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I was so proud of Heidi that I wanted to hug her.
But she wasn't done yet. The powerhouse hidden inside that easygoing exterior had lots more to say.
Chapter Thirty-One
Heidi
I pushed my chair back and got up, needing to stand tall while I told my parents all the things I should've told them a long time ago. Damian had helped me see how much I'd let my mom and dad affect my life and my choices, and he'd shown me I was done with that garbage. I loved him so much for getting the ball rolling, but now I needed to finish it.
"Yes, my favorite place on earth is a nudist resort," I said, my voice calmer than I could've hoped. I felt calm too, surprisingly so considering what I intended to do. "I feel more at home there than I ever did here with you two. The friends I've made at the resort have become like family to me. Honestly, theyaremy family now, more than my own parents have ever been."
"Heidi—"
I cut my mom off with a raised hand. "Let me finish. You're my parents, and I love you despite all the ways you've made me feel unworthy of your love. Every time you put me in the middle of one of your arguments, I thought it was my fault you couldn't get along. I thought it was my fault you got divorced. No boyfriend I ever had was good enough for you except for the creep who slept with every woman he met and told me it was my fault for not satisfying his needs."
My parents stared at me like I'd grown five extra heads.
But I had a bit more to say. "I should've told you all of this years ago, but I was afraid you'd never speak to me again if I did. Well, I don't care about that anymore. Cut me out of your lives if you want. You've pretty much done that already, but I'll keep the hope alive that one day you will take a hard look at your behavior and decide to end the cycle. When you do that, I'll welcome you back into my life."
They still stared at me.
Good. Maybe that meant I'd shocked them enough that they might actually think about what I'd told them.
"Let's go, Damian," I said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
He got up. "Neither am I."
From my purse, I pulled out the little pad of paper I always carried with me. After scribbling my new phone number and address on the pad, I tore off the page and set it on the table. "This is where you can find me. Good night, Mom. Good night, Dad."
Damian and I walked out of the house and drove to our hotel. We didn't get much sleep that night, though not because of stress or anxiety. He made love to me for hours, and in between each session, we talked and ate snacks and sipped wine. Confronting my parents should have been the most stressful thing I'd ever done, but instead, it had turned into a cathartic moment. The fears I'd lived with for so long melted away. Whether my parents ever wised up didn't matter. I was free.
The next morning, we flew home and got back to our life. And it was "ours" now, not mine or his. We shared a room in the guest house and wound up hunting for a house to buy in tandem with Ollie and Mara. Joint house hunting was a lot more fun than doing it by ourselves. Ollie and Mara found their dream house first, but then Damian and I realized we'd found ours too without even thinking about it.
We bought the house next door to theirs.
The two homes were separated by a few hundred feet, but it seemed appropriate to live so nearby considering that Ollie was Damian's best friend and Mara was mine. The houses sat on the outskirts of town, bordered by woods and fields on three sides, so it felt a lot like how we'd lived at the resort. The commute to work didn't bother us at all. The four of us carpooled.
A few weeks later, I handled my first event for a guest. I organized a birthday party for Ruth Norris. It was a hoot and a half, and it gave me more confidence in my ability to coordinate events for strangers since I'd managed to do two for my friends. My family. That's what they were. Not just friends, but the family I'd chosen for myself.
I still held out hope for my parents, but I didn't dwell on them. I had too much of my own life to keep me busy—and happy.
One day, Eve found me in the resort office. She marched straight up to the desk, where I was sitting while I plotted out a calendar of daily events for our guests. Eve bounced on her toes, biting her lip while she seemed to struggle not to grin. Her eyes shined with excitement too.
"What's up, Evie?" I asked. "You look like you've got amazing news. Are you pregnant?"
"No, not yet." She clasped her hands in front of her chest, bouncing even more. "We have a huge opportunity that could boost the resort's image and expand our demographics big time."
"That's amazing." I stood up. "What is this huge opportunity?"
"A wedding. Here at the resort." Though she still seemed excited, her almost grin turned slightly anxious as she bit down harder on her lip. "But it relies on you. I know you're still settling into your new job, and you haven't done anything this big yet, but…" She grabbed my hands and stopped bouncing. "Please don't say no until you've talked to him."
"Who?"
"The groom. He's British, and his fiancée is Scottish, and they have lots of relatives and friends in America and the UK." Eve gripped my hands tighter. "They have alotof relatives on the bride's side. I mean alot. They want to get married here, but we'll need to arrange for accommodations in town too since we don't have the capacity for this big a gathering. Then there will be events in the week leading up to the wedding, but the bride's sister wants to help out with that. The rest is up to us—and you."
The bride and groom had so many relatives and friends that we'd need to put some of them up in town. How many people would there be? Sheesh, it must be one enormous family.
"Um, well," I started, biting my lip much the way Eve had bitten hers, "you know I'm new at this event coordinator stuff. This sounds like a huge deal, and I don't want to screw it up. Maybe you should hire a professional."
