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Vanessa took her hand. “We’re our own family too. A family we protect. At all costs.”
She didn’t expect her hand to be squeezed back. “What do you think we’re doing? Protecting our tiny family protects mine as well.”
“Mitch.” Vanessa wrapped her in a sudden hug that permeated the park. Although no one else shared space with them, Vanessa felt the eyes of a whole neighborhood on them as they loosely embraced in the sun. “I love you. More than I love myself. I need you to believe me when I say I’ll doanythingto protect what we have.”
Her partner was the first to release their hug. “Me too.”
Those two simple words gave Vanessa the strength to return to Thanksgiving dinner with relative strangers.
Chapter 12
Vanessadidn’teatmuchdinner, something Mitch expected, but still found inconvenient since it meant Penny asked a hundred questions as her daughter helped with the dishes.
“She’s so delicate,” Penny whispered over the rush of the faucet. “She doesn’t eat much at all, does she? I thought the turkey turned out excellently. Even your younger brother ate the dark meat as if he didn’t know that’s what it was! He used to complain about itall the time.”
Mitch remembered. For years, she mostly ate the dark meat so her siblings didn’t have to. “Vanessa isn’t used to heavy foods,” she explained. “I’m sure she thought it was delicious.”
“She didn’t have dessert…”
There were few Thanksgiving traditions in the Cruise family. After dinner and dessert, Penny and Mitch cleaned up while the younger siblings either watched TV or ran around in the backyard. This year, Mitch’s brothers and sister gathered around an airing ofThe Two Towerson TV. Mitch was old enough to remember when that movie came out in the theaters, unlike the people sitting on the couch.
Vanessa was upstairs. Mitch wasn’t surprised. Her partner was already peopled out, something Penny didn’t understand either.
The living room sound system echoed downstairs of the house while Penny and Mitch sat down at the cleaned dining table. They remained silent while Penny sipped tea and Mitch scrolled through her phone, attempting to think of anything but undercover work.
“So…” Penny began. “Things are good with you and Vanessa still, huh?”
Mitch did not care for how she immediately suspected her mother’s motives.Can’t let the gravy train leave the station, after all.Penny never asked for money. Mitch simply made the money happen when necessary. While Mitch didn’t have direct access to Vanessa’s accounts, she had her own, which was fed by a weekly allowance to use at her own discretion. Plus whatever else Mitch made on her own independent of Vanessa.
Mitch had more money than she ever had in her life. If someone had a medical bill or was accepted to Stanford, she could cover the rest of the cost, no problem. It was worth it if her siblings didn’t have to do what she had in her twenties to get by, and if her mother didn’t have to work up to four jobs at a time. Right now, Penny had one full-time job for cash and benefits and claimed to have never been more well-rested.
She never asks for much. So, I give her more.Mitch never had a lovey-dovey relationship with her mother, but they respected each other, and that was enough.
“Things are well, yes,” Mitch said.
Penny offered her daughter some tea. Mitch shook her head. When Penny continued with her own tea, she said, “You two still living in San Francisco?”
“Outside of it, yes.”
“Do you have a job yet? I recall you taking a break from work through the pandemic.”
“I’m not gainfully employed, no. I haven’t been since I worked security at the concert hall.” That was not a job she was ever eager to get back to.It was constantly triggering my PTSD without me realizing.Oh, a part of Mitch realized it, otherwise, she wouldn’t acknowledge how badly she didn’t want to go to work when a punk or metal show was playing. Between the rowdy, swelling crowds and the occasional burst of rapid gunfire sounds from the bands, Mitch had been in hell. “I help Vanessa with her work. Her success benefits us both.”
“Make sure your résumé doesn’t get a huge gap in it. If you ever need to go back to work, employers will stick up their noses at a big gap because you were lucky enough to have a girlfriend who supported you.”
Mitch suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m not too worried about it. I’m her primary inheritor and we have a rock-solid legal agreement about how much I get should we break up.”
Penny had to think about that for a moment. “Sounds like a prenuptial agreement. Are you two finally getting married?”
“There’s nothing in the pipeline, no.”
“You should get on that, Mitch.” Penny lowered her voice. “She might have you at the top of her will right now, but what if she changes her mind? If you’re married, the odds that you’ll never have to work again are in your favor.”
“I’m not worried about it, Mom. Really.”
Penny dropped the subject, instead switching to how her youngest daughter was doing in school and how she was concerned about the oldest boy graduating on time. He had already taken a gap year during the pandemic to help out around the house and work for some spare change but still had yet to graduate. He was considered a part-time student and no longer eligible for some of the financial aid he had before.
Mitch knew this was a pitch to help cover some of his expenses, at least the academic ones, to guarantee he graduated. Apparently, his younger brother was filling his ear with theories about cryptocurrencies and going into business together. The same brother who had been listening to certain podcasters and YouTubers who encouraged Mitch to hack his devices the first time he seriously called himself an “alpha male.”The absolute last boy in California I’d call alpha anything.Mitch remained convinced he wouldn’t last one day in the Marines.
