Closest To My Heart

Chapter Thirty

Maggie absently pushed her food around the plate, having no appetite for fruit and scrambled eggs, or anything else on the menu for that matter. She couldn't stop thinking about Tag, couldn't help but wonder if he had listened to the messages she'd left, or if he was ever going to call her back. She checked again, but still no call or text from him. Maggie understood that he was upset about her leaving, but she didn't have much choice in the matter. Couldn't he see that?

A jolt of pain shot up her shin bone and she brought her attention back to the table, where three sets of eyes were on her, awaiting a reply to some comment or question that had been directed her way. From his seat across the table, her brother gave her a look that was an equal mix of irritation and concern. He kicked her again beneath the table, and she kicked him back twice as hard.

"Margaret, what is the matter with you?" her mother huffed impatiently. "You've had your head in the clouds all morning long. Put that phone away, and for Heaven's sake, stop playing with your food!"

Maggie let the fork fall to her plate with a clang and clenched her jaw shut tight as her mother launched into a familiar diatribe about her eating habits. Tears filled her eyes as she stared down at the cold, dimpled mass of scrambled eggs before her. What if she'd made a mistake, and Tag was lost to her forever? Was this what she had to look forward to, a lifetime of criticism and regret?

"I'm getting married!" Sean blurted out, effectively silencing his mother. His face reddened as the spotlight turned abruptly to him, but he plowed onward. "I haven't officially asked her yet, but we've talked about it, and I know she'll say yes. Her name's Sienna, she's really chill, and I just met her a week ago. Oh, and I got her name tattooed on my chest. See?"

Sean grinned and pulled down the opening of his shirt to prove that he was telling the truth. Their mother gasped and clutched her chest with one hand, while their father just stared at him in stony silence. Finally, both parents found their voices and took turns berating their maverick son.

"A week ago?"

"Like hell you are!"

"That thing had better wash off, mister!"

Relieved of the weight of her mother's criticism, Maggie locked eyes with her brother, who slouched lazily back in his chair and folded his arms over his midsection, seemingly oblivious to the barbs being fired at him from both sides.

What the hell? Maggie pantomimed across the table, to which Sean shrugged one shoulder and gave her a crooked half-smile.

Maggie stared back at him in stunned disbelief as she realized what he'd done. For as long as she could remember, Maggie had been rescuing her older brother from the burden of their parents' disappointment. And with his abrupt confession, he had just returned the favor.

Thank you, she mouthed.

Sean shrugged again and tuned back in to their parents' vehement outcries, his demeanor remarkably aloof and impassive.

How does he do that? Maggie wondered, watching her brother with a new level of respect. It's like it doesn't even faze him. I'll have to ask him to teach me that sometime.

Certain that the storm of her parents' outrage was likely to last awhile, Maggie settled back in her chair and allowed her gaze to wander about the room. With its navy upholstered seating and glossy teak woodwork accented by touches of polished brass, the room had an elite nautical vibe to it, like the inside of a swanky ocean liner. In the five or so years that had passed since her parents started frequenting the place, the décor hadn't changed much, and neither had the upper-crust clientele. At a nearby table, two middle-aged men with power suits and steely grey hair engaged in an intense discussion about some business matter while their long-suffering wives looked on in silence. Maggie couldn't help but wonder if that's what her life with Kevin would have become.