House Swap

She explained the House Swap to surprise Gayle, the extreme unlikeliness of tripping the panic alarm, of Chance watching his uncle's house, of both of them having lost the loves of their lives, and their almost immediate attraction to one another.

"But, Mom...you're like...twenty years older!" she said trying to make sense of this.

"Eighteen, honey," she said knowing it was a distinction without a difference.

"Gayle? Your mom doesn't look...or act like any 50-year old I've ever met. She's so amazing. It's obvious she's very beautiful..."

"Told you!" Drew chimed in without taking a break from coloring.

"Yeah, okay. She is...a freak of nature," Gayle said using her own line.

"She's hot!" Drew said drawing another push from Gayle's foot. "Hey! You made me color outside the lines!"

"I know my mom's beautiful, but still..."

"Age either matters or it doesn't," Chance continued. "To us, it doesn't. At all."

"So...does that mean you are in love—already?" Gayle asked, her eyebrows once again very high in anticipation of an answer she kind of hoped not to hear.

Meredith got up and sat next to Chance and put her arms on his shoulder. "Yes. I'm in love with Chance," she said.

"And I love your mother very much, Gayle. She's right about all of these seeming coincidences. On top of everything else, it was the timing. As I told your mom, even just six months ago, I wouldn't have been open to a relationship with any woman of any age. But as ridiculous as this sounds, it really is like someone was 'up there' pulling strings."

"Gayle? Are you okay?" Meredith asked.

"I...I think I am, Mom. You're obviously very happy and...he is very good-looking," she had to admit.

"I'm sitting right here, Gayle!" Drew said pretending to be offended.

"Oh, be quiet and color your picture," she told him playfully. "Okay, so all of this is new and maybe a little weird, but as you said on the way from the airport, Mom, if you're happy I should be happy for you."

"Are you?" Meredith asked.

Gayle got up and held her arms out. Her mom stood up and hugged her and said, "Thank you, honey."

"I love you so much, Mom. I just want you to be happy."

"I am, sweetie. I really am."

She turned to Chance and offered him a hug, too. "Come on. Give it up," Gayle said. As they hugged she said, "If this gets really serious, you better not ever ask me to call you 'dad'."

This third round of laughter did the trick and the reality of things took over.

People love whom they love. Sometimes, that can be a little hard to understand, but love doesn't work like gravity or some law of nature. It has a mind of its own. It flows where it flows and sometimes people get hit with a tsunami—like Chance who asked Meredith not to go back to Florida. Or like Meredith who agreed to stay and who, just three months later accepted his proposal and put her Orlando home up for sale.

The happy couple married that summer with Gayle serving as her mom's Maid of Honor and Stephanie as the flower girl. Both of them were unbelievably happy together and grateful beyond words for whatever it was that had brought them together that Christmas.

Chance really didn't care at all that Meredith couldn't have more children. And from her perspective, Stephanie was all she needed or ever wanted; the other daughter she never had. And Stephanie now had the loving, caring, replacement mother who loved her with all her heart who also became her best and dearest friend. Well, except for maybe Preston.