Chapter Six: I'm Sorry

After dinner that night, Gage offered to do the dishes. His nieces retreated to their room to start their homework, and Sydney curled up on the couch with the latest Mary Higgins Clark suspense novel. She had only read a few pages, though, when she heard her name.

"Um, Sydney?"

She looked up, and saw Bridget standing in the doorway. "Yes?"

"Can I talk to you?"

Sydney put a marker in her book, and patted the cushion next to her. "Have a seat."

Slowly, Bridget crossed the room and sat down on the sofa. She was quiet for a minute, and then took a deep breath. "Um, well…I know my sisters and I haven't been very nice to you since we got here."

Sydney nodded. "That's true."

Bridget bit her lip. "Well, I just wanted to say…"

"Yes?" Sydney prompted gently.

"I wanted to say…I'm sorry." Once she got the words out, she gave a small sigh of relief.

A small smile came over Sydney's face. "I accept you apology."

Bridget looked at her, surprised. "Really? You forgive me?"

"Of course I do," she replied. "But can I ask you something?" When Bridget nodded, she continued. "Why have you been so nasty to me? You weren't that way when we were planning your dad's wedding."

Casting her eyes downward, Bridget looked at her lap guiltily. "I know. Planning the wedding with you and Julie was a lot of fun."

"So what changed?"

Bridget gave a small shrug. "I guess it started when Uncle Francis came to visit." She absently played with the hem of her skirt. "He's our only uncle, you know. Mom and Dad were only children." She looked up. "We made all kinds of plans to spend time with him." She paused, unsure if she should continue.

"So what happened?"

"All Uncle Francis could talk about was you," Bridget answered quietly.

Sydney's eye widened. "Me?" she asked, pointing to herself.

Bridget nodded. "Every other sentence out of his mouth was 'Syd this' or 'Syd that'. And every time I turned around, he was on the phone with you!"

Sydney thought back to the week that Gage had been in San Francisco. She hadn't realized it then, but she and Gage had been on the phone a lot. "Bridget, I'm sorry."

"For what?" Bridget looked at her curiously.

"I should've realized that our phone calls were taking away from your visit."

Bridget shook her head. "No, it's not your fault." She sighed. "I guess it was easier to be mad at you that at Uncle Francis."

Sydney nodded understandingly.

Biting her lip some more, Bridget went on. "So I guess I resented you, because I didn't get to spend as much time with my uncle as I wanted to. And it was easy to get my sisters to go along with me; they were upset about it, too."

"I understand," Sydney told her honestly.

"Even though we were mad, it was wrong of us to treat you that way," Bridget admitted. She looked down at her lap again, ashamed.

"What changed your mind about me?"

"Soccer practice," she answered immediately. "It meant a lot to me that you remembered I love soccer. I had a lot of fun today. Now I know why Uncle Francis cares about you so much."

Sydney blushed.

"Carmen and Christina are going to apologize, too," Bridget added. "I told them I wanted to talk to you first."

"I'm glad you did," Sydney said, patting her shoulder.

Bridget smiled. "So, are we cool?"

Sydney laughed. "Yeah, we're cool."

"Great." Leaning forward, Bridget threw her arms around Sydney. Then she stood up, her hand on her hip. "You can come out now, you little eavesdroppers," she said, her gaze fixed on the entrance to the hallway.

A sheepish-looking Carmen and Christina appeared in the living room.

"We just wanted to say we're sorry," Christina said.

"Really sorry," Carmen added.

"It's all right," Sydney told them with a smile. She held out her arms. "Come here."

Giggling, all three girls piled onto the couch with Sydney. It turned into a tickle-fest, until Bridget heard the water shut off in the kitchen; her uncle must be done with the dishes.

"We'd better get back to our homework," she said, disentangling herself from her sisters and Sydney.

"Aw, man!" the twins muttered, but they got to their feet.

"We'll watch a movie when you're done," Sydney promised.

Carmen grinned. "It's a deal!"

Gage walked into the living room just as his nieces disappeared down the hall. "What was that about?" he asked, dropping onto the couch beside his partner and grabbing the TV remote.

She smiled, and picked up her book. "They apologized."