by Sammi Cee
“Well, for fuck’s sake! You give me a hard time about asking you if you have someone special and you do?! That’s such bullshit, Shell. I can’t believe you.”
Her voice becomes muffled while she’s speaking to someone in the background. “No, honey. She’s not yelling because you’re a girl; she’s yelling because I acted like I wasn’t seeing anyone. Besides how could she be mad? I was right. She has two boyfriends.”
Then I hear a faint female voice say, “Damn, your mom is cool as hell.”
As my daughter’s getting back on with me, she’s saying, “Told you,” to the girl in the background.
“Okay, Mom. Sorry, I’m back.”
“What’s her name?” I sing song into the phone.
“Girlfriend, honey, at least that’s what I call her. But you can call her Dottie, since that’s technically her name. And can I point out that you just said fuck’s sake and bullshit in one rant. See, I am my Mother’s daughter. Bye Mom, see you tomorrow.”
I can hear her and her girlfriend giggling as she hangs up the phone, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been so thrilled. I can’t wait to meet this girl.
The phone rings again, and apparently, I didn’t learn my lesson with the last call because again, I answer without looking at the id.
“Hey, precious, how’s the writing going today?”
“Hey, Shay, did you call your daughter yet?”
My boys, it’s like they sense when I need to talk to them. “Hi, guys. This calling me together thing you’ve been doing at lunchtime is ridiculously sweet, you know?”
“See Coop, I told you it’s cheesy we keep doing this.”
“Baby, I really don’t care. I want to hear both your voices during the day. This is the easiest way. You keep calling me when you take your break, and I’ll keep patching in Shay. I don’t want to talk about it again.”
Eli and I both laugh because Coop really is sticky sweet with us. But I’m positive Eli loves it as much as I do. “So guess what, boys?”
Eli groans, “You can tell us if you quit calling us boys.”
“Not going to happen. Sorry. You are my boys, so deal with it.”
“What?” Coop’s voice is tinged with laughter.
“My daughter is bringing home her girlfriend, Dottie.”
“I didn’t know your daughter was gay,” says Eli.
I huff out, “Me neither, the little brat. Believe me, we’ll be having a long talk when she gets home for holding out on her mother.”
Coop says, “Eli, are you looking as forward to seeing her with her daughter as I am? I have a feeling this Thanksgiving is gonna be hilarious.”
Coop
The last day and a half have been really special to me and Eli. Watching Shay with her daughter has shown her to be even more wonderful than we already thought. And Shelly’s girlfriend, what a character. Her and Bobby are gonna have so much fun at dinner together today. I wanted to help make the Thanksgiving feast, but Eli said he’d help Shay and they kicked me out of the kitchen.
“Hey.” I startle and turn to see Shelly approaching me.
“Hey there. What’re you doing outside? It’s getting kinda chilly,” I say.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m bundled up like it’s the middle of a blizzard. I swear, when I told mom I was coming out here with you and Bear, she followed me to the door to make sure I was warm enough.” She sounds irritated, but her face shows her fondness for her mother.
“Where’s Dottie?”
“With mom and Eli. However, I got kicked out of the kitchen right after you did. I think mom wants to interrogate her, or at the very least, bond with her.” Shelly rolls her eyes and I chuckle. I’m sure that’s exactly what Shay’s up to. She’s been telling me and Eli she plans on getting the poor girl alone to grill her about her intentions toward her daughter. Plus, she really wants Dottie to like her since she’s hoping Shelly will move back to town after she graduates.
Bear comes running over right then and drops his toy at Shelly’s feet. She hunches down to look him right in the face. “Aren’t you a good boy?” As she pets him and lets him nose up to her, she giggles, and it makes me realize how young she really is. I’ve never really considered that Shay having Shelly kinda makes me and Eli stepdads if we stay together, but now that it hits me, I kinda like the idea of it. Standing back up, Shelly grabs Bear’s toy and flings it across the back yard. He starts to run after it, turns and barks once at her, and he’s off and running in pursuit.
