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A hand ht behind her "Are you stealing Francine’s food, Daniel?"

"I offered," the little lady bea a ht too much," she whispered as if they couldn’t hear

Charlie sently, and Sebastian kissed Charlie’s cheek

The Mavericks did kno to pick their women, even if it had taken Evan a couple of tries The dark shadows Sebastian had once carried were gone now too Charlie had banished them forever

Matt suddenly broke up all the conversations with a clink of a fork against his chaentle Ari’s hand in his, Matt raised it to his lips, kissing the backs of her fingers Both of theether, like two shining stars

"I’reed to be ed each other, then group-hugged Matt and Ari

"We’re planning the wedding for the summertime because we’d like to have it in the puppet theater at Noah’s favorite petting zoo in San Jose"

Noah ju room table and threw his arms in the air "Yay! I love the zoo and the puppet theater Daddy and Ari takeparrots, and you can pet the ani his hand and pulling hihed at his enthusiastic awesoood wishes It was so like Ari, Daniel thought, to turn her wedding into an event just as uy, no question about it

"You, young man," Francine said with a poke at his ribs, "are the holdout When are you going to find your special sweetheart?"

"You’re sitting right here"

Though she blushed, she poked hiht now" And it was the truth He enjoyed wolements that came when they inevitably wanted more than he did

His parents were the blueprint Unless he found what they had, he wasn’t interested in anything

"That’s exactly when it happens When you’re not looking"

"Maybe," he said, only to appease her "But I’ll tell you what I’ for" He swiped a piece of chicken froet back up to Lake Tahoe to work on my cabin"

The exterior walls were up, the roof was on, and with a space heater, he could work on the interior until the snow melted and the weather warmed up He couldn’t wait to have a quiet space A place where he could go to think To get away from it all

He loved his fa that was all his oay fro dresses Just the sun and the sky and the lake and the mountains

Francine meant ith all her talk of love They all did

But Daniel hadn’t yet found anything that matched his parents’ love for each other

And he wasn’t sure he ever would