It Never Goes Away

"You're right," I said.

She nodded and continued, "I was so worried when you didn't let me know you were coming. Thursday night, I was talking with Abby about it over a couple of bottles of wine. She was kidding, but she told me that if I wanted to make you stay, I should open the door for you naked and drag you to bed."

I smiled at the visual.

She said, "After that, we just started throwing out crazy ways to get you into my bed. The sushi was her idea. She saw it on some TV show. I almost didn't do it because, on the show, the guy never came home."

I laughed and said, "It was a risk. I was so pissed off at Abby that I almost didn't come to spite her."

"I understand," she said. "When she told me what happened I was pretty rough on her. It took Mom getting involved to calm me down. I also made her pay for the sushi as a penance."

"Yeah, I was hot. I almost didn't come. I was coming mostly just for Mara. I didn't want to disappoint her and I didn't even get to see her."

We drank our coffee in silence for a bit, when she asked, "You're staying right. You weren't just saying that last night because we were in bed?"

"Of course, I'm staying. I never wanted to leave. Like I said, I was doing that for you."

She smiled and said, "It's kinda silly, you know. Moving all the way back to Cincinnati. I mean, you could've just moved to another city here."

"Yeah, I thought about that, but I would still be too close to you to deal with it. I couldn't know you were within driving distance and I couldn't see you. I had to go back."

She smiled and said, "Let's take a shower and go get Mara. The only way that I could get her to go with Mom yesterday was to promise her breakfast together with you."

"Sounds good."

*********

The days rolled over and Summer came. I had a pool in my backyard and we put it to good use. Molly in a bikini was a sight to behold. When Abby came over with them to use my pool, I was a walking hard-on.

Things were going great with Molly and Mara. Molly was still seeing her therapist but it wasn't as often as twice a week anymore. I could still sense some tension at times, but it wasn't too bad.

I got some insight into how fiery my red-head could be one day after a party. One of Molly's co-workers had a baby and we were invited to the Christening.

The mother Hannah was a cousin of Molly's Aunt Sara. I was told it was a family business and that's no joke. There were so many family members on that side, it was impossible to keep track of them all.

I was sitting at a table of other guys while our wives did what wives do at these things. We were talking about the Chicago Bears' chances in the upcoming season when the father of the Baptized child sat down next to me.

"Hey, guys, thanks for coming," he said to the table. He turned to me and said, "We haven't met, have we? I'm Ryan Davis."

"Nice to meet you, Ryan. I'm Sky Phillips. I'm with Molly."

"Oh, so you're the one they're all gossiping over."

The guys all laughed.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I'm still a popular topic of gossip amongst the family."

"Oh yeah? Why is that?" I asked.

He stood up and smiled. Patting me on the shoulder he said, "Ask Frank," and walked away laughing.

"That was strange," I thought and noticed the part was wrapping up.

"Come on, Sky, help me with the gifts while our hosts make their goodbyes," Jesse said.

On our way out to the car, Jesse said, "So Molly didn't tell you about Ryan the father, huh?"

"No, not really. Just that he was married to someone she worked with."

"Yeah, Hannah definitely surprised us when she showed up at her cousin's wedding with him as her date."

"So you have a history with him, I take it?"

"Frank and Ali have a history with him. Before settling down with Hannah, he was a pussy hound and tried to get with Ali."

"No shit?"

"Yep."

"How did Frank take that?"

"Thankfully, we intervened in time and Ali came to Jesus before she slept with him. Ultimately, Frank and Ali got back together and little Frank came out of it."

"Oh, so he's a scum bag. He needs his ass kicked."

"Well, we all made peace with him because of Hannah. Turns out that he's not a bad guy and he's made Hannah very happy."

I laughed and said, "I guess so, what's that their third kid?"

"Yep and by the way, he did get his ass kicked. I even punched him at the wedding she brought him to."

"Get out of here! You hit him?"

"Yeah. As I said, we made peace for Hannah. Frank and Ali were over it, so we all followed suit."

"Who kicked his ass then? Frank?"

"No, no one ever found out. It wasn't me and Frank denies it, so I don't know who it was."

"I can't believe you all forgave him and get along with him."

"He treats Hannah like a queen. He really turned over a new leaf and has been with the family for almost ten years. You're gonna find out that family is everything with us. Not only the Malone's and Chambers' families but the Anderson's as well. We're all interconnected because of my wife and the company."

I nodded and we went back inside.

*********

On the way home, I asked Molly, "Why didn't you tell me about your family's history with Ryan?"

