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“Of course. Let’s go into the family room.” Mrs. Stone led us down the hallway, and she sat on the loveseat while Tori and I took a seat on the couch. Mrs. Stone sat on the edge of the love seat and studied us both with loving eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. We’re okay, don't worry. We just need to ask for your blessing about something.” I took a deep breath and blew it out. “You and Mr. Stone have made it very clear since Willow’s passing that you want me to be happy. I know you said that I would always be your daughter, but you hope that I find love with someone else at some point. I hope you really do feel that way.” I reached out and grabbed Tori’s shaky hand. “We never meant for this to happen, and we’ve tried to fight it, but Tori and I have actually fallen for each other. It’s very new, but with your blessing, we’d like to move forward with our relationship. Only if we have your blessing though. If this is too much for you or anyone else in your family to handle, we won’t do it. We understand how hard it is. It’s hard for us, too.”
My mother-in-law pursed her lips and nodded slowly, then stood from the loveseat and held up a finger. “I just need one moment.”
Shit. Maybe Tori was right. Maybe she does hate us.
Tori removed her sweaty hand from mine and wiped it on her shorts. “Okay, I’m officially freaking out now.”
“Me, too,” I whispered as I stared across the room waiting for Mrs. Stone to come back.
After a few more grueling minutes, Mrs. Stone finally came back into the room. Her eyes were rimmed with red, giving away exactly what she had been doing when she left the room. “I’m sorry, girls. Even after all these years, I still wait for Willow to walk through that front door. Reminders that she is gone are very hard on me. With that said, I love both of you as if you were my own children. Tori, I’ve watched you grow from a rambunctious little kid to the most amazing mom in the world. It made me so happy. The only thing missing was the person to love you the way you deserved to be loved. I have no doubt that Rosemary can love you that way. I know that because I saw the way she loved my daughter.” My mother-in-law focused her attention on me. “The way you still love my daughter. I meant what I said. I know Willow would want you to be happy, and so do I.”
“Are-are you sure?” I asked tentatively. “Because if this is going to hurt you at all, we don’t want to do it.”
“What would hurt me more than anything is knowing that I’m keeping you two from finding happiness. Like I said before, any reminder that Willow isn’t coming back is very hard on me, and this will be a reminder of that. But that’s on me, not the two of you. Just be patient with me while I adjust.”
Tori nodded and let out a long breath. “Of course. This is a big adjustment for us as well. We’re not even sure if we can make it work, but we had to try. You know, as long as we get the blessings of your whole family.”
Mrs. Stone smiled her trademark warm smile. “For what it’s worth, I’m rooting for you two. Like I said, I love you girls more than anything, and I’ve watched both of you suffer so much these past few years. What more could I wish for than the two of you finding that happiness you both deserve. I’m glad you could find it in each other.”
We all stood and exchanged hugs, and Mrs. Stone reassured us once again that we had her blessing. We had just pulled apart when the door opened and Phil’s family and Mr. Stone walked into the house.
“What did I miss?” Phil asked as he walked into the room with a big smile on his face. Our faces must have been flushed from the stress of the conversation, because his smile immediately dropped. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
I felt guilty about the panic that was clear in his voice. After living through a shocking tragedy, a mind had a way of always going to the worst case scenario.
Before I could say anything, Mrs. Stone walked over to Phil and put a hand on his arm. “Everyone is fine, honey. Don’t worry.”
“Then what’s going on?” Phil looked right at me, probably because he knew I was the easiest to break down.
Which he was right about. I cleared my throat and stood up straight to seem more confident than I actually felt. “It turns out, Tori and I have developed feelings for each other. We want to… umm… move forward with those feelings, but didn’t want to do that without all of your blessings.”
Much to my surprise, Phil started to laugh. Eventually, he bent over because he was laughing so hard.
Stevie entered the room and gave Phil a confused smile. “What’s so funny?”
Phil stood back up and pointed between me and Tori. “These two just scared the shit out of me. I thought one of them was dying, but it turns out they just want to make sure it’s okay to date.” Phil held his arms out, and Tori and I both accepted his embrace. “You two are family. I don’t care what the hell you do as long as you never leave me. I need you two knuckleheads.”
I felt a hand on my back and looked over to find it was Stevie. “We love you two. All we want is for you to be happy.”
I couldn’t stop the happy tears from flowing. I never expected it to go this well. I just hoped my father-in-law supported us as well.
Speaking of which, he walked into the room at that very moment holding both of Phil’s kids. “Before you say anything, I want you to know I heard your speech. All Willow ever wanted was for you two to be happy. That’s all I want, too.” He looked over at me. “It might be weird for me to see you with anyone other than my little girl, but I have no doubt that my other little girl is going to make you very happy.”
Tori was also crying, but a big smile broke through her tears in response to Mr. Stone’s words. She wrapped him in a big hug. “Thanks for always making me feel like part of the family.”
“You are part of the family,” Mrs. Stone said.
After a few more hugs, we all sat down to eat lunch. It would be a lie to say it was completely normal, but it was as close to normal as it could have gotten given what we had shared with them.
When we walked into our house hand-in-hand later in the afternoon, my heart felt more full than it had in a very long time. I looked at Tori, and it felt like it burst open. There were so many feelings that I didn’t know how to put into words. She was beautiful inside and out, and all I wanted to do was express that to her. “Tori?”
“Yeah?” When Tori looked over at me, she swallowed hard, because she must have noticed the desire in my eyes.
“I want you.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “All of you. I know I said I wanted to take things slow, but I don’t think that’s possible with you. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this forever. I can’t wait anymore.”
Tori’s eyes went wide, and she stared at me unblinking for what felt like a very long time. “Are-are you sure?”
