The four of us loaded into the car, headed to an all-night pancake house just up the road. The girls exchanged knowing glances, giggling all the way from the lobby to the car.

I questioned the sanity of drinking coffee at 10 o'clock at night, so we opted for hot chocolate instead. The pastries that came with it were not as sweet as the little redhead sitting next to me. I looked at Alan. "This is a new one for us. Cindy has never asked for a late-night snack."

Cindy giggled. "Not one that we had to leave the building for." Big grin. "But this is kind of a special occasion. It's like I found a new sister that I didn't know I had." Her eyes gauged the three of us. "And we found out that she's married to Dan's best friend."

"That's how I feel," Tina said. "Cindy and I are not gonna let this drop. You guys should have kept in touch."

Alan spoke. "Yeah, I know. But you know, guys are like that. And if Dan and I had been in each other's back pocket, we might've missed you two. It's almost like it was meant to happen this way. Dan and I get to work on a job together, become good friends, split ways, find the loves of our lives, and then our paths cross again. If we weren't sitting here at this table at 10 o'clock at night talking about this, I'd think it sounds like fiction."

"I have to agree with that," I said. I laughed. "If we've been working on the same job, we would probably be out running the roads. I don't know, maybe things would've been a lot different, but I certainly don't think they could be any better." I looked at Cindy. "Cindy came along at a time when we needed each other. I didn't know I needed anybody. But then Cindy popped up. I found out that sometimes you need things that you don't even know about. Like cute redheaded girls."

Cindy smiled. "I needed somebody. I needed a friend. I didn't know what a friend would look like. I mean at school, I was kind of on the outside. A lot of kids didn't associate with me because they knew what my mother was. And even in Alabama, living in an RV park sets you off as different. And people knew that I'd been living in an RV park for years."

Tina reached across the table and patted Cindy's hand. "I know some of the stuff you're talking about, you know, the mama thing. I had it good as long as I was staying with Grandma. But when she died, my life went downhill fast. It's like it caved in on me." She sighed. "When we loaded up to evacuate from the hurricane, I honestly didn't think I'd get back home alive. Mom's boyfriend was crazy. Not to mention that some of her friends were already making comments like they wanted to do things with me that I didn't want to have done."

Alan said, "See, that's another example. If Dan and I had been working on the same job, I would'nt've been driving up the road that day." He paused. "I mean, I'd been fighting traffic for three hours, and I stopped for breakfast, and all that crap broke loose. I figured it was just what I needed to end an otherwise horrible day. And look how it ended up. It's funny how life twists around. Sometimes tragedies are just doors opening for some really good things."

Cindy slid tight up against me in the booth. She turned half sideways, wrapped both arms around my bicep, put her chin on my shoulder, and smiled. "Best possible outcome," she smiled. "I know my life has been fantastic. It's been some kind of funny fairytale with a funny looking little castle on wheels."

Tina said, "Tell Alan about your college stuff."

Cindy smiled. "No, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging."

Tina laughed. "It's not bragging, Cindy. I think it's neat. Tell him. I know you're not bragging."

"Okay," Cindy said. "Right now I have gifted scholarships. I interviewed with the deans of two engineering colleges in Alabama. I'm still trying to figure out which way to go."

Alan smiled. Actually he laughed. He looked at me and said, "Engineering? Electrical engineering? "Engineer's Apprentice" thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, Alan," Cindy said, "the first time I saw Dan in his element, I knew what I wanted to do. Since then, every time I visit the project, it reinforces what my first thought was. I want to be an engineer like Dan."

I shook my head. "That's not the worst of it, guys. She's had letters of interest from a lot of schools. We even had conversations about MIT and Stanford."

"But I kind of want us to stay in Alabama," Cindy said. "Dan and I talked, and we figured that it would be a lot easier for him to work down here. And The University of Alabama or Auburn, they both have great schools of engineering, and graduating from either one of those would be just fine."

Tina smiled. "That's funny, Alan and I have been talking about my college. I used to think about college when I lived with Grandma, but when I moved in with Mom I gave up on any dreams of college. The first thing Alan talked about was getting me through high school. Since he found out how well I was doing in high school, we been talking about college. Up until I met him, I had no idea about a major. Guess what. I have an idea now."

