a wife's regret // chaelisa

chapter 8

a.n. guys this is it prepare yourselves...i almost cried again

CHAPTER EIGHT

Bambam, Minnie, and Ten arrived just after one o'clock. The couple was holding hands and looked tanned, healthy, and happy. Bambam's greeting of Chaeyoung was strained; merely a curt nod before he grinned at his older sister and immediately struck up a conversation in SASL, rather rudely excluding both Chaeyoung and Minnie. The other woman shared a wry smile with Chaeyoung before clasping her hand warmly and planting a totally unexpected kiss on her cheek.

"You look so much better than the last time I saw you," she said with a friendly smile.

"Rest and sunshine will do that," Chae responded easily before stepping back and giving Minnie an all-encompassing once-over.

"I don't remember much about you, beyond your kindness that day, but I have to say, you're looking very good too." She snuck a glance over to her expansively signing brother-in-law. "I'm happy the whole . . . situation with Lisa and I didn't ruin your holiday!" Minnie shook her head with a smile.

"Bambam was a bit withdrawn for a while, but Ten and I soon dragged him out of it." She nodded down at the sleeping baby in his stroller and grinned good-naturedly.

"Oh, I'm so relieved to hear that." Chaeyoung couldn't help but respond to Minnie's warm personality. The woman was absolutely lovely. She could see how Bambam fell for her so quickly.

"So where is your beautiful little girl?" Minnie sent a questioning glance around the sunny patio as if expecting Ella to pop out from some nook at any moment.

"Poor little thing. Lisa was preparing her for your impending visit all morning and while she has no idea what cousins, aunts, and uncles are—I think she's expecting some exotic form of animal—she kept chattering on about it throughout her lunch. She wore herself out and drifted off to sleep almost immediately after completing her meal. It's for the best; she gets cranky if she doesn't have her afternoon nap. She'll be up again in an hour or two." She glanced over to where Lisa and Bambam were still immersed in conversation and frowned.

"Can you understand sign language?" she asked quietly, and Minnie's eyes became pools of liquid sympathy.

"A little. Bambam has been teaching me," she admitted softly.

"What are they talking about?" Chae wondered wistfully, and Minnie squeezed her hand again.

"I think Bambam is telling Lisa about his shark cage dive." She shuddered at the unpleasant recollection.

"Oh dear . . . Bambam still does stuff like that?"

Apparently it was the first time he's ever gone shark cage diving. He loved it but told me that he doubts he'll do it again, now that he's experienced it. I should hope not. It gives me jitters whenever I think of him down there with all those huge great whites circling the flimsy little cage he considers protection!"

"He'll settle down a bit now that he's married with a child, I suspect," Chae stated confidently.

"Sure he will." Minnie rolled her eyes. "Or maybe he'll simply drag Ten and me along with him. Back when we were dating, before I got pregnant, he did a brilliant job of talking me into doing the crazy stuff with him! In fact I'm pretty sure getting pregnant so soon was my body's defence mechanism kicking in to save me from Death by Crazy."

"No," Chae gasped, unable to picture the sweet, bookish-looking woman participating in some of the extreme sports Bambam commonly did for fun.

"Well let's see: bungee jumping, parasailing, parachuting, hang-gliding." She ticked off her fingers as she itemized. "Navigating in some crazy off-road race, white-water rafting . . . these are just a few of the insane things I found myself roped into doing back then."