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“But I had Stevie when we met. He’s a baby. Of course, he is going to come wherever I go. His boys are grown men.” She opened a container of deviled eggs and put them out on the table. “Look, I’m going over there this afternoon and I’ll spend more time getting to know Ben and Joel. But I don’t see how it will work with neither of them employed.” She looked up at Maggie. “Will you give me a chance?”
“Honey, of course! Do you feel like you’re being pressured?”
“I do.”
“Well, I have a secret that I can’t tell, but I can say that one of Chris’s boys is going to work with Justin.”
“Who?” Annie cried.
“I can’t say, I just told you!” Maggie said. “It’s a surprise. Don’t tell Chris or Justin that I mentioned it.”
“And the other kid is going to work with Dave,” Katrina said, laughing. “So now she knows all the secrets, just not which kid.”
“Well, that changes so much, you have no idea. I wonder why Chris didn’t mention it? I just told him he needs to keep me in the loop.”
“They just figured it out,” Maggie said.
“I’m so happy! Who wants wine?”
“Me,” Katrina said, raising her hand.
“Me, too. I’m just shocked you brought it.”
“I’m sick of trying to police us. That was wrong of me. If we want to drink at ten in the morning, then we should drink while we can. Besides, it’s one stinking bottle.”
“Speaking of wine, what do you hear about your former mother-in-law?” Katrina asked.
“She’s back in AA and counseling. Steve is taking the parenting class and she’ll get into the next one. They didn’t want to take it together.”
“Well, that’s great news! Stevie will get to see his father again, soon.”
After pouring the wine into the goblets, she handed one to each of her friends.
“This is quite a spread. Who made the cheese biscuits?” Annie asked.
“My mother. Rose,” Maggie replied. “I keep telling her not to give Justin fattening foods to bring home and she does it almost daily. I think she wants me to be fat.”
“Maggie, you’re not fat,” Katrina said. “You’ve never been fat. I’m not sure where that’s coming from.”
“Look, we all have that one bothersome thing that clings to us,” Annie said. “Maybe it’s from childhood, or something more recent. I think we have a touch of PTSD. If your mother refuses to honor your boundaries, then you need to question your husband. We have Justin up on a pedestal! But he knows how you feel about bringing food from Rose because we’ve heard you ask him not to bring anything home.”
Maggie set her glass down and stabbed the air. “Yes! I never thought of it. I might say to him, why did you bring that home, but I need to make him understand that I’m serious. In the meantime, we’ll throw these in the rubbish if they don’t get eaten today.”
“I’ll take them home to Dave. Less that I have to cook,” Katrina said.
Annie took a sip of wine and picked up a biscuit. Biting into it, her gorge rose a little so she put it back down. “I feel sick,” she said, placing the glass back on the table.
“Take a deep breath,” Maggie said. “Is it the wine?”
“It might be. Don’t drink it!”
“The wine is fine,” Katrina said. “Are you coming down with something?”
“I had that sinus infection last month, but I took the antibiotics and they worked. And I had ringworm, remember?”
“Sit,” Maggie said, pointing to the picnic table bench. She came around to Annie’s side and gently rubbed her friend’s back. “It was probably my mother’s biscuits.”
“It’s not Rose’s biscuits,” Katrina said, leaning forward and placing her hand on Annie’s forehead. “You don’t feel warm.”
