Fish Tacos

"Well, since we're...friends...I guess not," Beth said having read her blog.

Fallon was blinking back tears as she hugged her friend.

"Yes you are. You've been such a good friend, Beth," she told her as the younger woman handed her a tissue.

"I know," she said playfully. "Now go!"

Fallon hesitated then said, "How long would it take you do something for me?"

Five minutes later the favor was done and Fallon was on her way to the clinic.

She hoped and prayed he wouldn't be upset with her for acting like a teenager in love showing up at work, but Beth was right. She couldn't afford not to go. She had to see him and tell him how wrong she'd been and how much she lo...how she felt about him.

She'd never been to the clinic, but knew exactly where it was as it was just a block or two the other side of the park from her shop. She pulled in just three minutes later and parked her car then took a quick look in the mirror before walking inside.

"Hi! May I help you?" an attractive, younger woman with 'Bonnie' on her name tag asked as soon as she entered.

"Yes. I have a delivery for Doctor Nelson," she said with a smile.

"I...I don't see anything," the receptionist said politely.

"It needs to be delivered in person," she told her.

"Um, I'm sorry, but Doctor Nelson is very busy. I'm afraid you'll need to leave it with me," Fallon was told.

"I...I can't do that," Fallon told her without explanation.

Trying not to sound exasperated, the young woman said, "Unless you have an appointment or something to leave with me, I'm afraid you'll need to leave, ma'am."

There were quite a few people in the waiting room and most of them were now looking at the woman talking to the receptionist.

"No, I'm not leaving. I...I can't leave. I'll wait. Just please let Doctor Nelson know I'm here, okay?"

Fallon saw her pick up the phone and push a button and say something but she couldn't hear a word.

"Just have a seat over there, okay?" she said pleasantly without taking her eye off of the 'crazy lady'.

Thad was just finishing up with a young patient who'd had an earache all night when the nurse told him about the woman waiting to see him.

"Can't she make an appointment?" he asked as he made some notes in the child's online file.

"She says she's not leaving until she sees you," his nurse explained.

He looked at his watch then said, "Can you get started on the next patient in Room 4 while I go see what's going on?"

"Yes, doctor," she told him with a smile.

Recently single, the RN who worked for him had her eye on the handsome, single doctor, and was hoping to find the right time to let him know how she felt.

He finished with the notes then went out to the front.

"Hey, what's going on out here?" he asked Bonnie quietly as his eyes scanned the waiting room.

She was already on her feet and walking his way when the receptionist began answering his question.

"This woman wants to..."

"Fallon?" he said, his voice rising with hopeful anticipation.

She was already tearing up again as she approached the desk. Thad opened the little gate and let her in causing the receptionist to wonder just who this very attractive, older woman might be.

"Thad? I am so, so sorry!" she began. "I was just so upset about my ex-husband and his rules, and I took it out on you and..."

"Slow down," he said. "I don't understand any of this."

She was holding something and then held it up and started pinning it his lab coat.

"It's just a boutonnière, but it's all I could come up with on such short notice. I got the flowers and..."

"And the note?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes," she said as her hands trembled while she pinned it on him.

"So...you're not mad at me?" he asked.

"Mad at you? No. Heavens, no," she told him.

Her eyes were darting back and forth looking into his.

"How could I be mad when...when I'm falling in love with you?" she said risking rejection in front of total strangers.

"Did you just say you're falling in love with me?" he asked for clarification.

"Yes. I did say that and I meant it. And...I'm scared to death," she told him, her courage wavering as she was sure he'd shake his head in disbelief and tell her they needed to talk.

Instead, he set down everything he'd been holding and put his hands on her shoulders and said, "I love you, Fallon."

Tears of joy streamed down her face as he kissed right there in his office.The mothers who were watching covered their mouths in disbelief before one of them said, "Ahhh!"

"What changed your mind?" Thad asked her without letting go of her.

"Can I tell you about it tonight?" she asked not wanting to take any more of his time.

"I'd like that," he told her. "My place again?"

"I'd like that," she said sweetly. "Same time?"

"Sure. Sounds good," he told her. He gently brushed back her hair and said, "And...I do love you."