Alan laughed. "See, Dan. You're not the only one that could delude a young lady."

I looked at Cindy then Tina. "Tina is an honor student too?" I looked at Tina. "How's your math, Tina?"

Tina grinned. "AP classes, Dan. Straight A's."

"That'll do just fine, then," I said. "I think math's the hardest part."

"I don't think she'll have a problem with any of it," Alan said.

Cindy's the one who dropped the bombshell. "Why don't y'all move to Alabama." Her biggest brightest grin. "We could go to school together. I think that would be an absolutely wonderful thing."

Alan and I looked at each other in amazement. "You know," he said, "there just might be something to that."

I looked at Cindy. "Sometimes you amaze me." I paused. "No, make that 'you amaze me just about every day', little girl."

Sometimes it was fun to watch her when she had a little bit of encouragement. She started, "I mean, come on guys, doesn't that really make sense?" She glanced around the table. "I mean, you two, maybe you can work something out as far as where you work and what you do." She looked at me. "Dan, you were talking to that new powerhouse bunch. That's always an option. You talked about the money and you said that that would keep you in the area. But maybe there's a way that you can keep doing the "let's get that 'Dan' guy," thing. I know you can make more money doing that, but you wanted to be around while I was in college. But if we had our own little community..."

Alan looked at her. He looked at Tina. He looked at me. "Maybe she's on to something."

Tina smiled. "That's my little sister!" Giggle.

"Well," I said, "it's something to think about. And we don't need to make a decision tonight."

"Yeah," Cindy giggled. "We can sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow!" Another giggle. "No, seriously. I was just thinking and I thought I would put it on the table."

Alan looked serious. "No, Cindy. I think it's an interesting idea. Like you said though, we can sleep on it, we can go home with it, we can think about it, and we can talk some more. Dan and I need to toss some ideas around for the business angle and see if we can come up with a model that makes sense."

I laughed. "There you go talking like an MBA. When you start tossing words like 'model' around, I start getting nervous."

Alan countered. "You know exactly what I mean," he said.

"Okay," I said. "Let's think about it."

I looked at Cindy and she had that "you know I'm right" smirk. Tina was smiling, too.

The next half hour's conversation was about the upcoming concert and some of the concerts we'd listened to in the last few months.

Tina was telling us about some of the bluegrass concerts that she and Alan had been to. She smiled at Cindy. "Of course that's not the same thing as standing up on the stage." She playfully elbowed Alan. "Don't you wish you could play a musical instrument?"

"I do, baby," he said. "Actually I play several."

She looked at him quizzically.

He had an evil grin. "Yeah, CDs, iPod, and a bunch of ancient instruments, Dan knows about 'em, things like cassette tapes and vinyl records."

Cindy giggled. Poor Alan got another jab in the ribs. I laughed.

Alan and I got into another minor altercation over who paid tonight's ticket. I gave up this time. We paid and we all piled into the car to go back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, we agreed to meet for lunch the next day. Alan and Tina headed up the hall to their room, and Cindy and I hit the elevator.

When the doors closed, Cindy squealed and jumped into my arms. I love it when she does that. Her bright young face melts my heart. She could tell me to jump off the roof with that smile, and I'd get a running start.

"Baby, I didn't mean to put you on the spot." Her eyes were twinkling. "But sometimes I get an idea, and I just kind of blurt it out."

"Oh, sweetie, you didn't put me on the spot. You came up with a good idea. And you put it in front of the people that need to discuss it." The elevator doors opened. We walked up the hall and into our room. I locked the door behind me.

She started undressing, smiling. "You know how," she grinned, "you're all relaxed after sex, and it's so easy to go to sleep, and you sleep so good?"

I couldn't help but smile. "And where exactly is this leading?" I grinned.

She flashed those green eyes at me with a mischievous smirk. "Well, just maybe a little bitty one for each of us, you know, so we'll sleep good."

We slept VERY good. The next morning, we lounged in bed, cuddling, playing, until about nine. We got up and dressed casually and went downstairs. The hotel had a continental breakfast set up. We had a couple of pastries and a couple of cups of coffee. Then we got the car and drove around town, following a traveler's guide and seeing sights.

