I couldn't say how long the embrace between Gideon and Emma lasted because I lost track of them briefly when the girls around me began moving again. Eventually, the schoolyard emptied out enough that I was once again able to pick up on Gideon's voice. I smiled to myself when I realized Emma was introducing him to her girlfriend. I could hear the nervousness as well as the defiance in Emma's voice as she spoke. I wanted to tell her that the man in front of her would never, ever judge her, but she'd see that for herself soon enough. She'd discover a lot of truths about her father that she'd never known.
When I heard footsteps coming my direction, I tried to turn my attention that way. It was still disorienting not to be able to focus on any one thing in particular. My vision was just too far gone for that and I no longer bothered trying to identify any specific shapes. Sounds were easier for me to pick up on if I didn’t.
"Lex, I want you to meet someone," Gideon said as his fingers intertwined with mine. There was no missing the stark joy in his voice or the hint of tension that still lingered in his body. I knew that there would be time enough later to tell him that no matter what, we’d figure all of this out. That nothing and no one would take his child from him again and that when he was ready, we would all be a family.
But until then, I did my best to tell him those things without words as I gripped his hand in mine. When he returned the gentle embrace, I knew he'd heard me and so I focused all my senses on meeting his daughter… the daughter I hoped that I too would someday get to call my own.
Epilogue
Gideon
FOUR MONTHS LATER
As the driver pulled the sedan up to the wide set of stairs leading up to the double front doors, I said, "We're here."
Lex nodded nervously. He’d been quiet since we’d left the hotel, but I couldn't really blame him. This day had been a long time coming and while I truly believed he'd built up the reactions he would face from his brothers in his head, I wasn't about to minimize his fears.
Part of the problem was that he'd ended up staying away much longer than he'd intended, and that was because of me and Emma. As well as the reunion in Argentina had gone, there had been a lot of things to deal with in the aftermath. While Emma had been seemingly happy to see me, we’d had a lot of emotions to work through and rather than try to muddle through them by ourselves, I'd enlisted the aid of a child psychologist to help my daughter and me talk through everything. That process had taken months and continued to be an ongoing thing.
During that time, Emma had been terrified that my arrival meant she’d be torn away from not only the people who’d become her family in the months after her grandparents had kicked her out, but from the girl she'd fallen head over heels in love with. Once I'd assured her that she wasn't going anywhere, she’d been able to relax enough to start opening up about what had happened in the years since I'd seen her.
It had been a painful process for both of us to talk about Serena and Bethie's deaths. Emma held a lot of guilt for having pushed me away like she had, but she also still had a certain amount of loyalty to her mother. I hadn't wanted to tell Emma the truth about her mother's and my relationship, but the psychologist had assured me that the only way either of us could move forward was to deal with things head on. Between our individual and joint sessions, Emma and I had finally gotten to a point where we were comfortable enough to talk on our own, though we were careful not to tread into sensitive territory. We saved those conversations for when there was a professional present who could help us see things in a different light.
Although Emma continued to live with Maria and Javier, she'd started spending more and more time with me and Lex. To say that she’d been startled to discover I had a boyfriend was an understatement. But it had helped her to believe that I had absolutely no issues with her dating girls. My acceptance had helped lay the foundation of trust that we were slowly building on.
I couldn't have done any of it without Lex. Not only had he dealt with all the logistics when it had come to getting us down to and set up in Argentina, he'd been my sounding board every night as the guilt and self-doubt had tried to eat away at me. Every new revelation with Emma was something that I always talked through with Lex.
When it had become clear that we wouldn't be leaving Argentina anytime soon, Lex had made arrangements for us to rent a house in the same neighborhood Emma lived in. It meant I could walk her to and from school every day and we spent several nights during the week having dinner with Maria and Javier and their daughter. In addition to being grateful to the couple, Lex and I had grown quite fond of them. We'd ended up spending weekends with their family at their vacation home along the coast. They were as accepting of my relationship with Lex as they were of Emma and her girlfriend's.
While it was strange to be so far away from home, admittedly, I hadn't really missed Fisher Cove all that much. But I had felt guilty for leaving some of my responsibilities behind. Despite my protests, Lex ended up buying the town a brand-new plowing truck and he’d made sure there would be someone there to help out the residents of Fisher Cove in my place.
The only thing that had been left to deal with back home had been Brewer.
But Lex had taken care of that too because about a week after we'd arrived in Argentina, King had brought Brewer to us on Lex’s private jet. Not only did the husky adore Emma, he’d become an avid fan of the water.
The necessities hadn’t been all that Lex had taken care of. When he’d learned that the Mick who wasn’t the mouse was performing a concert in Florida, he’d surprised me with tickets. He’d called it a very belated and very well-earned birthday present. It had been one of the best nights of my life.
As grateful as I was to Lex for taking care of everything, it was difficult for me to accept that he was paying all our bills, but when I'd brought the issue up with him and told him I'd pay him back for everything, he’d pretty much lost his shit. But not in a freak-out kind of way.
I found myself smiling as I remembered Lex's response when I'd suggested he keep track of the expenses so I could reimburse him.
"For future reference, Gideon," Lex had snapped as he'd pointed at his face. His very pissed-off face. "This is my are-you-fucking-kidding-me face." After he'd thrown my own words back at me, he’d stormed off to our bedroom and locked the door. I'd been forced to video call King to ask him how to pick the lock, since just shoving a paperclip into the doorknob hadn't worked. The man who would someday be my future brother-in-law had enjoyed himself just a bit too much as I’d explained my predicament to him. But the spy shit had worked and I’d managed to get myself back in the bedroom where it had taken a lot of apologies and several rounds of vigorous make-up sex to get back in Lex's good graces.
Lex had been so focused on taking care of me and Emma that things with his own family had fallen by the wayside. He'd kept tabs on Gio’s progress through King, but the longer it had taken us to get settled, the more nervous Lex had gotten about seeing his brothers and telling them the truth about his condition. He’d also felt extremely guilty for having disappeared for so long, especially during a time when he felt like his family had needed him the most.