Beach House

He pulled her close then answered.

"About the age difference? No. Because I don't care. As to what I'm getting myself into, there's nothing I'd rather have happen to me."

He pulled back, smiled, then said, "Fair enough?"

"Almost," she replied.

Brock waited for her to say whatever was on her mind, and Michelle said, "You know I have all these...insecurities, and I have like a zillion of them. You seem very confident and decisive, while I'm all insecure and wishy-washy. Oh, and I'm late to almost everything. Aren't you afraid I'll drive you..."

Brock put a finger over her full lips then said, "You do."

"I do?" she asked now thoroughly confused again.

"Uh-huh. You do. You drive me absolutely crazy."

"In a good way or in the bad way?" she asked hopefully.

"Oh, the good way. Definitely the good way."

"Really?" she said sweetly as she looked up into his eyes.

"Uh-huh. Really."

"Crazy enough to want to f..."

There was no way she could say that word. At least not yet.

"Make love to me?" she asked with an even sweeter smile.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said as he scooped her up to carry her to the bedroom.

Michelle shrieked with happiness then said, "Don't hurt your back!" genuinely worried about how much she weighed as though the few extra pounds she still carried would wrench his back or something.

Brock stopped then pretended to pant.

"Yeah. You're...not...kidding," he said as he let his arms quiver as though he could barely hold her up.

"Hey!" Michelle said in pouty protest.

Any doubts she may have had about the way Brock felt were dispelled over the rest of the time she spent at the beach house as he told her over and over how beautiful he thought she was as he loved every inch of her body.

There wasn't a single day after that she didn't get to see her kids or a single night in which she didn't make love with the man she was falling in love with.

And on the final night they spent there together, Brock told her what she'd known for nearly month when he said, "I love you so much."

Her heart sang when he said it, and without the slightest hesitation she told him, "And I love you, too."

He pulled her close and kissed then said, "Michelle, I'm also in love with you. Stone cold in love."

"I hope so," she said sweetly, "because I've been in love with you since the first time we kissed."

"I know," he told her.

"You did not!" she protested.

"Yeah, I kinda did," he informed her. "Because that's when I fell in love with you, too."

She knew him well enough by then to know he was telling the truth.

"So what now?" she asked, knowing 'summer vacation' was over.

"I'm glad you asked," he told her. "I was hoping you might be willing to move in with me even though that would mean the kids would have to changed schools."

Before Michelle could answer, Brock said, "But not a Seattle public school. I'm talking about private school where they'll be safe and make friends and really be able to learn."

Michelle marveled that he knew the concern she was going to voice without her having to say a word.

"I could never afford that," she said somberly.

"I could," he said quietly without any bravado.

He took her pretty face in his hands and said, "Will you? Will you move in with me?"

It had all happened so suddenly and yet Michelle felt like she'd known Brock all her life. And she knew beyond doubt that she was very much in love with him, and that he loved her, and more importantly—her children. She hadn't so much as mentioned him to her ex, but then again, it was really none of his business beyond how it affected their joint custody relationship.

The one thing she knew was that her ex knew she loved their children more than anything on earth, and that she'd never to anything to hurt them. So whether he approved or not didn't matter. All that did was that she wanted the best for their children. And if she could also find happiness, that was what people called a 'win-win'.

Happy beyond her wildest dreams, Michelle smiled at the man she loved and said, "Yes. I'll move in with you."

It was hard to say who was more excited about the move—her or the kids. Her ex wasn't thrilled, but he could tell just by the way she talked about the new man in her life that she was indeed very much in love with him. And unlike him, she'd done things the right way, so even though it all seemed a little too much too soon for his liking, he told her how happy he was for her.

Within a week, Michelle's things were in Brock's home, a gorgeous, 4,000 square foot home in a gated community, and the kids were both enrolled in one of the finest private schools in the city.

Michelle had never cared about money, and still didn't, but when Brock finally shared just how much of it he had with her, it nearly took her breath away.

Three months later, when he proposed to her after a romantic dinner with the her and the kids, she told him she wanted to sign a 'pre-nup.'

"It's your money, Brock, and I need you to know I have no interest in it," she told him that night as they got ready for bed.

"No, it's our money," he told her. "And it's the kids' money. So no pre-nup. I'm in this for life, honey. With you. The woman I love."

Michelle fought off tears as they welled up her eyes.

"How did I ever get so lucky?" she asked he gently dabbed them.

Brock got very serious and said, "Well, let's see. You decided to take your kids to camp where I happened to be the director. And then you rented the same beach house where I was staying, and then Emma found Jake and..."

"Okay. Okay. Just stop talking and kiss me, would you?" she said.

"Is that all you want me to do to you?" he teased.

Her shyness long gone, Michelle told him exactly what she wanted using that word she couldn't bring herself to say at the beach house.

Brock smiled happily and made her wish come true.

One wish after the other came true when she married this gorgeous, younger man the following Spring with dozens of their closest friends and family members in attendance.

Then that summer, when Michelle Nothen was 37, she told her amazing husband that he was going to be a father.

"I already am," he told her with a warm smile. "But I know what you mean, and I couldn't be happier."

That he loved 'her' children as much as he would love theirs moved her to tears.

But of all the wonderful days they'd shared, none even came close to the one on which their baby boy was born. Brock winced the first time Michelle told him she wanted to name their son Nathan.

"Nathan Nothen, huh?" he replied with a smile.

"Is that okay?" she remembered asking.

"Anything you want is okay, sweetheart," he told her. "Nathan it is."

Both Teague and Emma loved having a baby brother, and Michelle loved than Brock insisted the 'S' word be banned from their home. While two of them weren't legally his children, Brock Nothen loved all three of them to the point where that sort of thing never mattered.

And his beautiful wife, Michelle, was also loved like she'd never been love before, and every day of her life she was grateful beyond measure for her decision to take her two older children to camp and live in the beach house where she'd met the most wonderful man she'd ever known.