Page 90 of Flirting with Forever

She laughed and pulled back. “What are you munching on?”

“My mother made tortilla chips and guac. Seriously, you’ll never be the same after you eat her chips and guac. By the way, there’s way more people here than we thought.”

He took her hand and tugged her back through the house to the kitchen and all the way through to the back porch that Mary hadn’t even known was there. Mary peeked out, gasped and then yanked John back into the kitchen. “There’s a dozen people out there!”

“Like I said. More than we thought.” He frowned down at her quizzically.

“Let’s wait to tell her.”

He frowned even more, that beloved V carving its place on his face. “Until when?”

“We’ll wait out everyone and tell her when it’s just us. Later tonight. I just don’t want to do it in front of everyone.”

The V eased as soon as he realized that she wasn’t hoping to wait indefinitely to tell his mother. “Okay. Sounds reasonable.”

They dropped hands and stepped out onto the porch.

“Mary!”

Estrella, salt-and-pepper hair in a messy bundle on top of her head and a loose sundress flapping around her knees, practically bowled other guests aside.

Mary found herself wrapped up in a warm, firm hug. “You look beautiful!” Estrella crowed into Mary’s hair before she’d even released her. “Radiant and happy and perfect. I’m so glad you’re here. Now the party is perfect.”

Tears sprang to Mary’s eyes as this woman, this good mother, poured support and positive feeling into her. This woman who held nothing back from Mary. Who hadn’t held it against her when she’d initially rejected John. Who’d shown up at her shop with a wine and cheese picnic and helped Mary rebuild. Who thought Mary was the tippiest top of any mountaintop.

This was what a mother’s hug and acceptance were supposed to feel like. And Mary truly hadn’t felt that since Tiff had passed. Estrella loosened the hug to step back, but Mary held on tight and the embrace continued. Two tears rolled down Mary’s face before she stepped back from the hug and wiped the tears from her face, her eyes blurred and all the other guests at the party disappeared into a smudge of color.

“John and I are together,” she told Estrella. She heard John’s intake of breath and then his warm hand was at her waist.

“I thought we were waiting,” he said, but his words were basically turned into a groaningoofas his mother cuffed him around the neck and dragged him into a hug that looked rather painful. Estrella pecked at the side of his head with forceful kisses.

“I knew it!” she crowed through tears. “I knew the two of you were a love match. I knew it from the day I met Mary, but I didn’t want to push. She wasn’t really dating, and then before I knew it, she was dating that horrible Doug. But then! The window! The opening! And I kicked you through straight to her, my boy. And you’re such a good boy. You did such a good job.”

She released John with such force he stumbled backward and then Estrella pounced back onto Mary. “I told you he was a nice boy. Clumsy but sweet. Oh, Mary. And you’re such a good girl.”

“Estrella.” A deep voice came from over Estrella’s shoulder, and then there was Cormac, prying a sobbing Estrella off of Mary’s neck. “Let the girl take a breath.”

In fact, taking a breath was the first thing Mary did once Cormac had successfully pried Estrella off of her. She gasped for air and sagged back into John, who wrapped both arms around her waist and laughed into her hair.

“Sorry,” Mary said as she turned to him. “Your mom is such a good mom. I got overwhelmed. I didn’t want to hide it.”

“Fine by me, baby,” John murmured, brushing her hair back from her face and kissing her gently. “I’d been trying to figure out how I was supposed to keep from flirting with you until the rest of the guests left.”

“Oh, my God,” Estrella said through more tears. “They’recanoodling.”

“Can this count as your birthday present this year, Ma?” John asked with an easy smile on his face.

“Slippery slope, son,” Cormac admonished with a smile that matched John’s. “Next year she’ll be demanding a wedding for her birthday. The year after that, grandbabies.”

Both Mary and John stiffened.

“Right,” John said with a laugh. “Socks it is, then, Ma.”

The rest of the evening passed much less eventfully with good food and cold drinks and even a light breeze once the sun went down. It turned out that Mary actually knew most of the people from when she’d met them at the block party.

When it was just the four of them, John, Mary, Estrella and Cormac, Estrella’s eyes filled with tears again. Mary perched on John’s lap even though there was plenty of available seating.

“I won’t pressure you,” Estrella started, and John groaned.

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