Bmb Version 5 5

Disclaimer

: This is a work of fiction, and it was created solely by me as the author. Any similarities to characters, businesses, places, or things are all happenstance, though my appreciation to those who have

inspired

my works is immense.

Author's Note

: This entire series is based on the same characters, places, and general situations, but will be shared in the form of five different versions. I'm hoping you'll appreciate the various approaches as they are posted. And be aware, some versions go into certain details more than others, so remaining calm and awaiting the next installment may be necessary, but I assure you, it'll be worth it. Questions and comments are welcome. I hope everyone will be kind.

I've included a recap (which is told from Jen's POV), and here's a hint (for those who read these notes all the way through): This part begins from Gram's POV.

Recap: Watching Tommy and Trin interacting now was crazy different, even from before their big divide. It was nice the way they got along before, but this was something else. Like, a two-ton weight had been lifted off both their sets of shoulders, and now they could be their true selves with one another. They were playful, loving, and so sweet especially when they didn't realize (or care) that anyone was watching them. I think Tommy caught me once, but he just smiled and kissed Trin on the top of her head as she pointed at her list for him to look at another idea she'd had.

While I agreed with Tommy that she could give it another few days to meet with Jeremy, Trin was headstrong and determined to go visit him since the weather had cleared up some. And so, in true Tommy fashion, he "allowed" it only if he could drive her there on his way to the gym. I knew why Trin was frustrated with it, but it wasn't worth the tension. We girls from Illinois knew how to drive in the snow. These New York boys just felt that we didn't. I rolled my eyes at Trin to share my similar feelings about Tommy's concerns which only made her feel better about it. As they made their way to the garage, I called out to her.

"Tippy!" I yelled. "Don't hesitate to insist on taking the wheel if he gets scared. Then maybe he'll believe you know a thing or two about driving in snow."

"Donuts in parking lots don't count, Jen!" Tommy taunted. "Nor does getting stuck in the ditch!"

"Not once in my life, Parker!" I argued and laughed. "I hear it's not the same perfect score on your record!"

"Get in here!" Doug complained and shook his head as he closed the door. "I told you that in confidence!"

"Well, they should have no secrets," I justified. "If she heard me, he can regale her with the story that goes along with it." I put my hands on his chest. "Meanwhile, any chance we could utilize this empty house for a little make out session by the other hot couple who resides in it most of the time?"

"Oh, hell, yes," Doug responded and bent down to pick me up off the floor and into his arms. We spent the next couple hours making good use of that couch if I say so myself. Oh, and when they got home, Trin was beaming. Turns out, because of my illumination of certain events, Tommy gave in and let Trin drive his precious truck. He was very impressed. I'm not sure if she ever told him that Mark had not only owned a truck the entire time she'd known him, but he had also ensured that she knew how to handle it in the snow. Nonetheless, it made me smile.

BMB: Version 5-5

Tommy and Trinny showed up at my house around 5:30PM on Thursday. Trinny looked so happy. It felt wonderful to see that beautiful smile on her face again. And Tommy. Oh, he was beaming. He'd finally discovered the real meaning of true love and how truly possible it was that God had even planned for him to find it right where and when he hadn't expected it.

Trinny had not only brought a dessert, but one she shared they'd made together. As I was preparing to set the food on the table, Tommy excused himself to use the washroom before dinner. He leaned in, kissed Trin sweetly, and then told her he loved her. I think we both melted. I knew I hadn't gotten used to hearing him say it to someone outside of family. Had Trinny heard it a lot or just a few times? I went ahead and asked her.

"It still catches me off guard sometimes because I'd thought about it so often, but he's making such an effort to show (and tell) me the love he's now aware that he's felt all this time. I'm loving it, Gram. And this ring? Not only is it a beautiful piece of jewelry already, but knowing the story behind it? That is just priceless. Truly, Gram. I'm so honored."

"I'm so glad that you like it," I told her and finally sat down at the table. I usually turned down help for a simple meal, but I'd begun thinking it was time to reconsider my stubborn habit. I was tired.

"Alright! Let's eat," Tommy declared and sat down between us ladies. It was when he extended his hands to both of us to hold ours to say grace that about tipped me over. "May I, Gram?"

