"Gramma!" McKenzie yelled as she threw open the door to the SUV Lance had rented and jumped from the vehicle before her uncle barely had it in park.

"Kenzi!" Diane wrapped her arms around her granddaughter, hugging her tight. "Oh I missed you!"

"Now's your chance Sis," Lance said as he they climbed from the SUV. "Make a run for it. I bet they wouldn't know you were gone."

"And run where?" Rachel laughed, happy to be back home.

"West Hollywood would be my first guess," Lance wiggled his eyes brows behind his sunglasses.

Rachel felt the blush on her face. Not wanting to get in to Mississippi real late, they changed their flight to an early morning Los Angeles take off. Since that meant being at the airport at 4 in the morning, she and McKenzie had spent the night at Lance's. His personal assistant, Lisa, drove them to the airport. She would then stay at Lance's while he was away to dog sit. Lisa had given Lance an earful on the way because of the early morning. Rachel wished she had planned ahead better. She was running on very little sleep.

McKenzie had a track meet yesterday. It of course ran late. Despite telling him it was out of his way, JC drove all the away to her house before back tracking to the meet. They sat together in the stands, garnering looks. A few people had asked for pictures and JC had graciously accepted as long as McKenzie wasn't on the track. He cheered just as loudly for McKenzie has she had as well as the other members of the school. Afterward, JC took them out to dinner, again. She made a mental note to tell him he didn't have to buy them food in order to spend time with them. Once he dropped them off at their house (and after a prolonged good bye in the driveway) she rushed to gather their things and get on the road to her brother's.

On the flight, she had started off in a seat next to McKenzie. Her daughter immediately claimed the window seat and leaving her with the middle. She didn't know the person on the aisle seat. Lance and Michael sat in the seats behind them. In the beginning they all slept in the early hours. As the hours passed, she found it hard to stay asleep so she gave up and read a book on her phone. Eventually McKenzie changed seats with Lance, so she could sit next to Michael to play MadLibs.

Lance had taken the opportunity to grill her about her relationship with JC. She had put off his questions as long as she could before she'd given in and explained. She was dating JC. It was a new development. She was happy. Lance had teased her good naturedly before giving her a hug and saying how happy he was for her.

"Am I gonna hear this all week?"

"Oh yeah," Michael had a smile on his face as he joined them. "Wait until your mom finds out."

"Finds out what?" Diane asked, joining her son and daughter, and soon to be son-in-law.

"Mom has a new boyfriend." McKenzie giggled.

Diane looked from her granddaughter to her daughter, with her eyebrows raised in question. Lance and Michael had wide grins.

"Alright," Rachel groaned. "Let's get this over with. Mom, I am dating JC."

"It's about time," Diane stated causing Lance and Michael to burst out laughing. With a smile on her face, she pulled her daughter into a tight hug. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks Mom," She hugged her mother tightly. "It's so good to be home."

"You should have invited him," Diane told her daughter.

"I figured I'd wait until I subjected him to the family," she said dryly.

"He knows exactly what he's getting in to," Lance laughed and hugged his mother. "Hi Mom."

"Hi Sweetie," she hugged her son tight before turning to Michael. "Michael," she said with a smile, hugging him.

"Hello," he hugged the woman who, in less than eight months, would become his mother-in-law. "How are you?"

"Happy to have my family back together," Diane said honestly.

Lance awed as they all went back to the car to grab their luggage and took it into the house. Diane directed them where to go. It was unnecessary; they always stayed in the same room. Lance stayed in his childhood room with Michael. Rachel stayed in her childhood room. McKenzie was in Stacy's. They weren't their childhood rooms any longer. Her parents had updated the décor, replaced the twin beds with full size beds. Any items that had been left behind by their kids had been boxed up and moved to the attic. Rachel always meant to go through her boxes when she visited, but she never did.

"Something tells me you should just move your suit case to Stacy's," Rachel teased her daughter after she dropped her suitcase in the bedroom. She'd unpack it later.

"Can I?" Kenzi turned wide eyes on her mom. The eyes were full of begging.

