Independence (15 page)

"Agreed," I said. "I'm gonna go see Bish and then I'll help in the kitchen."

"Oh, will you?" she said sweetly. "I'm a horrible cook. Your father told me you're so good with Mac-N-Cheese."

I laughed. "Then he lied to you."

She turned to him laughing as we walked out to the den.
I opened the hide-a-door and
Caleb plowed into my back
as I stopped. M
y eyes bugged. Bish had Jen up on the
piano as he stood between her knees. And the man must've been starvi
ng because he was devouri
ng her
mouth
right there on the Baby G
rand.

Caleb

"Yikes," I muttered and turned, gripping my hair in my fists.
Dude had my sister up on the piano kissing the sense out of her. Significants or not, she was still my sister. I did not want to see that crap.

I felt Maggie's hands on my back. She must've turned away from the debauchery, too.
I shivered
in disgust
and tried to think of something else. Maggie giggled, making me turn to face her. "And just w
hat is so funny?"
"Oh, come on.
It's funny!"

"Not. Even."

"You know we're worse," she said and nipped at my chin. "You know it's true."

"But I devour you in private," I said low.

"Hey," Bish said and we turned to see his face, full of chagrin. "Sorry. We didn't hear you come in."
"I'll rememb
er to make more noise next time,
"
Maggie said easily.
"Definitely more noise," I
agreed sardonically.
Jen laughed softly. "Shut up
." She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear and whispering, "
You know how it is."
"Yeah," I agreed and squeezed Maggie's
hand. "
I also know what it's like to be the brother and have to watch it though. Bish, I totally understand now, dude."
"Yeah," Bish said and took a deep breath. "Look, Caleb, I know we started off on the wrong foot. And I know that was my fault. I understand now what it's like to n
eed each other and feel so weird and just…helpless
to what's going on inside my skin
. I'm sorry I gave yo
u and Maggie such a hard time - e
specially you. It's no secret
that
I never liked you."
"Yeah." I
laughed. "Yeah. No sweat, man. I understand now, too."
"Is everyone ready for supper now?" Fiona peeked her head inside and smiled. "
I made
pot roast
."
"Yes, ma'am," I answered and towed Maggie to follow me
.
Dinner was easy flowing and natural. The chatter and talk was as normal as
ever. You'd never know there were
so many people with 'gifts'
sitting around the table, let alone the leader of her race and the Champion of the clan. And so many people with gifts on the way. But eith
er way it was normal. It made Maggie smile and be
happy to know that things could go back to the way they used to be. For the most part.
And then she
sprung the idea of us all getting married together on them. Fiona sputtered a little about tradition and rules
,
but eve
ntually came to the conclusion t
hat things needed to change and this was
a good way to start. And when she
told Fiona that
Gran was going to make her dress that sealed
the deal. She started to cry. Maggie was thinking how
it w
as good to see her dad comfort Fiona s
o effortlessly and not worry about us watching. He had alwa
ys been a good man even with Maggie's mother. She was just too stupid
to see what she had.
When the doorbell rang I assumed it was Kyle and Lynne coming to hang out. Bish said he'd get it and ran to do so, but I sat stunned as I heard the thoughts
through Maggie
of the person on the o
ther side of the door. She gave her
da
d a look in the warning before she got up from her chair and made her
way in to stare at the w
oman who has ruined her
life.

Maggie's heartbea
t
banged like an angry drum. I wrapped my h
and aroun
d her wrist and m
y fingers on her pulse kept
time with it. She went to meet B
ish at the door to confront
her mother. Her clueless father
still sa
t a
t the
table
,
wondering what was going on. I couldn't even imagine the crap that was about to go down when Fiona met Sarah. Or rather
, when Sarah m
et Fiona.
I held Maggie's hand as we turn
ed
the corner. And there she was in all of her home
-
wrecker glory.
"What are you doing here?" Maggie asked. No one could mistake the ice in her voice for anything but.
She lowered her head
.
"I was coming to see you again and the bus I was on got in an accident. I was in the hospital. The hospital called your father, but he wouldn't come see me!" She blubbered and peeked her eyes open
and up
to make sure we were watching. It was pretty pathetic. "And he didn't tell you I was there because I know you would have come to see me. So I thought I would come see you for myself."
"Why do you think I
would have come to see you?
Or that Dad would have?
" Maggie asked.
"Why wouldn't you?"
"Oh, I don't know," Maggie started softly. Too softly. "Maybe because you ruined Dad's life and then ruined mine? Maybe because you lied to everyone? And cheated on Dad? And then
lied to
Haddock about being pregnant."

Her mom's eyes bulged. And then moved on to the size of lemons when Jim came around the corner with Fiona. He stopped in his tracks, clearly not aware of who it had been at the door. Maggie's mind reminded herself that Jim didn't know about him not being her father and that she needed to rein in her anger before she let something slip.

