The Dragon’s E-Mail Order Menage

“You need to go home? Why? Did you decide this wasn’t the place for you after all? Was all of that sh*t up at tent rock just a one-time kind of a deal for you? I mean I’m not saying I’ve never pulled a one-nighter on a chick, but I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty fu*king surprised. I thought this was good. I thought that what we have going here was good.”

“It is,” she said quickly, her nerves jumping in her throat and making her feel slightly sick. “It’s so good. I don’t want to go home to stay. There’s just something I need to talk to my mother about. There’s something I need her help with and then I’ll come right back.”

“Why don’t you just let us help you?”

“I don’t think this is something you can help me with.”

“Seriously? We can’t help you, but dear old mom can?”

“Levi, don’t,” Hudson said in a warning tone. She appreciated him coming to her rescue, but for a minute it looked like it was going to start an actual physical fight between the two of them. Levi looked like he wanted to fight, but the look in Hudson’s eyes said that he wasn’t going to back down on this one and so Levi slammed his fist into the kitchen counter and stalked out of the room ranting and raving under his breath as he went. Then there was just the two of them and Maggie looked at Hudson with wide eyes she was trying very hard not to let fill up with tears.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I really wasn’t trying to make trouble. I won’t go. I was being stupid.”

“No. Don’t say that. Not ever. You weren’t being stupid. I’m not sure you’re ever stupid. You have every right to go and see your mother. If you ask me, you should. Your family is still your family even though you’ve moved here. I know things didn’t go so well when you left. Maybe a visit will help start to repair some of that stuff. You should definitely go.”

“But he was so angry.”

“He’s angry because he’s afraid and he hates to feel any kind of fear. He’ll get over it once he’s had a little time to calm down. And once he sees that you’ve come back. That’s at the root of it all. He doesn’t want you to go because he’s afraid you won’t come back.”

“Well if that’s the case then he’s the one being stupid. Thanks, Hudson. Thanks for making this so okay. I’ll be back by tonight, okay?”

“Sounds good. And Maggie?”

She had already started to walk out of the room by the time he called out her name, her head full of the day she had ahead of her, but when he spoke she turned to look at his sweet blue eyes.

“Yes?”

“Good luck, and don’t take no sh*t.”

“Deal” she laughed and hurried on her way.

***

Don’t take no sh*t. Maybe that was one of those things that was easier said than done. Of course she couldn’t know that yet because she hadn’t even made the move to knock on her parents’ front door. She was still sitting parked outside in Hudson’s beat up old truck, staring at the front door and wondering whether she was hoping it would open or hoping it wouldn’t. She had been so worried about telling Levi and Hudson that she was making this trip that she hadn’t even thought about what was going to happen once she got home.

But now that she was actually looking at it, Maggie was terrified of what her reception might be. Was she even welcome in this home anymore? She had definitely not left on the best of terms and she had made no attempt to make contact since leaving. For all she knew she would knock on the front door, it would open, and then promptly be slammed in her face.

She wasn’t sure she could handle a thing like that. It was true that she hadn’t wanted to live at her parents’ house any longer and it was true that she had chosen a different path than the one they would have chosen for her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love her family.

The idea that they might make the decision to shun her was painful beyond all comprehension and she almost decided to turn around and go back to her new home, if only to avoid knowing once and for all what her family’s current opinion of her was. But even as she thought this, she watched the front door slam open and the choice of whether or not to see them was taken out of her hands.

“Maggie!” an exuberant Edward practically screamed from the front porch. “Everyone come look, it’s Maggie! Maggie came to visit us just like I told you she would. I knew it. I knew that I knew her better than the rest of her. I win on this one. I win on this one big time.”

Maggie smiled, shook her head, and opened the creaky driver’s side door of the truck. Her little brother couldn’t have announced her arrival more effectively if he had set off a siren, but she felt a surge of love for him, nonetheless. There was no denying it. She had missed the little goober.

“Hey, Eddie. You trying to let the whole neighborhood know I’m home?”

He ran toward her even as she was walking toward the front door and ran into her so hard he almost knocked her over. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight before taking her by the hand and half-leading, half-dragging her towards the house.

“Come on! We gotta show ‘em all that I was right. They didn’t think you were gonna come, but I told ‘em. I told ‘em all. Are you here to stay for good?”

“No, she’s not here for good. I’m sure it’s just a visit.”

Maggie’s head shot up to look at the porch. Her eyes met her mother’s and she felt her stomach clench with nerves and the memory of what their last interaction had been like. Her mother nodded at her without smiling but her eyes weren’t angry and that was something. She would take that happily.

“Hey Mom, is it okay that I’m here?”

“It’s still your family, right? Of course it’s okay.”