Another update, thanks for reading and the feedback!

Mama folded her arms right in the kitchen while she had been preparing breakfast for the three of them. Matt had come in to get some coffee after showering and changing to go to the office.

"What is the matter with you?"

He looked at her puzzled.

"What do you mean Mama?"

She just looked at him as if he were either crazy or very dense. Matt couldn't make out which but she clearly had something to say to him.

"You and that poor girl…here she is about to have your baby and there's no ring."

Matt sighed. C.J. still had some months to go before their baby was born but as for not having a ring…

"I try to bring it up and when I do, she just shuts it down before I can finish."

Mama shook her head impatiently.

"You're a determined young man; you know how to get what you want," she said, "Ah but my son, he the same way when it came to marrying his poor wife. He didn't what you call it buy a clue?"

Matt sipped his coffee after pouring it.

"I don't know if she wants to get married…"

Mama waved her hands.

"What…how do you know this…did you ask her…did she say no, I don't want to marry you because…you didn't ask…"

She whipped up the eggs some more, some of her emotion going into their battering surely. Matt's eyes widened as he saw how animated she had become, clearly this was a major topic for her. Well, it had been one for him too but if C.J. didn't want to get married, he couldn't force her in that direction.

"You didn't ask her?"

He turned to face Mama.

"She doesn't want to hear about it…she says she doesn't want to get married just because she got pregnant."

Mama didn't look too impressed.

"Why not…it happens all the time…more so with this younger generation than in the past…"

He knew that too, and that many couples had children without getting married at all, usually celebrities insisting to the press that their love was so grand they didn't need a piece of paper documenting it. Of course, the next press release from them was usually from their agent or manager saying that they had split up.

Not that this would ever happen with C.J. because he did know that she wanted to stay in this relationship and that went double for him. He would never walk away from her or his child and yes, responsibility parlayed into that but he couldn't see himself with anyone else for other reasons.

"You do love her right?"

He didn't have to think about that answer.

"Yeah I do…a lot…but it takes more than that to convince a stubborn woman…"

Mama clasped her hands over her face.

"I need to take her outside and talk some reason into her?"

Matt scratched the back of his neck.

"It's more complicated than that…you see she lost her own father when she was a little girl…I didn't know her back then but even when our paths did cross, I knew there had been a shadow over her life."

Mama shook her head.

"That must have been very painful…Vince doesn't have a father but he had one in his childhood."

"She feels abandoned by him even though she knows he didn't have any choice about it," Mama said, nodding her head.

Matt thought that was as apt a description of the situation as he could have made but Mama had been known for her insight into the people she cared about and some downright uncanny intuition.

"I never really knew my own mother but I had a relationship with my daddy growing up," Matt said, "However contentious it was, underneath it all, I knew he loved me."

Mama shook her head.

"I came from a large family," she said, "The center of many squabbles and a war or two but at the end of the day; we all sat at a table and ate together. We put everything else aside."

"That's great," Matt said, "I never had a large family."

"Well you and C.J…you're off to a good start no?"

He smiled as C.J. walked in the kitchen dressed and went straight for the juice.

"Good morning," he said.

She looked up at him, sipping her juice.

"Good morning to you…"

"We were just talking about you," he said.

"Oh?"

He smiled wider.

"About this large family that we're going to have," he said, "I think a baseball team of kids sounds nice."

She folded her arms and looked at him.

"Oh you do do you," she said, "Okay then I'll have the first half of the team and then I'll turn that job over to you okay?"

He walked over and took her in his arms, feeling her abdomen move against his body, and he looked down at it.

"Active today?"

She nodded, reaching for his hand.

"Come on I won't bite…at least not in front of company."

He gave her his hand and she placed it on top of her abdomen and his eyes narrowed as he concentrated on what he felt below his fingertips, then he broke into a wide smile that tugged at C.J.'s insides.

"Oh is that….wow…he loves to kick doesn't he?"

She gave him a rueful look.

"Yes…indeed but he could be a she…"

His brows arched.

"Or a they…"

Her own eyes widened.

"Twins…oh that would really be something wouldn't it?"

"I heard they ran on my mother's side and skipped generations…"

Mama looked at the both of them.

"Oh…she's having twins…or even triplets," she said, "and Matt, you're just standing there, go find her a seat and I'll bring her some breakfast."

Matt did just that and C.J. sat down, finding it a bit more challenging. She felt that her body had changed a lot in the past several days.

"So what's on tap for today?"

"Well we've done some furniture shopping," she said, "and we looked at that nice house and…"

He massaged her upper back, which left her feeling blissful when he did that, did he know that, she wondered.

"I called the agent and put some money on that house…"

She stopped eating her eggs and turned to face him, a huge grin on her face.

"Oh wow…so when do we know if they accept the offer?"

"By this afternoon at the latest," he said, "We've got to go celebrate."

Mama clapped her hands.

"Oh yes…we can have a dinner party."

Both Matt and C.J. looked at her. They had felt blessed to have Mama staying with them and she had taken good care of both of them. Helping them out, indulging herself in the kitchen that she had commandeered and okay, maybe coaching them in a few areas that they didn't need it.

Like…

"How's your love life," she had asked casually one morning, "I know it gets…more challenging…using pillows helps…"

Both of them had looked at her and then she had resumed working on her new specialty pizza. C.J. wondered sometimes whether Vince had missed his mother or whether they had some sort of argument before Mama came to L.A. Whenever C.J. broached the topic, Mama just waved her hand and said Vince was off with his buddies deep sea fishing again.

