Chapter 1

With the interconnection of the Hayward and Campbell families, two cars were needed to attend Brad and Jake’s hockey game. Jake’s Belleville Dragons were leading the playoff series 3 games to 2 against Brad’s Trenton River Rats.

It felt very awkward that the two blended families had to choose sides and cheer for their sons on opposite teams. Karen and Wendy were growing into such close, intimate friends, yet their sons were opponents on the ice. Like all hockey moms, they hoped they both had a good game, no one was injured, and the best team would win. Abby and Tiffany, who had grown very close to each other, had to put aside their love and cheer for their boyfriend.

Karen felt more comfortable wearing loose-fitting pants for her growing baby belly but still wore devastatingly low tops to entice Dan and Wendy’s eyes. Wendy wore her usual short skirt and low-cut blouse. She loved wearing sexy clothes for Dan and appreciated the lustful glances he gave her in return.

Standing at the front door, Wendy smiled and whispered to Karen. They looked at Dan, unable to hide his nervousness over the impending first meeting with Wendy’s parents. She went to him and caressed him with her breasts.

“Will you try to relax, you’ll do just fine,” she said, her gentle embrace and soft kiss trying to reassure him.

“I feel so nervous. I’m meeting your parents for the first time. I know we’re grown adults, but with our relationship, I hope they’ll accept me and Karen,” he worried.

“I’ve told them about us and how much we love each other, just not about all the great sex we have.” Wendy couldn’t help giggling at his self-torture.

Dan drove Karen, Wendy, Brad, Timmy, and Abby, while Cathy drove Diane, Brenda, Jake, and Tiffany. “Dan, since we’re out, why don’t you stop at Anderson’s convenience store and buy two tubs of honey butter? You know how we go through it so much,” Karen suggested.

He made a quick right turn and stopped for the red light at the intersection of Jackson and Kent. Everyone fell silent, looking at the two white crosses attached to the fence under the leafless maple tree. Karen gripped and patted Dan’s right hand, giving him a tear-filled, sombre smile.

“I know ... it still hurts me too,” she lamented. Cathy’s eyes watered, as she passed the intersection that was the site of her mother’s death.

Wendy looked over her right shoulder at the crosses as Dan drove through the intersection. “Thank you, Laura,” she murmured. “Look, someone laid flowers at the crosses.” They all glanced at the fresh-looking daisies in a neat bouquet.

“I wonder who left them,” Karen said. “Perhaps it was the woman who lost her husband in the same accident.”

Dan and Wendy walked hand in hand, and he opened the door for her. “Show me where the honey butter is so I can get it for us in the future,” she asked, letting him lead the way. They entered the well-laid-out store, and Dan guided her down the aisle to find the cure for his sweet tooth.

“It should be down this aisle on the left, top shelf,” he remembered. They noticed an elderly, petite woman searching the shelves near them. She stopped and reached up for an item. She stretched on her tiptoes, unable to reach what was out of her grasp.

The woman noticed a man stop beside her. “Excuse me, would you be a good lad and hand me down a tub of honey butter?” She asked with a thick Scottish accent.

“It would be my pleasure. I was just about to pick up two tubs for my family.” Dan smiled, easily reaching his right hand to the top shelf.

“Honey butter on warm toast and tea. It’s hard to beat that combination now, for sure,” she said with confidence.

Dan handed the woman, who was barely five feet tall, a golden-coloured tub. “Thank you, Laddie,” she said, taking the tub from Dan, her right hand briefly touching his. She looked into his hazel-green eyes. “My, my, aren’t you a fine-looking stud of a lad? If I were forty or fifty years younger...,” she commented bluntly.

Dan was taken aback by this frail-looking spitfire’s honesty. Wendy had to cover her mouth, politely trying to hide her giggles. The woman looked over his handsome features for a moment, said thank you again, and turned to leave.

Dan picked up two tubs of honey butter and was about to leave. “Excuse me, can you humour an old lady for a few moments?”

“I, I guess so?” Dan answered, puzzled by her question, then looked at Wendy. The lady looked into Dan’s eyes again and touched his right hand.

“I’m Cathleen O’Malley, now there’s a combination for you. I’m Scottish, and my dear husband was Irish. I live a few doors down from Abby Kendall.”

“How do you know that I know Abby Kendall?”

“I was at your wedding and also Scott’s to Vicky.”

“Now I recognize you,” he recalled, briefly meeting her.

“Shhh,” she said softly, closing her eyes. “Ahh, such a beautiful young woman. Abby is the spitting image of her mother. Hmm, Abby enjoys you fucking her.” She opened one eye as if judging him.

Her facial expression changed several times, her eyebrows rising and then furrowing as if reading an interesting book. “My, my, you are a busy lad, and quite the frisky one at that! All of those women to fuck, any man alive would be jealous of you,” she grinned.

“You’re Brad’s father, but I don’t have to close my eyes to see that. You and he have the same colour eyes that are bright and kind,” she remarked, opening hers.

“Yes, my son is named Brad, but how do you know that?”

“Abby had mentioned her boyfriend numerous times and showed me his picture. Don’t mind me. Many people call me a meddling old fool because I read tea leaves and tarot cards, but they don’t believe. But you, Wendy, Karen, Brad, Abby, and your girls believe.”

“Believe in what?”

“Believe in the hereafter, in angels,” Cathleen stated.

“What makes you think that?”

“Your Laura has proven it to you on several occasions.”

“Wait a minute. You knew my wife, Laura?” Dan questioned.

“Correction, I know your wife, Laura.”

“What do you mean, you know her? She’s been dead for three years!”

“I know that. Her body may be dead, but her spirit isn’t. I visited her just last week. Plus, I felt her spirit at your wedding to Karen and Scott’s to Vicky. Don’t you remember smelling her perfume and feeling such a warm and gentle breeze and that tingling sensation? That was Laura’s spirit passing through all of you.”

Dan looked sideways at Wendy, not quite sure what to make of this nutcase. “I’ve been blessed with the ability to allow my spirit to leave my body and visit the dead. I can’t control when it happens; it just does.”

“Laura is an extremely beautiful-looking blonde with two tattoos just by her private area. My, my, what she did after getting those tattoos. Your daughter Cathy convinced Laura to get the same tattoos because they were mistaken for sisters so often.”

“She’s right about the tattoos and them looking like twins,” Dan confirmed to Wendy.