Nearing 11, we were in the vicinity of the hotel again. "Why don't you give your sister call?" I said, smiling at Cindy.

She giggled. "It IS kind of like that, baby. I mean, she and I have so much in common. Don'tcha think that, since you and Alan have so much in common, that you'd both be attracted to the same kind of people?"

"Yeah," I said. "You're both girls." I laughed.

"You know exactly what I mean. She's even got red hair!"

"No, sweetie, she's got auburn hair, you've got red hair."

"And she's an honor student."

"Yeah, well, some of us guys go for the bright girls. I always said that after the sex and after your buddies have seen what you brought home, you've got an awful lot of hours where you have to talk to the person."

She looked at me smiling. "Now isn't that rather clinical," she said.

"Yes and that's quite a statement, and from Little Ms. Analytical. But it's the truth. You have any idea how many marriages fall apart because two people can't sit in a room and carry on a conversation?"

"You're probably right, when you think about it. Remember when we first got together? And I told you it wasn't just sex for me? And then I felt like you wanted me for something besides sex?"

"Uh-huh," I said. "And I meant it. That was one of the first things I noticed about you. When you and me would sit by the pool and we'd talk. You didn't sound like a 13-year-old girl. You had ideas and opinions and you stated them well. I didn't know what to make of you."

"Dan, I think that was the first thing that attracted me to you. You didn't treat me like a kid. You did not act like I was bothering you. And we actually talked about things, you know, questions and answers. And it wasn't just me doing the questions and you doing the answers."

"I know," I said, "and that's why I was happy to be your friend and to be your tutor. I could see you were smart and I could see that you are interested otherwise you would'nt've asked. And then, as things went along, it was like I planted a seed, and this wonderful little flower blossomed."

She smiled, reaching across the console, patting my forearm. "You'll never know how much I love you," she said. She pulled out her cell phone, flipped it open, and punched a button. She held it to her ear. "Hi, sis! What are y'all doing?" Pause. "We're a couple of blocks from the hotel and its getting to be lunch time." Pause. "Okay! We'll meet you in the lobby in five minutes."

"Sounds like a plan," I said. "Maybe a light lunch? The concert starts at seven so we can do some place nice for dinner in the vicinity of the concert hall and have plenty of time to get there. We've got reserved seats, so we don't need to get there too early."

"But I certainly don't want to get there late," she said.

"We're not going to be late, baby," I said. "I've been wanting to hear the Brandenberg #3 performed live all my life."

"Me too," she said, beaming. " And a year ago I didn't even know what Brandenberg #3 was. You're the one responsible for creating THIS monster, you know."

We pulled into the hotel parking lot, parked, and walked in holding hands. Yes, heads turned. Trouble was, I didn't know if it was her University of Alabama sweatshirt, or if it's because she was a stunning little redhead with green eyes, and she walked in, an obvious teenager, holding hands with a middle-aged guy.

When we got inside, we didn't see Alan and Tina, so we sat on a sofa in the lobby. An older gentleman walked by, saw Cindy's sweatshirt, and stopped. "Don't see too many people wearing that shirt around here," he said and laughed.

"I'm really FROM Alabama. We're in town for the concert," Cindy grinned.

The guy looked at me.

"Don't look at me, I'm from Louisiana," I said.

"What concert?" He asked.

"There's an orchestra from Europe that's touring the U.S.," Cindy chirped. "We're here to listen to Bach concertos."

The guy laughed. "Well, welcome to North Carolina, even if you do have the wrong shirt on. I hope y'all enjoy your concert."

Cindy handled herself well. "Why, thank you, sir," she said, flashing a winning smile, her emerald eyes glittering.

Alan and Tina walked up in the middle of this conversation. Alan said, "What'd you do? Get caught wearing enemy colors?"

Cindy laughed. "Apparently some people attach more significance to the color of the sweatshirt than the fact that it's warm."

"Oh, yeah," Alan said. "It's even worse during football season. A guy wearing the wrong shirt can get the crap beat out of."

I added, "Of course, they'll probably exempt cute little redheads."

Alan asked, "So where are we going to have lunch?"

Tina looked at Cindy. "Did y'all talk about doing something light? For lunch?"

"Uh-huh," Cindy said. "We thought we'd put more effort into dinner before the concert. And then after the concert, like we did last night."

