I sniffed, and realized with some surprise that I’d begun to cry. This. This was what I wanted too, it was all I’d ever wanted. To be a part of something, to be wanted, to have a family. “I’d like that,” I whispered.
Michael stepped closer, slipping his hands around my waist. “I hated it when you left,” he said, his voice a rasp.
“Me too,” I said.
Michael pulled me close, our chests meeting and our faces inches apart. “God, I love you,” he said.
And in the space before our lips met, I told him the truth as I’d just come to realize it. “I love you too. Both of you.”
My arms wrapped around him, and I kissed Michael Tucker for a long time there on that New York City sidewalk as leaves drifted on the autumn breeze around us.
As my mind began to settle, I realized there were two people standing next to us, staring. One of them was Daniel.
And because this was how my luck seemed to work, the other was Luke.
“Addison?” His beard had grown in thicker, and he wore a flannel shirt that did nothing to hide the softness that had increased around his middle. He looked worn and pale.
I kept Michael’s hand in mine as I faced the man I’d believed I had loved. And I was almost relieved to find that I felt nothing. Maybe a distant fondness for an old friend.
“Luke,” I said, unable to keep the giddy feelings for the man at my side from coloring my voice. “How are you?”
“Um. I’m good,” he said, looking uncertainly between me and Michael.
“This is Luke?” Michael asked, his voice low, angry.
“I’ve uh, I’ve been meaning to get in touch,” Luke said, ignoring Michael. “I’ve missed you.”
“Oh,” I said, realizing a bit late that this was probably not what Luke had been hoping for. “Yeah, you should give me a call sometime,” I told him. I turned and reached for Dan’s hand, and he stepped near to my other side, squeezing my fingers. “But right now, we have to go.”
“Oh,” Luke said, taking a step back, almost as if I’d slapped him. “Okay.”
“Good to see you,” I called over my shoulder as we turned. “Should we get ice cream?” I asked Michael and Dan, pulling them south toward my favorite tiny dessert place.
“That was your ex, right?” Michael asked. “And you want to get ice cream?”
“More than anything,” I said. “As long as it’s with you guys.” A warm reassuring happiness was blooming inside me, expanding and swelling until it seeped through my limbs and filled me completely. I felt more full and happy and complete than I ever had before.
37
Tween Truths
Michael
My plan had been to drive us all back to Singletree that night in the Corvette, to take Addie back to the house, and to show her what she meant to me in every way I possibly could.
But a Corvette really only has two seats. And Dan wasn’t a little kid anymore. He couldn’t really huddle in the back for the five-hour drive back to Maryland.
So we ate ice cream and pie at Cafe Lalo, walked slowly back to where I’d miraculously found parking for the car, and said goodbye. And then Dan and I had driven home, the mood in the car far more upbeat than it had been on the drive there.
“Are you going to marry her?” Daniel asked me as we neared the big house I now considered home.
“I don’t know, Dan,” I told him. “For now, I’m just going to do my best to show her that I care about her.”
Daniel grinned on the other side of the car as he gazed out the window.
“It doesn’t bother you?” I asked him. “To see me with someone?”
He turned and gave me a serious look. “It might have when I was a little kid. When I thought that if you and Mom were together, my world would be perfect. Now I know it doesn’t work like that. And Mom could never make you happy, not like Addie does. You guys are good for each other. I think you make her happy too.”
“I hope so.”
Addie returned three days later, after meeting with Luke to retrieve some of her things from storage and giving her final notice at work.
And when she pulled into the driveway in a little U-haul truck, I felt my heart grow wings and do its damndest to escape my chest.
We moved her things into the house, making it feel even more like home to us all. And then Daniel, Addison, and I watched a movie and ate pizza, enjoying the warmth of a fire in the grate and the feeling of things being complete and whole.
When we said goodnight to Daniel, there was no pretense. We went together into the master bedroom and shut the door. And when I took Addison into my arms in our house, in our room, and made love to her over and over in our bed, I felt the circle of my life close with a resounding click.
This.
This was all I needed. All I wanted.
This was completion.
Epilogue
Addison
Thanksgiving
Michael and I had the biggest house, so we agreed to host Thanksgiving for both families. It was the same crowd we’d come to expect for Sunday dinners, which had become a tradition at the house too. Only at this dinner, we welcomed Shelly and her new boyfriend Liam, who possessed unusual expertise and knowledge of the world of raccoons.
Thaddius had appeared in the garden Thanksgiving morning, and it felt like the exact perfect thing, given the combination of Tuckers and Tanners we’d be hosting.
We all sat around the table in the dining room, with a few folks around an extra table Michael had made for the occasion. His custom-furniture efforts had expanded, and he’d dedicated a full half of the farm supply store to building and selling custom items. We’d set that smaller table up next to the main one, and Michael stood between them to make a toast.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming tonight,” he said. “This year, I think we all have a lot to be thankful for, mostly the fact that we get to share time like this together. We’ve put aside differences and painful feuds and realized that the Tanners and Tuckers are more family than we are anything else. We have common roots, many of them planted right here in this house. And all of you are welcome here any time.”
“Thanks,” Liam said, and Shelly elbowed him in the ribs.
Michael sat, and Daniel said, “I think we should all be thankful that Dad didn’t tell a joke this year.”
Michael stood back up. “I almost forgot.”
I rolled my eyes, but inside I was giddy with love. The dad jokes were corny and awful, but they were so much a part of the man I’d fallen in love with. “Go ahead,” I said.
“I almost forgot to tell you about when I was buying the turkey for dinner. There was this lady at the store with me, and she kept saying she couldn’t find a bird big enough for her family,” he said, looking around at the family. “A stock boy wandered by, and she goes, ‘excuse me, do these turkeys get any bigger?’ And the stock boy said, ‘no ma’am. They’re dead.’”
Daniel beat a little da-da-dum on the table as Michael sat down.