Chapter 28 - Family

Marie opened the bathroom door and spread her arms out. She pointed back to herself when she asked silently to Regan and Connie if the outfit she had on looked good. All the outfit was, was a jeans and a purple sweater. Connie nodded her head, while Regan gave her opinion out loud. Marie took a deep breath and walked back into the bathroom. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"May I remind you, I still have to meet the Eruizone's," Regan told her. "I'm nervous just like you are. Marie, you're going to be fine."

Connie walked up behind her and started to play with Marie's blonde locks. "I think you should put your hair up."

Marie watched in the mirror as Connie twisted her hair into a bun. "Or leave it down and do half a ponytail."

"Or you could do a braid," Regan suggested. "Show then how beautiful your eyes are."

Marie's smile wavered. "This damn bruise."

Connie picked up Marie's compact and opened it. "It has gone down. Let me try to cover it."

While Connie was putting Marie's make-up on, Regan braided her hair. Marie joked how the whole scenario seemed high school-ish. Regan remarked they'd be going this tomorrow before they go to the opening ceremony. When they were done, Marie looked into the mirror, and smirked. She turned around and when she was done, nodded her head in amazement. She liked what they did.

"I look like the old me," she remarked.

Connie uttered, "Nonsense. You always look like you. Pretty as ever."

Marie was about to say something when they heard a knock through the house. Connie was the one to head out to the living room to get it. Marie gathered her things that she decided to take and after putting them in her purse went into the living room. When Silk's eyes landed on her, he stopped what he was doing and seriously put a hand over his heart.

"Wow," he quietly said.

"It's just a sweater and a pair of jeans," Marie stated.

Silk shrugged. "I don't care. You're still beautiful."

Connie and Regan sighed together. "Are all Boston Boys like Rizzo and you?" Regan asked.

Marie chuckled at the question before walking the rest of the way to Silk. She leaned in and gave him a kiss. "You, sir, are totally good for my ego. By the way, you look not bad yourself," she told him.

They left a minute later, but instead of using the station wagon they walked to the house that Silk told her that all the parents and relatives were staying at. The parents already named it the "hostage" house, telling her they named it that because only God knows why. When they finally reached it, Marie almost stopped and turned back around. Marie took a deep breath after Silk knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. The lady, who opened the door, gave Silk a hug and Marie found out that it was Mrs. O'Callahan.

"Dave… who might this pretty young lady be?" she asked, stepping aside to let them in.

Marie smiled and stretched her hand out in order to shake hers. "I'm Marie."

"I'm Helen, OC's mom. I heard a little bit about you from Jack when he came home from Christmas," she replied, "also Regan and Connie."

Marie said, "I hope good things."

Helen nodded. "Very fun moments actually. I'm so happy that you've been there for him the past few days. He told me, you told him what happened to your dad when he got injured."

Marie nodded. "I felt relieved that he didn't tear his knee up."

"Dave!" a voice yelled.

Silk and Marie turned to the voice, and a young lady of about twenty came running down the stairs. Silk gave her a hug and then introduced her to Marie. "Marie, this is my bratty little sister, Jill." He stepped over to Marie and put his arm around her. "Jill, this is my lovely girlfriend, Marie."

Jill gave her brother a look, slapped his should, before smiling over at Marie. "It is finally, finally nice to meet you, Marie. I'm not really a brat like he says."

Marie chuckled. "I'm sure you aren't."

"Well… who is this lovely looking lady, Dave?" a man in his forties asked coming up. "When you brought home that picture, it didn't do any justice."

Marie turned to Silk for a second before turning back to Mr. Silk. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

"She called me, sir. I feel old now. Please, call me Paul," Mr. Silk insisted before giving her a hug.

"Ok… Paul," Marie said. Marie felt so relaxed now that the introductions were almost over. Mrs. Silk was the only person left. Marie turned to Silk again and asked, "What picture did you show them?"

Silk scratched the side of his face while telling her. "One of the pictures we took at one of those photo booths."

Marie looked taken aback at him. "That's a terrible picture. Why couldn't you have asked me for one that was either at Rammer's birthday or Rizzo's first dinner for all of us?"

