(CHRIS)

Crap. I just spilled the last bottle of formula we had for Bella. She's given up just about every bottle except the first one of the day and the last one at night. And she's pretty much eating all people food at this point, but I guess her Mommy and Daddy just aren't quite ready to give up this last little bit of babyhood. Luckily there is another baby nearby and although he's almost off the bottle too, there should be enough around for me to borrow some powdered formula.

"Guess we're going for a walk, Bella." Of course if I let her actually try and walk it could take until lunchtime so I pick her up and settle her on my hip. It only takes a a minute or two to walkk over to Candy's and into the kitchen.

Standing just inside the door, I look around at the cabinets trying to decide which one is mostly likely to hold what we need. "I think it's this one." I say pointing to the one just to the left of the fridge. "What do you think Bella?" She points to the same one.

Opening the door I see that we were both right. In no time flat, Bella is happily lounging on my lap holding her bottle.

"Are you gonna want to go back to sleep after this?" I murmur to her and just about fall off my chair a second later.

I hear, "Nope, I'm gonna want to play, Daddy."

Jerking my head around and trying to keep Bella in a comfortable position, I see Candy standing in the doorway, Luke on her hip. "Very, very funny.""I thought so. What on earth are you doing up at this hour, Christian. I didn't expect to see you for at least another five hours," she asks as she strolls into the room and sets about fixing Luke a bottle.

"Shows what you know." I sniff. "I'm no stranger to late night or early morning feedings or diaper changes.""That still doesn't tell me why you are in my house feeding Bella?"

"Cause I'm clumsy. I spilled the one bottle we had left and figured Luke wouldn't mind sharing. I'll pop out to the store a little later and stock up for both kids, okay?" I admit. Bella's not really interested in her bottle any more, she's playing with it more than she's actually drinking. Instead her attention is squarely on Candy and Luke. Guess she wonders why there's another person about her size around.

There's no doubt that Bella is loved by Lily, Connor and Katy but there really isn't anyone around back home that is close to her age. Maybe we should find her some playmates. Do they have classes and stuff for one year olds?"Does it seem as strange to you as it does to me to have a son in college and a baby?" Candy asks.

"I guess." I should admit I don't spend much time thinking about it. There are so many other things in my life other people would think weird, that would hardly merit mention.

"Well it seems weird to me. Do you realize all three of my kids are years apart in age? What was I thinking?" She's only joking, I can tell that by the way she's cooing at Luke.

"After the mess we made when were younger who would have guessed that we'd be happily married with kids all these years later?" I ask her.

"Well I know I'm happily married, but are you?" Candy cuts her eyes at me as she settles down on the opposite side of the table, handing Luke his bottle.

She's never been one to pull her punches so I guess today should be no different, but I find her question just grates. When it comes right down to it, what business is it of hers? But then again, it has me wondering what Morgan has told her, I know the two of them have been chatting quite regularly lately. Taking a deep breath, I admit, "We've had some rough spots but we're doing okay."

"Have you two come to an understanding about Mikey? Does Morgan accept that you don't want to be a part of his life?" She asks, then before I can even start to form a reply she asks one more question. " How are you dealing with Craig being gone?"

"Sometimes you sound an awful lot like a reporter. You sure you haven't made a career change lately?" I ask her.

She shakes her head and gives me a pretty smile. "Nope, I love photography way to much to make a change now. But I've had years of practice questioning you, Christian.

"That she has, and there were lots of times when the line of questioning wasn't so polite or restrained. Even now, years later, I'm still ashamed for a lot of the crap I put Candy through when we were together. If there was a model for a bad relationship, my end of ours would be it.

And I'm not all that sure I'm doing that much better of a job with my current marriage. But at least I'm trying this time, I don't think I ever really did with Candy.

"Come on Christian, stop stalling. I really want to know how you are doing?"

"I'm trying to get it right," I say quietly. Bella's twisting in my lap until she's facing me, then she reaches up and pats my cheek with her little hand. "Can't say its perfect but what is, right?"

"Well you've learned that finally at least.""I'm a little slower than the average guy I guess."

"There might still be hope for you yet." Candy says. "Now how about we let these two play together for awhile. You can go back to the cottage and invite the rest of your brood up here for breakfast."

"Are you sure about?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep. Morgan and the kids aren’t a problem, and you are almost housebroken these days...." I stick my tongue out at her, then setting Bella down on the floor, I kiss Candy's cheek and thank her for always giving me another chance.

"What can I say?" she asks. "Guess I've always been a sucker for strays.""And we both know I defined the word stray," I joke.

I step toward the door but just as I'm reaching for the door handle, Candy grabs my hand and gives it a tug."Do me a favor, keep trying Christian. There are a lot of people, including me, pulling for you and Morgan. I wish the two of you would realize how good you are together."

"She's good for me I know that. Not sure I can say same about me being good for her. But I will keep trying. I've grown up enough to know what I have to lose. And what I need to do to keep her."

Candace leans in and kisses my cheek once more, giving my hand a squeeze. "I wish you all the luck in the world, Christian, you deserve to be happy."

As I make my way back to the guest cottage, I can't help thinking what a very special woman Candace Matthews Harris is. With friends like her in my corner, I think my luck just increased monumentally.

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