"I didn't think it was a big deal," she said.

"Oh yeah? It seems your Uncle Jesse did."

"Yeah, but that's all in the past now. We're all okay with him now."

She laughed then and said, "If I tell you a secret, will you promise to never tell anyone?"

"Of course," I said with perked up ears.

"Did Uncle Jesse tell you the whole story?"

"I don't think so. Just the juicy bits, I think. That he punched him and someone else beat him up for hitting on your mom."

"Yeah, only three people know what I'm about to tell you."

"Ooh, this sounds good. You know who beat him up don't you? It was your dad wasn't it?"

"No, it was me and Abby."

"What?" I shouted. I would've made one-hundred guesses before I picked her and her sister.

"I'm not proud of it, but yeah. We asked a couple of football players that liked us to do it for us. We had to go out with them a few times, but they were glad to do it."

"You didn't..."

"Oh God no. We didn't have sex with them or anything," she said defensively.

"Okay," I said laughing.

"We did end up going to Senior Prom with them, but we were able to maintain our honor. We were only juniors so we were happy to go."

"Does your dad know?"

"Yeah, he's the only other person. He confronted us about it. I swear, he didn't know until after the fact."

"I believe you. Boy, remind me to never piss you and your sister off."

We laughed and she kissed my cheek.

*********

Frank and Ali hosted a party for the family on Labor Day. I got him alone in his basement to talk with him.

"Frank, I've got something to ask."

"You have my blessing, Sky," he said with a big smile.

"What?" I asked. "How did you know?"

"You've been awfully fidgety today and you don't need my help picking out a beer. That was a pretty lame excuse to get me alone."

"Thank you, Frank. I love your family and it means the world to me that you're good with it. Would it bother you if I did it today? Your family is so close, I figure with everyone here it will be more special for Molly."

"Not at all. You better hope she says yes though," he said laughing.

He put his arm around my shoulder and led me back to the party.

The yard was set up with tables and a large canvas tent. It rained in the morning and was supposed to rain again in the afternoon, so the tent was nice to have.

Since there was a break in the weather and the Sun came out, all of the adults were gathered at the outside tables near the bar set up on Frank's large deck.

There was a big gust of wind and all of a sudden the tent started to collapse. The older children that were in there saw it happening and ushered out most of the little ones.

"Jesus, is everyone okay?" Shouted Frank as everyone moved over to the fallen tent.

As parents were checking on children, Molly was looking around.

"Where's Mara?" She asked one of the older kids.

I ran to the tent and saw a small opening. I climbed under and saw using my cell's flashlight that the cheap plastic tables were mostly collapsed by the heavy tent. One section near me had some tables that were not collapsed and I crawled underneath in the darkness calling for Mara.

Someone must've lifted the tent where I crawled in because I had some more light now and saw Mara in the fetal position under an upright table.

"Mara, are you okay?" I asked as she was shivering in fear.

"Yes. I crawled over to where the lady pointed."

"Come here, baby. We have to crawl out okay?

"Okay," she said as she rolled into her hands and knees.

We crawled towards Frank and Jesse who were holding the canvas up, while Molly and Abby were watching us.

"I found her, she's not hurt," I shouted as we crawled under the few tables that were left standing.

Molly grabbed her into a hug and I was practically knocked back to the ground by Abby's hug.

"Thank you, Sky. You saved her life," Abby cried.

"No. I didn't do anything. She was fine. There were some tables that didn't collapse and she was lucky enough to crawl under one of them.

"No, I wasn't lucky," Mara said.

"You were very lucky, baby. You could've been badly hurt if you were in the wrong spot," Molly said.

"Nope, I tripped when I was running and the lady pointed to a spot on the ground to crawl to. Is she okay?"

"What lady, Mara?" I asked.

Frank said, "Shit! She may be in there and hurt. Come on, Jesse."

They ran off to look for the lady and I asked Mara, "Do you see her, munchkin? Look around."

"No, she disappeared when it went dark."

"Okay."

There were a couple of other guys helping Frank when I turned to the crowd, "Hey, listen up. Is anyone unaccounted for? Is everyone here?"

The family looked around, counted off kids, and confirmed no one was missing.

"I wonder who it was," Ali said. "Mara, was it someone from our family?"

She shook her head no.

"Do you remember what she was wearing?"

"A purple Mickey Mouse shirt. She was pretty too."

I froze and said, "Molly, what did she look like?"

"I don't know."

"What color was her hair?"

"Yellow," she said.

A tear fell from my eye. Molly looked at me and said, "What is it, Sky?"

