“I’m sure it’s not that bad, you can always find a new place, right munchkin?” David tried to be reassuring, but it wasn’t working because he had no idea the true conversation that was about to transpire.
“I’m not sure if I can. It was pretty important to me. Some place that I liked to keep to myself.” I said my words through gritted teeth, my stare focused only on Greg.
“Wasn’t like you hadn’t brought Alexa and Erica there before.”
“Pretty sure Jack just told me you brought him and Delilah there first.” I spat my words at him with disdain. I may have told Erica and Alexa, but Greg had told his siblings right after it happened. Last week. He had kept that from me and I didn’t appreciate it.
“Fine.” Greg picked up his glass of water, took a sip, and then slammed it back down on the table. A little water jumped out of the glass and landed on the white tablecloth. I hoped that Margaret didn’t see or she would have a fit. She was keen on perfection. “We should have taken them together.”
“If they’re still open, why don’t you guys take Max and Chase. Pretty sure they would love a taste of their awesome sandwiches,” Jack interjected.
“Shut up Jack.” My voice collided with Greg’s as we yelled at him in unison.
Jack’s laugh filled the room as he popped a piece of chicken into his mouth and leaned back in his chair. He was loving this way too much. Delilah snickered next to him and shoved a spoonful of mac and cheese into her mouth.
“I don’t know why you all are so uptight about some damn sandwich shop.” I looked over to Margaret and had to hold back a laugh. She downed half the bottle of wine already and was pointing to the plates on the table. “There is perfectly good homemade food in front of us, so eat it.”
We did as she said and finished off our plates. None of us were speaking to each other, but the shade that was thrown across the table felt like daggers. I tried to make my way out of the awkward silence, but was pushed back down into my seat by David, as he and the guys cleaned the table, while us girls watched them remove everything with swift haste.
“Dessert in the living room?” Margaret didn’t wait for an answer as she removed herself from the dining room and made her way over to where the couches were aligned in a perfect square, with just enough space to get between them. “Honey, will you bring out the pie, please?”
Greg and Jack were already out of the kitchen, standing in the doorway. I could see the look of determination on their faces and I knew what they wanted. The big pillow. It was the coveted pillow for whoever had last won game night. I didn’t care, though. I wanted it.
“I call big pillow!” I jumped out of my seat and tried to make a mad dash for the living room. I heard footsteps following me at the same pace I was running. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it, but I damn well was going to try.
Just as I was about to dive for the pillow, arms wrapped around me and my back slammed into a chest. I was scooped up and a laugh escaped me, one that I couldn’t stop. Margaret’s eyes went wide from where she sat on the couch, as I looked up to see Greg smiling down at me.
“We can share.” I looked over to where Jack and Delilah had both taken their normal seats on the couch and could only assume one thing. Greg had won game night last. I was playing with fire and I didn’t care. For some reason, when I was in this house, with these people, I felt safe. It was like reality wasn’t a thing; we lived in this bubble. A bubble I was afraid was going to burst at any moment.
Greg maneuvered us so that when he sat down on the big purple pillow and he pulled me down onto his lap, we were both comfortable. Jack grabbed a game board from under the table and started to set it up.
“Your favorite.” Jack looked directly at me as he set up the oldest version of Life I had ever seen. I loved it, though. It was simple and just used cash, no little “money” chips or those credit-card contraptions, no. Pale colored cars and light pink and light blue pegs that were so thin that if you bent them and they would break. When looking at them, you would think those were their natural colors, but that wasn’t the case. Everything was faded and had an old musk scent to it that just made you think of how many game nights this board had gone through, how many family fights had ensued from this game.
David walked out of the kitchen with plates, forks, napkins, and a container that I knew carried the best damn apple pie I would ever eat. It was one of Margaret’s specialties and she always won the pie-baking contest here in town every year.
“No ice cream tonight.” My eyebrows raised in surprise at David’s comment. We always had ice cream with pie. “Someonedecided to eat all of it today.”
He shot daggers in the direction of his wife, but I was more surprised when it was Delilah who answered his harsh statement.
“It was the only thing I could find to eat!” She huffed and slouched back into the couch, admitting defeat.
“Likely story.” Greg’s voice reverberated through me and it wasn’t until then that I remembered that I was sitting in his lap in front of his whole family. That his brother and sister both knew we were married and his parents had absolutely no idea what was going on. I tensed in his arms, and his hands went directly to my thighs, rubbing them up and down, trying to soothe me.
“Let’s get this game started!” Jack picked out his favorite color car, the red one, then it was Greg next who made sure to grab the green and baby blue one, green for him, baby blue for me. I tried to hide my smile from him, but I could see Delilah out of the corner of my eye watching us closely. In fact, when I looked up, everyone was watching us closely.
“Dad, you want to grab yours and Mom’s next?” Greg coughed to break the awkward stares, trying to get everyone to keep moving to get game night started.
“No problem. Jack, would you dish out the slices?” David moved into action, taking care of what Greg had asked him. We finished setting up the rest of the game with who got what as far as insurance and who wanted what for their cars. We were all set up on the board and each of us had a plate with pie in front of us. Now it really felt like family night.
The game lasted over two hours and, when I finally looked up at the clock, I realized it was one in the morning. I nudged Greg and then pointed to the clock.
“No worries. I already talked to Max.” My eyebrows squinted in question. If we were going to get up early enough to make it into work at a decent time, we needed to head to bed now. “The office can run itself. I wanted to make sure we were able to grab pickles for you before heading home.”
I was speechless. This man. He surprised me to no end and I hated it. He was considerate and romantic in ways that I never expected him to be and it made it that much harder to believe any of this was real. Because it wasn’t. That’s what I had to keep telling myself. I couldn’t get stuck in the fairy tale that was Greg. Fairy tales weren’t real.
“I mean, I don’t mind if we get back a little late, but I still have work that needs to get done.” I tried to push for us to still leave tomorrow morning, instead of the plan I knew he was brewing. The one where we stayed all day. The one I wanted so much to happen, but knew it shouldn’t.
“Nope.” He said it with a pop and left it at that, shoving the last bite of apple pie into his mouth.
