Page 82 of Second Chance Fate

“I’m serious.” Caleb remained stoic before turning his attention toward Taylor. “And don’t think you’re off the hook either. My parentsalwayswanted a daughter, so prepare to be daughter-in-law love bombed.” Both of you need to get suited up, even if only emotionally. “There will be hugs, lots of them. Plans to fish, cookies to eat, more hugs, recipes handed down, presents given, appointments for manis and pedis scheduled, pictures taken, hugs, questions asked, stories told, hugs, photo albums to go through, oh, and lots and lots of hugs. And, there may be tears. Your grandmother cries anytime she’s below four or above seven on the emotion scale. She cries if she’s too happy or too sad, so yeah, I can almost guarantee that there will be tears.”

“Got it.” Owen gave him a thumbs-up.

“I think we should have a code word in case it gets too much.”

“A code word?” Owen’s head fell back as he laughed.

“Yes. We need to think of a word you can say if it gets too much, and I need to initiate an emergency extraction. It can’t be something common that you might accidentally say because the?—”

“Panthers,” Owen shouted out before he even finished.

“Panthers,” Caleb repeated in agreement at the same time the front door to his parents’ house opened. His mom stood in the doorway, waving her hand high in the air like she was air traffic control.

They all piled out of the Jeep, and both dogs raced to Grandma, aka the treat lady, with Owen right at their heels.

“Panther?” he whispered under his breath to Taylor as they trailed behind Owen, Minnie, and Casper.

“It’s the football team from Friday Night Lights,” she explained.

Caleb nodded in recognition as they all headed up to the house. As they all met for the first time as a family unit, Taylor had to admit Caleb wasn’t exaggerating about the hugs or his parents’ enthusiasm at being grandparents and having a daughter-in-law. Within five minutes, Caleb’s mom asked if she was feeling up to brunch next week and a manicure and pedicure on her. And when they walked into the family room, there were more presents than Taylor had ever seen in one place. It looked like Santa’s warehouse loading dock.

When Annie messaged asking for Owen’s shoe, hat, and clothing sizes, Taylor hadn’t expected him to be going home with basically a new wardrobe, including two pairs of Air Jordans, one retro and one new design. They’d also gotten him the newest PlayStation and four games. Oh, and tickets to see the Golden State Warriors and Oakland A’s.

Taylor was amazed they’d been able to shop and get all of these presents in the short time since finding out about Owen less than twenty-four hours earlier. When she expressed how impressed she was, Annie told her that she’d called in a favor to Kyle Austen Reed and used both his private plane and personal shopper. They’d flown to Los Angeles that morning. The personal shopper called ahead, and, using Kyle’s name, the stores opened early and pulled the items. She was able to just pick them up when she got into LA and then fly back. The entire trip took four hours total.

Taylor watched with so much pride at how gracious, kind, and appreciative Owen was. After each present was opened, he thanked both Annie and George by giving them big hugs, which she could see meant the world to them. He continually repeated that he didn’t need all the presents and that they could return some of them if they wanted to or donate them to kids who needed them. His grandma assured him that they did plenty of work for charity and would continue to do so, but that the gifts they’d picked out they wanted him to have.

Owen wasn’t the only one who received gifts. Halfway through his mountain of boxes, Caleb’s mom handed Taylor several presents. The first was a gorgeous, delicate gold bracelet that was engraved with the words,I may not have given you the gift of life, but life gave me the gift of you.She was also gifted a FabFitFun subscription, which was a quarterly box delivered to her doorstep where Taylor could customize the contents from a curated collection of full-size products to try in the health, beauty, fitness, wellness, and home spaces. Another was a framed photo of Caleb and Owen, which must have been taken when Taylor was in the hospital. And the final gift was a gorgeous wooden jewelry box with words etched around the edges.

“Oh, it’s engraved,” Taylor observed.

“George made it,” Annie stated proudly.

Taylor tilted her head to the side and had to rotate the box to read it because the words were so small and etched so delicately in cursive.

“What does it say?” Caleb asked.

“It says: created by God, chosen by our son, welcomed, cherished, and loved by our family. You’re stuck with us.” Taylor’s lips pulled into a wide smile as she read the last line.

“George!” Caleb’s mom tossed a throw pillow at him.

“What?!” George held up his hands in faux innocence as he dodged it in his recliner.

“Your father added that last line,” Annie pointed out.

“Well, she is stuck with us. I took some creative license.”

Owen laughed, and Caleb’s dad tossed the pillow at him. “And you are too, kid.”

Taylor felt herself tearing up. “Thank you.”

“Oh, and I added some tunes to it, too. Open it up,” his dad instructed her, motioning toward the box.

“Really? I’ve always wanted a music box.”

When she was young, maybe seven or eight, she lived in a foster home with a girl who had a music box with a ballerina that spun when she opened it. At the time, Taylor wanted one like it so bad. For some reason that box made Taylor feel safe and seen.

Now, she stared down at the oak box, and her hands shook as she lifted the lid. When it was halfway up, the song "We Are Family” started playing, and tears sprang to her eyes, then pooled down her face. It wasn’t the song that made her so emotional, though.

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