Chapter 27 #2
She laughed. “Not tonight, stud. Your head would explode.”
“That’s the whole idea.”
Smiling, she tapped her index finger on the uninjured side of his forehead. “This one.”
Scowling playfully, he said, “Oh, well, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Behave. I’ll be back with some ice and pain pills.” When she returned to the room a few minutes later, he had his head back and his eyes closed. She laid a towel over his leg and placed the ice bag carefully.
“Thanks, babe,” he muttered.
“You’re welcome.” She brushed the hair back from his forehead and kissed him. “You want to take some meds?”
“Yeah.”
She helped him with the pills and water. “Get some rest. I’m here if you need me.”
Without opening his eyes, he patted the other side of the bed. “I need you right here.”
“Give me one minute.” She went into the bathroom to change into pajamas and brush her teeth. Then she let Brutus out one more time. He lay down on his bed by the fireplace while she went to join Quinn in her bed.
He reached for her hand and gave a tug to bring her closer to him.
Mallory rested her head on his chest and sighed when he put his arm around her to keep her there. “Are you in pain?”
“Everything is much better now.”
“The pills will be kicking in.”
“That’s not why. It’s you. You make everything better.”
“You do the same for me.”
He ran his hand up and down her arm, his touch igniting her the way it always did.
“Hey, Quinn?”
“Hmmm?”
“I got invited to a wedding this weekend, and I get to bring a date. Will you be my plus one?”
He kissed the top of her head and held her even tighter. “I’d love to be your plus one this weekend and every weekend.”
On the day before Dan and Kara’s long-awaited wedding, Mallory asked her dad and Linda if she could bring lunch to their house. When they happily accepted, Mallory picked up lunch from the grocery store deli and headed to the White House.
Parked in the driveway behind her dad’s truck, she gathered up her bags and headed for the front door. As always, she hesitated before walking in, but they’d told her not to knock on their door. Their home, they said, was her home.
“Hey,” Big Mac said in his big booming voice when she walked into the kitchen like she belonged there. “Let me help you!”
“I got it,” she said, smiling at him, because how could she not? The sight of him made her happy. Then he made it even better by kissing her cheek and peeking into the bags to see what she’d brought.
“Ohhh, you got that chicken salad I love.”
“She knows the way to your heart is through your stomach,” Linda said when she joined them. She too gave Mallory a kiss and a quick hug before she smacked her husband’s hand. “Don’t be rude.”
“Am I being rude?” Big Mac asked Mallory.
“Not at all.”
He gave his wife a smug look. “I’m starving, and my daughter brought food.”
“Dig in,” Mallory said, amused by him as always.
“He probably had a dozen doughnuts this morning, and he’s still starving.”
“It was only three, and I’m a growing boy.”
“You’re going to be growing in all the wrong ways if you keep eating so many doughnuts.”
“She tries to put me on a doughnut diet every spring, but it never works,” he said as he broke open the bag of rolls Mallory had brought and made himself a sandwich. “It’s her fault I’m addicted to them in the first place. They’re her mother’s recipe.”
Mallory pulled a knife from the butcher block on the counter and sliced a tomato.
He put two slices on his sandwich and took a big bite. “Mmmm, that’s good. Thanks, hon.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, laughing as Linda handed him a plate with a long-suffering glare.
“She loves me,” he said, his mouth full.
“I keep hoping he’s going to grow up one of these days.”
Big Mac winked at Mallory. “She likes me just the way I am.”
Mallory and Linda made sandwiches and joined Big Mac at the table, where they chatted about Dan and Kara’s wedding, among other topics.
When Mallory thought about the reason she’d wanted to see them, her appetite waned and her throat tightened with emotion.
She took a sip of her ice water and tried to get herself together.
Naturally, Big Mac noticed right away. “What’s on your mind, sweetheart?”
She took a deep breath and said to Linda, “I took the advice you gave me a couple of months ago to talk to Kevin about my mother.”
“Did it help?”
“Tremendously.”
“He’s the best at what he does,” Big Mac said.
“Yes, he is.”
“What about your mother?” he asked.
“I’ve had a lot of unresolved feelings about her keeping you from me until after she died.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sure you share many of those feelings, but you’d never say so out of respect to my mother—and me.”
“I won’t lie to you,” he said. “I’ve had my struggles with it, but I’m trying to focus on the here and now rather than dwelling on things in the past that I had no control over.”
“I’m finding that’s easier said than done.”
His lips curled into a small smile. “Me, too.”
“Kevin suggested I write her a letter to put it all out there and get it off my chest.”
“What do you think of that idea?” Linda asked.
“I liked it enough to actually write the letter in the middle of last night, and since I can’t read it to my mother, I hoped I might read it to you guys. If you’re willing to hear it, that is. No obligation.”
Big Mac reached over to put his hand on top of hers. “We’d love to hear it, and we’re honored you’d want to share it with us.”
Linda nodded in agreement. “Absolutely.”
“Okay, then.” Mallory went to retrieve the folded pages from her purse and returned to her seat at the table. “Here goes.”