I opened up the photo gallery on my cell and showed her a picture. She gasped, then said, "Is that..."

"Yes," I said.

"Mara," Molly said. "Do you remember anything else about her. About her face?"

"Oh! Yeah. She had a red mark on her cheek."

She pointed to a spot on her left cheek.

I was about to say something when We saw the tent go back to almost standing. Frank and the other guys were able to go under and push the support poles high enough. It was enough to do a quick search so I ran over to help.

Finding no one, we got out of there quickly and told everyone to stay out. Frank got on the phone with the party company and we all went back to our families.

I sat on a chair and a teary-eyed Molly handed me a beer. She said, "Sky, do you have any pictures of Rebecca up around the house?"

"No, and Mara's never touched my phone."

"How do we explain what happened then?"

"I don't know, Molly. I have no idea."

Mara described my Rebecca. She was blonde and had a birthmark on her left cheek. Exactly where Mara pointed. Rebecca's favorite shirt was a purple Mickey Mouse t-shirt that I bought her on our second date. I had it even put it in the coffin when I buried her. I only have one picture of her wearing it on my phone and I don't have any pictures in the house of it. The picture on my phone was a selfie and was reversed so the birthmark shows on her right cheek. Even if Mara saw the picture, it would've been the wrong cheek.

*********

After the party, Molly and I were sitting with Ali, Frank, Frank Jr., and Abby relaxing. Mara was asleep in Frank's room. The party company had come and removed the tent, Frank wasn't charged and apologies were given. All of the cleaning was done. It was truly sit and unwind time.

I noticed that Frank kept glancing over to me with raised eyebrows. I had no idea what he was doing and then it hit me. He was waiting for me to propose. I had completely forgotten about it with all of the excitement that we went through.

I raised my eyebrows back to him and he nodded, so I stood up and then dropped to my knee. I pulled the ring box out of my pocket and all of the ladies gasped. Molly tackled me before could even ask her the question.

As she was kissing my face, I said, "Molly, I have some earrings for you."

She sat back straddling my stomach and yanked the unopened box out of my hand. Frank was laughing, as Abby and Ali had WTF expressions on their faces. Junior was playing on his phone ignoring us.

"Earrings!" Molly shouted and opened the box.

The large princess cut diamond sparkled in its setting. It was flanked on either side by 2 sapphires.

"Oh my God, I love it!" She shrieked. "Put it on me," she commanded.

"No," I said lifting her off.

"No?" She shouted. What do you mean no?"

Frank Jr. looked over from his phone and said, "You didn't say yes, dummy."

She snapped her head around to look at me and said, "Yes. Now put it on me!"

The ladies huddled around each other to look at the chunks of pretty rocks on Molly's finger. The usual clucking was happening when Mara came into the room.

"You woke me up!" She chastised with her little hands on her hips and a pout on her lips.

Molly showed her the ring and said, Look, baby, Sky asked me to marry him."

She looked at the ring and asked, "Are you my daddy now?"

I looked at Molly, who shrugged her shoulders.

I said, "Your daddy will always be your daddy. He will always be watching over you."

"Can I call him first daddy and you, new daddy. My friends have daddy's that take them places and I want one too."

I knelt down and hugged her. Molly and the ladies were crying with big smiles on their faces. Molly nodded yes.

"Munchkin, I would be very happy to be your new daddy."

Then I started to tear up.

Frank said, "Hey, I've got a bottle of Champagne in the beer fridge. Let's pop it!"

We walked downstairs to the man-cave and Ali grabbed the glasses as Frank popped the cork. He poured us all a glass and gave Mara and Junior a glass of Sprite.

"Raising his glass he said, "What a way to end a hell of a day. To family!"

"To family," we repeated and drank.

Molly spoke and said, "May I make a toast please?"

"Of course, baby," Frank said.

"I can't explain how Sky and the boy weren't hurt worse when the ceiling fell on them and I can't explain who saved Mara in that tent. I just want to say thank you, and I raise my glass to the angels that watch over us."

"To the angels."

*********

Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment or email your feedback.

Frank and Ali's family can be found in:

Got to Choose

Easy Thing - the Ryan Davis tie-in

In The Mirror - Jesse's confrontation

Ryan Davis can be found in:

Strutter - cameo

Get All You Can Take - cameo

I Just Wanna - cameo

Easy Thing - his attack

In The Mirror - Ryan and Hannah's origins

It Never Goes Away performed by KISS on the Carnival Of Souls album, was written by: Bruce Kulick, Paul Stanley, and Curt Cuomo