I’ve been working on something for you with Hollis. I present to you: The Williams Family.
I sent her the file with the slideshow in it and waited.
I can’t believe you did this, McKenna, this is amazing! She responded.
You like it? I asked.
I love it. It’s perfect she replied.
Good. She told me she was going to look at it when she could, since she was on her way with Preston to the airport to get her parents.
I couldn’t believe I was meeting them tomorrow, as her girlfriend. So many people would say that we were moving too fast, but it didn’t feel fast. Everything with Piper just felt inevitable and natural. As if we’d been moving in this direction the entire time.
Piper sent me a message several hours later.
Dad and Papa are here. Talked to them about you. All is well. I’m still shaking and trying to calm down she sent.
Do you need to call me? I’m here if you need to hide in the bathroom and talk I sent.
No, I’m good. They’re making dinner with Preston right now. Everything is good. I’m fine she responded.
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I wasn’t going to barge over there and ruin meeting her parents. I stayed and worried about her.
“Everything okay?” Ellie asked. She was getting ready to go out with KJ to have dinner at the Grille.
“Yeah, Piper just sort of came out to her dads. She says everything’s okay, but she’s still stressed out.”
Ellie leaned against the couch. “Yeah, I know what that’s like. My mom is the most supportive mom in history, right? And still I was afraid to tell her that I’m demisexual. It took a few hours for my heart rate to return to normal.” Yeah, that made sense.
“I’m just worrying,” I said.
“Of course you are,” Ellie said. She came over and gave me a hug.
“They’re going to love you. We do.”
I hugged her back and realized that I loved them too. Her and Amanda and Hollis. They’d pulled me right into their family, no questions asked.
“Thanks. I love all of you too.”
Ellie squeezed my shoulder before she left.
Chapter Twenty-One
To distract myself the rest of Friday night, I helped Amanda make bread. She taught me how to knead, and when to know that bread was ready to go in the oven.
I went to bed with sore arms and nervousness about the lunch the next day.
When I awoke on Saturday, my stomach churned with tension.
“You’re going to be great,” everyone kept telling me as I nibbled on my breakfast.
They all did their best to help me stay occupied, demanding a yoga class in the garden that was less yoga, and more laughing and teasing each other. It lifted my spirits and, by the time I was getting in the car to go over to Piper’s, I was feeling less tense overall.
There was another car in the driveway, so Piper’s parents must have rented one after they left the airport.
I parked my car and gave myself one last little pep talk before heading up the steps and knocking on the door.
It flew open and I looked down at Preston.
“Kenna’s here!” he yelled to the rest of the house. “Pop Pop and Gramps are here.”
“I heard. I can’t wait to meet them.”
Without further ado, Preston grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen, where Piper was leaning on the counter, talking to two men who wore aprons. They all shared a laugh.
“There she is,” Piper said, smiling at me and coming over to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Papa, Dad, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, McKenna. McKenna, these are my parents, Howard and Arthur.”
The two men smiled at me simultaneously. One was taller than the other, and the shorter man had glasses and some of Piper’s features.
The taller man, Howard, held out his hand to me first.
“It’s so lovely to meet you, McKenna. We’ve heard so many good things from Piper.”
I shook his hand and then looked at Arthur.
“I’m more of a hugger,” he said, and reached out. I hugged him and it wasn’t as weird as I thought it was going to be.
Howard put his arm around Arthur, and I could see the love for each other shining in their eyes.
“It’s wonderful to meet both of you,” I said.
“Now we got all of that out of the way, how about you come help me with these shallots?” Arthur said, taking my arm and drawing me toward the cutting board. Howard picked up a begging Preston with a groan.
“Your Pop Pop’s back isn’t what it used to be Preston,” he said, but he held Preston in his arms and put a kiss on the top of his head.
I shared a look with Piper, and she winked.
And that was that. Arthur asked me questions about myself as I helped prep and chop, and Howard asked Piper about how work was going.
“Here you go, Howie,” Arthur said, handing Howard the bowl of veggies we’d chopped.
“Thank you, my love,” Howard said, giving Arthur a kiss. They lingered for a moment and I was envious for just a second.
We all sat together at the dining table and I got to ask Piper’s parents what she was like as a child, how their trip had been, and what their plans were for the week.
I learned that Arthur was the chatty jokester and Howard was the more serious one who pretended to dislike Arthur’s jokes, but he really actually loved them.
Preston was so happy to have his grandparents around and babbled away the whole time.
“We need to get up here more often,” Howard said. “Family is so important.”
“It is,” I said.
“Speaking of that, I’m going to meet McKenna’s family tomorrow evening, so could you watch Preston for a few hours?”
“Of course we could. We want to spend as much time as we can with him,” Arthur said. “Do you want to have a movie night with Gramps and Pop Pop?”
“Yay!” Preston said, raising both hands in the air and flinging his food everywhere with his fork.
Piper just shook her head.
“You come from a large family, right?” Howard asked.
“Yes. I have six siblings.” Both of their eyes went wide. “And ten niblings. With hopefully another on the way. My brother, Rob and his husband Tony are using a surrogate for their second.”
“That’s what we did for Piper. Lovely woman,” Howard said. “She sends her love, by the way.”
Piper smiled.
I hadn’t known about that part of her origin story, and I made a note to ask later. She might have some good information that I could share with Rob and Tony.
Howard and Arthur balanced asking me plenty of questions about myself, but not making it feel like an interrogation.
Lunch finished and both Howard and Arthur insisted on helping clean up.
“You two take Preston outside and we’ll handle this,” Arthur said, practically shoving us out the door.
“I think I’ve been evicted from my own house,” Piper said with a laugh as Preston ran around in the yard, throwing a ball and then racing to pick it up and throwing it back again. Like playing catch with himself.
“Have you thought about getting a dog?” I asked.
“Maybe when he’s older,” she said. Piper pulled me into her arms.