I went over to my daughter, pulled her away from the keyboard, swung her around, and kissed her cheeks. “Morning,Chiquita.”
“Morning, Mommy. Brady said he’d teach me another song.”
Before I could think about it, Brady was at our side, pulling both of us into his arms, placing a kiss on my cheek much as I’d just done to Hannah. Being wrapped up like a family sent warm bliss through my veins. I’d wanted this more than I ever thought…to be a family again. I only hoped that my desire to have this, the three of us as a unit, wouldn’t cloud my judgment when it came to the famous country-rock star.
Then, his words from the night before settled over me.I want to be yours.
I met his eyes, breath catching at the joy that radiated from them.
This was going to be okay.
Brady
IN CASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW
“You've got all of me.
I belong to you.
Yeah, you're my everything.”
Performed by Brett Young
Written by Young / Reeve / Tomlinson / Schlienger
Holding Tristan and Hannah felt likethe best damn thing that had ever happened to me. Better than being on the stage and accepting my first Grammy, which I thought was something that could never be topped. But this… Their smiles… The happiness spinning in the air… It was more satisfying than I’d ever even imagined. It wasmore. It was exactly what I’d been searching for, and I knew it as strongly as I’d known music was my life the first time my hands had touched the piano.
“I absolutely will teach you a new song,” I told Hannah, my voice deep with emotions I was pretty sure Tristan could see clearly on my face. “But I can’t possibly do it on an empty stomach. How do donuts with extra bacon sound?”
I knew before her little face twisted with disgust that Hannah was going to object.
“Donuts and bacon are very, very bad for you,” she told me with a little frown.
Tristan made a sound as if she’d protest, but I spoke before she could. “Cassidy makes donuts about as healthy as you’ll ever see them because they’re baked instead of fried. And she only lets me eat turkey bacon when I’m home. Let’s go see if she’ll make them for us today.”
Hannah didn’t look like she was convinced.
I reluctantly let the two females go in order to drag a T-shirt over my bare chest from where I’d thrown it after Tristan had gone to bed the night before. After I’d kissed and caressed her into a gasping orgasm that had spread an odd sense of pleasure and pride through me. I’d wanted to continue making slow and steady love to her so I could hear that same sound repeatedly, but I couldn’t because I knew I’d be loud and throaty as I took her, and there was a little girl a few steps away with the door open. I wouldn’t be irresponsible. Not with her. Not with Tristan.
The three of us made our way into my parents’ house to find it filled with more people than I’d expected. Lee and Alice sat at the table while Cassidy cooked breakfast at the stove behind her. Mom was rocking Chevelle and laughing at something Lee had said. It felt like a Sunday morning on a Tuesday. It felt like maybe my two separate worlds that were slowly blending together might actually fit somehow.
I hugged Alice. Her hair was black after months of being fuschia, and it made her gray eyes appear almost lilac. She was dressed like me: Chucks and jeans and a T-shirt. Except, her shirthad a rainbow with “black trans lives matter” written across it.
“Thanks for coming, Alice. How bad does Becca hate me for taking you away from her right now?” I asked her.
“She’s got her head so deep into research for her next novel, I think she’ll only realize I’m not there when no one puts food in front of the computer,” she said with a smile and not a single trace of bitterness for the fact her girlfriend would be lost in a made-up world.
Alice looked at Tristan who had Hannah still wrapped in her arms.
She stepped forward and stuck out a hand. “It’s nice to meet the first person to make Brady O’Neil stop chasing his tail…or other tails?”
Tristan flushed but took Alice’s hand. “Um. Nice to meet you too.”
“Hey, Stevie,” Alice said to Hannah, and the little girl smiled, her top hat barely hanging on as she rested against Tristan’s shoulder.
“I’m Hannah, not Stevie,” she said.
“Well, dang, you could be her twin.”
