I just shrug my shoulders and lean forward so only she can hear me. “What can I say, I always did love a villain.”
“Monty is anything but a villain.” Harper tells me, “Him and Josie are exactly what you need.”
“You think so?” I don’t mean to question her, I came to accept that I was always going to end up alone. I took the time to come to terms with that, and I expect that in a year or two, when Hayes is a bit older and Josie and Monty don’t need the extra help, I’ll move on to my new adventure. Albeit, with my heart a little broken but it’s not something I haven’t put back together before.
Harper is silent for a couple minutes, the music and distant chatter is the only thing that surrounds us. I stare into the crowd, not looking at anyone in particular, and my vision begins to go fuzzy as I zone out. I forget that I was even having a conversation until Harper speaks up again.
“I do.” She says.
“What?” I ask her, coming back to the present and looking over at her.
“Think Monty and Josie are exactly what you need.” She tells me matter of factly. When I don’t respond to her she continues. “Babes, I love you and the shit you’ve gone through is nothing that I would wish on my worst enemy. You have this shield that you use for everyone else, the sassy, smart witted and devoted person. You’re my biggest supporter outside of Xavier, and I don’t know how I would have done a lot of things in my life without you.”
She takes a drink, and her face turns serious. “The you that’s behind that shield needs the reassurance and care – which is what youdeserve.I thought at one point that I would be the only one to see the person behind that shield. Until I saw the way they look at you, and the way they care for you. You might think that you aren’t worthy, but you are Evie.”
“I love you babes,” I tell her, leaning forward and wrapping her in a hug. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” I whisper. She squeezes me tightly and when we pull back I quickly wipe a knuckle under my eyes and breathe out.
“Okay, enough sappy stuff. Let’s go out on the floor and dance until we drop” I grab her hand, leading her to the middle of the makeshift dance floor in the living room. We spend the rest of the night dancing, laughing and creating new memories.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Monty
Eleven Months Post Partum
“Areyousureyoudon’t want to come with us to my parents for dinner?” I ask Evie again, while guiding one of my arms into my jacket.
She smiles at me softly from where she’s crouched in front of Hayes helping get his winter boots on. “Yes, I’m sure.” She assures me, “I stayed up late last night playing around with some different kinds of editing variations on the photos I took for Barks and Recs. They are wanting to upload the new photos after Thanksgiving.”
Evie has really flourished in her photography, while she missed the sign up for the classes at the community college. She found a group of photographers that she meets with weekly and they go out with a different theme and technique that they work on. Then a couple weeks ago, I was doom scrolling through my Capture feed when I saw that the local animal shelter was looking for a volunteer to take photos of the current animals in the shelter.
I sent it over to Evie and she called them the next day to offer to take the photos. She’s been working so hard through the day here with Hayes and Shiloh, then at night if she’s not with us she’s at her computer working on the newest photo or project.
After Halloween, Evie has spent every night in our bed. She still leaves before the boys wake up, or we get up with the boys while she sneaks out.The boys are none the wiser and it’s good to have her in our bed with us. She’s exactly where she’s meant to be.
We’ve been talking about what comes next, with Harper and Xavier knowing and being so supportive we want to be able to share with everyone. Evie still wants to wait a little while longer before we go public however, and Josie and I want to respect her wishes. Even if I want to growloursat every man, woman and non-binary who checks her out.
“Those photos are going to turn out amazing because you took them. I’m sure they won’t need much editing.” Josie tells Evie as she walks over to the coat hangers and grabs her own jacket. “Just hang out and relax, we’ll make sure to bring you home something to eat.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I was just going to make some ramen and probably go to bed early.” Evie says as she walks over to the pantry and pulls out two packs of cheap noodles.
We say our goodbyes, load up the boys into the SUV and are off to my parents. The drive is about two hours away. With young kids it’s not the most ideal to travel that long, but the boys have been getting better in the car recently. When my mom called to invite us over, and gave us a reason not to cook in our own home I couldn’t say no, especially when she sweetened the pot by telling me she was making my favorite dessert. My mouth begins to fill with saliva at the thought of my mom’s pumpkin pie cheesecake.
Between listening to nursery rhymes and Shiloh’s constant questions, I internally cry with relief when my parents driveway appears ahead of us.
My mom is already standing outside on the front steps as we pull in. Sure enough she followed us on her phone since I shared my location with her. It saves from the phone calls I’ve gotten in the past asking where we were.
“Nana! Pa!” Shiloh screams as he leaves the SUV. Running straight into my moms arms. When she releases him, he runs to my dad who picks him up and spins him around. My parents are in their late fifties, my mom works as a receptionist at the local dentist office, while my dadjust retired, he was my right hand man at the business. He was our main consultant when I wasn’t available for the last couple of years, then he had to get a knee replacement and couldn’t work the same way he used to.
He’s enjoying his free time, though he still shows up to the shop once a week to check in, I know it’s because he doesn’t know what to do with himself most days.
“Hey, Mom.” I lean down and peck my mom on the cheek.
“Hello Monty boy, how was the drive?” She asks, while taking Hayes from my arms and peppering him with kisses which causes him to giggle.
“It wasn’t bad, Shiloh had a whole repertoire of questions to ask us on the drive up.” I tell her just as Josie arrives at my side with the diaper bag. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and bring her to my side, dropping a soft kiss to the top of her head.
We follow my parents into the house and get settled. Josie follows my mom into the kitchen to help her out with whatever’s left, and I head to the basement with the boys and my dad. About a month after he retired he renovated the whole basement into a man cave with a side designated for the kids play area. He came across a post online about turning space underneath your stairs into a kids size general play store. Shiloh absolutely loves it, while Hayes is just starting to show interest in the fake food.
