LIFE Interrupted

Sophie glanced up at her daughter. “He was just telling us that, Ally. Are you rushing him out the door?”

“No, Mom,” Ally was irritated. “I’m going to walk him to the car.”

“It was nice meeting you, sir.” Brian shook Josh’s hand.

“Sophie, I hope you are feeling better soon.” He stepped over to Sophie’s chair and shook her hand too. Then he ruffled Delilah’s ears.

“Nice meeting you as well.” When the front door closed. “Quick, tell me what’s going on.”

Josh rolled his eyes at her. “I’m not spying on them, Soph.”

“Josh, don’t make me get up when I feel so awful.” She was playing him with everything she had.

“That is terrible Sophie.” He scowled at her.

“Now, Joshua Bradford Russack.”

“Good Lord, woman, you’re using my full name. I don’t think you’ve ever done that. You reserve that for the kids, not me,” he grumbled at her. He turned and peeked over the sofa through the curtains that he held open with one finger. “Want play by play or what?”

She snorted at him. “This isn’t a football game, Josh.”

“They are leaning on his car.”

“Side by side?” She asked.

“Nope, he’s leaning. She’s in his arms with her head on his chest.”

“I have to see this.”

Sophie put the puppies on the floor. She went to Josh and climbed in his lap, any further down on the sofa and she couldn’t see the driveway. He wrapped his arm around her waist. “You know if she comes in here, she’ll know you were spying on her.”

Sophie turned her head and laid it in the crook of Josh’s neck. “I’m sneaky. She’ll think we’re cuddling because I don’t feel well.”

“Yeah, you are,” he agreed.

Then she turned back to the window. Sophie watched her daughter standing in Brian’s embrace. His chin rested on top of her head. “Boy, he’s tall.”

“Six five.”

She gazed at her husband. “Any other statistics you know about him?”

“None you would care to know,” Josh responded.

She turned back to the window. “What’s going on, do you suppose?”

“I have no idea. I’ve never been good at this stuff. When Heath came to me with girl problems with Hannah, I told him she’s always right. Just accept it.”

Sophie turned back to her husband. She was frowning. “You knew they were a couple?”

“What did you think they were Sophie? They didn’t date anyone else. They went to every dance together. Every Prom?”

“I guess Kai and I thought wait and see, especially since they went to separate colleges. Heath was in Alabama, no less.”

“He never stopped loving her. Other than the first few months while they adjusted to not being together constantly…”

“When we thought one of them was going to break and either he was going to come home, or she was going to Alabama,” Sophie added.

“Yeah that,” Josh agreed. “They thought the time apart would just ensure that what they had was right and would survive the longevity they both wanted. They wanted what we have,” Josh informed her.