Clay Anderson walked into his empty, one-bedroom apartment and looked around in disgust. He’d officially signed the divorce papers a year ago today. All he knew about his ex-wife was that she’d moved to Virginia to live with her sister and had cut off all communication with him. Clay didn’t blame her. He realized too late that she was done with him. She’d caught him in two affairs and the credit card debt he’d piled onto their marriage was astronomical. He’d almost declared bankruptcy, but instead, had sold his business and was left with a tiny settlement from it. Anna had put the house on the market and he’d gotten a solid payback from the bank when it sold, but just enough to furnish a small apartment on the outskirts of Atlanta. He’d started seeing a counselor once a week who’d diagnosed Clay with bipolar disorder and anger management issues. He was on meds for the bipolar, and he was taking anger management classes twice a week across town. His mother was the only person who wanted anything to do with him. His brother had cut ties and his father had left the family years ago.

He sat down on the couch and stared ahead at nothing. Though his counselor had told him he’d been doing better, Clay had a hard time believing that anyone else would know he’d changed. He thought of his past relationships with friends, with girlfriends, and colleagues. Besides Anna, there was one woman who’d always remained a permanent fixture in the back of his mind. James Ryan. When he’d first started dating her back in college, he knew he’d scored big time. James was an all-American girl who was serious about school and also had a lot of friends. The first time he’d cheated on her, he’d felt some remorse, but then it just got easier. When she moved to Orlando, he followed her, not wanting to let her go. She had been so forgiving and easily coerced into making love with him that weekend. And then the blow happened – she was pregnant and Clay went crazy. He had never wanted to be a father because of what had happened to him as a child. And after he’d beaten up on her, he knew that it was done and that he should never, ever be around a child. Nearly three years had passed since he’d signed the papers to let James’ boyfriend adopt Sutton. He’d never laid eyes on the child, but knew that she was almost eight-years-old. He couldn’t help but wonder what she looked like, who she acted like, what she did for fun.

Clay looked at the clock on the microwave. It was almost seven. If he was going to be on time for his anger management class, he knew he’d better grab a quick dinner and head out. He left the empty apartment, relieved that he would soon be around people again.

Orlando

“Whoa oh whoa sweet child of mi-yine!” JC and Sutton were singing at the top of their lungs to the old Guns ‘n’ Roses song. James sat in the front seat and videoed from her iPhone. The twins, Landon and Olivia, were in their car seats staring at their sister and smiling, then babbling to one another in baby talk.

“Whoa oh oh whoa sweet child of mi-yine!” JC looked right at the camera, taking his eyes off the road for a minute. “Hey baby, you look fine!”

James giggled at her husband. “Watch the road, honey,” she told him then looked back at Sutton. “What do you think of this song, Sutton?”

“I like it! Daddy sings it to me at night sometimes when he’s tucking me in!” Sutton waved at the camera. “Hey, Mom, what time will we get back to Grayson?”

“In a little while,” James hit the camera button to end the video. “Why don’t you watch Ariel.” She hit the DVD button next to the cd player and soon the start of The Little Mermaid began to play as Guns ‘n’ Roses faded out. James reached over and linked her fingers through JC’s. “That was a great family vacation, babe.”

“I was just thinking that,” JC looked over at her and grinned. “I almost didn’t want to leave.”

“Yeah, but our little man’s waiting for us,” James yawned and settled into the seat of the car, propping her pillow against the window. Logan Scott Chasez was exactly a month old today, too young for the family trip to Disney World. JC and James had taken their almost eight-year-old daughter, Sutton, and their 19-month-old twins on a four- day vacation to Disney World for a long weekend. At the last minute, Chad and Lane, JC’s cousin and his husband respectively, had decided to come with their one-year-old adopted daughter, Jewel. They’d all stayed together at the Polynesian Resort near the Magic Kingdom. Sutton had met all of the princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Sebastian the Crab, and Alice in Wonderland. She’d gotten autographs from them all as well as several pictures with Landon and Olivia and Jewel. There had been one night where they’d gotten back to the hotel at almost 3 a.m. because of the line to meet Belle. It had been a long, but fun little vacation away, but James and JC were anxious to see their baby boy.

James sometimes wondered what her life would’ve been like without JC in it. She almost couldn’t imagine it anymore. Nor could she imagine what it would’ve been like with their kids. She loved the relationship JC had with Sutton. Watching them, no one would’ve believed that JC wasn’t her biological father because they had always been so natural with one another. And once, a client of JC’s at his Talent Studio in Grayson had told him how much Sutton looked like him. Life couldn’t be any better than what it was now. Living in the small town of Grayson, Georgia with her family and her closest friends and owning the town’s most popular spot for coffee, Brewster’s, was all that James could ever want.

Yes, life didn’t get much better than it did right then and there.

James closed her eyes and squeezed her husband’s hand, so content and not bothered by anything or anyone.

It was bliss.