“Oh, Abigail. I’m so sorry to hear that.” Marg sighed, reaching over to take her sister’s hand.
“I’m trying to be strong for her and the kids, but sometimes it’s just so… hard.” She choked on the last word. Marg squeezed her hand comfortingly. “Your mother might not be the ideal prototype, Marg, but she is still your mother. Try to meet her halfway because once she’s gone, you can’t get back the time you wished you would have spent with her.”
Marg thought about her sister’s statement as she drove home that evening. She’d decided to head home and make up with her before heading over to Ben’s. She found Alice in the kitchen cooking. Without hesitation, she went up to her mother and hugged her from behind.
Alice turned to her daughter with a dumbfounded expression. “What was that for?” she asked.
“I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have snapped at you, and if you want to redecorate any of the rooms, it’s fine with me,” she rushed out.
Her mother looked at her weirdly before replying. “Good because I was thinking about redecorating the living room.”
“Go for it,” Marg agreed with a closed-mouth smile.
ChapterTen
“Hi,” Ben greeted Marg with an endearing grin as he met her at the door.
"Hi," Marg returned with a grin of her own.
"I've missed you."
The butterflies she felt when she was around him were already stirring, and they became frenzied flutters when his head descended and their lips connected. Her hand reached up to cup his cheek as his arms circled her waist. Being wrapped up in his warmth and having him kiss her as if there was no tomorrow made her feel as though she was home.
"Eww. Get a room, you two," Ben's nineteen-year-old son, Josh, called out from behind them.
Marg's lips instantly disconnected from Ben's, and she buried her face in his chest in embarrassment. Ben chuckled, the sound reverberating from his chest, vibrating against her cheek. He stepped back until they were in the house and closed the front door.
"Hi, Marg," came the soft but cheery greeting of his seventeen-year-old daughter, Brooke.
Marg lifted her head from Ben’s chest and simpered. "Hi, Brooke, Josh. It's nice to see you again.”
"Hi, Marg," Josh returned, a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes. "It’s good to see you too. Oh, by the way, when are the two of going to finally stop acting like teenagers and get hitched?”
Marg’s breath caught in her throat, and her eyes became saucers at the unexpected question.
“Josh,” Ben called out to his son in a warning tone just as his sister slapped his chest and glared at him.
“What?” Josh put his hands up, looking from his sister to his father innocently.
“Come on, Dad. I know more than half a dozen people who want to know. I’m just the only one to ask outright.” He smirked, the glint returning to his eyes. “Guess I’m braver than you.”
“Joshua, stop,” Ben spoke in a deathly calm voice, his shoulders squared. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees as the silence became deafening. While Ben looked at his son with warning in his green eyes, Josh’s glimmered with challenge.
“Fine,” Josh said after more than ten agonizingly tense seconds. “You get this one, Dad,” he relented, his voice drawn out with boredom. His eyes sought out Marg then, who was staring between the two men with caution. He smiled then— a smile she was used to that reminded her of his happy-go-lucky nature. “I’m really glad you’re here, Marg.”
“Thanks,” she replied simply.
Josh nodded. “Hopefully, you can make an honest man of my old man…soon.” And the smirk was back.
“Josh,” Ben called out, exasperated.
His son raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m gonna go play with my PS5 before Dad gets an aneurysm.”
“You do that,” Ben encouraged.
Laughter bubbled up in Marg’s throat before exploding through her mouth and nostrils in a snort. She realized now that Josh was enjoying provoking his father. Although it was somewhat at her expense, she enjoyed their back and forth as Josh said and did things to get a rise out of the man standing beside her.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t burn the house down,” Brooke chimed in, sounding like a mature older sister.
