Page 60 of Our Big White Lie
I’d convinced Marco to take her out to lunch so she’d be out of the house for a little while, which gave me time to set everything up. By the time he’d texted to let me know she was on her way home, everything was ready. It was all perfect.
Well, except maybe for the occasional bit of cat fluff, but there wasn’t much I could do about that. Not with Tucker “helping” me arrange his mom’s gifts on the coffee table.
“You know, your orange floor kind of clashes with the wrapping paper,” I informed him. He stared up at me, his long tail swishing across the ribbon on one of the boxes. When he started kneading, his claws clicked in and out of the edge of another gift’s paper.
I rolled my eyes and scooped him up. “You’re a little saboteur, aren’t you?”
He just purred.
I laughed and kissed the top of his head. A memory flashed through my mind from before Tori and I were “engaged.” She’d moved out of our old place to live with Jillian, and I’d been crushed that Tucker wasn’t living with me anymore either. When they’d come back, I’d been cuddling with him one night when it had dawned on me that sooner or later, Tori or I would find a partner. Or one of us would get a job someplace else. One way or the other, there would come a time when we wouldn’t live together anymore, and I’d been bummed out to imagine both of them being gone. I’d missed Tori. I’d missed Tucker.
And now… Tori and I had both found partners. We’d both gotten married. And Tucker still lived with both of us, because somehow, the planets had aligned and Tori and I had married each other. Even if the circumstances leading up to it had been heartbreaking… we were here.
And Tucker and his tumbleweeds of orange floof were still here.
Things had, somehow, worked out in the best way possible under the circumstances.
I kissed his fuzzy head again and set him on the back of the couch, well clear of the small pile of presents. Of course, he started making his way back over to the coffee table, so I sat down and pulled him into my lap. I’d end up covered in fuzz, but oh well.
For his part, Tucker wasn’t bothered by the diversion. He curled up in my lap and started purring.
He was almost asleep when his head suddenly whipped toward the door. A second later, I heard Tori’s engine outside.
My heart sped up. When her key clicked in the door, Tucker launched himself out of my lap and trotted over to greet her.
“Hi, baby!” she cooed, carefully nudging him aside so she could get into the house and close the door. “Did you miss me? Were you a good boy today?”
He purred and trilled, arching his back as he bumped against her legs.
“You were a brat, weren’t you?” She leaned down to tousle his ears. “That’s why you’re trying to play innocent, isn’t it?”
“He wasn’t that bad,” I said from the couch. “Just… in the way.”
She looked up, probably intending to comment about how he was always in the way. Her gaze snapped on to the coffee table, though, and her eyes widened. “Oh. What’s all that?”
I grinned, absently brushing some Tucker fluff off my blouse. “Happy anniversary.”
Her smile lit up my whole world. She came over to the couch and dropped onto the cushion beside me. “Happy anniversary.” She touched my face and kissed me, letting it linger for a long, perfect moment. When she drew back, she said, “You didn’t have to get me anything, though. Especially not…” She waved a hand at the pile. “All that.”
“No, I didn’t.” I wrapped my arms around her. “But I wanted to. So shut up and open them.”
I would never get tired of the way she’d burst into giggles like that. How had it taken me so long to realize how much I wanted her? Good thing I’d figured it out eventually.
“Seriously, though,” I said, “I love you. And even if you hadn’t done everything you did to make my mom happy or to help my whole family get through everything—I’d still want to make you happy.”
“You do,” she said softly. “Every day.”
“Well, I want to keep that up. And since it’s our anniversary…” I tipped my head toward the presents.
She quirked her lips, then let me go and reached for one of the boxes. None of the presents were super extravagant. She didn’t have that kind of taste, and she’d always preferred more practical gifts. A new lap desk that I knew she’d been eyeballing. A gift card for the place she always went with Marco. A pair of gloves she’d said she liked. And some toys for Tucker, just because no occasion was complete without some more toys for our spoiled boy.
“Thank you for all this,” she said with a soft smile. “I, um… I ordered you something, but the shipping was delayed a couple of days. It should be here tomorrow, though.”
“That’s okay.” Grinning, I pulled an envelope out from under the throw pillow beside me. “Also, there’s one more thing.”
She glanced at the envelope, then at me, her eyebrow arched. “One more thing, hmm?”
“Yep.”
