“More tears?” came a voice, and I swiveled to see Mattie coming in the patio doors.
“Hi.” I gave Birgitte owl eyes, and she spun toward him excitedly.
“She called me Mor. I couldn’t hold back the tears.”
“Seriously?”
“It just slipped out. I guess you could say my subconscious isn’t letting things go unsaid anymore.” I winked, and he reached for me but pulled back when he remembered our bigsecret.
He hugged his mom instead and slung his arm around her shoulders as we walked back to the patio where Theo sat waiting. “I bet that meant the world to you right now,” I heard him whisper in her ear. She laid her head on his shoulder as an answer.
“We’re going to go now so you can finish what you need to finish before surgery.” I kissed her on the cheek and gave her a tight hug. “Thanks for dinner. Remember, we love you. We’ll be there Tuesday morning bright and early.”
She hugged me back, holding me for several long minutes before letting me go. “I love you too. I’ll be fine, just remember that.”
I nodded once and turned to hug Theo while Mattie told her goodbye. “Bye, Far. Take good care of her until we see you Tuesday.”
His arms tightened on my back, and he lifted me off the ground, swinging me back and forth a few times. “Thank you for agreeing to be our daughter,” he whispered. “We don’t always get to pick our family, but I’m glad you picked us. Hearing you call me Far makes you as much my daughter as he is my son. I love you,pigebarn.”
“I love you too,” I promised when he set me on the ground again.
Mattie put his arm around my waist to help me down the stairs to the car, but Theo held his arm. “I was wrong, Son,” he said, his head nodding. “I take responsibility for getting in the way of what was right all along. My attempt to protect you only hurt both of you more, and I will forever be sorry for that.”
“Far?” Mattie said, his head cocked to the side. “What are you talking about?”
“I might be old,” he said, his brow in the air, “but I can still see and hear. I see the way you look at her. It is the way I still look at your mor. I hear how your voice softens when you say her name and how your hands clench at your side to keep from taking her hand or caressing her face. I should never have said the things to you that I did. I deeply regret it.”
“Far,” I whispered, grasping his arm to quell his shaking.
His head swung as he gazed at us. “You’ve loved each other since the day you met. Honeybee, I was afraid for you five years ago. The doctors told us you would always need looking after and I worried. I worried that my own son was not the one I could trust to do that after I was gone.”
“I wasn’t,” Mattie said on a nod. “I wasn’t then. I see that now. I know, Far,” he promised, grasping his father’s shoulder. “But I am now. I’m going to take care of her forever.”
Theo’s shoulders fell forward as his head nodded. “And thank God because you make a beautiful couple.” He took Mor’s hand and pulled her into his side. “You both make us so proud. Knowing you are happy will help us this week. I just wanted you to know I approve. All I want is for you to be happy. Just be happy together.”
Mattie shook his hand and then pulled him in for a hug. “We will be. I promise you from this day forward, I’m not letting anything get in the way of us being together. I can’t live without her. Never could.”
“I see that now,” Theo agreed, patting his back. “Take care of my girl, and we’ll see you this week.”
The man I love nodded and took hold of my waist again.
“See you Tuesday.” I blew them both a kiss, and then Mattie helped me down the stairs to the car. We climbed into the convertible, and when we pulled away, I waved wildly at the two people who had always been there for me and always would be. They were my mor and far now, and I didn’t have to feel one ounce of guilt about it anymore.
♥
I lowered my phone to my lap and my head to the seat. “That was Kevin.”
“I gathered as much,” he said, reaching out and squeezing my thigh. “Didn’t sound like good news.”
I let my head fall to the side to face him as he drove us home.
Home.
I loved how that old farmhouse was now our home together. It still blew my mind.
“Their insurance guy was there. He said nothing in my apartment can be saved. Because of the danger from the soot and chemicals left behind, all my clothes have to be thrown out.”
“I’m sorry, Honey,” he whispered, his hand bringing mine to his lips to kiss even as he drove. “Clothes can be replaced. You can’t be.”