We stand companionably watching Bear for a few minutes before I ask, “Is that what you came out to do? Interrogate me?” It’s while I’m giving her the side-eye that I see her giving it to me back. We both start laughing, and I know we’re gonna be able to find common ground, well, common ground outside of her mom.
“Yeah, maybe a little. Mom hasn’t really dated since she and my dad split up, you know? I don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“Hey, no. I get it. You’re her daughter, and you’re an adult yourself.” I notice a little grin on her face with that observation. “I would expect you to want to get to know me and Eli, make sure we’re good enough for your mom. It’s cool. I’d be kinda disappointed if you didn’t.”
“It’s funny though, I don’t really know where to start. Mom talks about you two sooooo much that I do almost feel like I know you already. I love your furniture by the way. Mom had sent pictures so I could see how talented you are, but the pictures didn’t begin to do it justice.”
“Well, thank you.” I can feel my face growing warm from the compliment. My woodwork is my passion, something I do that calms my mind and gives me peace. It’s always weird to hear someone compliment me on it when it’s such a natural part of me.
We stand in an awkward silence for a moment before she says, “Although, she’s never really gone into a lot of detail about what you do for a living, only Eli.”
“Ha. That’s because I don’t have a lot of details to give about what I do.”
She turns her head sharply to look me full on, so I turn my head to meet her gaze. With a hardness to her voice, she asks, “Why? Is it illegal?”
Chuckling, I’m quick to reassure her. “No, it’s not that. It’s just I’m not really sure what I do.” When she looks at me incredulously, I explain further, “I can’t really decide what I want to be when I grow up. I went to college when I was in the military and have a degree in business and marketing. I have a knack with numbers, and I’m from here and Sean, my best friend you’ll meet today, had a friend who needed some help with his business when I got back. I didn’t have anything going on and wasn’t in immediate need for a lot of money, so I thought it’d be fun. We finished his project, and he had a spike in revenue that someone else noticed, and they asked if I’d be interested in helping them. Next thing I know, I’m a consultant with jobs lined up, and it’s all been by word of mouth. But what I’m doing really changes from job to job, so I don’t really have a set thing that I do.”
“So, you just kind of stumbled in to a career is what you’re saying?”
With a snort, I say, “Yep. I guess you could say that. I certainly didn’t do it on purpose.”
“But you like it?”
“What I really like is I make my own hours, there’s days I don’t have to be in an office at all, and many times when I do go in, it’s just to observe the operations. It’s interesting being able to meet new people all the time and observe how differently people run their businesses. Hmmm… I guess I do like it. At least enough to keep riding it out and see where it takes me.”
“You must be smart then?”
“I’m not dumb. Ask me what you really want to know. It’s cool. I won’t get offended.”
“Well, my mom’s worked hard her whole life. Even when she was with my dad because they were just starting out. I guess what I really want to know is if my mom wanted to stay home and cook for you and write, even if she never made a penny, would you be cool with that?”
Without hes
itation, I answer, “Absolutely.”
The kid beams at me. I’ve never wanted children myself. It always seemed like my dad’s life would’ve been easier without having me, but with Shelly basically glowing at me, I’m pretty sure being a stepdad will be alright with me.
A yell from the back door jerks both our attention to the house and has Bear running to greet our visitor. “YooHoooooo…. We’re here. I wanna meet my little niece, Coop. Quit hogging her and bring her inside. I brought her presents.”
Shelly asks, “Who the hell is that?”
“Uh, my dear girl, that is your new uncle Bobby. You’re gonna love him.”
“What do you think he brought me? Candy? He called me his little niece. He knows I’m not five, right?” She honestly looks a little frightened.
Instead of putting her at ease, I decide that it’ll be more fun to watch her meet the force that is Bobby. “With him, who knows?” At her shiver, I decide teasing her is exactly what a good parent would do.