"It wasn't a terrible picture, it was fun," a lady said coming up. Marie turned to her and smiled. "I'm Abigail Silk. It's so nice to finally meet you, Marie." She gave her a hug.

Marie replied, "It is actually nice to meet you all. I heard a lot of stories."

"Same here," Mrs. Silk responded.

The group headed out and they went to a small restaurant that wasn't very packed. They made small talk about hockey practice that morning, the hotel the guys were staying at, the trip up, and all the parents in one house. Abigail Silk started to tell them a story about what happened on the bus up to Lake Placid after they sat down. This guy was trying to impress a girl by saying he was Silk and Mrs. Silk totally ruined his "game". The girl left after she found out wasn't and the guy sat there embarrassed.

"Oh my gosh," Marie laughed. "I can't believe he said that."

"He did not look anything like my Dave," she said. "So… Marie, how have you been?"

Marie swiped a piece of her bangs away from her eyes. "I'm good. I finally got to put make-up on to cover my eye."

"Dave said you left the dorm and on your way home, the deer came out of nowhere," Jill mentioned.

Marie nodded. "It did. I should have hit it, but I was surprised."

"I'm glad you didn't get really injured," Mrs. Silk said taking a drink of her water.

The waiter came up then, and they ordered their drinks. Mr. and Mrs. Silk told them about a trip they recently had taken to Vermont. It was a really beautiful trip and a relaxing one as well. Marie told them that her family actually took a trip to Northern Michigan once. It was very beautiful and relaxing. She suggested to them they should go in the future.

"Tell me about your family. Dave mentioned your dad is a lawyer," Mr. Silk mentioned.

Marie set her water glass down and looked up. "He is. For twenty-two years now. He went to Yale, which is where my brother is right now, getting his degree."

"How'd your parents meet?" Mrs. Silk asked. "What are their names?"

Marie smiled. "Well… my dad, John, was born in St. Paul and my mom, whose name is also Abigail, was born in Chicago. My mom moved to St. Paul when she was in high school. He was a senior, she was a sophomore. They met, they became friends. When he left for Yale, he told her that he loved her. She followed him to the east coast two years later. She was there for him when he tore his knee up playing hockey. He played in college. They got married a few months later and had Tom a little while later after that."

Jill asked, "Is he the one that's a really awesome hockey player or is that… Josh?"

Marie put a hand over her mouth and tried to chew the piece of bread real fast before answering. "Josh. I think he's the next big thing for hockey. I'm trying not to sound… like he's better than everybody else, but I think everybody will be like 'whoa, who's that kid?'."

Silk put an arm around her shoulders and said, "She's right, he is awesome."

"So Josh is a hockey player and Tom is going to be a lawyer. Dave mentioned advertising for you. What do you like about it?" Jill asked.

Marie replied, "Trying to sell a product to a target audience, trying to come up with a good slogan for that product. I want to be more involved with the research. That's where you get a group together and get their view point."

"Sounds like you know what you want in a career. That's cool. I'm going to be a teacher," Jill said.

Marie asked, "Elementary?"

Jill tucked a piece of her brown hair behind her ear. "More like junior high or high school."

"Your mom, what does she do?" Mrs. Silk asked.

"My mom is a housewife. She is a respected charity worker around the area. She's won a few awards for her work," Marie told them. "Recently I wondered if she was happy because she married my dad when she was nineteen. All these years, I felt she wasn't, but now that I look back, it amazes me how I missed that part of her life in a way. I am proud of her."

The waiter came up and they ordered what they wanted. They talked more about Marie's family. Tom engaged, Josh going off to U of M, what her plans were after college. She told them she was going to head to New York to land a job in one of the big advertising companies. Silk knew of this plan because she brought it up to him few weeks before, but it was only an idea.

She talked about extended family. Told them about one time during a vacation that Josh and her had picked up some money left on a table next to them and their parents were shocked that they yelled at them to put it back. They couldn't believe they had done that. They were really young at the time. After awhile, they talked about them.

"When we brought Jill home from the hospital, he didn't want anything to do with her. He wouldn't acknowledge that she existed," Mrs. Silk told Marie.

"After a while, she became cool."

Jill scoffed, "Whatever. When you had Dan, Steve, Joe, and Eric over, you wouldn't let me hang out with you guys."