He glanced
down at Fiona, who was a smart girl and had figured out what was up, and then looked over at Maggie's mom. "Sarah, what are you doing here?" he asked quickly.

I saw Fiona flinch when he said her name. I winced for them all. This situation was delicate at best. He reached up and touched her arm, rubbing his calm touch into her skin. "Sorry," he whispered.

"Sorry?" Sarah yelped. "For what? This is my house!"

"It's not, Mom," Maggie told her. She sighed and her shoulders slumped. She was done before she even started this fight. I moved to her back and put my hand on her side under her shirt. I saw her take a deep breath as my calm hit her.
"Mom, you can't just keep showing up here."

"She's right, Sarah," Jim spoke up and moved to stand in front of Fiona a little when Sarah glared at her. "You don't live here anymore. I put a couple boxes of
your stuff out in the garage. You can take them if you want."

She seethed. "You can't keep me from my own daughter.
She's still a minor.
"

"Not for long," Maggie muttered under her breath.

"If Maggie wants to se
e you that's between y'all
, but as far as this house and me, you don't belong here anymore."
"I thought you weren't seeing anyone," she sulked.

"I wasn't…you know what? That's none of your business anymore, Sarah." He spoke softly in chastisement. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you." She flipped her hair and grimaced. "
I came to see you because you wouldn't come to see me."She lifted her sleeve to show her arm. "See! I got four stitches
in that wreck
."

"Wow," Bish said bitterly. I had almost forgotten he was there. We all turned to look at him. Jen was at her side with both of her hands on his arm. Her lips were pinched in that way they did when she was angry about something. Bish continued with, "Four whole stitches."

He looked at her angrily for a few dragged out seconds before pulling Jen with him as he left the room. That's exactly what I wanted to do to Maggie. Her heart hurt because of this woman. I squeezed my fingers around her side a little tighter to remind her I was right there.

"What are you here for?" Jim asked once more.

Maggie's mom sighed. "Look…
I gave Magg
ie my great aunt's platinum bracelet
for
Christmas when she was fifteen
and I want it. She gave it to me and I think she'd want me to have it."

Maggie scoffed. Then she left. I closed my eyes and waited. I knew exactly what she was doing as I'm sure they all did. She came back not even seconds later and put it in her mom's waiting palm. "Now leave me alone."

I did take her from the room that time. I couldn't stand there and watch that anymore. I didn't have to drag her in the slightest as she let me tow her. As soon as we passed the threshold for the kitchen I turned and engulfed her in my arms. "That woman," was all I could say.

"Yeah," Bish agreed and I swung my gaze
to the side to see him sitting at the table with Jen in his lap. She was comforting her significant as I was comforting mine. "That woman."

Maggie peeked at him. She opened her mouth to say that she was sorry about her, that it wasn't Bish's fault that she didn't speak to him…again. But she closed her mouth and didn't even try.

"It's OK," he told her and patted Jen's leg asking her to let him up. He came to Maggie and ruffled her hair. "You were always the cute one anyway."

"I don't understand her," Maggie told him. "It's not you, Bish. It's not."

"I'm done worrying about it." He stood a little taller and breathed deep. "What about-"

He stopped talking when a pale Fiona came back into the kitchen. She leaned on the doorjamb like she couldn't hold herself up anymore. My sweet Maggie sprung to action. "Fiona, look." She pulled out the iPhone I bought her and moved her finger around until she found the page she was looking for. "See? Isn't this gorgeous?"

In her mind I saw it was a website of the dresses they'd looked at earlier that day. She was showing Fiona one of them. I blocked it out in case it was the one Maggie was going to wear. Fiona seemed grateful for the distraction, but still noticed when Jim came back in. He didn't pretend that things weren't awkward, he just jumped right into it. "Well, glad that's over. Who's ready for pie?"

That night on the way home in the truck, Maggie was back to her normal self. She hadn't even thought about
that woman
in over half an hour. "So it went well with Gran today?"

She smiled
and ticked her finger back and forth
. "
Uh, uh, uh." I laughed. "
How did everything go
with you
?" But even as she asked, I felt her
poking around for the answers, a
nd I let her instead of saying anything.

She saw Dad and I driving to Kyle's, him fidgeting and freaking out about me taking over, me freaking out and fidgeting because I was taking over, everyone smiling and being weirdly nice to me…because I was taking over.

Every time someone patted me on the back or gave me that
You can do this
look
, I felt this odd swell in my chest. Everyone believed in me so much. No one was worried that I was going to screw anything up but me.

So I stood before my family and started the meeting the way every meeting was started, by placing the object on the table before me and calling the meeting to order.
The object
was what
my father had given me at the R
eunification in London when he'd been forced to step down. The object was something each Champion of each clan held and kept on him to prove at any time that he was aware, ready and willing to be and do anything necessary to protect his people. Keeping the object on you and calling the meeting to order with it was to serve as a reminder to the Champion of his promise to do all of those things.