After she starts toward the house, she turns around and says, “You’re coming with me, right? You’re not gonna make me face him by myself, are you?” Wow! Immediately, I know I’ll never let this little girl face anything alone if I can help her. Before the last couple of days, I would’ve done anything I could for her because she way Shay’s daughter, but now, now I’d do anything for her because in my heart, it’s cementing that we are truly family.
Walking up beside her, I sling my arm over her shoulders to guide her to the door. “I got you, kid.” And her return smile says she believes me.
Eli
Dinner was fabulous. My heart was so heavy last year when Coop called me on his way to share a Thanksgiving meal with Bobby and Sean. He hadn’t been around to really get to know Bobby, so he’d been really looking forward to getting to know his old friend’s boyfriend better. The stories he’d told me about Bobby over the year since then had been nothing compared to meeting the man himself.
But last year had been tough for me. Coop hadn’t been out of the military long, and it was our first holiday in years that we weren’t spending it together. Thankfully, I wasn’t in a position where I could try to make it home, so I’d hung out and watched football with some of the other guys. The longing to be with Coop had been there throughout the day and for every special event since.
To be able to spend this year with a family, a family that’s truly becoming my own is pretty incredible. As I finish cleaning up the kitchen, I take one more pass through the house to make sure I’ve collected all the dirty dishes. I’ve already started the dishwasher and done everything else by hand, but it’ll be nice later when we have dessert if everything’s all cleaned up.
I laugh seeing Bobby all curled into Sean on the loveseat, both of them fast asleep, and Shay laying across the top of Coop’s back, both of them snoozing, too. The only one awake is Dottie, and she looks like she’s fighting to keep her eyes open as she watches one of those Hallmark Christmas movies. This morning they’d watched a Thanksgiving one on Hallmark; and when the commercials had said that the Christmas movies would be playing this afternoon, Dottie had plotted the rest of her day.
I’m not surprised to walk into the kitchen and find Shelly. “My turn?” I ask her with a friendly grin. “Show no fear.” That was the advice that Shay gave me once we realized Shelly was in the yard interrogating Coop. I’d looked at her panicked, and she’d assured me that I could handle a twenty-year-old college student as long as I show no fear.
Shelly giggles at me and behind me I hear Dottie’s voice as she approaches. “Shel, him too? Come on, you know they’re both great guys.”
“Yeah, what she said,” I say.
Dottie’s hand clasps my shoulder and she leans into me. “You know? Shelly’s mom has good taste. If I wasn’t a straight up lesbian, I could see being into either one of you.”
As Shelly bursts into laughter, I swivel my head to look at Dottie in horror, but when she winks, I know she’s trying to help me out with her girlfriend.
“Hey, Eli, did mom tell you that when she first told me about you, I asked her if she’d set me up with you?”
Dottie’s outraged, “Hey!” is met with more laughter from Shelly.
“Relax, honey. I was honestly teasing her since he’s an older man, and I promise you, even then mom had no intention of letting me near her little boy toy.”
Now I go for outraged. “Hey! Did you call Coop her little boy toy, too? I’m not the only one younger than your mom.”
“Yeah, but you’re the youngest. Besides, you act like you could hang out with us just as easily as you hang out with these old people.”
Trying to decide if I’m being insulted or not, I look back and forth between the two girls. They really are adorable together. Shelly’s a little thing like her mom in height, but she’s all muscle. We’ve learned over the last few days that she’s been hitting the gym for the last couple of years since she’s been at college because she likes the release it gives her. Dottie on the other hand, is almost as tall as me and thicker.
What’s funny is how similar their personalities are. They’re both feisty as hell and neither one of them takes shit. Yet, they’re both also very nurturing. The main difference as far as I can tell is that Dottie says Shelly’s a slob. Shay was not happy to hear that, but Dottie assured her that she likes taking care of Shel. Since Shay and I like taking care of Coop, she couldn’t even argue it. I do think she sighed, “awwww” under her breath though.
