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The Luckiest
Angie was watching Catherine return a book to the living room bookshelf when one of the spines on a lower shelf caught her eye. "Mommy, what's that book that says Lucky Bag?" Angie pointed to a blue book.
Catherine turned and smiled. "That's my yearbook from the academy. Would you like to see it?"
"Ohh, yes, please." She pointed. "That one says Lucky Bag, too. You have two?
"That one's Daddy's. Every year gets it's own book."
"Can I see them both?" Angie turned and beamed at her father as he and DJ came inside from tossing a baseball in the yard.
"Yearbooks?" Steve smiled as Catherine took both off the shelf and Angie nodded.
"Come and see them with me, DJ."
"Cool," her brother said, putting his mitt and ball down.
"Sit and you guys can look through them," Catherine said and both kids went to the sofa.
Catherine's yearbook was first. The cover held a line drawing of a ship, and Angie sat close to her brother as he opened the cover.
Sitting on either side of the children, Steve and Catherine shared an amused look, ready for the plethora of questions they knew were coming.
Catherine grinned as Angie squealed, "There's you, Mommy!" at the first photo featuring her mother.
"Mommy was in the debate club and the political science club. That's so cool," DJ exclaimed as she pointed at the photos.
A few pages later, pictures of her participating in various sports, attending formal events, and spending time with friends were scattered throughout the activities sections.
"It's Aunt Carrie!" Angie looked between her parents with a grin at the photo of the best friends sharing a meal at Bancroft. "You're eating yummy food together."
"Yummy may be stretching it," Catherine chuckled, "but some of it was pretty good. Especially after a ten hour day."
As they got to her profile page, a photo of Catherine in dress uniform was featured next to several additional ones at various ages, including a shot of her as a weeks old baby in a naval academy onesie.
"Grandpa bought that before I was born," she said with a smile. "A lifetime ago."
"Mommy, you look just like me there." Angie's fingers traced a photo taken when Catherine was about her age.
"I do," Catherine replied, kissing her cheek. "And this is my formal commissioning photo."
Steve looked over DJ's shoulder, his eyes softening as he looked at the picture of Catherine. "You were beautiful then, and you're even more beautiful now."
She reached across the kids and playfully squeezed his arm. "Smooth talker. But I'll take the compliment. Thank you."
"It's absolutely true," he replied and she blew him a kiss.
"There's you on the obstacle course," DJ pointed to his mother holding up both arms in triumph.
"Best course runner in the academy," Steve said. "If you don't believe me, just ask Grandpa."
"Because your grandpa is totally unbiased," she laughed.
When they finished Catherine's book, they switched to Steve's, which featured an aerial view line drawing of the academy next to the year 1999.
DJ eagerly flipped through the pages, his eyes scanning for pictures of his father. Spotting a familiar face he said, "There's Uncle John. And that's Freddy, right, Daddy?"
"Right, buddy," Steve smiled softly at the image of his lost friend. "We were on crew together."
"Here's you and Mommy and Aunt Carrie and Uncle John!" Angie pointed to a photo of the foursome taken after one of Steve's triathlon events. "Did you win a prize?"
He reached over to squeeze Catherine's hand. "I won the best prize. I got to spend time with your mommy after the competition."
"But you weren't her official boyfriend yet, right? Aunt Carrie said it was after the academy," the astute little girl confirmed.
His answer of, "Right, but I loved her for years already, by then," made Angie beam.
"What were your favorite activities at the academy?" DJ asked both parents.
"I really liked the triathlon," Steve said with a grin. "And crew."
"I loved debate club and running," Catherine replied, smiling at the memory. "And the obstacle course."
Angie stopped when they reached the page with Steve's profile. "You look so handsome, Daddy!" She exclaimed at the younger version of her father in his dress blues.
"Thank you, baby girl."
"And that's you as a kid."
Steve's gaze drifted to the image of a young boy, his expression filled with uncertainty. "That's me when I was sixteen."
"You look …different," Angie commented and Catherine could tell their always insightful daughter was picking up on the fact his smile didn't reach his eyes, even if she couldn't articulate why. "You only got two kid pictures, Mommy had lots."
"I didn't have a lot of childhood photos," Steve explained. He'd had no desire to contact his father for any and he'd had very few from when he left the island. "So I just used those two."
Catherine placed a hand on Steve's knee when Angie looked between the image of the sixteen year boy and her daddy, saying, "You look happy now."
Steve met Catherine's eyes. "That's because of you and DJ and Mommy."
DJ leaned into his side, knowing inherently why his father looked tense and sad in the long ago photo. It had been taken when he'd felt lost and alone. He knew his daddy was happy now and that gave him a warm feeling in his heart.
"Love you, Daddy," he said, and Steve bent to kiss his head.
"Love you, buddy. All of you."
"And Cammie and Pumpkin and Luna and Felix, right?" Angie added, lightening the mood and making him laugh.
"And all of them, too," Steve agreed, reaching a hand down to where she sat at his side to ruffle Cammie's fur.
"That obstacle course looked so fun," she said as they turned more pages of the book. "Like the one at the police academy. I wanna try it when I'm bigger."
"Okay, you," Catherine said with a knowing smirk, "let's not get too ahead of ourselves. For now, let's put the yearbooks away and we can go to Kamekona's for dinner."
"Cool! I'm gonna get the garlic shrimp," DJ said. "Hey, do they call the yearbook the Lucky Bag because people are lucky to go to the academy?" He looked between his parents.
"Actually, it was inspired by the lucky bag on British naval ships, a sack that collected the lost items of sailors," Catherine explained. "But I like your reason better."
DJ smiled. "And you and Daddy were lucky you met each other."
Steve smiled at Catherine and nodded. "The luckiest."
# End thanks for reading
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