Tina looked at Alan. "See! We think alike! Sisters!"

Cindy stood beside Tina, bending one leg and cocking her hip, the two of them striking a pose.

"That reminds me," said Alan. "We need to get a camera and take some pictures of this group."

"You're absolutely right," I said. "I know old Bill Carmody would love to see them. He's not going to believe that you and I ran into each other, and he's really gonna flip out when he sees you and Tina."

"I can just imagine," said Alan, " what'd he think about you and Cindy getting married?"

"You know," I said, "him and the rest of the guys at work already knew Cindy. I brought her the job by herself, I brought her with her science class, and then I brought her to the job by herself several more times. They knew her. It wasn't me that started calling her the Engineers Apprentice. That was Bill and a couple of the other engineers. You know, when we got married, I lost sleep worrying that I'd ruined the relationship I had with those guys, but even worse, I worried about Cindy and how the guys would treat her."

"I worried, too," Cindy said. "I mean, Mister Bill treated me like a granddaughter, and the other guys treated me like a little sister."

"They used to see us having breakfast together several times a week." I continued, "but after we got married, I walked into the office with a wedding ring on my hand. I wasn't going to say anything until somebody asked. It didn't take long for somebody to ask. And I came right out and told 'em. That was in the Monday morning staff meeting. Bill looked kind of surprised, but he looked at me and said, "Well, good! Stranger things have happened. Cindy's a bright, smart kid. If she wants to put up with you, then I know you'll take care of her. Or you'll come up missing and we'll save five bucks worth of concrete." And he laughed. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the crew."

"I think the guy that took it the hardest," Cindy said, "was my guidance counselor, Mister Jim. Me and Dan go to their house for dinner all the time. Even before we were married. They're the ones we sing bluegrass with. But I think me getting married shook him up."

I said, "Apparently, he saw Cindy's wedding band and asked about it."

Cindy nodded her head. "I could tell it kind of disturbed him."

"When he called me," I said, "he sounded stressed. I told him that I valued his friendship and that I could understand how me and Cindy being married might be a disturbing thing on one level. You know, his wife came to my rescue. She's a music teacher, and she pointed out that they had several pregnant middle schoolers, and that none of those were going to be married, and that Cindy was married and WASN'T pregnant."

Cindy giggled. "An' she asked Mister Jim when he'd ever seen Dan without me right there with them. Ms. Ann said we made a cute couple."

"Alan, I sweated that one. Jim Hardesty is like my best friend over there. He did a lot of things for Cindy that I think are above and beyond the norm. And I didn't want him thinking bad of her because she married me."

Alan said, "Tina and I got a few strange looks at her school's open house. We run into a few thorns every now and then, but I guess seventeen is a little easier to swallow to most folks."

"Dan got nailed by her librarian," Cindy giggled.

"Sure! You laugh now, but at the time it wasn't that pleasant." I continued, "the librarian had cast her religious angle on things. I was going to hell as a child molester. I did my best to set things straight. I don't know if I did any good, though..."

"You did good," Cindy said. "She stop treating me like a cross between the devil's spawn and a poor little abused child."

"Wow!" Tina said. "I mean, I got a lot of questions, mostly from the kids at school, but more than one faculty member sort of pulled me to the side and asked if I was in trouble. Sometimes it was hard not to laugh, I mean, they were sincere in trying to help."

Alan glanced at his watch. "Hey, why don't we keep talking while were driving?"

Tina said, "okay." She looked at Cindy, then me. "D' you guys have a problem with Applebee's?"

"No," I said. "They have stuff on the menu that's just light enough for what we want today."

"Dan's never taken me to an Applebee's," Cindy said. "So this'll be the first one."

"So, Dan, what kind of places do you take this lady to eat at?" Alan asked.

"Oh," I said, "in the immediate vicinity of the RV park, things are kind limited. We practically have a table with our name on it at a catfish house. And when we walk into the café for breakfast, the whole staff knows us. But when we're out of the area for the weekend, we try little bit of everything."

Cindy smiled. "First time I ever had Chinese, was with Dan. Lots of other ethnic restaurants, too. The way I figure it," she said, "I'm too cute for them to poison."

