A movement to the side of me showed Ronnie sitting down to join us, a knowing look on her face as she winked at me.
“Hey, what’s the story with your dads?” Marcus asked, holding the popcorn bowl out for his mom.
I shifted awkwardly, loving the story but slightly uncomfortable with aspects of it. So Ronnie filled him in for me.
“Sam and Ryan met after Ryan had an accident, and Sam was in the ER doing doctor training stuff at med school. It was love at first sight, but they didn’t get together until they bumped into each other in a restaurant three months later while they were on dates. With women.”
I loved this part.
“With women? But why?”
“They were only attracted to each other,” I said softly. “Neither of them had even entertained the thought of being with another man until they met, and they just clicked.”
Nodding at me, Ronnie smiled brightly. “It was definitely something beautiful. Your dad and I knew Ryan, so when he introduced us to Sam after we’d met so many women in his past”—leaning into me, she whispered—“sorry, honey, but it’s true.”
When I just shrugged, she winked and sat back heavily against the cushions. “Where was I? Oh, yes, your dad and I were a bit confused for a moment until we saw how well they clicked together. Know the best bit?” When Marcus shook his head, she told him, “It was only their second date. They were so perfectly matched that it happened in an instant, and everyone could see it.”
I loved that, and it was so true.
“How did Sashie here come to be?” Marcus asked as he nudged me with his shoulder.
Now, this was the uncomfortable bit.
“Uh, they both donated a sample in the same cup to the surrogate.”
Ugh, think of puppies and unicorns dancing in the forest.
“Do you know whose swimmer won the race?”
Pulling on one of my curls, Ronnie smiled softly at me. “That’s what makes their story even more beautiful. Sasha looks like both of them. Neither of them wanted to know and said they’d leave that choice up to Sasha if she ever wanted to. As far as they’re concerned, it’s a perfect fifty-fifty situation.”
“I don’t want to know,” I clarified. “I have the same mentality as they do, and I share features with both of them. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m fifty percent of both of them.”
Half of Marcus’s mouth kicked up in a smile as he thought about it. “Okay, feel free to hit me over the head—unless it’s with your casted arm—if I’m asking too many questions, but this is fascinating as hell. Who was the surrogate?”
“The girlfriend Ryan dumped to be with Sam,” Ronnie choked out as I burst out laughing. “She was about to tell him she’d found a woman she wanted to be with that night, and they ended up becoming close friends.”
“No shit?” he asked, his mouth dropping open.
“No shit,” I confirmed. “We don’t see her often, and she definitely doesn’t have any motherly thoughts toward me, but she offered to do it before they’d even thought about it. I think they’d considered adopting, but it wasn’t really something that was done back then for gay couples, so they’d shelved it as an option. Ainslie came over to drop something off as they were discussing it, offered up her eggs and womb, and here I am.”
Leaning back so he could look at me properly, Marcus took a moment and then nodded his head. “You’re a special one, Miss Adams-DeWitt. Own your story and be proud of the miracle you are.”
I blinked rapidly against the tears the words brought and the guilt that hit again at not telling my dads about what’d happened sooner. “Thanks.”
He was just picking up the remote when he asked, “Did you ever get bullied at school?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “It was bound to happen. I had good friends, though, who didn’t care, and neither did their parents, but kids are assholes.”
“I feel you,” he muttered. “I think everyone gets bullied at some point for that exact reason.”
Then, not saying another word, he turned the television on and started flicking through it for whatever he was looking for.
Smiling at Ronnie, who was absentmindedly braiding some of my hair, I tried to make sense of how vastly life had changed in the last year.
One minute, I was in my second year at college, not far away from my dads, doing the course I’d always wanted to. Then I was on an out of control train headed for the edge of a cliff, and I couldn’t stop it.
Somehow, the train had ground to a halt before it went off the tracks, and I’d been moved away to safety.
Fast forward a few months, and here I was. This time the train had only derailed gently, though, and it’d brought me to a place I’d never considered.