"Please," I responded and smiled to myself.

"Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to eat together this evening, and for the hands which made this meal. We ask you to bless Gram who has been our biggest believer in the love and gifts which Trin and I were given. We ask you to watch over Gram and keep her healthy so we can keep her around for a good long while. And please continue to bless Trin and myself with the love that we have. Amen."

"Amen," I said quietly and made a quick attempt to look at Trin's face. She was admiring her fiancé as he brought her hand to his lips to kiss it quickly before letting it go. "Tommy, that was lovely," I told him. "Thank you both for coming to spend the evening with me."

"Thanks for having us," Trin answered and took her first bite. "Oh! Gram! This is delicious! Oh! This is so nice. Gram, can we make this a more regular thing? You don't always have to cook either. Maybe once or twice a month, Tommy could go pick you up to come to our house, and I could cook or whatever?"

"Oh, that would be lovely," I responded, but then I gave Tommy a head tilt. "Um," I said with a smile as I was about to put my food in my mouth, "your house?"

"Ours," Tommy answered and reached over to take Trin's hand. As she was lefthanded, she could continue to eat. It was clearly something they'd been doing for a while. Or had been before the big division earlier in the month. Thank God that was over. "Um, well, I don't know how much I should share though. It's not official or anything."

"Oh, Gram won't tell anyone, sweetheart," Trin told him and shook her head. "We can tell her what he said."

"Well, Dougie and Jen are pretty serious, so they're ready to live together as well," Tommy explained. "I plan to spend the rest of my life sleeping next to Trin, so keeping my place is silly when Dougie could live there. And..." Tommy continued but looked at Trin to make sure it was alright to continue. When she nodded, Tommy smiled. "He plans to propose around Valentine's Day."

"Oh, I knew it was happening soon," I told Tommy and waved off his shock. "Not everything has to be told to me; I see things. Besides, have you watched those two? They're very similar to you two from what Dougie has shared with me. One look at her, on a screen no less, and he knew in his heart that he'd found someone special. That it was Trinny's best friend is no shock either. We're all connected, you know. He'd have met her eventually, but how it happened, and more importantly how he made it happen with Trinny's surprise for her birthday and all? Well, what a sweet story to share down the road."

"Well, it is certainly a sweet story," Trinny agreed and smiled at me. "I couldn't have asked for anyone better for my best friend. And for our brother."

"How's that, dear?" I asked her suddenly. Their brother?

"Oh, I've been telling Dougie he's like one of my brothers since the first week we'd met," Trin explained. "I was just teasing him yesterday that he's going to go ahead and realize that he'll have to admit it one of these days that I'm his sister-in-law and not just his officemate or his brother's girlfriend. We are always teasing and playfully fighting about things. But I've watched him with Jen on several occasions, and I just love how in love they are."

"It does my heart so good to see the boys so happy with their girls," I shared.

After dinner was done, Tommy stood up after wiping his hands with his napkin once more. "Gram, why don't you and Trin go sit in the living room and talk some more," he offered. "I'll do these dishes and clean up before we have dessert. Trin brought disposable plates and forks so we won't have to dirty anymore dishes."

"Well, isn't that sweet?" I asked him and looked over at Trin. "Shall we?"

"Yeah," Trin answered and offered her elbow for me to take to walk into the living room with her. "I haven't gotten to visit with you in here since the Christmas stuff was taken down. It's lovely, though I'll always treasure the Christmas decorations because they were up when we first met."

"Yes, they were up when you met him," I teased and patted her hand when Trinny gasped. "Oh, I'm just teasing. I will always remember that first discussion we got to have before my grandson whisked you away to find your house, keep you overnight, and finally return you looking like you'd just found that there were gifts under the tree with your name on them."

"Gram!" Trin argued. "You're making me blush!"

"Oh, we've talked enough about things that make us blush, my Trinny. Don't you remember that Sunday morning when you came to tell me all about that first kiss? If I remember correctly, I said more than I probably should have about certain things I did in my past life." I covered my cheeks suddenly. "Oh! There I go again!"

