A Wedding in December

Maggie lay on the bed, stunned, the covers pulled up to her chin. “I can’t believe that happened.”

“Neither can I.” Nick plumped the pillows and made himself more comfortable. “Ironic, really. The girls live at home with us for a couple of decades and never walk in on us having sex, and here we are thousands of miles from home and sudd

enly we have the entire family, plus a bunch of almost strangers, in our bedroom. It’s the only time I’ve been grateful you always insist on having sex under the covers.”

“That’s what you’re dwelling on? The fact that the girls walked in on us having sex?” She sat up, still clutching those covers. “Nick, this is serious. Rosie looked devastated.”

“Katie looked worse.”

Maggie had been so horrified at being caught naked in bed by her children, that she hadn’t paid too much attention to the finer nuances of body language. “After what she heard yesterday, it must seem very confusing for her. I can see why she was reluctant to believe us, but did she really think we’d go as far as faking sex?”

“Well, to be fair we’ve been faking everything else, Mags, so we can’t really blame her for not trusting us.”

“I know.” She covered her face with her hands and then let them drop. “I have messed this up. I was so busy thinking about us, and keeping up a convincing act, that I didn’t focus on the girls. Rosie was having doubts. Our baby was having doubts and I didn’t even notice? And I’ve been worried about Katie for a while. I should have pushed harder. Spent more time with her. Parenting is so hard, and it never gets easier. I wanted so badly to be a better mother than my own.”

“Oh believe me, sweetheart, you aced that one.” He leaned closer and kissed her. “You can’t force someone to talk to you, Mags. And as you say, we were rather focused on our own relationship. Which made a change if I’m honest.”

She felt a stab of guilt.

“You’re right, and we do need to focus on ourselves, but how do we do that when our girls are both going through such a bad time?” She flopped back down on the bed, trying to relax the tight knot in her stomach. “How are we going to fix this? The wedding is in two days.”

“From what Dan said, there isn’t going to be a wedding.”

“You think he meant that?” A few weeks ago that might have come as a relief to Maggie, but not now.

She felt responsible. Admittedly it had been a somewhat tortuous chain of events, but still she knew the blame lay with her. “Why would Katie tell us that Rosie was having doubts about Dan, while Dan was standing there?” Maggie tried to shake off her own embarrassment and examine the facts. “What was she thinking? Unless Rosie and Dan had already discussed it.”

“He looked as shocked as we were. And I’m not sure Katie was thinking. Which isn’t like her. Katie always thinks everything through.”

“She gets that from me. You and Rosie are the impulsive ones.” She glanced at him. “Sorry. That sounded like a criticism and I didn’t mean it to. I’m—panicking, I suppose. This whole situation has turned into a nightmare.” Grabbing her robe she contorted herself to put it on under the covers and then slid out of bed.

“Not the whole situation.” Nick grabbed her hand and tugged her down next to him. “Last night was—”

“It was.” She leaned in and kissed him, her heart full, but her mind somewhere else. “And I know we still have so much to talk about and work through, but our priority right now has to be our girls. And I don’t even know which one of them to go to first.”

“Maybe they don’t need us wading in. They need space. You heard Katie. They’re adults. They want to be treated as adults, and that means leaving them to sort out their own problems.”

“Leave them? You mean not go to them?”

“Our role is to support, Mags, not fix.”

“But they’re both hurting.” And she’d never grown used to the fact that when her children hurt, she hurt, too. It was as if there was a physical connection. How could she not go to them at a time like this? “And what did Rosie mean about Jordan intentionally keeping Katie away for the night so that she and Dan could be together?”

“I don’t know. There have obviously been things going on between the girls that we don’t know about.”

“Now I think about it, you’re right. Katie looked upset. Do you think something happened between her and Jordan?”

“Jordan? What would happen between her and Jordan?”

“Oh Nick.” Maggie shook her head. “You must have picked up the tension between them.”

“Exactly. Tension. So nothing is likely to have happened, is it? Except that if he did keep her there on purpose then the guy will probably live to regret it.”

“How can someone so smart be so clueless?”

“Jordan?”

“You! I don’t mean angry tension, I mean sexual tension. Are you seriously telling me you haven’t picked up the chemistry between them?”