"Maybe for a night or two," Rachel relented. "But," she said, stopping Kenzi's movements in their spot. "Do not even bring that up to Leighton until I have a chance to talk to Stacy. I mean it Kenz. I am not gonna be on the receiving end of one of Stacy's rants this week."

"It's so nice when someone else is on the receiving end of those," Lance grinned as he and Michael came up to them.

"It was a helluva lot better when you were on the receiving end of those instead of me." Rachel said as they made their way down the stairs. "Daddy!" She grinned seeing her dad, Jim, standing in the living room at the bottom of the stairs. He hadn't been there when they came through earlier. She wrapped her arms around him hugging him tight. "Oh I missed you!"

"It's so good to see you," Jim said as he hugged his youngest child tight.

"What is the plan for tonight?" Rachel asked after she let her father go to greet Lance, Michael, and McKenzie.

"We weren't sure if you guys would be tired from the trip or not," Diane explained. "So we're just gonna order pizza in. That way you guys can relax from your trip. Get rested up. Stacy was thinking about hitting the Children's Museum in Jackson tomorrow. She also mentioned the Art Museum or maybe the zoo."

"Sounds good to me," Rachel nodding and sat down at the kitchen table. Her parents had the most comfortable couch, but for some reason, everyone always gathered around the kitchen table.

"She has an entire list of things planned out," Jim said taking his seat at the head of the table.

"Good," Lance said grabbing a chair. "That means I don't have to come up with what to do. It's always good for one person in the party to be organized."

"Sunday," Diane continued, "We planned on coming here after church, having a cook out, letting the kids in the pool." She had it already planned out with extended family members coming as well. "Everybody will be here."

"You know how many years we begged mom and dad for a pool and they refused," Lance looked at Michael, a smile on his face.

"Oh yeah," Rachel said laughing. "Summers were so hot and we wanted our own pool instead of having to go to the community one. Answer was always no. Pop out grandchildren though and they couldn't get a pool fast enough."

"It's the best thing about being grandparents," Diane chuckled. "We get to spoil them with everything we would never do to our kids. You'll find out someday."

"A long long long way into the future," Rachel said, eyeballing Kenzi.

"Hint taken Mother," Kenzi rolled her eyes.

"What does everyone want on their pizzas?" Diane pulled a take out menu from the drawer to a local place they frequented.

"Buffalo chicken and ranch!" Kenzi shouted out, causing the adults to stare at her. "What?" She asked seeing all the eyes on her.

"Where did you get that disgusting pizza habit?" Lance asked.

"We are not ordering that monstrosity," Rachel told her daughter.

"What are you teaching that child?" Jim asked. "Who puts buffalo chicken and ranch on a pizza?"

"JC does." Kenzi said. "We had it last night and it was ah-mazing!"

"Don't look at me," Rachel raised her hands innocently when everyone looked at her. "I had a perfectly acceptable piece of pepperoni pizza. They sat on the other side of the table with their terrible habits."

"If you had pizza last night, we can do something else." Diane bit back the questions she had for her daughter about JC.

"Mom, its fine. We stopped off after Kenzi's track meet."

"How did that go?" Jim asked his granddaughter while his son and daughter argued over pizza toppings. He shook his head, ‘Some things never change.'

"Awesome! I placed first in the 1600 meter run, first in the 800 meter run, and fourth in the 3200 meter run," Kenzi said proudly. "I should have brought my medals to show! I have some photos on my phone. Mom took a lot too."

"I haven't had the chance to put them on Facebook yet. Haven't even scrubbed through them to weed out the bad ones."

"What are those in American terms?" Lance asked, trying to do the conversions in his head.

"Half mile, mile, and two miles," Michael answered his fiancée with a grin. "Well technically mile, half mile, and two miles since that's the order she gave them in."

"What happened in the 2 mile?" Jim asked reaching out to accept the cell phone Kenzi put in front of him. He smiled proudly seeing the photo of her with the three medals displayed proudly around her neck. "That's my girl!"

"My stamina isn't that great yet," Kenzi frowned remembering the race. She had started out great, but faded at the end allowing runners to pass her. She tried to push more, but she just couldn't. "I just started that event this year. Yesterday I led practically the whole way. They shot by me at the end."

