Cees smiled and looked at Arie. “See, Momma Nguyen is on our side.”
“Always is.” Lilly’s voice was grumpy, but Arie noticed that she didn’t move away from Cees, nor did her annoyed tone reach her eyes. Lilly picked up her menu just as her cell phone began blaring Momma Nguyen’s theme song. “Yeah,” she said and began speaking in rapid-Þ re Vietnamese.
Cees turned to Arie. “I can’t believe you did all this,” she said and bumped her nose gently to Arie’s.
“I just want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.”
• 231 •
GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
“You’re happier now,” Arie said, and despite the people milling around them, kissed those smiling lips until they were soft and suppliant.
Lilly’s Vietnamese was interrupted by a clear bout of English.
“They’re right here being gross at the table.” Lilly returned to Vietnamese and the kiss ended because both Arie and Cees were grinning too hard. Lilly snapped the phone shut and looked at them seriously.
“Momma said two stupid people make genius baby.”
Cees turned to Arie, her eyes wide. “You hear that, sweetheart? We’re going to have us a genius in the family!” Cees stuck both hands in the air, and Arie high-Þ ved her and offered Cees an idiotic grin of her own.
“Come on, Lilly. Give me some love. People are going to start looking pretty soon. What if one of your friends drives by and sees you sitting here with a nutter with her hand stuck in the air for no apparent reason?”
“They’ll think I’m helping the homeless or doing community service.”
Arie had never seen anyone look as happy as Cees did at being insulted.
“Oh, Lilly,” Cees said with a smile, “no one who knows you would ever believe you would do community service.”
Lilly glared and Cees’s grin grew wider. Arie got it now.
They were playing with each other, the way family does. Bending under the pressure of blackmail, or perhaps it was that grin, Lilly slapped the proffered hand, albeit reluctantly. Cees dropped her hand into her lap and looked pleased with herself.
“A little Cees, huh?” Lilly grumbled.
“Actually, we are thinking about having at least four,” Cees said happily.
“Four?” Lilly looked from Cees to Arie. “How the hell are you going to do the show if you spend the rest of your life knocked up?”
• 232 •
REMEMBER TOMORROW
“Cees wouldn’t have to carry all of them. My not having the gene means I can carry our children, too. I didn’t have any siblings growing up. I spent a lot of time alone. I don’t want that for our children.” Arie felt very vulnerable for having admitted that to Lilly, but if she wanted Lilly to trust her, she would have to do the same.
“Four little Ceeses and Aries? Lord help us all,” Lilly said, but she couldn’t keep her face straight and soon they were all laughing. As the waiter walked hesitantly toward them, Arie looked over at Cees and Lilly. Light head pressed against dark over a shared menu. She saw them as they were when they were younger and understood their closeness. Cees looked up and caught her gaze.
What she had told Lilly was the truth. The remembered pain was there in Cees’s eyes, but so was the newfound happiness, so was the joy, and so was the eagerness for what would come tomorrow.
• 233 •
About the Author
Gabrielle Goldsby is the author of The Caretaker’s Daughter, Never Wake, Such a Pretty Face, and the 2007 Lambda Literary Award–winning mystery, Wall of Silence 2nd edition.
When not writing, reading, or in the gym, Gabrielle enjoys exploring the trails near her home in Portland Oregon, camping—the kind that requires a tent—and watching movies in her home theater with her partner of nine years.
Gabrielle’s works in progress are Paybacks (Bold Strokes Books, 2009) and The Burning Cypress.
For information about these and other works, please visit www.boldstrokesbooks.com.
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