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And once I had the chance to sleep on it, and toss it around my brain a little while. Let it marinate up there and really kick the thoughts around, no matter how confusing and maddening they were…I could see what she was talking about.
And probably the most important thing there was to see was what I saw on my baby girl’s hand the other night. I may have been angry and I may have acted impulsively and wildly, but in the midst of all my mayhem I did see one thing that tied it all back together and in the end? Well, it made it all right.
You put a ring on her finger and that shows your intentions are genuine and true.
This isn’t something dirty, or inappropriate. Hell, I had her at twenty. She’s practically nineteen now. So if she were to get pregnant in six months from now…”
He pauses realizing he doesn’t want to think about that right now. I feel like I’m winning right now, so I’m not going to address that point.
“Well, she’d be right on target. History would be repeating itself which it often seems to do.
So I come here in peace. And I come here to congratulate you, if…
…you can accept my apology.”
There’s a lot of things I can say right now, but I think this isn’t the time or the place. It’s best to make hay while the sun is shining and call it a victory. Plus it takes balls for a man to admit he was wrong and I can admire that…especially when he’s my best friend.
“I can and I do,” I say.
He extends his hand and I waste no time filling his grip with my own.
We shake, like old friends do.
“But I think it’s a good idea if you have a word with Penelope when she’s awake. Ultimately this all boils down to what she thinks and how she feels.”
“I feel awake and I think this is one of the best moments I’ve ever seen, especially between two stubborn old men,” a voice behind me says.
I turn and see she’s in a T-shirt and jeans but clearly still in the process of waking up.
“How long have you been back there?” I ask.
“Long enough,” she says as she comes to my side and gives me a hug. Then she gives her dad a big long look before bursting out into tears and giving him a tight hug.
I sit and watch the moment thinking how if this was any other man I wouldn’t allow this to happen.
Her hugs are reserved for me and mine for her, especially ones this intimate.
But this isn’t just some ordinary fellow. This is her father and my best friend.
And this is the start of putting things back together again, and it looks like we’re on the fast track to a speedy recovery.
But this hug does seem to be dragging on.
“Okay enough you two. That’s my woman you’ve got your arms around, Peter,” I say.
They release each other and I move in to wipe away Penelope’s tears.
“Isn’t it beautiful dad?” she says showing him her engagement ring.
“It looks like it perfectly belongs on your hands…and I know you’re perfectly safe and in good hands…with him,” he says as his eyes shift up to mine.
And before I know what’s happening the three of us are hugging it out together, but I angle my body to keep Peter from getting more of a hug on Penelope than I get.
She’s mine after all and I always protect what’s mine.
Epilogue
Halloween – one year later
Penelope
“Rah!” Bishop says at the height of the tension in the movie.
I bury my head in his chest and grab ahold of him tight as we lie together on the couch, cuddled up this Halloween having a scary movie marathon together.
For dinner I even made “broth of blood,” which was actually just tomato soup, hot dog mummies, complete with “blood” inside so when you bit into them it squirted out. It was just ketchup of course. Also there were witch’s finger cookies, where I used almonds for the fingernails. And the main course was “Halloween ribs” which were ribs, but I put a skull at the top and some sausages below for the intestines.
I got pretty creative, and gory, to say the least.
But we’ve somehow bonded over scary and gory movies. It was something neither of us was into before, but I think all the Halloween stuff reminds us of how we met so we like to kind of recreate that feeling as often as we can.
And we’ve recreated some pretty intense moments from movies from time to time too, and these aren’t the kinds of movies you can get on Netflix. Whoops!
But being nineteen now and Bishop being thirty-nine and working out every day it’s natural that we have a healthy sexual appetite for each other.