"That's a good one!" Tina said. "Alan's kind of adventurous when it comes to food, too."

As we got in the car, Alan said, "Ain't nothing adventurous about an Applebee's."

The destination was barely a mile away from the hotel. We pulled in just in time for the lunchtime rush, but it was Saturday. Wasn't too crowded. We got another booth, Cindy and I sitting side-by-side on our side and Alan and Tina on the other. We ordered our drinks, declined appetizers, and ordered entrées. While we waited for our food we continued talking.

"Alan, maybe I'm being nosy, but what about your daughter?" I asked.

Tina smiled. "Oh, Dan, we had her with us for the Christmas holidays. Terri flew in. We met her at the airport. She and I hit it off real well. I was worried about that. You know, the whole thing, little girls and their daddies, and I guess that I saw too many TV shows about evil stepmothers, or even worse, resentful stepchildren. So I was worried."

"Me, too," Alan admitted. "That's one of the bad things about being a part-time dad: you don't get to keep very good track of how your child's personality is developing. I mean, I get Terri for a few weeks in the summer and for either the Christmas or the Thanksgiving holiday. The last couple of those efforts, it was just me and Terri. I wish I could say it was pleasant, but how do I take care of a seven year old girl? We got through it, but basically it boiled down to me doing whatever she wanted. All I could do was make suggestions. I can't think like a little girl." Alan sighed. "I worried about how she would accept Tina. I shouldn't have. I think she was happier to see Tina than she was to see me. The only difference though, is that instead of doing whatever one seven-year-old girl wanted, now I have to do what a seven-year-old and a seventeen-year-old can figure out between themselves." He laughed.

"We're still having ex-wife problems, though," Tina said.

"To lapse into a colloquialism," Alan said, "Da bitch be crazy."

Cindy giggled. Tina gasped. "Baby! That's rude!" But her eyes twinkled. "And I concur with your assessment."

"It's that whole ' blended family' thing," I said. "I hope things work out good for Terri." I expected Alan to say something to that but Tina spoke up first.

She had a wistful look in her eyes. "I wish there was some way that we could be a bigger part of her life. I really had a lot of fun with her, but more than fun. It's kind of like she'd push until she found out what the rules were, then she tried to push the rule, and she waited for me to push back. She's a smart kid and she's got a lot of energy and it needs to be directed. I wish there was a way..."

I looked at Alan. His eyes connected with mine. "Yeah, I think Tina is right. I just don't see a way that we can do much more unless her mom agrees to it. And I revert to my former statement."

"That's a problem that Cindy and I don't have. Of course, she's gonna put up with a bunch of weirdos that she's related to by marriage now."

Cindy smiled. "Oh, it's not nearly as bad as he makes it out to be. Me an' his sister gang up on him. It's funny. If you look up ' good ol' boy' in the dictionary, there's a picture my brother-in-law. What's funny, though, is that Dan's nieces and nephews are all older than me. I think it's funny." It was Cindy's turn to look wistful. "You know, that's another thing that Dan has given to me. I mean, living with Mom, I very seldom saw any relatives. We never had the kind of relationship that Dan has with his brother and sister and their families. You know, people just get together, laughing, socializing, having a good time. It's like I changed over to a parallel universe." She smiled.

"When I was living with Grandma," Tina said, "we met a lot of my older relatives, you know, great aunts and great uncles, people like that. But they were so much older. I mean, they treated me nice, but mostly I just kind of sat there and listened to them talk. But I'm like you, little sister, when I met Alan's folks. It's kind of the same thing. They're good people. Alan's niece, Haley, she came right out and asked me if I didn't think Alan was too old. I laughed it off. I know she wasn't being nosy, she's just trying to get under Alan's skin. Just pickin', you know. Just fun. We had a great time. So, Cindy, you're not the only one that collected a family out of this deal."

"Yeah," Cindy laughed, "and now you and me are sisters!"

Tina concurred with that statement.

Alan looked at me and said, "how 'bout that, brother-in-law?!?"

Cindy folded her arms with a smug look on her face. "'Nother one of those blended family things ain't it?"

