Page 155 of Hopeless
I roll my eyes and forge ahead. “So I—we—won’t be living on the ranch anymore. We’ll come hang out sometimes, but this is home base now.”
Everyone is quiet. Watchful.
My dad speaks first. “That’s your announcement?”
My brows furrow. “Yeah.”
“That’s the stupidest announcement I’ve ever been fool enough to get excited about.”
Jasper wheezes a laugh and tries to cover it with his hand.
“No, listen. Winter announcing her baby’s secret paternity at a family dinner? That was an announcement.”
“Gotta win at something sometimes, I guess,” she mutters from beside me.
“Me telling you all that Cordelia and I are together? That’s an announcement.”
A table-wide intake of breath sounds out. Cordelia covers her face with her palm, but Harvey ignores it all.
“But you and your fiancée buy a house—a damn nice house—in the city, where she’s going to be spending the next, what? Seven years, at least? And you’re announcing this to us like it isn’t the most obvious thing in the world? Y’all are a bunch of attention seekers. Or dumb. I’m not sure. Either way, just wild.” He shakes his head.
Winter scoffs. Again.
Bailey leans in close and whispers, “I knew it.”
“Harvey,” Jasper starts, fingers rolling against the brown bottle in his hand. “Since you’re not an attention seeker … ” He can barely get the words out without losing it. “Care to elaborate on the ‘you and Cordelia’ bit?”
Harvey shifts in his seat.
“It just sorta happened, you know? She was all up in my space when she left her husband. And we, well, it’s been a long time since your mom, you guys. Thirty years, and I’ve never stopped loving her. And … ” He trails off, staring at Cordelia with a twinkle in his eye. One I’m glad to see because he really has been alone for a long time. Lonely for a long time. “Cordelia never stopped loving her, either. And we bonded over that, I guess. It feels like another lifetime, one that people are often too uncomfortable to bring up. But we can talk about it all. Laugh. Reminisce. I’m happy.”
She smiles at him, skin crinkling around her eyes as he folds a hand protectively over hers, right on top of the table. “Me too.”
“I’m so happy for you both!” Summer claps her hands together, looking genuinely excited. Everyone else follows suit, offering their congratulations and love.
“And quite frankly, if Sloane can marry her cousin, I figure I can—” Harvey starts up again, and I groan.
Jasper’s head drops, his palms pressing into his eye sockets while Sloane bursts out laughing, rubbing soothing circles on his back.
“Then I can be with Cordelia.”
“She’s not my cousin,” Jasper huffs through a laugh.
Harvey elbows him playfully. “Sure, sure. And Cordelia isn’t my sister-in-law.”
“Well, if we’re all laying things out on the table,” Sloane says. “Since Harvey brought up Jasper and me … ” She places a small black-and-white photo on the table. “I’m fourteen weeks.” She glances at Harvey, so happy that she’s fucking glowing. “Brought the sonogram so you can see there is indeed no tail.”
Everyone laughs, recalling my dad’s never-ending jokes about Sloane and Jasper having tail babies because they’re related—even though they aren’t.
After that, the table breaks out into happy chatter. More ribbing. More laughter.
Bailey turns to me, eyes bright, smile wide, cheeks rosy. “This is … this doesn’t feel like alone together. This just feels liketogether-together.”
With one hand, I grip her chin, watching her eyes dance between mine. I kiss her hard. My better half. My other half.
“That’s us, sugar. Together-together.”
Epilogue
