Starting over Chapter 25

Chapter twenty five

The New Year’s party was a big success. It was the talk of town for the next week, all the time until people started to talk about Gaby and Ricardo’s wedding. In a very short time Meg and Gaby together with a few others had put together what hopefully would be Gaby’s dream wedding. Ben and Derek had gone back to England to wrap up the estate after their aunt. Of course Meg was missing him, but with her friends from Europe finally arriving and helping them to get settled she was more than busy. Today was one of the rare days when she had an afternoon all to herself and it hadn’t taken long before she had fallen asleep in a lounge chair on the balcony to the house. It was where Mark found her when he came looking for Ben. “Sorry Meg, I didn’t mean to wake you” he said apologetic when she startled sat up “I was really looking for Ben” he went on. “Oh, Ben’s in England, didn’t he tell you?” Meg sat up “To my knowledge he’s not coming home for a few days more, might even miss the wedding” she continued “My wrong then, I thought he’d be back today” Meg looked surprised at him “Have you talked to him?” “The day before yesterday, and then he said he was coming home according to plans today” After a brief moment Meg realized she had missed that today was a Saturday, the Saturday when Ben was surely returning from England. She got up from the chair “My mistake Mark, I’ve been working quite a lot to forget he wasn’t home, so I totally forgotten that he is coming today” Mark laughed “You two suite each other so well, true workaholics” Mark handed Meg a file “Could you give this to Ben, it’s the figures from the last two weeks and what we need to order on Monday since I’ve got next week off” he tried to look at Meg with a stern look “Unless someone I know I know when to take time off to rest up” Meg slapped him on the arm with the file “Mark Wopler, you’re unbelievable. But I love you anyway” Meg smiled “Don’t let Ben hear that” Mark said and rubbed him arm “He knows I love you, as a very dear friend and the best bartender/d j in this town” Meg opened the door and felt the chill from the aircondition coming at her. “Are you in a hurry?” she asked “Or you want to come in for some coffee?” “Coffee…. Coffee, man you can certainly play with a guy’s mind. I totally forgotten I was to start my shift at the Java Web five minutes ago” Meg burst into laughter “I’ve seen your schedules for that place, no one keeps track of any times, but you go ahead” she held up the file “I’ll give this to Ben when he arrives”

Just as Meg was to go inside she heard someone call her name “Hi there” she said to her friends and hugged them all as they came up to the terrace “Have you been to the beach today?” she asked even though it was obvious “Sure thing” Anja and Tina said at the same time “Can’t stay away” Jenn added “And I just love it, not a single chance of snow” Maria said. An hour later just as Meg was to let her friends out the front door the bell rang and not only once but twice “Hold your horses” Meg called and opened the door to a man with is arms wide open “Gosh, I’ve missed you Meg Cummings” he said and made Meg laugh “What? No hugs and kisses for your fiancé?” Meg shook her head “You don’t fool ME Derek Evans, you go and see my sister at the hotel and send Ben home to me” Meg’s friends stood astonished “How can you tell them apart?” Jenn asked curiously “Well for the first, Derek wears his hair differently than Ben and for the second he hadn’t even bothered taking off his wedding ring” The girls laughed “Have they tried this trick on you before?” Maria asked “Just once, but we didn’t believe them then either, they tried too hard to convince us that time, and call it strange but I get this special feeling whenever Ben’s close to me” “That’s because you’re soul mates” Tina said and then the firls left and promised to meet up at the Deep in the evening.