"And I love you, too," she said quietly. She wanted him to kiss her again so badly it hurt, but she didn't want him thinking she was crazier than he probably already did.

When she left, the receptionist was sitting there slack jawed trying to make sense of what she'd just seen. Since it made no sense to her she waited until Dr. Nelson went back inside then realized both lines were ringing and that the handsome doctor was off the market.

That evening, Sophie was thrilled after her father told her Fallon was coming back for dinner again.

"And you were right," her father told her. "I took your advice and it worked."

Sophie hugged him tight then said, "I'm going to wait for Miss Fallon!"

An hour later Sophie hollered, "She's here!" as she jumped up, flung the door open, and ran out to meet her.

"Miss Fallon!" she called out as Fallon got out of her car.

"Sophie! Hi, sweetheart!" she said as she bent down to hug her.

"I knew you'd come back!"

Fallon tried not to cry as she held her, but it was no use.

Thad came out and walked down the steps of the front porch and saw them holding each other and had to fight back tears of his own. He managed to do and muster up a smile as he waited for Fallon to look up.

Fallon opened her eyes and saw him and turned away immediately.

"Oh, my gosh! My eyes are a mess!" she said as she reached for her purse.

Thad gently took her arm and said, "You look beautiful."

Unashamed, she turned toward him with mascara streaks running down her face.

"Can you ever forgive me?" she asked, her eyes filled with desperation.

"Hey, it was just a disagreement on one little issue. There's nothing to apologize for," he told her.

"I...I almost threw it all away," she said as the tears continued to fall. "I was so upset I never wanted to see you again until..."

She tried to dry her eyes then said, "Until I realized I was angry at myself and for the way my marriage ended and..."

Thad pulled her close and held her tight.

"It's over," he told her as she smoother her hair. "You're here now. With me. And I love you."

He puled back, smiled, then told her, "Come on. Let's go inside."

Thad took her left hand as Sophie grabbed her right as Fallon walked back into the house happier than she'd ever been.

Thad asked her to stay with him that night and once she was sure he really wanted her to, she happily agreed. Sophie was long since fast asleep when she and her father made love for the first time and said told each other several more times how they felt.

Fallon left around 5am but not before they made love again and agreed to meet for lunch at the park where they'd first met.

"The fish tacos on are me," he told her before kissing her goodbye.

"Thank God for fish tacos, huh?" she said sweetly when the kiss ended.

"Yes, indeed. But only if both of us are eating them," he told her very seriously.

"You nut!" she said with the happiest smile.

"Yes, but I'm your nut," he said just as seriously.

Fallon had never been so sure of anything in her life than she was that she loved this man. They had lunch that day then he and Sophie came over for dinner that evening and met Stone, who was every bit the kind of young man his mother had claimed.

There were a few awkward moments when Thad told him how old he was, but Stone could tell his mother was in love with this younger man and let them know that's all that mattered.

Two days before Stone left for college, Thad asked Fallon to marry him, and she cried tears of joy again as she told him, "Yes! A thousand times 'yes'!"

The only other reservation Fallon had had was her need to certain Thad didn't want more children. She couldn't give them to him, and he made it absolutely clear that Sophie was more than he could have ever wished for.

"Except for being able to share her with you, sweetheart," he told her.

"Thad? Do you think Sarah would approve of me?" she'd asked with great concern.

"I know she would, honey. All she wanted was for me to be happy and to find someone who would love Sophie as much as she did. And I found her."

"And I do love her, honey. I truly do. And I'll show her...and you...how much I love you both every day of my life."

Sophie was thrilled beyond words to be her new stepmom's maid of honor as the two of them had become best friends and were as close as any mother-daughter could ever be.

All of them knew she would never be Sarah, but no one expected her to be. Fallon was the very unlikely and very unexpected third love of Thad Nelson's life, and she, as well as he, was grateful beyond words to be a 'third-place' finisher which put her in squarely in the winner's circle.

Thad shuddered to think how things might have turned out as he looked over at his beautiful wife and daughter who were sitting on the couch watching a romantic comedy unaware he was watching them with tears in his eyes amazed that he'd found true love not once but twice.

He smiled when he thought, "If not for fish tacos..."