"Oh, Gram!" Trin teased. "I have to admit that I have a few similar tales to share some time when a certain gentleman isn't in the house," she admitted and then covered her own cheeks.

"Well, last I remembered," I said quietly, "you shared after your interesting little talk with Tommy on that Thursday night that you didn't really have much of an exciting sex life. Things have changed?" Now, I knew that they had because each member of the family was privy to at least one hint that their sex life was alive, active, and quite exciting. I didn't want to let her know that, per se. Sometimes, hearing it from the person experiencing it made all the difference. I couldn't wait.

"Night and day, Gram," Trin shared, sighed, and then smiled before covering her cheeks again. "Oh, I wouldn't even know where to start. It's just... it's just so beautiful, Gram. Jeremy told me when we were talking last night that from how I had explained it, 'regular people have sex, but what Tommy and I do is make magic.'" Trin smiled again as she looked over at the kitchen to see if Tommy was standing there yet. "And we do, Gram. I knew in my heart that he was in love with me when we made love every time we did it before we had our issues, but, well, you know. I'm just so glad we're good again. And I'll never question it again. Never, ever! I'm so blessed."

"We both are," Tommy declared as he walked in from the kitchen.

"Hi," Trin greeted him and waved him over to sit with her on the couch. "We were just talking about you."

"I know," Tommy answered. "Gram, forgive her." Trin gave him a surprised look which made me laugh a little as I was pretty sure I knew what Tommy was about to say. "She can't help but be overwhelmed with her love for me. She just gushes night after night," he continued and seemed to be laying it on nice and thick, "about how lucky she is, and about how awesome I am, and how wonderful I've made her life." By the time he got to the second one, Trin had started laughing.

"Oh, you!" Trin admonished playfully. "Cut it out."

Tommy wrapped his arm around Trin's shoulder and pulled her to him. She fit nicely snuggled right into his side. I was sure it was very normal for them at this point to sit like that often. Oh, how I loved that for them. I remembered a time when Bob and I sat just like that once in front of his parents. His mom had told me that was when she knew I was going to be around Bob for the rest of his life.

After about ten more minutes of random conversation, Trin looked up at Tommy and nodded. "Gram? Are you ready for dessert?" Tommy asked and stood up first and then reached his hand out to Trin to help her up. "Trin will get a head start on it while I walk you in. Sound good?"

"That sounds lovely, sweetheart," I told my oldest grandson. He came over and extended his hand to help me up next. I looked up at him from my seat and smiled. "I'm so happy for you, Tommy. So, so happy. For the both of you," I continued. I grunted as I stood up. This old body was the only thing keeping me down, I'm afraid. As Mrs. Winterbourne said in the movie with the same title, "Oh, damn. Damn, damn, damn. If it weren't for this body, I'd live forever."

"I really love her, Gram," Tommy told me quietly as he headed for the kitchen. "She's my everything." I patted his hand and smiled to myself. Oh, how I remembered feeling the way he did. The way she did. I was just so happy for them.

* * *

Hey there. I'm Joe. Trin said I had to share my take on this little adventure, so I chose to talk about the first Fun Event BMB treated us to for the year. Trin knew it was her own technical difficulties which made having a team building exercise and fun day impossible for the month of January. Fortunately, we'd had snow days which

almost

made up for the lack of fun. But seeing the two of them happy again was the best part. Man, that had been torture watching them both suffer. Lack of communication. Lack of information. And for Trin, acceptance of the fact that she

was

good enough for Tommy versus some stupid belief that he deserved someone who hadn't been married or had kids before. I mean, I got it. We all kinda got it, but the woman was just being too hard on herself!

My wife, Sarah, had heard about Trin's "decision" from Rose in early January. I was so thankful Sarah didn't cross paths with Trin very often. She would have screamed and yelled at her for as long as she could have. She hated that Trin had felt that way about the relationship with Tommy and felt certain if she'd just have gotten five minutes with her...

Thankfully, the only two people who could have fixed the problem were able to work through it, so it was all good. And when Sarah heard that they were better again, she acted like it was the most obvious thing that it had been worked out. I just rolled my eyes and thanked God she hadn't seen Trin to speak her mind. I love my wife like nothing else, but she can be scary. I'm not going to lie.

