After losing his wife, Jim finally finds a woman who makes him believe that happiness can be found once again. As Jim navigates the fine line between his daughter and welcoming Emily into his life, he realizes that blending a family isn’t as easy as he thought it would be.

I met Emily three years after my wife’s death. Losing Karen had shattered me. She was the person that I thought I would grow old with, and more importantly, Karen was the mother of our precious daughter, Amy.

There were days when I thought that I’d never heal from the loss of my wife, but as time went on, I knew that hope would come.

“It’s okay to feel your feelings, Jim,” my mother would say. “But it’s also okay to dream of a new start. Nobody will ever replace Karen. Not for you, nor for Amy. But it’s okay to want joy.”

And meeting Emily made me feel like it was a fresh start. After a few months of dating, I decided to introduce her to my daughter, who was nine at the time.

“Are you sure, Jim?” Emily asked me, her eyes wide when we were at dinner.

“Yes,” I reassured her. “Don’t get me wrong, Em. It’s just that as much as we’re doing this and I think that we’re great together. But I can only continue this relationship if you get along with my daughter.”

“No,” Emily said, sipping on a cocktail. “It’s understandable, and I absolutely agree with that. Your daughter comes first.”

To my relief, they hit it off immediately. Amy, always so perceptive, even at her young age, was thrilled to have another woman in her life.

“I think Emily is pretty cool, Dad,” Amy told me when we went out on a little father-daughter ice cream date.

“So, you like her?” I asked, trying to navigate the situation from my daughter’s point of view.

“I do, Dad,” she said, picking the cherry off her sundae.

Two years later, I proposed to Emily.

Of course, by this time Emily had woven herself seamlessly into our family, and even Karen’s parents seemed to think that her influence was good on Amy.