“Since everyone else is asleep, you wanna sit and play cards with us, Eli?” Shelly asks.
I respond in the affirmative and before long, we’re sitting at the dining room table, supposedly playing poker. “Come on, kid. You must have more questions for me then that,” I say to Shelly after I’ve answered what has to be her twentieth question in a row.
“Did you ask Coop this many questions, Shel?” Dottie asks. “Honestly, you’re bordering on rude.”
“Am I?” Her face shows enough concern that I shake my head, even if never answering another question would be fan-fucking-tastic.
“Oh good. I’m not trying to be rude. It’s just that Coop is more of an open book. Through the last couple days, he’s been sharing detail about his life, all except his job which I got out of him today. You’re like the exact opposite. We’ve heard all about your job, but nothing else. I’m sorry, honestly, I just want to get to know you better.”
Now I feel guilty because I know she’s right. I’m, well, we’re dating her mother for fuck’s sake, and I should be making her feel comfortable that her mom’s in safe hands.
I wink at Dottie before turning a genuine smile back on Shelly. “You’re fine. What else you wanna know? I’m an open book to you.”
“Um, this might be too personal, but how come your family isn’t here? Do they even know about your relationship with Cooper and my mom?”
Both girls look at me curiously. They’re sitting across from me, loosely holding hands on top of the table since the pretense of playing cards has passed. I think back over the last couple of days and how they’ve interacted naturally with each other. Even though Shay had only found out within days that her daughter was bisexual, Shelly had still been affectionate with her girlfriend.
“Let me ask you a question first, Shelly?”
“Sure, I’m an open book, too. We’re family now, right?”
Nodding at her, pleased that she sees it that way since Coop and I certainly do. “How come you hadn’t told your mom you were dating a girl?”
Laughing out, she replies, “First of all, I never tell my mom I’m dating anyone unless I think it’s gonna last. I’ve always been scared she’ll order the wedding invitations right away.” She shakes her head with a smile, obviously thinking fondly of her mom and how excited she gets when it comes to her. “But really, it didn’t have anything to do with hiding being bi. There’s never been a doubt in my mind that my mom will always love me no matter what I do or who I’m with. I real
ly hadn’t told her because I just wasn’t ready to share any information about my love life with her until I was sure we were both in this.”
I see Dottie squeeze Shelly’s hand a little tighter, and the two lean in to share a kiss. I think about what an incredible job Shay has done with this young lady. She has no real fear of anything because she’s so secure in her mother’s love and therefore, in herself. Me? I’m scared of everything. And right then and there, I decide it’s time to take a trip home. It’s time for my parents to meet my family.
Diary Excerpt
My book is done and with the editor. As close as I’ve gotten to Irene, for some reason, I sent it to Ruth and Carl first. I told Ruth she didn’t have to read it, of course. She’s still never even read a mm book, but I thought maybe since it does include some lady bits, she’d be okay. And she was. She loved it. She loved the story of Sandy, Carter, and Edwin so much that she hoped I’d continue on with some of the other characters in my book. There’s a really amazing bartender who needs to have his story told. Those were her words, not mine.
* * *
She also asked me for recommendations, maybe I’ll make a book buddy out of her, yet.
* * *
I think the main reason I sent it to Carl was because he never has anything negative to say. I think I could have said I decided to write children’s nursery rhymes and he would have stayed encouraging, and that wasn’t the case with everyone in my writing group. I’d talk so much about my other series that Irene was outright annoyed at me for abandoning it, but I’m not, just putting it on hold for later.
* * *
Once Carl was done, and I’d filled in the holes he found, I sent it on to the whole group, well, anyone who was willing to read lady bits, and they’d helped me so much to fill in those little gaps. I still haven’t told my family what I wrote yet, or even that I’m done, but I will as soon as it’s back from editing and formatted. And the cover I’m having made is hot af. I can’t wait for them to see!
