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“Fucking hot.”
I smiled. “Yeah. I love it too.”
He rubbed his nose against mine and smiled back. “I love you.”
I kissed him, and we held each other, naked and making out for a long time.
Part III
Late-November 1991
Chapter Twenty-One
‡
Luke
Betsy wasn’t sureabout Minty. I could see it in her eyes as we sat down at the outdoor picnic bench and Minty started unloading the basket.
“I made most of this,” he said, pushing his floral headband back more on his head and squinting into the sun as he glanced up to see her reaction. “I know Luke usually brings you stuff from your mom, and I hope you’re not disappointed, but I think he’s not ready to introduce me to your parents yet.”
He gave a hopeful grin. “So, I did my best. I hope it’s okay.”
Betsy tilted her head, considering him.
Minty babbled on, “This is chocolate pudding—not the powdered kind, though! It’s my mom’s recipe. I loved it when I was little. Um, and this is a beef chili-cheese casserole. Luke said you like chili and that you aren’t a vegetarian, and so I thought this would be a good choice. This one was my grandmother’s recipe. She’s dead now. It makes me remember her. And this is—”
I touched his wrist. “It’s okay, baby. Betsy’s not that picky, are you, Bets?”
Her gaze shifted from my hand on him over to the food he’d brought, and my heart hung suspended, afraid that this was about to go very badly.
“I like chocolate pudding. Why do you wear girls’ clothes?” shesaid without segue.
“They make me look pretty,” Minty said, shrugging. “Does it embarrass you? I can go change.” He flushed. “I have some boy drag in the car.”
“Youdolook pretty. AndIlike how he dresses,” I said, the warning and defensiveness evident in my tone, but Betsy didn’t take her eyes off him.
“I’ve never seen a boy like you,” she said. “You look like the elf in my fairy tale book. He has white-blond hair too. And he wears a crown.” She indicated Minty’s headband. “Do you have pointed ears?”
Minty turned his head from side to side, letting her see both ears. “Sadly, no. But how great would it be if I did?”
“Really great,” she confirmed, reaching out for a plate, and indicating the chocolate pudding. “Let’s have that first.”
“Okay!” Minty agreed, excitement and relief pouring off him.
There was no way I was going to be the voice of reason and insist we all eat something healthy before sucking down a vat of chocolate pudding. Not with a crisis so narrowly averted. I put my plate out. “Me too.”
“How did you meet Lukey?” Betsy asked, digging into the pudding and leaving a smear of it behind on her face. I fought the urge to wipe it off. She was grown now and got irritated with me if I tried to take care of her in that parental kind of way.
Minty shot me a panicked glance.
“He came into my work,” I said.
“At the sex shop?” She said it so easily that Minty choked.
“She knows where you work?” he asked, trying to catch his breath after I banged his back.
“I’m not a baby just because I have Down Syndrome,” she said, defensively.
