Page 15 of Missing

Fifteen minutes later I was the first to arrive at Mary’s, which gave us a few minutes to talk. Wanting to avoid talking about my upcoming date with Doug for as long as possible I asked about Madi and Jaden, the two Sheppard children still serving in the military. Madeleine, Jamie’s older twin, was a Navy Corpsman, and Jaden, the youngest Sheppard, was a Marine Raider.

Mary was counting the days until they’d all be home for good. She figured she’d have all her kids in the same state by the end of the next year. Madi would be looking for work as a nurse practitioner in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Jaden planned on joining SSI.

“They’re both doing great. Jaden is finally starting college classes now that he’s stateside.”

“John must be thrilled.”

“He is, though he’ll be okay if Jaden decides not to become a PI. SSI is growing so fast; they’ll need guys dedicated to the personal protection side of things.”

“Has he said when he’s moving home?” I asked. His enlistment was up at the end of January, but he planned on taking a year off to travel with friends before coming home. At least that was what he told his parents a few months ago.

“No, but he’s taking extended leave and coming home for Christmas. He said it’d be a shame not to use his accrued leave time.” She chuckled.

“Do you think Madi will come home?”

“She’s not sure she can, but wouldn’t it be great? Having all my kids home, at the same time, twice in one year?” I could hear the longing in her voice.

Jack’s wedding was one of the only times Mary had all her kids together in the same place at the same time since Jack joined the Army. She was in seventh heaven for days. They usually celebrated holidays and birthdays over zoom calls, and even then, it wasn’t always on the exact day, and they were rarely all present.

“We’ll have to invite Madi to our craft nights.” I suggested knowing Meg would agree; she loved Madi and couldn’t wait to get to spend more time with her sister-in-law.

“I already have. She said she’s looking forward to it.”

Before long, Meg and Emily arrived. They’d driven together since they were coming from the same place. It was good to see the two of them developing a deep friendship. They were both great women who’d suffered through more than their fair share of trauma. Having a girlfriend to talk to was helping them both on their healing journeys.And they’ll be sisters-in-law soon.

Anne arrived as we were setting up our snack buffet, which included Meg’s now famous mac and cheese, sliced meats and cheeses, veggies, homemade baked treats, and lots of wine.

Mary set the table with beads of different shapes, colors, and sizes, along with fishing wire and elastic, as well as other tools we might need to create necklaces or bracelets. Last month we tried knitting, but decided it was too hard to learn while chatting and drinking. We kept losing our stitch counts and after starting over a couple of times we gave up.

We didn’t care. We’d talked and laughed late into the night and our friendships were stronger because of it.

After we poured our wine and filled our plates, we settled in at the table. Emily and Anne fit right in. The conversation flowed like we were old friends who’d been meeting like this for years.

“When do you expect to move into your house Meg?” Anne asked.

“Early December, if there aren’t any more delays and we can get it furnished.” Meg practically glowed with happiness. She’d had a rough go of it early in life, having been abused and trafficked, but was embracing the new love-filled life she had with Jack and his family. “I can’t wait to host my first craft and booze night!”

“It’ll be weird when you move out of Jamie’s house,” Emily said.

Emily technically lived at her parent’s house, though she was rarely there. When she first moved back to Weatherford, after leaving her abusive boyfriend, it was all she could afford. Heroriginal plan had been to find her own apartment after things settled down, but her mom convinced her it’d be silly to waste her money when she was rarely ever home.

I had a feeling Emily would move in with Jamie after Jack and Meg moved out. Though Meg had made it clear she and Jack had zero objections to her moving in before then.

“I’m sure you two will appreciate the privacy.” Meg looked at Emily and then turned to me. “But enough about us. Are you excited for your date tomorrow?”

I looked down at the bright blue and green beads in front of me as my cheeks turned pink. “I am. Doug’s taking me to The Breakfast Joint for lunch.”

“Oh, I love that place,” Anne said. Her head tilted, her eyes focused on something far away, like she was trying to remember something. “Is this the same Doug who works at SSI?”

Mary, Meg, and I all said it was.

“He’s a tall drink of water,” Anne said.

“Mom!” Emily looked embarrassed.

Anne didn’t. “What? I’m married, not dead.”

We all laughed. I had to agree with her, Doug was a damn fine-looking man.Sexy.

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