The wedding went off without any more problems and before soon it was Valentine’s day. Ben and Meg was off to Kansas for a few days. Ben had only been there briefly to ask for Meg’s hand a gesture that still made him the best son-in-law in Hank’s eyes, although Derek wasn’t that much in the dog house… after all he was the father of their first grandchild. The winter had started to loose it’s grip but there were still a lot of snow. Ben and Meg went for long walks every day. Of course Ben wanted to know everything about Meg’s childhood. “I bet this is a lovely place in the spring” Ben said one day when they walked thru the apple orchard “Yes it is, it’s all different kind of apples and different colours on their flowers” Meg snuggled close to him as the wind took off. “We used to play a lot here, it was far enough from the road, not that that’s ever been very busy” Meg said sarcastically “and far enough from the fields” I bet all your friends used to love coming here to play” Been looked her deep in the eyes “and boyfriends when you got older, I could easily have round a spot or two that was secluded enough” he teased. Meg thought back to the summer before she turned twelve, Tim had been there just as always mainly because his parents worked on the farm. They had been playing hide and seek with Sarah and just as Meg had ran by the tree Time stood behind he reached out and pulled her there too and kissed her for the first time. “Worth more of less than a penny?” Ben asked and woke her from the memory “Less” Meg said and wrinkled her nose. Ben knew all about Tim’s stunts around the time he and Meg was supposed to have gotten married, but not much more “Tim involved?” he asked “Mmm” Meg answered and took his hand. “Come along, I have to show off Sarah’s first masterpiece” she said and guided him to a big tree “This is almost all her doing, of course dad helped out, she was only ten by that time” Ben looked a bit surprised “Didn’t your brother build any tree house before?” Meg shook her head “He took care of the animals, I guess that’s why he’s the best veterinarian in the whole state” she said proudly. “Is it safe to climb up?” Ben asked curiously “Should be, dad’s always been looking after it” Meg lead him around to the other side where the ‘stairs’ was “Are you coming too?” Ben held out a hand for Meg halfway up the tree “You’re not scared are you?” he teased “No, of course not, it’s just that the last time I tried to get up there I fell and broke my arm” Ben looked sweetly at her “Poor you, I promise
that it won’t happen this time”

When Ben and Meg came back inside they were met by a lovely smell “There you are” Joan said “I almost thought you’d miss lunch” Ben walked over and gave her a peck on the cheek “Never Joan, if it wasn’t for our long walks I’d gain pounds from your home cooking” “And here I was thinking that old time flattery didn’t exist anymore” she laughed. Meg stood by her father’s side “Dad, shall I be jealous of mom?” she asked and Hank put his arm around her “No need Meggie, Ben only got eyes for you and besides he would have to fight me to get to her” the both snickered. They all sat down to eat. “Meg, I met reverend Anderson in town earlier and promised him to bring the cakes for tomorrow’s bingo, could you maybe bring them in?” Meg looked at Ben “We don’t have any plans and besides what is a trip to Ludlow without a cup of the special hot cocoa at Green’s café in the winter?” Joan smiled at her “Good and I have to warn you, I told him about you and Ben being engaged” Meg laughed as she started to clear the table “I’m considering myself warned” What Joan didn’t tell Meg was that it wasn’t the older reverend Andersson but his son that now served in Ludlow. Meg and John had been dating for almost a year at one time when she and Tim had been broken up. If it hadn’t been for John going off to college a lot of people in town had thought they’d end up together. But he had left and Tim hand been there to comfort Meg.

Meg borrowed her father’s truck since that was the safest car in this weather. Ben glanced at her “You know Meg, you look just as home here and now that you do anywhere in Sunset Beach” he put his hand on her though and Meg game him a quick glance, she knew how quickly an ice patch could turn up on these roads “So it’s bingo night tomorrow” Ben said “Oh, no!” Meg exclaimed “Why not, isn’t that what folks do around here?” Ben asked “Well… it depends” “Are your parents going?” “I guess” Meg hadn’t been to the bingo since before she was 15. Again she got lost in thoughts, that was the year when she had dated John and he was kind of obliged to be at the bingo and Meg wanted to spend as much time with him as possible “If I ask nicely?” Ben suggested “I’ve never lived in an American small town” he pouted “Oh Ben” Meg sighed “We’ll go then” she said and parked the car outside the community hall. As they came inside Meg called “Hello” but no one answered “I’ll just go put these in the kitchen” she said and went towards some doors like so many times before. This building held so many memories and she honestly didn’t know if she’d be able to sit thru an evening of bingo. “Hello, may I help you” Ben turned around to the voice.
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