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“Since I’m living with you, people will think we’re just hooking up. Then, when I move out and you dump me, I’ll be the dummy.”
“Why do you keep worrying about looking dumb? I hate that word. It shouldn’t exist as a descriptor for a person. No one is dumb. We all have different talents and experiences but not having the same talent or experience as someone else doesn’t make you dumb or stupid, whichever word you want to use. People date. People break up. It happens. That’s what dating is, but if you don’t date, you’ll never know if that person is the person you’re meant to be with. Does that make sense?”
“I guess. I just don’t want people to get the wrong impression since I’m living with you now.”
I grimaced when she put it that way and leaned forward on my thighs with a sigh. “I’m sorry. That thought didn’t cross my mind when I was teasing with Ivy. I should have thought of that.” I held up my finger and pulled my phone out of my pocket, hitting an icon on the screen then put it on speaker.
“Hey, Lance, what’s up?” Ivy asked curiously after she picked up the phone.
“Hey, Ivy, I just wanted to call and ask that you don’t tell anyone that Indigo and I went on a date. I didn’t think about the optics of that considering our living situation. I don’t want Gumdrop to feel awkward should someone assume something that isn’t true.”
There was a pause and then she spoke. “I thought of that after you left and was going to text you. Tell her not to worry. My lips are sealed until you say otherwise.”
“Thanks, Ivy. See you tomorrow,” I said, then hung up and stuck my phone back in my pocket.
“Thank you,” she whispered, wringing her hands in front of her.
I turned her by her shoulders and forced eye contact with her. “You could have just said that in the car. I would have cleared it up right then.”
“I know. I’m dumb sometimes.”
“What did I literally just say?” I asked with exasperation. “I hear it again and I’m going to write out a list of all the wonderful things about you and then make you read them out loud.”
Her laughter filled the gazebo and made me feel a little bit better about how the evening was ending. “Now there’s a list I’d like to see.”
“Are you feeling better about things now?” I asked, tipping her chin up to hold her gaze. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable when we spend time together.”
“I feel better about the dating thing, yes,” she agreed. “I’m still trying to make sense of the rest of the things in my life.”
“Maybe I can help you make sense of things?”
She turned her head to gaze at me. “How?”
“Like this,” I whispered, right before I put my lips on hers and started living the dream I’d had for sixteen years. That was how long I’d waited to kiss Indigo Dickson. It was worth the wait.
She wrapped her arms behind my neck and leaned into the kiss, telling me she wanted it as much as I did. Her lips were chilled, but as soft and pliable as I always knew they would be. A soft sigh from the back of her throat filled my ears and I knew I could hear that for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. She was perfect and I wanted a deeper taste, but I held back. I didn’t want to scare her and send her into another tailspin tonight. I kept the kiss close lipped and when we needed air, I let my lips fall away from hers. She kept her arms around my neck and dropped her forehead to my chest, her long hair falling to hide her face.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the sixth grade,” I whispered, rubbing her back. “It was worth the wait.”
She lifted her head and wore a smile I’d never seen before. It was soft, sweet, sexy, and if I thought it was possible, a smile of true happiness. “It so was. I think I’ll take you up on that second date if there’s another one of those waiting at the end.”
I pulled her into my arms and held her against me. “I can arrange that, Gumdrop.”
Chapter Nine
I knelt in front of Mary to finish sanding the epoxy I'd used to fix her dress. Since the paint was faded across the entire figure, I decided on a different color gown than the traditional blue. The display in my yard this Christmas would be anything but traditional. Correction, the display in our yard.
I blew off the rest of the dust with the air gun and grabbed the paint can. I had taped off baby Jesus as well as Mary's face before I started working. I would have to paint those parts separately by hand, but I was using outdoor spray paint on the dress.
"Is this what you had in mind, Mom?" I asked the empty garage as I sprayed on the first layer of paint with precision. It was just me, Mary, and Jesus in this old garage on a Friday afternoon. I was hoping maybe my mom would stop by for a visit too.
Indie and I both had to work today, but since I got done early, I decided to work on the figure while she was gone. Partly because we wanted to start the yard display on Sunday, but mostly because I needed to do it alone. Every year I spent the weekends leading up to November repairing and repainting the decorations for the display. It was time Mom and I got to spend together. Time we both took off work and time we refused to budge on when people asked something of us. Once we were both working full time, we could go an entire week without seeing each other, so I always looked forward to the last two weekends of October when I would spend hours with Mom.
If the decorations required physical repair work, I was the one to put them back together, sand them down and get them ready for paint. While I was doing that, Mom was always working on the first batch of her chosen Christmas cookie for the year. Forget that it wasn’t even Halloween yet, she wasn’t waiting. She’d bring out a plate of warm cookies for me to test. Sometimes, she’d hit a homerun on the first try and sometimes, she’d have to make modifications to the recipe or start over completely. I always loved being the first person to try her new cookie.
The thought made me wonder what she had planned for this year. It broke my heart that I would never taste another Michelle Garland creation. I fell to my butt and lowered my head to my knees, a sob escaping my throat. Just one. That was all I had left after months of painful tears. I never wanted to cry for her, she wouldn’t like that, but sometimes the pain in my chest was too much. I had to release a bit of it so I could keep breathing. People always said grief was hard, but I never knew how hard until I had to soldier on after the only support I had in life was gone.
That’s not true, son.
