Family Reunion
“I have to come clean about something,” Isabel says through a mouthful of cheeseburger.
Tilting my head to the side, I stare at her, bemused. “All ears.”
She looks at me, her expression unreadable. Her gaze drops down to my burger and up to me again. She frowns. “Take another bite of your burger first.”
Complying, I stuff my mouth full of grilled meat and bread, chewing slowly as I scrutinize her face.
What is she hiding this time?
“Now that your mouth is too full to say anything, I can confess,”─the words begin to flow and she starts to talk very fast, so fast that I have to concentrate on everything she says─ “that I told Ivy about the bleeding and she’s five minutes away. Blue is also with her. They’re spending the night.”
My eyes narrow on her full heart-shaped lips. “You invited them to spend the night with us?”
Her lips press together as she nods. “Are you upset?”
“I wish you would have told me before hand,” I reply, shrugging uncaringly. “At least you told me before they arrived.” I aim my malevolent smile towards her and she shivers. “Though, I can’t tell you I won’t be upset when I fuck you. In fact, I’m can guarantee that I’ll be furious.” I can take my frustrations out on Isabel when I’m between her legs.
Her olive-green eyes darken into liquid gold. “Hunter,” she breathes.
“Yes?” I answer, my thumb running over her plump bottom lip.
“I don’t know—”
The doorbell rings. Lifting myself up, I rise from our comfortable picnic on the couch and answer the door. I stare down at two pairs of colorful rainbow boots.
“Hey, Hunter.”
My gaze swings to Ivy’s gentle eyes and soft smile. “Hey, Ivy.”
“Hunter,” Blue greets simply, smashing her cigarette against the shutters of my porch.
I give my head a slight nod in acknowledgment. “Blue.” I’m unable to stop staring at them in their black windbreaker coats. The heavy rain pouring from the moody grey sky is their background, depicting what I’m currently feeling.
Opening the door wider, I grin at them. “Come in and out of the rain.”
They huddle through the door and Isabel embraces them in tight hug. “I’m glad you guys made the trip down.”
“Are you okay?” Ivy asks.
“Hunter has super sperm, so I’m sure nothing can harm those little ones,” Blue says.
Ivy offers me an apologetic look. “Sorry. Blue will be Blue.”
“Blue will be Blue,” I agree. “How’s life been?”
They both shrug off their coats and shoes, slipping easily into the old habit of making themselves comfortable and at home.
“Life has been good,” Ivy answers as she settles into the couch next Isabel while Blue strolls into the kitchen and raids the refrigerator and cabinets. “I’ve been creative lately. Inspiration has been flowing right out of me.”
“I’m starved. I want brownies,” Blue shouts into the living room, shaking a can of cocoa.
“Duty calls,” Isabel sighs, rising to her feet. She looks at Ivy and then at me and smiles with a gleam in her eye I can’t decipher. But Isabel couldn’t be more obvious of her intentions with leaving me and Ivy alone to gain some kind of closure. I don’t understand why she would want us to get closure. Ivy and Isabel shouldn’t be on good terms with one another. Sally has taught me females never get along when it comes to a man. I guess Sally was way off because Isabel and Ivy are.
They’re friends.
Not enemies, wishing to rip each other apart and sprinkle the scraps in ill animosity.
This is going to take a while to get used to.
Sitting back in a cushiony armchair next to the couch, I keep my gaze locked on Ivy. She rubs her palms on her faded jeans, her long hair waving out over her tie-dye shirt. Her thick hair is damp from the rain. The tips are still teal blue. She doesn’t meet my eyes. Ivy keeps her gaze on a fixed spot between her feet. And that’s when I notice that I’ve marked her.
“Ivy.”
“Hmm?” She answers without looking at me.
“Ivy, look at me,”─ pausing, I test the word please in my head, deciding I should use it in this instance─“please.”
She hesitantly lifts her guarded gaze to mine. When Ivy and I were in our chaotic relationship, I never treated her as my equal. I never gave her the respect she needed. I didn’t treat her with care. And I certainly never said please. I can see how I scarred her.
I am her Sally.
“I’m sorry, Ivy,” I say genuinely. “I marked you and I’m sorry.”
She clenches her jaw and nods.
“Do you believe me?”
“I do,” she says quietly, picking at her silver nail polish. “But there’s something you don’t get about me. I liked getting marked by you. I loved it.”
“Ivy, if people knew how I treated you,”─I give my head a shake, displeased with the way this conversation is going─“they would want me publicly crucified.”
“Whatever we did isn’t anyone’s business, Hunter. It’s ours. I loved how you marked me, so you’re just going have to get over it.”
“You shouldn’t love it. I could have harmed you. It could have been much worse than emotionally scarring you for life. I could have ended your life, if I was any less careless with you.”
