A Twist of Fate (Complete)

Ch. 38 - May the Best Man Win

Maggie filled a kettle with water and put it on the stove and a couple minutes later it was whistling.

"In England we make our tea really different. We brew it really strong and then we add cubes of sugar while it's hot so it dissolves and then cold low fat milk and stir it up," Keaton said as he showed her.

She watched how he made it very closely and when he was done and set the cup in front of her, she took a sip and closed her eyes, saying "Mmmmmm that's delicious."

She opened her eyes and smiled. "Thank you so much for teaching me that," she said, patting his arm before getting up and grabbing a couple sugar cookies out of a jar, handing him one before sitting back down again. "And thank you for bringing Everly home for Thanksgiving. It means a lot to us to have her here. It wouldn't be the same without her."

"She had been moping around for the last week so I knew she was sad about not being able to come home. You should've seen how happy she was when I surprised her this morning," Keaton said, taking a bite of the sugar cookie and forcing himself not to make a face because it was extremely sweet, a lot sweeter than the cookies he was used to back home.  He ate it anyway because he didn't want to offend her.

"Everly told me you're taking her to London with you to spend Christmas with you and your family. You mentioned your Mom passed and you're an only child. Is it just going to be your Dad then?"

"My Dad's the only immediate family I have left, but a couple of my great aunts and uncles, and some second cousins usually come over on Christmas. We're not that close though," he shrugged. "But I'm used to it. I tell Everly all the time how lucky she is to have the family she has. Not everyone is that lucky."

"I was sorry to hear about you losing your Mom at such a young age. That must've been hard," she said, giving him a sympathetic look before taking a sip from the steaming tea cup.

"It was," he nodded. "We were really close. She was an amazing Mom," he said, taking a deep breath in and letting it out. "Losing her was the hardest thing I've ever gone through," he added quietly, before staring at his tea cup and zoning out, lost in his thoughts.

His Mom was something he never talked about with anybody, not even his Dad, but somehow both Everly and her Mom were able to pull it out of him.

She looked down at her tea saying quietly, "When you lose someone that close to you, you never fully get over it. It's always in the back of your mind, but you learn how to keep going, how to take it day by day, because you have to carry on with life. That's what they would want."

They sat there in silence for a second before he said, "You say that like you know from experience."

Maggie nodded and gave him another sympathetic look, spinning her tea cup between her hands and looking down at it. "I lost my identical twin sister in a car accident when I was teenager. She was my best friend."

He noticed the vacant look in her eyes and then they started to get red and watery.

"I'm sorry," he said, not sure what else to say or do.

"No, I'm the one that's sorry," Maggie said with a sniffle, fanning her eyes to dry them. "I didn't mean to start crying like this. When the memories come back it feels like it just happened yesterday."

"It's alright," Keaton said. "I understand."

Before he could say another word Brad, Austin and Finn came busting in through the back door out of breath and laughing. "The Yankees recruiter actually said that to you?" Finn asked with wide eyes. "That you could be the greatest baseball player of our generation?"