Page 24 of Second Chance Husband

They gave me a dubious look, but there wasn’t anything else for me to say in that moment.

We continued to eat, and set Sandy back in her bin, comfortable in her memory foam padding.

“Seriously, this is the best cheese dip ever.” Greer set her hand on her stomach and sighed happily. “I don’t know when I started to love cheese, but I blame my husbands.”

“Well, thankfully I’m not allergic to dairy, so I’m counting that as a win,” Luca said with a sigh, and I understood since Luca was allergic to more than a few things.

We went to start to clean up when the doorbell rang, and Heath frowned.

“Who the hell could that be? Devney should be home soon.”

“But she wouldn’t be ringing the doorbell,” I said, a little uneasy.

I followed Heath to the front door, as Greer and Luca went to check on Sandy. For some reason, I was surprised when I saw who was on the other side of the door, even though I shouldn’t have been. After all, our parents had this odd way of knowing when we were happy and finding our way.

“Darlings,” Mom said as she moved forward. I stepped back before she could hug me, her overly perfumed scent already filling the spacious room.

“I didn’t realize you two were in town,” Heath said, and my dad just smiled as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“You know we’re in town more often than not, we love seeing our grandkids.”

That was the truth. They did love their grandkids. I hadn’t realized that parents could treat grandkids so much differently than how they had treated their own kids. I had thought that was just something you saw in movies. But whatever slight connections that both Heath and Luca gave our parents to their grandkids, our parents relished. They were decent grandparents. Although I knew that they never had sole visitation. No, there was consistently one of us nearby. Not that we thought that they would kidnap them or anything, but it was more the fact that we were used to their neglect. And their constant bickering back and forth. But the way that they were looking at each other, they didn’t look as if they were fighting now.

“What are you guys doing here?” Heath asked, and I was grateful that we hadn’t taken out any of the planning brochures and notebooks we had for the upcoming vacation. Our parents were not invited. They would make the whole thing about them and the trip would become far too difficult. There was no way that we were going to allow them to harm this time that we had for each other. The fact that they routinely seemed to know when the four of us were together alone though, it was like they had some form of psychic connection. Or maybe I needed another beer.

“We’re here to tell you the good news. I know you have a thousand things to do, we’ll leave soon, but we have news,” Mom said, practically bouncing on her toes.

Greer and Luca came forward, the four of us standing in line against our parents.

I hated the fact that imagery was so close to the truth. It had taken far too long for the four of us to find each other the way that we needed, and yet, I knew no matter what happened, I would never let our parents hurt my siblings. My siblings each had families to take care of, so I would be the one that took care of them.

“What’s the news?” I asked, my voice a blade.

My mom looked hurt at my tone, while my dad just looked annoyed. However, they both brushed those expressions off their faces before moving back to their point.

“We’re getting married.” Mom smiled up at me, showing off her brand-new engagement ring.

I frowned at them, utterly confused.

“I thought you two were already married?” I blurted.

“No, we were going to get married a couple of years ago, and then with your weddings, and the babies, we took our time. And then we had a little break,” Mom said, as she looked over at my dad. I didn’t even want to see what expression she had on her face.

Either she was reminiscing about the fight or relishing in it. I didn’t want to know what side of the coin she had chosen today.

“Married? Again?” Greer asked, just as aghast as I was.

They had been married twice before, divorced twice as well. I thought they were already married, but apparently, they hadn’t gotten to the deed before backing out again.

I had no idea how many times they had been together versus not in my life, and I didn’t tend to dwell on it.

“Yes. Again. I love your father, and it’s time for us to be a family.”

Mom beamed as if she had said something profound, and instead dread just filled my gut.

These were the examples of love and forever in our lives. Two people who either loved each other without pause, while ignoring the rest of the world, or people who hated each other to the point that they had to tear down everything in between them, including their own family.

There was never a middle ground for them.

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