“I have rape fantasies daily, Hunter,” she says in dismissive tone, as if I asked her what brand of toothpaste she uses. “What you did was harmless. Besides, you have nothing on Blue,”─she flushes dark red, smiling a secret smile that says so much─“she can wield a single tail whip like I wield a paintbrush. So stop torturing yourself. I’m fine. But the thing is…can Isabel take the worst of what you are. I mean, no offense, she seems delicate in many ways and you can get brutal when you have a mind for it.”
We hold each other’s gaze, a fleeting moment of how good of a distraction Ivy was passes. A massive smile takes over my features and she shudders. Ivy has no idea that Isabel has already survived the worst of who I am. Isabel thrived in the darkness when I eclipsed the sun and she’s still here with me when she could have me behind bars for most of my life. Instead, she’s have my fucking baby.
“Isabel can handle herself quite nicely,” I say, sitting back in the arm chair.
“Well, that’s good.”
“I suppose it is.” I give her another smile because I can’t seem stop.
She stares at me and shakes whatever emotions that suddenly washes over her. “Will Charlie join us? Blue has missed him terribly. We both have.”
“He should be back within the next half hour. He’s at the bar. You know how much he likes to drink.”
There’s a heavy knock on the front door. Pushing to my feet, I answer it.
“The crew is here,” Victor announces, coming through with a plastic container of sewing supplies in his hand and a leather satchel over his shoulder. “I have to get started on Isabel’s Winter Ball gown if it’s going to be ready in time.”
“Why is Cherry Creek weather always gloomy?” Harmony asks, cuddling her sleeping baby close to her chest. “The sun is never out.”
“Who knows,” Falcon replies, coming in after Harmony. He’s carrying a long brown box in his hands. It’s an artificial Christmas tree from the picture posted outside of the box. He sets it in the corner of the living room and begins to assemble it.
Closing the door to the sad and crying sky, I take in the people who have become like family. Vic drapes a measuring tape across Isabel’s waist and laughs at something she says. Isabel holds a silver mixing bowl is her arms, stirring happily while Blue sits on the countertop with her legs crossed and nods to whatever Isabel is saying. Harmony and Ivy converse quietly on the couch as Ivy holds little sleeping, Ruby, in her arms. Falcon takes the remote and changes the channel to a football game.
“Need help?” I ask.
“Sure do,” Falcon answers, passing the directions to me. “The print is way too small for me to read. You read while I put the puzzle together. By the way, do you have any beer? I’m going need a beer, wings and something greasy because my team is losing.”
“This is a dry house when we don’t have any guests.”
“I’ll go get beer and pizza and wings,” Blue interjects. She gives me an easy smile. “I need car keys, so American boys can devour their American meat.”
“On the breakfast bar,” I say through a grin.
“Go to Jeff’s Pizzeria,” Falcon calls out. “And tell them Falcon sent you. You won’t have to wait as long.”
She nods as she puts on her rains boots and coat. Then she snatches my truck keys. “Be back soon.”
I end up putting the entire blue spruce tree together without reading the directions, which is an achievement being that I never got a chance to put up a Christmas tree before. Grace wasn’t the festive type of mother. Falcon is stuck on the couch, unable to move due to the devastating score of his losing team. By the time Charlie and Blue arrive, Isabel’s pan of brownies is mostly eaten.
Everyone flocks into the living room. Blue orbits around Charlie, who slouches next to Falcon on the couch with a beer in hand and Blue on his lap. Harmony breastfeeds her little one while she compliments me on my book to movie news as I untangle a row of twinkling lights, wrapping them around the tree. Ivy and Isabel decorate the spruce with colorful ball and shimmering snowflakes ornaments. Isabel has been collecting Christmas ornaments in her free time. She has divulged this when I asked her where the box of ornaments came from.
Everyone adds candy canes, hanging the red and white stripped candy on every branch.
“All we need is to put the Christmas star up high now, so the angels can see it,” Isabel says. “I need a ladder.”
“You don’t need a ladder when you have me,” I say, bending slightly so she can hop on me. “C’mon. I’ll be your ladder. Jump on my shoulders.”
“Are sure? I’ve gotten heavy.”
“Isabel, get on. I’m stronger.”
“Okay,” she says warily. She lowers herself onto me, my head is between her legs and her legs are dangling over my shoulders. I carefully lift up and steady her as she puts the golden star on the highest point of the tree.
“It’s so pretty,” she says, leaning into me while we admire the decorative, ornate tree. The blue, red, green and yellow glittering lights flash a cheerful dance as happy as Christmas itself.
“Yeah, it is,” I reply, hooking an arm around her and pressing my lips to her forehead.
Isabel grabs her camera off the coffee table. “Let’s take a group picture.”
Everyone huddles together in front of the massive sparkling Christmas tree while Isabel sets the timer and places the camera on the tripod. She joins the group, snuggling up to my left side and smiles hugely.
Taking in the sounds of laughter along with the scent of coco and peppermints, it dawns on me that I have never felt this full.
So complete.
I look down at the love of my life and when she aims her beautiful eyes and bright smile at me, I realize I’m not only full, I’m bursting.