Page 44 of Hitched

All the years of wondering how quickly our families would scratch each other’s eyes out, and here they are, meeting finally, and Dougall acts like he’s meeting Santa Claus for the first time. Surely this is a side of his da that Caleb has never seen before.

“Aren’t you all hungry?” Peg asks, likely sensing the trepidation.

“Oh, they’re lovely cookies, da. Have one.” Caleb encourages, breaking the tension.

“I would love to.” Dougall states tentatively, eyes still on my mama, as if she’s just chided him. And I suppose she has. The Harris family has not treated my family too kindly over the years, at least in the media, anyway. “If that’s okay, lass.”

Mama, ever the forgiver, sighs. “Call me Elspeth. And, aye, you can have a cookie. You can all have one. We made enough for an army. I’ll have to freeze most of them as it is.”

“Why don’t you bring some to the office?” Dougall suggests. “And if you want us to take some off your hands, we can take some to the office, too.”

And that’s when we engage in conversation fit for a four-year-old. And I realize that’s maybe all we needed. I also realize how the lord works in strange ways; bringing us all together like this. It’s strange but it’s nice to see. For years, my family has felt like the chided underdog, for not being top drawer, even though the way that the Harris family has made it to the top, hasn’t been accomplished in the most noble ways. However, with the presence of a preschooler, it seems like everyone is on a level playing field.

It’s decided that Peg will stay with mama and daddy tonight, since she falls asleep on the couch, and nobody has the heart to wake her. She also fell in love with my old room, well, room one of two. Mama kept all my old dolls and things in my childhood room, but the room that I used in university and as an adult, before I got my own place, that’s been turned into a workout room. Not that it’s ever used as that. It was my brother’s idea, but then he got a gym membership and that all fell to the wayside, and we were all too busy to make a change. But I digress.

Caleb carries Peg upstairs to my old room, while mama follows behind us. Da is still working, and Dougall is on a business call downstairs. I hear my phone ringing in my pocket, and I grab it, before it wakes Peg. It’s Brandy, and I take it into the hallway, leaving Caleb and mama alone in the room. “Brandy? This isn’t a good time.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“Someone’s asleep?”

“Caleb?”

Oh, God. While I was in Scotland, I barely spoke with Brandy, trying to keep things simple and as discreet as possible, until we got things calm. Now that Peg is here in the states, and I see myself spending a lot of time with her, I have to tell Brandy everything. “No. Meet me at my place in thirty minutes.”

“Is this another covert operation going on, Laney?” She teases.

“Just meet me there. I promise this will all make sense.”

“Okay.”

I tell Caleb that I'll see him later, that I need to get back to reality for a couple of hours. He kisses me goodbye and heads back to the office with his da, going our separate ways, after what seems like weeks that we’ve spent today, settling Peg and Gretchen’s affairs.

But as I arrive at home, welcoming Brandy, my night is about to get even more surprising...

Caleb

“She’s a fine lass, Caleb. Better than I thought.” Da comments as we drive back home.

I look at him as I drive. “Who, the bairn or Laney?”

He does a double-take. “Laney, of course. Well, the bairn is a sweet angel, too, but Laney, I had no idea that she was so lovely.”

“She is, da.”

He smiles at me. “You two look very happy together, Caleb.”

“We love each other, da.”

“That’s evident, son.” He pauses. “Laney’s mama is lovely, too. I never thought.”

“That’s because you’ve only ever known of them on a business level, da. People are different outside of work. You should try socializing more, and not for conferences and things.”

He nods, looking down at his hands, as if I just chided him. “I know, son. Your mama’s been asking me to do that for years, but we’ve been so busy.”

We’re silent. I look at him after a beat. “Da, how come you said, ‘bairns’, when you were talking about Peg. You used it in plural.”

He looks over at me and smiles. “What, she hasn’t told you yet?”

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