boyd looked around the breakfast table, thinking that their blended family was actually working quite well. Kerry had been surprisingly quick to accept him being around. Scotty grudgingly tolerated him. Claire was an utter sweetheart. And as for Sky…Boyd was constantly reminded of why he'd fallen in love with her in the first place and his only regret was how long it had taken for them to get their acts together.

Sky appeared from the direction of the front door. "We've got mail." She held up four identical looking envelopes, passing one to Boyd and one to Scotty and keeping the other two herself. "I guess I'd better open up Claire's for her."

There was a few seconds silence as the three of them opened the envelopes and read them. "What do they say?"Kerry asked.

Sky took it upon herself to answer."There's a positive DNA match with Boyd and both Scotty and Claire. He's definutely their father."

Boyd lifted Claire up onto his knee and looked around. "Like I said when we first decided to do the test, this doesn't change anything. Not for me, that is."

Scotty gave him a dark look. "I'm not going to call you Dad." He paused before adding,"Not yet anyway." He turned to Sky. "Can I go out and see Simon?"

"Yeah, of course." Sky waited until her son had left and then put an arm round her boyfriend's shoulder. "Well, I think that was progress."

Kerry spoke up. "I know you're not my dad but…you make an okay stepdad."

Boyd gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks, Kez."

"Should we let Dylan know about the results?"Sky wondered.

"Not unless we want another round of angry phone calls from Janelle."

Sky nodded. "Yeah. I think he's like us. He already knew what the results would be."

It had been a long day. They'd been to see Harold and let him know what was going on. Sky suspected he was relieved she was at least going to be with the father of two of her children. The kids had gone to bed. And it was just the two of them left, curled up on the sofa as if it was the most natural thing in the world…which is exactly what it felt like.

"I think you should know,"Boyd whispered in her ear conspiratorially,"I'm probably going to ask you to marry me one day."

Sky turned her head and looked him in the eye. "I think you should know…I might ask you first." She hesitated. "Is that really a good idea though? I mean, we've both been married and haven't been very good at it."

"Maybe we married the wrong people,"Boyd suggested.

A smile played across Sky's face. "Maybe that's it." She took his hand and got to her feet, pulling him with her. "Come on."

Boyd followed her without protest. "Where to?"

"The sooner we go to bed, the sooner we can get up." She looked back at him and smiled. "And the sooner we can live the rest of our lives together."

All opinions welcome!