Picture Perfect

perfectly mirroring each other that it almost looked like they were synchronized.
    The last person through the door was Sandra Thomas, the Hart family’s guardian aunt. She was a lot younger than I’d thought she would be. I’d assumed that she was Todd’s age or older, but she was definitely a few years younger than he was. She didn’t look all that much older than the oldest Hart brother, and I marveled at what kind of inner strength she had to possess that she’d taken on five children without hesitating. She had to have been crazy young when she’d gotten custody.
    I noticed that she gravitated toward Todd, and I found that interesting. They sat together at dinner and he rarely left her side. The two of them definitely had chemistry. Reflecting on what Flynn had said to me about his desire for Todd to remarry, I thought that was a good thing. Sylvia looked thrilled every time she looked at them, so I knew that I wasn’t the only person that had noticed. Flynn caught me watching them at one point, and he smiled and gave a thumb’s up. Clearly he had noticed as well.
    Sylvia was in full great-grandmother mode, and she asked a million questions about how Delilah was feeling. She didn’t even look pregnant yet, but you wouldn’t know that by the way Spencer possessively caressed her stomach whenever the opportunity presented itself. He regaled the table with stories about the pregnancy book he was reading as Delilah shook her head and laughed as she told us all that he was starting to drive her nuts. “Since I told him that we’re having a baby, he’s woken me up every Monday morning to tell me what developmental stage the baby is in. Two days ago I found him on the computer buying a stethoscope so that he can listen to the heartbeat. The man’s gone mad!” She radiated joy as she told us that, so I knew that she didn’t mind at all.
    Just seeing how happy they were about the life they had created made me think about what it would feel like to have a baby that Flynn and I created together growing inside of me. Almost as though he knew what I was thinking, he reached over and took my hand in his. The look in his eyes as he smiled at me seemed to promise a million things, all of them dreams come true. If someone had told me two months ago that Flynn Rand would become the center of my universe, I’d have called them crazy, but here we were and he absolutely was my center.
    Flynn’s other sister, Dominique, seemed sad to me. She smiled and participated in the conversation, but I sensed that there was something going on with her. Flynn had told me that she was the more reserved twin, and I could see what he meant by that. She was lovely and had a beautiful personality, but she was definitely the harder nut of the two to crack.
    Sylvia was in her element, and it was obvious that she’d already decided that the Hart, Cross, and Tyler families were all now part of her own. It looked to me as though Dante, Damien and Spencer were eating up all the attention that she paid them all, and I assumed that was because they’d never experienced a grandparent before.
    As dinner progressed, I grabbed my camera and started taking photos. It was like a knee-jerk reaction to me, as necessary as water in order for me to feel right. I loved capturing a moment, especially when that moment was something that should be remembered. Sylvia squealed when she saw the camera and shouted out, “Sweetie, do you have a tripod?”
    “I sure do”
    “Wonderful! Can you set it up after dinner to take some pictures of all of us together as a family?”
    “Of course!”
    At the conclusion of dinner, Sylvia corralled everyone into the backyard so that we could take some pictures while the light was good. After we were all in place I set my timer and took twenty photos lightning fast. When I was finished, Sylvia dragged me into Flynn’s office so that she could see the photos. After choosing her favorites, she had me email them to her before she enveloped me in a bear hug.
    When we finished hugging I was surprised to see that she was tearing up. “Oh no, Sylvia! What’s wrong?”
    Shaking her head she grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. “Ignore me sugarplum, I always get like this in the weeks before they go out on tour because I’m a silly old woman. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but I’m not. I’m going to miss you, Flynn and Cole terribly while you’re on the road. I shouldn’t complain- this is actually