"Sweetie you'll get there," Diane moved next to her granddaughter's chair and put an arm around her. "You'll build your stamina and I bet by the time track rolls around next year, you'll leave everyone in the dust."

Kenzi grinned at her grandma. "That's what JC said too. I just gotta practice. Find a running partner..."

"Oh no," Rachel shook her head. "Do not look at me. I will take you to a track to practice, but my butt will be parked in a lawn chair at the start/finish line."

"You see JC a lot?" Diane asked.

Rachel groaned. "Don't you have pizza to be ordering?"

"Like you didn't know this was coming," Lance smirked at his sister.

"Well we saw him Saturday at Uncle Lance's. Monday we went to dinner. Yesterday he came to my track meet and we went out for pizza afterward."

Diane smiled at her daughter, her eyes shining with mirth. "I saw the pictures from Saturday. Looked like a lot of fun."

"Yeah," Kenzi grinned. "We totally kicked Mom and Uncle Lance's butt in chicken fighting. And they said they were undefeated," she scoffed.

"Hey! We were undefeated! You guys cheated!" Rachel shot out, her voice rising.

"Here we go," Lance said, causing Michael to laugh. "She kicked your butt. Just admit it."

"You lost too buddy." She gave him a look.

"Well you won at the end of the night," Lance laughed out loud as Rachel slapped him in the arm. He leaned toward Michael, out of the way from his sister's second slap.

"What happened at the end of the night?" Kenzi asked looking between her mom and uncle.

Lance puckered his lips and made a kissing sound before breaking out in to laughter. Michael joined in with him. His parents weren't laughing, but they had smiles on their faces.

"Oh that's nothing," Kenzi giggled. "You should have seen them on Monday. The front door was hanging wide open and they were going at it."

Rachel groaned and let her held fall against the table.

*~*~*~*

Rachel groaned when she blinked her eyes open, stretching beneath the covers. She could smell the coffee wafting up from the kitchen downstairs. Judging by the light coming in through the curtains, it was still early. She wanted to roll back over and go back to sleep for a few more hours, but the coffee was hard to ignore. Throwing the covers back, she sat up and reached for her phone on the bedside table. There was a moment of pure panic when it wasn't there.

"What the hell..." she muttered climbing from her bed to look at the floor to see if it had somehow fallen off the table during the night.  All that was on the floor was the empty charger. Turning around she saw her phone laying on the mattress and frowned. She was sure she had plugged her phone... she groaned as she remembered.

They hadn't stayed up late. By nine, McKenzie was falling asleep on the couch where she had been curled up next to Diane. Michael had started yawning. Once Lance started having long blinks, Diane shooed them all to bed. When she was settled in to her room for the night, she had called JC. She must have fallen asleep on him.

Rachel slipped the glasses resting on the bedside table on her face, she grabbed her phone and headed into the bathroom down the hall. She used the bathroom and brushed her teeth before making her way down the stairs. She saw her father sitting in the recliner watching the morning news and slipped in to the kitchen where she grabbed a coffee cup from the cupboard. Movement caught her eye and she saw her mother sitting on the porch swing out the backdoor.

"Morning Sweetie," Diane said when she saw her daughter coming through the door. "I wasn't expecting you guys up for hours yet."

"Smelled the coffee." Rachel took a seat on the swing next to her mother. She took a sip of coffee the perfect temperature since she added milk. Looking out across the backyard, she sighed. She would never get tired of the view. Aside from the addition of a pool, the backyard still remained the same as it had when she was growing up. The shed still stood in the corner of the fenced in yard, filled with father's yard tools and her mother's gardening items. In the middle stood a huge maple tree that was perfect for climbing. She, Lance, and Stacy would spend hours playing on that tree.  She was glad that her parents didn't cut it down when they put the pool in. The yard space obviously gotten smaller with the pool. When they were younger, backyard BBQs had games of croquet, badminton, volleyball, and horseshoes. Today, the only game they could play was horseshoes and that was if they switched the direction they normally set the stakes up. The back porch was decorated with beautiful blooming flowers and ferns. While she couldn't see, she knew there was still a flower bed in front of the porch on the right side.

