Chapter 16 Maggie
MAGGIE
“Fifty years. Who’d have thought,” Kate murmurs from next to me.
“Half a century my friend. Longer for you and me. Lots of changes,” I reply, slipping my arm through hers.
It’s been fifty years since Kate and Shep, and Robert and I got married. Our kids had wanted to throw us a party, and who were we to stop them?
Fifty years!
Where the hell had time gone?
Fifty years since the day that Robert had his face slapped for taking liberties.
Fifty years since Kate and Shep had said I do.
Fifty years since Robert and I’d followed and got married a few months after them.
So many changes, some good, some bad. But through it all, our core group had been there for each other. Just like always.
“What are you two up to, gorgeous?” Robert asks, slipping an arm around my waist and looking toward where Kate and I are looking. We’d been watching our families and friends mingling, laughing, and partying.
“Remembering,” I answered, resting my head against his shoulder.
Shep eased in next to Kate and wrapped an arm around her waist. Over at the bar, Gunny and Thor turn towards us, lifting a beer in congratulations.
Bev and Maura turn at their action. Catching sight of us, they smile and each blow us a kiss.
On the dance floor, Onyx and Rea are slow dancing, wrapped up in each other.
Draco grabs Molly as she darts past laughing and drags her onto the floor next to them.
She laughs up at him. He lowers his head and whispers something to her.
When her laugh turns into a smirk and she winks, I know he’s probably whispering something dirty to her and roll my eyes.
Those two still argue to this day, but we’ve all got used to it.
Robert thinks it’s a form of foreplay for them … me, I’d rather not think about it.
Hypocritical I know! Considering his dad and I still get it on every chance we can.
A flash of blonde catches my eye. Bee, she’d never gone back to her natural dark colour again after she’d come home.
Eventually we’d got used to it. Just like we’d got used calling her Bee rather than Bella.
While she was different, under all that toughness she was still the same sweet person she’d always been.
And her man? Well, her man loved her to distraction.
He lifted her up and kissed her, feet dangling just above the floor. Drawing back, she smiled at him, running her fingers through his hair as he lowered her back to the dance floor. They joined our boys slow dancing to the band that had been hired. Our kids were happy, which made us happy.
“I got something for you,” Robert says.
“You did?”
“Yep,” he replies, pulling something from his jacket pocket and holding it out.
I laugh as soon as I see what it is. The wooden spoon I’d thrown at him the day we met.
Wrapped in lace, with gold flowers attached.
He slips it over my hand and settles it on my wrist, tying it on with the ribbon.
Shep and Kate laugh and shake their heads when they see what he’s doing.
“Can’t leave it out of our big day,” Robert looks up as he finishes tying the ribbon, his eyes soft when he looks into mine as he cups my cheek. “Fifty years of loving you, Maggie. Doesn’t seem long enough. I hope we have a lot more in us.”
Rolling to my toes, I press my lips to his murmuring. “Love you so much Robert. Thank you for each and every one of those fifty.”
“Mum, Dad, come on. This one’s for you,” Bee says, grabbing our hands as the tempo of the song changes to a familiar tune from the sixties and we’re swooped up by our families and onto the dance floor.
Surrounded by our closest friends and family, I can only hope that they’re as happy as we are in fifty years.
I give thanks for the life I’ve lived; with the man I love, and the children we’ve raised with the best friends a person could ask for.
The End