Silk gave her a look. "That was what? When I was thirteen and you were eleven? We've grown up since then."

Mrs. Silk looked at Marie, who was looking amused at the little fight between brother and sister. "You get use to it after a while," she whispered over to her. Marie smiled and winked at her.

"Did you know when he was ten, his pee-wee team was playing a "big" game and they had a shoot out because it was tied." Mrs. Silk brought up. Marie shook her head. "Well, then, he went to the face-off circle, started to skate with the puck… in the wrong direction. Someone came in the speakers and told him to go the other way. That's my boy."

Marie laughed and turned to him. She laughed even harder when his face turned red. "I made it, didn't I?"

"I can't believe you did that. That's so awesome," Marie stated.

"Oh yeah, laugh now, but later… you might not find it funny," he said.

Marie gave him an amused look. "Oh really and why is that?"

"You might have a little boy who might do the same thing," he replied.

Marie tilted her head, but couldn't hold back the laugh. "But still… that is so… cool." She turned to Mrs. Silk. "What was his first word?"

"Dave's first word was da," Mrs. Silk told her.

"That's cute. My mom says it was Walter, but it came out as water. Our dog's name at the time was Walter and one day I just said it," Marie told them.

Mrs. Silk smiled. "Dave was such a sweet boy, but when his teen years came, he was a terror. All boys are like that. Don't want anything to do with their mothers," Mrs. Silk said. "But now… we talk almost every week and I'm proud of him."

Marie said, "I'm sure you are."

"How did you two meet again?" Mrs. Silk asked.

Marie turned to Silk, smiled over at him, and he was the one that told them. "Marie went to Colorado with Mac and Connie. We all met up at the bar after the try-outs and we started talking."

"What did you think of him the first time you met him?" Jill asked.

Marie licked her bottom lip real fast before answering. "When I first laid eyes on him, I didn't give him a second thought, mostly because Rizzo and Jack were in an argument. When he came up later, I had gone to the restroom, but when I came out and we were introduced I thought he was cute. From then on though, I was slowly falling for him. I was blinded by that fact, but I'm glad it came to me in time."

Silk's foot slid next to hers under the table and started to play footsie. Marie turned to look at him and smiled before she responded back. His parents and Jill wouldn't have known the difference. She took a sip of her coffee.

"You two are adorable," Mrs. Silk said. "Young love."

Jill smiled. "How about you Dave?"

"When she came out of the bathroom, I thought she was beautiful. I instantly had a crush," he told his family.

"Why'd you wait so long to tell her?"

Marie raised her hand like she was back in school waiting to be called on. "I went to a wedding and I had met an old crush of mine. We went out for three months. The whole thing didn't end well. He didn't tell me the truth about something and well it turned out for the best," Marie said.

Jill nodded. "When did you really realize you were falling for him?"

Marie explained, "The guy said something that I might have found the guy for me. I didn't realize what he meant by that until two days later. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was scared because I never felt that way for any of my guy friends before. I had just broken up with that guy. So I was nervous around him, but never showed it."

Silk nodded. "I never knew until she told me."

Mrs. Silk smiled. "How did you two feel at that very moment?"

"On top of the world," Silk replied.

Marie said, "I felt like I was finally home. He's what I've been looking for all my life." Marie turned to him and leaned in to give him a quick peck.

After the bill was paid, the group headed out to stroll around town. They came upon the little skating pond, which already had people skating on it. Jill pointed out that there was a little snack bar selling hot chocolate. So they went over and got some. On their way down the sidewalk, they ran into Rob and Connie. They were introduced, but kept on walking.

When they got back to the "hostage" house, Jill took Marie aside for a minute. "I've seen him happy, but not this happy in ages. Thank you for coming into his life."

Marie smiled and gave her a hug. "Hey! If you want, you are invited to hang out with Regan, Connie and I the next two weeks."

"Ok," Jill said before saying bye and heading into the house.

Marie walked back over to Silk and his parents and gave them a hug. When they went in, Silk and her started to walk back to the cabin, arm in arm.


Author's Note: I had gotten word that Silk's dad passed away when he was a child. When I wrote this, I didn't know. One day I will change Paul into his uncle.