Having Tommy and Trin getting along again made things at work so much better too. I hadn't become a fabricator to endure workplace drama. I worked in a shop where motorcycles were made for crying out loud. We didn't have time for drama. But it was

because

of that drama that we got two "fun work events" set for February rather than the one per month Trin had promised. January's event had already been up in the air being that it would have been our first, but it worked out in our favor in the long run.

After the snow days had passed making it so that we were all able to return to work, Trin announced that we'd be debuting our fun events with a two-night hockey game experience at Madison Square Garden. She had arranged for us to sit in premium box seats which had been provided by one of our former clients. When I looked at Tom to see his reaction regarding Trin's announcement, he was smiling from ear to ear. He was often saying that Trin was one of the best decisions he'd ever made for BMB. I'd always just assumed he was talking about how happy Tommy had been.

The games were exciting, and the food, drinks, and entertainment for both nights were excellent. At first, all the guys hesitated to believe we were getting all the amenities Trin had claimed were part of the suite experience. About ten minutes later... after our orders had been taken, and reality had sunk in? Yeah, we were in for a good time. Any frustrations we'd had about Trin and Tommy's drama pretty much dissipated before the food and drinks even arrived.

* * *

"I am so glad to be back," I was telling Tommy when we walked into the house which would soon be known as our house. He took our luggage into the bedroom and began sorting out dirty clothes and the ones we hadn't worn to be put away. We hadn't spent a night apart since the night he'd walked into my house, and we'd made up after three long weeks of near radio silence.

"Me too," Tommy agreed and grunted as he set our suitcase on the bed. "There's just something about home."

"Well, we can't get too comfortable," I reminded him. "We have dinner tonight at your dad's house. But after that, we can head over to your place to clean it out and prepare to clean it up for Dougie and Jen." Tommy came walking into the kitchen as I sorted through the mail which had been left on my kitchen table. I turned to face him.

"I think it's so cool that Dougie asked us not to mess with the place until after tonight's proposal. He didn't want to give away any of the surprise. I know Jen has made mention to me once in a while that she wishes she and Dougie could get working on getting their own place now that you've all but moved in with me. Dougie is tired of making up excuses for reasons to not go looking yet."

"Well, on that note, my love," Tommy stated as he put his arms around me, "when will you want to put my name on the deed?"

"Are you in a hurry to take over and kick this chick to the curb?"

Tommy looked down at my face with little humor. "Never," he whispered. "I am cool to wait until our wedding day. I just want it to be about us and not just you. And when we do that, we will combine accounts. I don't want mine and yours. It's our house payment after tonight. They're our bills. It's our yard. It's all our responsibility. Nothing is just about you anymore, babe."

"I love you," I told him simply as he began moving his lips towards mine. When he was done rocking my world with a simple kiss, I cupped his face. "I'll call the bank and see what needs to be done about the loan. If having you on it brings it down a percentage point or two, that'd be cool too. And once we have a date on the new close of the refinance of the house, we can get started on combining our accounts."

"I love you," he responded and kissed me once more. "Now, let's head over to Dad's to see if we can get in Michelle's way in the kitchen."

* * *

"Let's pray," I suggested as we took our places at the table. Dougie and Jen seemed happy. Tommy and Trin were as giddy in love as I knew they would be, though even more if that was possible. Georgie was a little jealous of her two older brothers, but I had a feeling things were going to change for her soon. I didn't know why, but "mother's intuition" is a powerful thing, or so I'm told, even for stepmothers. And Tom just wanted to get started on the meal.

"Um, can I lead?" Dougie asked which just about knocked me off my chair.

"Please," I told him quietly and continued trying to hide my shock. Wonders never cease.

"God, thank You for getting us home safely. Thank You for this meal and the hands which created it. Thank you for the close bond we have as a family, and for the awesome people you've brought to our lives, especially lately. Amen."

"Amen," I answered as well and picked up my napkin to set it on my leg. "Thank you, Dougie. That was lovely."

"Hey, before we begin..." Dougie added, and I quickly looked over at Tom to catch his annoyance since he'd already taken his first bite. He continued eating and grunted to show that while Dougie had his attention, he had no intention to stop eating.