Maybe she needed to take a softer approach.

C.J. had taken her book that she never had time to read and had gotten a towel and some snacks and water to take down to the beach, closer to the water's edge. It had been a beautiful morning that had only blossomed with time into a clear day which provided a breathtaking view of the rippling water in front of her. She could look out towards where the boats had sailed off into the horizon far away from the shore, and the outline of Catalina Island where she had gone to hang out several months ago, leaving Matt to come after her.

She smiled as she thought about him. He had gone off to have a meeting with a client but an hour ago, he had called and said that their offer on the house just outside L.A. had been accepted. She had been so happy at the news and had gone into the kitchen to tell Mama who had decided then and there to start working on a celebratory dinner. She had called up a friend she knew in L.A. to go out and bring her some of the ingredients she needed to cook with from various stores and she had gotten started with her meal planning.

After the escrow period had ended, they would start the moving process taking furniture from both of their homes to their new place and C.J. had already started the process to rent out her old home and had found a nice couple interested in it including some of the furnishings.

Things were coming into place, well most everything. Matt still had been pressing her on the marriage issue and part of her wanted to just go with it but another part of her held back.

The part of her that been through the experience of losing her father when she had been a little girl. Not long after that loss, her mother had died partly of a broken heart and C.J. had been sent out to a brief stint with a foster family before a guardian who had been an old friend of her father had claimed her, taking her to live in his ranch in Texas. Not long after that she had met Matt and their friendship had begun.

She knew that her own parents had a happy marriage and had been in love up to the day one of them left the other for the next world. But even as a little girl, she had felt his loss keenly and that hadn't really changed during the time she had grown up. And she had watched what her father's death had done to her mother and couldn't imagine living through the same experience if she had married Matt and then he had gone out to work on one of his investigative cases and hadn't returned.

No, that would be too painful even to think about, so she pushed that thought out of her mind.

Suddenly, she heard someone approach her and sit down beside her.

"I brought you some food to try," Mama said, as she reached into the covering over her plate.

She handed C.J. a sample of some pizza which the younger woman took eagerly. And not surprisingly, it tasted scrumptious.

"It's wonderful Mama…"

The older woman beamed and grabbed a small piece for herself.

"I found some spices in Matt's pantry to work with," she said, "Good thing about them is they don't really spoil."

C.J. laughed.

"He eats out a lot like I do," she said, "fits in better with our work schedule."

Mama pursed her lips.

"You run around all day…doing busy work…you need to sit down with a nice home cooked meal and spend some quiet time."

C.J. smiled thoughtfully.

"We do that Mama…just not in the kitchen."

Mama nodded.

"Oh…well…in my day, that was after we got married…or my father would have come out with a shotgun he kept under the bed."

C.J. looked away a moment, swallowing because for some reason today, she felt the loss of her own keenly. Mama picked up that something had been on her mind.

"You miss yours don't you…your father…"

C.J. just nodded silently.

"He's in a better place with most of my family included my beloved….they're all up somewhere watching down on us when they're not getting into some sort of mischief."

C.J. had to smile at that as she trailed her fingers in the sand.

"I just worry so much now…about Houston's safety…the career he loves so much has its dangers."

Mama knew that really well having spent time conducting vigils in the hospital for Bo the ranch hand who had nearly been blown up, for Matt when he had been injured and for her own son when he had nearly died. Not long after that, Vince had retired from the police force and all of them had packed up and moved away where soon enough she had opened up her newest restaurant.

Mama sighed.

"You can't worry about tomorrow, you have to live for today."

C.J. thought about that and it made sense but her fear still tugged at her.

"I know…but it's different now…with the baby coming…I need him and I want him and I just can't stop thinking…"

Mama smiled and rested her hand on C.J.'s shoulder.

"That because of that, there's someone out there waiting to snatch him away from you?"

C.J. looked a bit startled but nodded.

"Yeah…something like that…I couldn't face losing him," she said, "Of our child never knowing its father because something happened."

Mama nodded, knowingly.

"I felt that way about my own son…when he decided to be a police officer," she said, "I wanted him to help me run the family business but no, he wanted to be like his heroes and catch bad guys…help people and it worried me…wore my nerves down…but it's what he wanted to do and it's who he is…my son."

"But he's retired…"

Mama shrugged.

"He still runs around doing dangerous things…like scuba diving and volcano climbing…who in their right mind would hike up to the top of a one when it could erupt?"

That sounded like Vince, C.J. decided, after all, he had been Matt's partner in crime in some risky activities which went with the careers both men had chosen for themselves.

"But if you marry him, you won't cause anything to happen to him…you'll share something very special that will help you through the tougher times."

C.J. digested that.

"Part of me…well all of me wants to be his wife…I just feel scared sometimes I think."

Mama rubbed her shoulder.

"That man loves you…in a way few women are loved and he's not going to leave you if he can help it," she said, "and we can't control what life brings us but it's better to face it together than separately."

C.J. looked out into the ocean at the man and woman walking by; their hands linked watching as their young children played in the surf. She thought of when she and Matt would bring their own children down into the surf to splash in the waves, build sand castles and search for sand crabs. And the sensations of those visions tugged at her, leading her down that path.

She remained still thinking about what the future might bring, not the bad parts that were an inevitable part of any time spent on earth but the rewarding times as well. She knew who she wanted by her side when she looked forward to everything that the future offered.

And then looking at Mama, her heart made its own decision.