The Right Reason To Marry. Christine Rimmer

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      Karin lived with her dad, Otto Larson, and her two children, Ben and Coco, on the first floor of a large beach house owned by her brother, Sten. As she pulled the Traverse into the garage beneath the house, her dad came down the inside stairs, seven-year-old Coco close on his heels.

      Otto went straight to the hatch in back to get the groceries.

      Coco, in blue tights, red shorts, a blue T-shirt and shiny red rain boots, had stopped at the foot of the stairs to spin in a circle. The kid-size red blanket tied around her neck for a cape fluttered as she twirled. “Mommy, I’m Supergirl!” she shouted as Karin carefully lowered herself from behind the wheel. “Don’t worry, I will save you! I have vast superhuman strength, speed and stanima, X-ray vision, super breath and also, I can fly.” Arms out, she “flew” at Karin, who laughed in spite of what had just gone down at Safeway.

      Coco halted at Karin’s big belly. Reaching out her small arms and tipping her head back, she gave both Karin and the unborn baby inside her a hug. “I love you, Mommy, and I love our baby, too!” Coco beamed a smile so big it showed the gap where she’d recently lost two lower baby teeth.

      Karin bent to plant a kiss on the top of her curly head. “And I love you. Lots.”

      Otto shut the hatch. He had all the grocery bags, two in each hand.

      “I’ll help, Grandpa!” Supergirl proclaimed. She planted her rain boots wide, stuck out her little chest and propped her fists on her hips. Otto set two of the bags on the garage floor, fished out a block of Swiss cheese from one and passed it to her. The cheese in one hand, both arms spread wide, cape rippling, Coco ran back up the stairs and into the house, slamming the door behind her.

      “You gotta love that enthusiasm,” said Otto as he bent to pick up the bags again. Karin just stood there staring down at his bent head. His hair was all white now and thinning, his pink scalp showing through at the crown. He met her eyes as he stood again. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

      She replied in a small voice. “I saw Liam at Safeway.”

      “You tell him?” Her dad and her brother, Sten, and Sten’s wife, Madison, knew that Liam was the baby’s father. Sten and Otto had been after Karin for months to tell the man that he was going to be a dad. Madison mostly stayed out of it, though Liam was actually one of her long-lost brothers.

      Karin stared into the middle distance, thinking of Madison for no particular reason. Sten’s new bride had been switched at birth, of all impossible things. She’d met Sten when she came to Valentine Bay last March to find the family she’d just learned she had.

      “Karin. You tell Liam?” her dad asked for the second time.

      She blinked and made herself answer the question. “Uh. I did. Yes. I told him.”

      “And?”

      “And I said I was going straight home, that if he wanted to talk about it, I’ll be here.”

      “You’re thinking he’ll be coming by, then?”

      She nodded. “And soon, would be my guess. If you could maybe keep the kids downstairs...?” The house was really two complete houses in one. Karin, her dad and the kids lived on the first floor just above the garage. Sten and Madison had the upper floor when they were in town, which they weren’t right now. Madison was a bona fide movie star. Currently, she and Sten spent most of their time in LA or on location wherever she was filming.

      “No problem,” said Otto. “I’ll keep an eye on the kids and send Liam up when he gets here.”