True story:

Last night I was preparing to take my step daughter to work. We live in a rural part of Adams County, Pennsylvania and she works in Gettysburg. Having moved here from Texas after graduating from high school – she doesn’t yet have a vehicle so we’re her primary mode of transportation until she does – she is still a little bit dependent on us for some things. She was feeling a little bit under the weather and was headed off to work so her attitude was not the most chipper, as you can imagine.

Since she sleeps during the day, because she works the third shift, the time was about 11 p.m. Her boyfriend is still in Texas, though he is planning to move up here after he gets his tax return. But that’s taking the story in a different direction.

Leah lives with her sister, a single mother of three, a couple of miles from us. But she often stays at our house because it is easier to get some sleep during the day. Today, she was planning to spend the day at our house when she got off of work because her boyfriend had arranged to have her Valentine’s Day gift delivered to our house to ensure that she got it. That was a smart move.

As we were preparing to take Leah to work, my wife commented on the weather forecast over the next couple of days. They were predicting snow. This didn’t sit well with Leah, who moaned.

I looked up from putting my sneakers on my feet and said, “You know what, it might snow and it might get cold, but Cupid doesn’t care about the weather.”

I’m a cocky bastard and everyone knows it. That’s why I get along so well with my wife and her children. They’re all just as cocky as I am and never let me get away with it for very long before whopping my testosterone-charged sense of humor with a jackhammer of estrogen. The repartee can sometimes get out of hand.

Well, in typical family redhead fashion, without missing a beat, my stepdaughter stood feet away and with a straight face, pointed out, “Yes, he does. He flies around in a frickin’ diaper. He cares!”

Oh, I rolled. I’m still rolling. I guess that’s the price to pay for love. Happy Valentine’s Day!