“As life partners,” I pick up.
And then we whisper, as one voice, “Together.”
She glances at me with a quirk of a warm smile, her lips shifting for a moment before settling into a flat line as she turns back to Natalie and Angela.
“Unless you hate us?” she whispers. “In which case… I don’t know.”
“What would you say if I told you no?” Natalie says, staring at one of us and then the other. She focuses on me. “Dad? What would you do?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, voice gruff. “I guess I haven’t let myself think about that. I can’t let those sorts of negative thoughts in.”
“I don’t think you’d be able to break things off,” Natalie murmurs. “I don’t think either of you would be able to.”
I want to roar out that she’s wrong, I’d always put my daughter first before everything. But when I enter this new landscape of my mind – the new land my woman has built since we first laid eyes on each other in the studio – I know I wouldn’t be able to live without my Sassy.
“Little gnat…”
She holds up her hand. “I need to say something.”
I feel my woman tense beside me, as she gets ready to hear the news that is going to shatter our world.
I imagine the scene erupting, Natalie storming from the table, Kelly with tears in her eyes gazing at me miserably when I ask her if she still wants to make this work.
How can we? I imagine her saying. Natalie hates us. Oh, God, why did we give in to this desire?
I let my words die on my lips, as terror rises through me and tries to grip me, compressing my chest and making me wish there was somebody to fight, somewhere to aim all this emotion inside me towards.
“Obviously this is very strange and surprising for me,” she says. “But the thing is, neither of you has ever lied to me before. And all of this happened so quickly, I don’t think you even had a chance to lie to me about it. You could’ve told me straight away, the moment you knew there was something here, but it was so fast. If you’re not lying to me about how quickly this happened…”
“I swear we’re not,” I snarl.
“No way, Nat,” Kelly says passionately. “I promise. Everything we’ve told you is the truth.”
I want to reach over and lay my hand atop hers, squeeze supportively so she can feel how thankful I am to her for backing me up in this, the way I’m going to back her up every day for the rest of our lives, supporting and protecting our family.
Forever.
“Then it’s difficult for me to be angry,” Natalie goes on, a smile touching her lips. “Like I said, it’ll take some getting used to. But I can see how happy you two are together. It’s difficult not to see.”
“You’ve got that right.” Angela smiles and laughs. “As for me, I’m a writer. As long as you’re both happy and committed, I see no problem with it. Writers are unconventional by nature.”
“So what’re you saying?” Kelly murmurs, voicing the question that burns within both of our chests.
“I’m saying I’m happy for you.” Natalie lets her smile go now, spreading joyfully across her face. I can see that she means what she’s saying, the assuredness I’ve been able to read in her since she was a little kid. “If this is what it looks like—”
“It is,” I growl.
“It really is,” Kelly murmurs.
“Then I think you’ve both found the perfect person for you. I’ve never seen either of you like this before.”
“Oh, Nat…”
Kelly bursts into tears and moves around the edge of the table. Natalie stands up and the two friends hug each other tightly. I smile over the scene, nodding in respect to Kelly’s mother.
“I promise to always take care of your daughter,” I say. “And, actually, I’d like to have a little talk in private if that’s okay…”
Angela narrows her eyes at me and then smiles when she catches my meaning. She really is smart, and happiness moves through me when I think about our children having such a perceptive grandmother… Lennie wasn’t her fault.
Lennie was Lennie’s fault.
“I think that should be fine,” she says, standing.
Kelly turns to me, smiling through her tears of joy. “What are you up to?”
I smirk, taking in the sight of Natalie’s smile, feeling the flow of her love and support. “You wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise, would you?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Kelly
I wake in silk sheets, still sore from the way Kaleb and I unleashed on each other last night. But it’s a good soreness, moving through me in a way that tells me I’m right where I belong.
After the emotion-heavy scene on the balcony, Natalie and Mom went home – with lots of tears and hugs and assurances they mean it, they really support us – and Kaleb and I fell into bed.