Choosing Life

Chapter Fifty One

Ben tilted his head. "Won't you be warm? There's going to be a lot of people in the room—."

"If I get warm, then I can take off the jacket," Mal shrugged as she put on the jacked and frowned slightly.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked.

"It...it feels a bit tight," Mal told him, stretching out her back as if to stretch out the jacket. "Okay there we go, much better. You know it's funny, I had the same thing happen with my dress too."

"Isn't this the dress you wore to Cotillion?" Ben asked.

"The very same," Mal said with a grin as she did a small twirl in the dress. "Many years and two kids later and I can still fit into my clothes from when I was a teen."

Ben shook his head in amusement. "No one doubted that Mal. After all, you are a Godling."

"Ah...right," Mal said with a small nod. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be greeting people as host?"

"Mom's handling that," Ben told her. "Since she's the official member and technically, I'm just the plus one they asked to make a speech."

"Hey, you're much more than that," Mal said as she gently got up and kissed him on the cheek. "You're the plus one who volunteered his home for the evening."

Ben snorted in amusement and then looked at himself in the vanity mirror. "How did you manage to not leave any lipstick?"

"It's apparently transfer proof lipstick," Mal said. "Mom bought it for me a while back when I had a girl's day with her and Rea."

"Was that back when you were pregnant with the twins?"

"You know I think it was," Mal nodded. "Well, we probably shouldn't leave our guests downstairs on their lonesome for much longer."

"Oh yes, I believe that would be rude. They might question our upbringing," Ben said with a small chuckle as they made their way out of their bedroom and down the stairs to one of the few ballrooms that had not been made an ice rink by Ben's best friends with assistance from Elsa.

"Mal!" Ginny grinned as she saw Mal and Ben walk in.

"Ginny! Oh it's great to see you," Mal said with a grin of her own. "How've you been?"

"We've been great, though Chad's been determined to take me to every horse show in the kingdom," Ginny said, shaking her head.

"Hey, you never know, you might want to breed Gwen," Chad told her.

"Am I the only one weirded out by the fact that Ginny's horse and Gil's daughter technically share a name?" Ben asked.

"No you are not Benny," Mal told him.

"Technically Gil named his daughter after Ginny got her horse so one could claim Gil named his kid after Ginny's horse," Bobby Hood said as he walked by with his brother.

"Hey Bobby, hey Roland," Mal said with a smile. "Come to join the fun?"

"Well we wouldn't be the club within a club that is the Charming In-Laws in the Learning to be Royal Club if we didn't come by to say hi to Ginny," Roland grinned.

"I still say we need a shorter title for our club within a club," Ginny said, shaking her head.

"Nah," Bobby and Roland both grinned.

Mal couldn't help but smile at that. She had been tempted to ask Bobby and Roland how they were holding up with their new additions to their families but felt it would almost be cruel to Ginny if she asked that in front of her.