“She puked her guts out last night, Mitch,” I reminded him.

“She did?” Billy asked and I looked at him.

“Yes, buddy, she did. She’s okay now,” I assured him. “But I want her to rest today.”

“She’s good, Mara,” Mitch butted in. “And she’s missed enough school, something I learned yesterday when I talked to her teacher. Apparently, her Dad didn’t make her go. But now she’s fine and she’s going to school.”

My head turned to Mitch. “Maybe she’s fine but she might have a relapse and I don’t want her at school when she has a relapse. I want her at home and I want to be around if she does.”

“She has a relapse, the school will call and you or I’ll go get her,” Mitch returned.

“That would be a waste of time,” I replied. “What wouldn’t be a waste of time would be if she had a relapse and she was already home.”

“She’s goin’ to school, Mara,” Mitch declared and I felt my blood pressure ratcheting higher.

“She’s not, Mitch,” I declared right back then I thought of something and I looked at Billy. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to school either.”

I watched my cousin’s eyes light with delight at the thought of missing school but I heard Mitch speak.

“Why the hell not?” he asked and I looked back at him.

“What if he has her bug?” I asked back. “It came on fast, Mitch. She was fine one minute, though she was grumpy and didn’t want to go to bed. Two hours later she was throwing up on the living room carpet and had a temperature of one hundred and three. That could happen to Billy and if it does, I want him right here.”

“Bud gets sick, the school calls and you or I go get him,” Mitch fired back.

Yes, my blood pressure was definitely ratcheting higher and that was why I put my hands on my hips, leaned into him and snapped, “That would be a waste of time too.”

“Baby, they’re both going to school,” Mitch announced.

“Honey, they are not,” I decreed.

Mitch glared at me. I glared back.

Then he said, “Just for the record, sweetheart, I’ve decided I like the Mara who lives in her own world and ums and uhs and doesn’t hand me attitude. Let’s go back to her.”

After that, I replied, “Just for the record, honey lumpkin, I know why you like the Mara who lives in her own world because that Mara lets you have your way. But when I’m worried about my kids, and you disagree with me, we’re not going back to her. And, by the way, I’ll remind you, yesterday you promised we’d be a team and talk about decisions regarding the kids.”

“Uh…baby,” he looked around and my glare heated when I noted he was looking around sarcastically, then his eyes hit mine and he stated, “That’s what we’re doin’. We’re talkin’.”

Luckily before I exploded, at this point Penny butted in and she did this by saying, “Can I just say, I freaking love this.”

“Not as much as me, sweetie,” Mrs. Lawson added and my eyes snapped to them to see they were both smiling huge.

Before I could freak out that I forgot my audience, Mitch spoke.

“Maybe one of you can make yourself useful and go wake up Billie so she can shower and get ready for school,” he suggested toward his mother and sister in a way that it was no suggestion at all.

“Please don’t,” I put in quickly. “She needs her rest and, not to be rude, she doesn’t know either of you and I don’t want her to be alarmed.”

Mitch’s eyes sliced back to me and he growled, “Mara.”

I couldn’t growl but I tried my best and returned, “Mitch.”

“How about I make myself useful by being the voice of experience and saying, sorry, Mara but Mitch’s right, she’ll probably be okay,” Penny stated, I bit my lip and her eyes went to her brother. “But I’m more sorry, Mitch because Mara’s more right. She’ll probably be okay but if it was one of my kids and they were puking their guts out and had a fever, no way they’d be in school the next day.” Then her eyes turned to Billy and her face gentled. “And even sorrier for you, honey, because, if you were my kid, I’d make you go and come get you if you got sick.”

“That’s what I’d do too,” Mrs. Lawson agreed.

“I’m good with going to school,” Billy chimed in and my gaze went to him because his eyes not five minutes ago lit with delight at the thought of missing school and anyway, what kid was good with going to school?

“That settles it,” Mitch decided and I looked back to him. “Sorted,” he finished, turned to the cupboard and pulled out the box of oatmeal while I watched and as I processed what was happening in my head, I realized I was also seething.

Then I asked Mitch’s back, “Did our discussion yesterday about teamwork penetrate…” I hesitated for emphasis before finishing, “at all?”

He put the oatmeal box down and turned to me. I glared into his dancing, beautiful, fathomless, dark brown eyes then suddenly found myself crushed to his long, hard body, his strong arms caging me in.

In my ear, he muttered his answer. “Yes but also kind of no.”

“I didn’t think so,” I returned acidly, my hands at his waist pushing back.

His head lifted up, he smiled down at me and asked, “You want oatmeal?”

I glared up at him and I really wanted to say no and there were a lot of other things I really wanted to say. But I couldn’t because firstly, his mother and sister were there and secondly, I’d had his oatmeal yesterday, he squirted maple syrup in it mid-nuke and it was really good.

“Yes,” I snapped.

His smile got bigger, he gave me a squeeze, let me go and turned to the oatmeal. I turned to my coffee mug which was sitting in front of Billy. That was when I saw Mrs. Lawson and Penny, still smiling huge, and Billy, his eyes going from me to Mitch and back again, his expression again fifty years older than he was.

I decided to ignore all of this and concentrate on caffeine.

It was the best decision I’d made all morning.

Chapter Nineteen

Harsh, Bright Light of Mara World

I stared at myself in Mitch’s bathroom mirror.

Seeing all that was me, I realized I’d made a huge mistake. Huge. Enormous.