Page 107 of Whirlwind
“Okay, I’m exhausted, now,” Lottie says, the high from her prize wearing off as quickly as it hit. “I’m logging off.”
“Get some sleep, love you, Lot.”
“Love you guys, too. Talk tomorrow.”
Kit tosses her controller and headset aside and crawls into my lap, her hands wrapping around my neck.
“I want to tell you something,” she says, her eyes nervously bouncing between mine.
“What is it?” I cup her cheek, trying to ease whatever she’s feeling.
“Earlier…when Lottie talked about her imaginary future kids,” she says, referring to Lottie daydreaming about someday playing farming simulation video games with her children. “Something popped into my head.”
“Okay,” I say when she pauses, as if she’s nervous to go on.
“I thought about us, you and me, playing with a child of our own,” she says, nibbling at her lower lip. “I see things like that more and more. I’m not saying it’s what I want, because I’m still not sure. But I see it, sometimes.”
“You know I’m okay either way,” I say. I’d love to have a family with her. But I don’t need that more than I need her.
“I know,” she says. “I need you to know, though. It’s too hard to keep to myself and I don’t want to. I don’t want to keep anything from you.”
“I don’t want you to, either.”
“Okay, so then, I need to tell you this other thing, too.”
“What?”
“That I love you,” she says confidently. “Every day, you show me how much you love me, and it makes me fall more in love with you.”
Unbidden, a tear of joy drops from the corner of my eye.
“That’s the best news I’ve ever heard, Kitpu.”
“There was a survey once that found only sixty-seven percent of Americans have ever felt true love. I always thought I’d be forever part of the thirty-three percent that didn’t.”
“And then, Nightmare escaped his harness?”
“Thank fuck for that little escape artist.”
“Thank fuck.” I kiss her.
Life can be a whirlwind. I’m glad we’re weathering it together.