The meal came and went, along with small talk. True to his word, Alan caught the check. Cindy and Tina walked out of the restaurant ahead of us. Alan nudged me. "Dan, this is turning out to be a very surprising weekend. It's like we just ran off the end of our road map. There's a road out there, we're on it, but we have no idea where it's going to end up."

"Yeah," I said, "but you know? I've been with Cindy, married, since November. I've known her since August. We've only had the one bad day."

"Bad day? What kind of bad day?" Alan asked.

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything, I thought. The bad day involved me having to work late, and Cindy having to defend herself. That subject hadn't come up this weekend. We talked, Alan and I. And Cindy and Tina were talking now. They were learning a lot about each other and Alan and I were just being amazed. But the story of Cindy and the shotgun hadn't come up.

"Maybe she needs to decide whether to tell that story," I said. "It wasn't a problem between us, it was an incident. She handled it."

"Well, now you've got my curiosity up," Alan said. "But I'll leave it at that. You're right, though. I guess the worst night that I've had with Tina was right after she started back to school. I was still being big brother and all that. She was just this neat young lady that I was helping out."

We were at the car. Tina and Cindy were looking at us. Tina said, "you two guys look too serious."

"I was just telling Dan about the worst evening, no, it wasn't a whole evening, the worst HOURS, that I've had since you crawled in the front seat of my pickup truck."

We got in the car. Tina leaned over and caressed the side of Alan's face with her fingertips. "Baby, what hours?"

"Your first week of school," Allen said. "You know, when you decided to go out with your friends."

"That was the night..." Tina said.

"I know, baby, but you know, I told you how torn up I felt when you left to go meet your friends."

Tina smiled softly. "Cindy, I thought I was going to take off and be like a normal school kid. I mean, I'd been at that school for a week. This girl, Susan, invited a bunch of us to her house to watch movies on Friday night. There was this nice looking guy in one of my advanced placement classes. He was smart and Susan said that he liked me an' he was gonna be there. So I asked Alan if it was okay if I went."

"I couldn't tell her no," Alan said. "I mean, I didn't have that much hold on her, legally, and what she asked wasn't an unreasonable request. So I let her go. And when she left, I felt more alone than I've felt in years."

Tina picked up the story. "I went to the party thinking that I was going to have a good time, you know, friends talking and laughing. Wasn't like that. First thing, a couple of the guys brought a cooler of beer. Wasn't legal for us to have it but there it was. And the guy that was supposed to like me, first thing he did was tell me he had some weed and that we could go someplace in my car and smoke it. When I didn't buy that act, his next move was to get me up against the wall and tried to kiss me and feel me up. I told him no. I pushed his hands away. He kept on. An' I did the only thing I knew, to fight him off. I grabbed his crotch, squeezed and twisted. And then I left."

Cindy was paying rapt attention, resting her elbows on the table with her chin in her hand.

"Anyway," Tina continued, "I went home and Alan gave me a shoulder to cry on. We watched TV then turned out the lights to go to bed. He was in his bed, and I was sleeping on the sofa, because he's got that darn custom trailer. Anyhow, I was laying there thinking about how I was treated, and what I wanted in a guy, and I did the inventory, an' Alan kept popping to the top of the stack. And that was the night..."

Cindy looked at me, then said, "Took a thunderstorm. I was home by myself in Moms dinky little travel trailer. We had this bad thunderstorm. The trailer was shaking. I called Dan because I was scared. He came and got me and brought me to his trailer. An' he made me a bed out on the sofa. The storm got worse, and there was a big crash of thunder, and it really scared me. I ran and jumped in his bed."

It's a good thing we were in the car, because what Cindy had just admitted could get me put in jail for years. I said so.

Allen said, "I was in the same boat, you know, with that ' underage' thing. In Tennessee, it's eighteen. Me and Tina thought we were perfectly safe. Didn't find out until the lawyer told us, the day we were signing papers for the plane."

Tina said, "we can laugh about it now, but we flew out of Tennessee the next morning. And if we could'nd've gotten legally married, Alan was gonna give up his job."

"What a mess," I said. I looked it Cindy. "Darlin', you're worth it."

We were back at the hotel. Walking into the lobby, I I told Alan, "See y'all down here about four thirty?"

Alan said, "We'll be here. Dressed and ready to go."

Cindy and I returned to the room with a couple of hours to kill.