“You know, it’s crazy how we can sometimes find things we didn’t even know we needed until they hit us over the head,” he said. “I didn’t realize how much I needed my wife until she looked me straight in the eyes and told me that I was either all in or all out. I had to choose. In reality, there was no choice to be made. By that point, I was already head over heels and couldn’t imagine my life without her in it. She really pulled me out of the depression that I had trapped myself in for years after your mother died. Again, I didn’t realize I needed love until it was hitting me straight over the head.”
“Very true,” I replied. “You don’t feel strange about it, though?”
“Look, son,” he said seriously. “You need to open yourself up to love. You have gone far too long without it. After what Christina did, it makes me wonder how long you had actually gone without love in your life without even realizing it. Your heart needs to be completely healed, and you deserve to find love with whoever makes you smile and gets you up every day. Knowing your stepmother, it doesn’t surprise me
at all that you were able to find love in my new wife’s daughter. They are loving and caring people. I am happy for you, and I hope that Kayla is taking it very well because it is good for her, too.”
“She struggled at first.” I chuckled. “But we can talk about all that when you get back. I don’t want to take over the last few days you have on vacation.”
“All right, son,” he said happily. “We will see you on the Fourth, then!”
“I can’t wait,” I replied, saying my goodbyes and hanging up the phone.
I stood there for several minutes, running that conversation through my mind. All that fear and unknowing turned out perfectly fine in the end. My father understood that Alissa and I were good for each other and good for Kayla. Out of all the people I expected to be against our relationship, I figured he would be high on that list. Apparently, that wasn’t the case, and I was happy to see that his travels had softened him quite a bit. I let out a deep breath and shook my head, walking over to the fruit bowl and grabbing an apple. I felt so much better knowing that the hardest person in my life to please, supported Alissa and my relationship. It was just more confirmation that the whole stepsibling things was nothing to worry about at all.
I tapped my fingers on the table, listening as Kayla walked around upstairs, probably dancing to the music coming out of her new stereo. The kid was a trip, and I had walked in more than one time to see her dancing like a madwoman to some English boy band or to old school Michael Jackson. She was someone who marched to the sound of her own beat. I put the apple core in the trash and headed upstairs to let Kayla know that her grandma and grandpa would be bright and happily there for her 8th birthday party. I knew that she was stressing about it a lot, and though I wanted to make it a surprise, I didn’t want her to miss out on even a second of her birthday party, wondering where the people she loved were.
As I climbed the stairs, I felt even calmer than I did before, knowing now that the weight of telling everyone about Alissa and me had been lifted off my shoulders. Now, all there really was to do was live life to the fullest. There wasn’t anything that I could see ruining the perfect place that I had found myself in with one of the most beautiful women I had ever met.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alissa
It was only a couple of days until Kayla’s birthday, the day my mom got back from her honeymoon, and of course, one of my favorite holidays, the Fourth of July. I wanted to get something really special for Kayla from me for her 8th birthday, and I knew just from being around her how much she loved dolls. So, early that Saturday morning, I grabbed Bella from her house and dragged her out to the nearest USA Dolls shop and started to peruse the shelves for the perfect reflection of Kayla herself. I didn’t want it to be too girlie, because she was a strong-willed young lady and wasn’t a fan of tutus and ballerinas. Bella was happy to be out of the house, and I thought it was adorable that I could already see a small bump in her stomach.
“So,” I said, standing beside her in front of the walls of dolls. “How is that little munchkin of mine doing?”
“Good,” she said, rubbing her tiny belly. “The doctor said everything looks amazing, and it was completely normal that I wanted to eat an entire chocolate cake in one sitting.”
I laughed. “I would totally exploit that. You know how much I love food. I would definitely be the girl that gained 100 pounds from my pregnancy. I wouldn’t even feel a damn bit bad for eating the entire cake, and I might even take out someone’s hand who tried to take it from me.”
“You are too much,” Bella said, laughing. “I am picturing you sitting on the kitchen floor, shoveling cake in your mouth and growling at anyone who even attempted to get close to you.”
“Have you told Mom yet?”
“Nope,” she said. “I have a really fun idea to tell her, and I’m going to do it at Kayla’s birthday party. I want it to be a grand surprise since it’s the first grandchild, besides Kayla of course, that she will be welcoming into the family.”
“That is going to be amazing,” I said. “Mom is totally going to freak out. You know how much she loves babies. She almost died when she found out about Kayla, and she isn’t even a baby. Mom is going to also probably drive you nuts, so be prepared.”
“This is why you need to just give in and start popping out babies,” she said. “If we are both pregnant, we would like, short circuit our mother, and then we could rewire her after the babies were born. I think it is the perfect solution to keep her from going apeshit and driving me nuts about everything.”
“Uh, I don’t think that is a good plan at all.” I laughed. “Besides, I remember what she was like during your first wedding. She was obsessed with every single detail, and she would like, call you in the middle of the night because Google got ahold of her, and she loved something she saw on there.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “That was a bit too much for me. I mean, there was a point where we literally tried six different cake decorators. I ate like, five pounds of cake that week and had a hard time getting into my dress.”
“No, you had a hard time because it was basically painted on you.” I laughed.
“That is very true,” she said. “I could barely walk around.”
“You were the penguin bride.” I laughed.
“I’m serious,” Bella said. “Just go ahead and get it over with. Start knocking those babies out.”
“Have you forgotten that just a week or so ago, I was crying in my wine glass because Ryan broke up with me? I think I might want to wait on the babies until I am more secure in my relationship. Besides, I have my hands full with Kayla, and she isn’t really technically mine. I am standing in some doll shop two days before her birthday, having zero clue as to what I should get her. If this is my test for being a mother, then I am afraid that I might be failing miserably.”
“No,” she said. “You know that if you were failing, Ryan is a tough enough dude that he would break things off. You’ve always had a serious ability to work with children. It is like one of your life gifts, which will come in handy when this little bean comes out rocking and rolling like her mother and father.”
I laughed loudly, scanning the dolls and thinking about how absurd it was for me to be talking about having children. I had only just started a relationship with Ryan, and there were specific societal guidelines for these kinds of things. My mood went from laughing to serious really quickly when I realized that the thought of a long-term future with Ryan was something I had already given some thought to. The whole forever thing, I hadn’t figure out yet, but I definitely could see myself in his life, in this capacity, for a very long time. I could truly see a rest-of-our-lives kind of relationship with Ryan. It was a staggering revelation, and I moved across the room to avoid Bella noticing my change in personality. The last thing I wanted to do was admit that I was thinking about the long-term with him, and not just the here and now. I didn’t want to have her freak out and go crazy, thinking I was already halfway down the aisle.