"I wish I would have gotten your green thumb," she told her mother. "Only thing I can keep alive are fake flowers."

Diane chuckled softly. "California landscape isn't all that great for gardens." When her daughter still lived in Mississippi, she'd spend the weekends helping her daughter weed the flower beds she had helped put in around the house. They would spend hours out in the sun pulling weeds, talking and laughing. She missed those days. "So Kenzi sure has taken a shine to JC."

Rachel groaned, regretting coming outside to sit with her mother. She could have taken her coffee into the living room with her father. She could guarantee he wouldn't ask questions about her dating life.

"Oh stop," Diane swatted her daughter on the leg. "You had to know you'd get questions. Every time I talk to Kenzi, she's JC this and JC that. Then the pictures she posts he's always in there somewhere."

"She has a crush on him." She flushed thinking what happened when she said those words to JC and the kissed they had shared.

"She's not the only one," Diane smiled knowingly watching Rachel blush. "So... let's hear it. You've told me about all the other boys you liked. I had to constantly buy calling cards because you would go through all my minutes on them talking about a boy in high school."

When Lance had been selected to join the group, they eventually had to go to Europe. Their management thought it would be best for them to break into the Europe scene first before bringing them back to America. Since Lance was underage, Diane went with him to Europe. Justin's mom, Lynn, also tagged along. It made for some rough moments in the Bass house with two of their members gone. They lived off phone calls and the letters and postcards Diane would send. It was rough for her because she had basically lost her mother during high school. She had Stacy to talk to, but no one compared to her mother. Diane always gave the best advice, knew exactly what to say.

"We started talking after Kenzi ran in to him while she was selling Girl Scout cookies," Rachel started. "It all happened so fast. I was talking to him on Facebook, then texting, then asking him to lunch. Next thing I know, I'm inviting him to Lance's and he's taking us out to dinner, coming to Kenzi's track meet..."

"Well that's the cliff notes version," Diane smiled.

"I think I'm in love with him." Rachel said softly, gripping her coffee cup as she stared out over the backyard. "That's impossible right? It's only been two weeks."

"Oh it's been longer than that. Face it Rachel," she said to her daughter, as she set the swing in a gentle sway. "You've been in love with JC for a long time. Probably since you moved to Orlando after graduation."

"Yeah," Rachel didn't dispute the fact. It had been longer than two weeks. "These past two weeks have been..." she breathed out a sigh, a small smile on her lips. "Amazing. Mom, I... whether it's on the phone, texting, or face to face, we can just fall in to a conversation about anything. We laugh. He makes me laugh. I just want to spend time with him. I feel like I have hearts in my eyes."

"You do have hearts in your eyes." Diane confirmed. "It makes me so happy to hear you talk like this. I can hear something different in your voice every time we've talked on the phone. I can see it in your face now that you're here. You're glowing talking about him right now."

"I saw him last night and I miss him. Knowing that I'm not going to see him for the next week. Isn't that pathetic?"

Diane shook her head. "Not at all. You're in the excitement of a new relationship. You want to spend every waking moment together. Anyone who has ever been in love understands that completely."

"That mean this will eventually wear off and we'll fade?" Rachel questioned.

"Not if it's real," Diane commented. "People who talk about how they've lost the spark in the relationship, fooled themselves thinking they were in love when they really were in lust. From the moment I met your father, I knew he was the one. I had heart eyes when I talked about him. I wanted to spend all my time with him. We never lost that spark. We've carried it nearly 40 years. Sometimes it still feels like we're newlyweds. When you meet the right person, the one you're supposed to be with, that's what it feels like."

"I've never imagined myself with anyone else," she told her mother truthfully. "It's been JC since I was 18. I knew where we would live, how many kids we'd have, what our wedding would look like. When he smiles at me... it's like I'm his whole world."

"How does he feel?" Diane felt herself start to tear up when she saw the smile appear on Rachel's face. She recognized what it stood for immediately.

"I was the one that got away."

Diane hummed. "Not anymore."