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Josh let everyone in the house while Sophie was still trying to finish their dinner with Kai’s help. The Garin’s had arrived a little bit early. Sophie watched her hand, the slight tremble that just wouldn’t go away. It had started the moment the radiologist met her in the lobby. She was convinced it was cancer even though Doctor Simpson told her they didn’t like to be presumptuous.
Her parents, his parents were saying hello to Josh then Roman and Kai. Little Alexander who was still trying to toddle on his own, both sets of grandparents cooed over him.
When Kai and Roman arrived earlier, she was used to just walking in the front door. It was good that Sophie had told Kai ahead of time. The two of them were emotional, when they saw each other so it gave them a chance to get it together before the others started arriving.
“You look like you aren’t sleeping son, what’s wrong?” Sophie heard his dad ask. She glanced at Kai for a moment before turning back to the stove.
“Just restless,” he replied. Josh patted his father’s back. They greeted Sophie thinking this was just her being her and wanting the family together. She had been this way, since Ally left home, and Hannah and Heath had moved into their own apartment thirty minutes away clinging to the rest of them because she missed her kids.
She tried to be upbeat. She gazed at Josh wanting him to smile. She knew he couldn’t, not until they knew what they were facing. He mouthed the words, I love you and she responded in kind.
This isn’t how they expected their empty nest years to go. He promised to chase her naked around the house. Not take care of her while her hair fell out while she puked from chemo treatments. That didn’t even begin to cover all the possible side effects.
Ross and Lo arrived next. She heard her brother’s loud voice booming throughout the house and she almost cried. Ross had always had this attitude that he could make everything better for his lil sis, but this was one thing that even he couldn’t change. Just like Josh, he would struggle with the helpless feeling that Sophie had cancer.
Her brother entered the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her squeezing her hard. Ross was a big man where she was small. His hair was dark like hers, but his eyes were brown like their mothers not blue like Sophie’s and their dad.
“Let me go, Ross. The noodles are going to stick.” She heard the catch in her voice and so did he.
Ross turned her around and looked at her. “What’s up with you?” He was frowning at her.
“Nothing, you, big lug. I love you, that’s all. Happy to see you.” Her eyes watered, and she wiped her face on her sleeve.
“Now I know something is wrong. What is it, Soph?”
“I’ll explain over dinner.”
She pushed him away. “I love you, too,” he told her. He stepped away, but she knew he kept looking back at her with concern. Heath and Hannah arrived with Joshua. They were last, and everything was ready for dinner. “Let’s get this on the table,” she told Kai.
Sophie had made her homemade meat sauce for spaghetti. Kai had grated parmesan cheese for her. She took the bread out of the oven while Sophie poured her sauce over the noodles. Josh grabbed the bowl out from under her and carried it to the table.
“I’m not helpless,” she informed him, following him to the dining room.
Josh sat the bowl in the middle of the table. He turned to her, cupping her face between his palms. “Don’t be so sensitive. I wasn’t implying anything by helping you.”
She inhaled sharply. “It sucks, you know.”
“I know.” He walked to the entrance of the living room and called everyone to eat.
Sophie sat next to Josh at the head of the table. Her mother sat next to her. She gazed at her closely like she hadn’t seen her mom in months when she had been to her house just last week. Her parents and Josh’s both lived close. They saw them several times a week, another reason they liked living in Cooper.
Her mom’s face was still nice for sixty-six. Her dark hair was white in just the front while her dad was completely white-haired. She smiled at them and leaned over to kiss her mother’s cheek. Daisy Ward, her mother seemed surprised by the gesture. “Sophie, are you okay?”
She chuckled at her mom. Was she so unemotional that an act of kindness made them question her? Josh’s dad sat opposite her on the other side of the table. People began to take their seats. Maria Russack, sat next to his dad, then Heath next to her. Hannah by his side, holding Joshua who didn’t want to go in the high chair.
She watched her son lean over and kiss their baby boy. She got teary eyed. Heath glanced across the table at her. “Hey Mom, we’re looking at buying a house in the spring.” He didn’t notice the tears. Sometimes, that was Heath.
“That’s great, honey.” She busied herself trying to avoid the elephant in the room that only she, Josh, Kai and Roman knew about. They were all keeping quiet.
“We might buy in Cooper. It would be nice to have help with Joshua when we leave work late.”
She glanced at Josh. “We’d love that.”
“We’re always here to help,” Kai jumped in and told him. Sophie met her gaze knowing it might be Kai and Roman helping more than her and Josh.
“Hey, we aren’t too old to help, you know,” Maria, Josh’s mom informed the kids. “We’d love to have the baby too.”
