Epilogue – Peter
“ I ’ll meet you at the school. Don’t forget the flowers for Katy.” I rushed out the front door, hoping I’d run into Katy, but luck wasn’t on my side. Her house was already dark, and Marie’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Not that it mattered since I’d be seeing her in a few, short minutes at the school.
Despite the graduation ceremony not taking place for another two hours, I’d never been so grateful for a reserved staff parking spot. The lot was nearly full of vehicles already. I pulled out my phone to text Jarrod and Jason so they’d leave a little earlier since they’d have to walk from wherever they could find parking. And that they’d need to remember the stroller since it probably wasn’t on the list of things to bring for today.
“Ahh, Peter, just the man I wanted to see.” Principal Kostiuk pulled me into his office.
Worry filled me. Did he know that I was going to reveal my relationship with Katy after she walked across the stage today? Was he about to tell me I couldn’t because I wasn’t sure how I’d react. These past few months had been difficult. Having sex with Katy had changed everything… no, that was a lie. Everything had changed the moment I acknowledged my feelings for her. From that moment on I’d struggled to keep from showing her, showing the world how I felt when we were out in public. But after we had sex, after we she truly forgave me for everything surrounding Liam’s conception and agreed that she wanted the relationship we’d dreamed of between the four of us, class times had been even more difficult. The struggle to not touch her increased a hundred-fold.
“I know you have tasks to complete before the ceremony begins, but I wanted to give you a little update on that matter we discussed a couple of months ago.” I stiffened. His words not easing an iota of my concern. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”
“Sir?”
“With Ms. Williams. It was amazing all the things I discovered when I had security search the video feeds for your interactions with Mrs. Blackwell for your lawyer.” Steve pressed his hand to my shoulder. “I’m so sorry you had to experience that Peter. Why didn’t you ever say anything? No one should have to put up with that type of abuse at work. I feel horrible that I never saw it happening.”
I patted his hand. “You weren’t meant to see it. I never wanted you to know because, despite everything, she’s a good teacher and I didn’t want her to get in trouble.”
“Yes, but it wasn’t just you. I had a little talk with Greg about her interactions with him. And, in some of the footage, once I dug a little deeper, I noticed some behaviour with male students that was a little concerning. It wasn’t over the line, and I did speak to them to make sure things were good, but it told me that I needed to take action.”
Fuck. I’d seen her with some students, but hadn’t thought it was anything suspect. Certainly not to the realm like I’d been with Katy—although it sounded like she hadn’t crossed that line thankfully because it would have been hard to forgive myself if students had been taken advantage of my her. It wasn’t lost on my how my own actions were so far beyond reproach that I should have been looking up to Ashley for guidance.
“Nothing”—he stared me in the eye—“and I mean, nothing else looked suspicious on the tapes concerning inappropriate interactions between students and teachers. Do you understand?” He smiled at me, letting me know that all was okay.
I nodded as I sucked in a deep breath. Maybe, just maybe I’d managed to avoid getting my ass in a crack that I wouldn’t be able to get out of.
“Now, what can you tell me about Mrs. Blackwell. Has that situation been taken care of?”
This time I matched his smile. “Yes, it has. Our lawyer brought her in, revealed all the evidence we had, and threatened to go to her husband if she persisted in propositioning us. Turns out her prenup is very thorough and even without having an affair, if he found out, she stood to lose a lot of money.”
“Good. Now go get ready. And don’t worry, I’m expecting to deal with some fireworks after the ceremony. But don’t worry, I have you covered. Just make her happy. I know your parents and her father would be even if her mom might not since I’m guessing she doesn’t know yet, does she?”
His mention of my parents and Katy’s father nearly had tears rolling down my cheeks. It had been my biggest fear out of all of them, that they would be disappointed in me and my actions, that they wouldn’t have approved. So, to hear from their friend that they would have been happy relieved that last heavy weight that I carried within me. As for Marie, that was something I hadn’t dealt with yet but would need to soon. “I don’t think she knows, but I believe she suspects, and she might have been told this morning.”
“A piece of advice, don’t blindside her. Give her a heads up.”
I nodded again as I chewed on my lip. With only a couple of hours before the reveal, I wasn’t sure how I would let her know. And that started off a whole new chain of worries. What if she said no? What if she told me, us, to leave Katy alone?
“You’ve got time. Go find her. She’ll respect you more for telling her to her face than if she was to find out another way.”
“Thank you for the kick in the pants. I needed it.”
He grinned. “Well, someone has to look out for you. Make sure you don’t screw things up.”
I couldn’t stop the chuckles as I left him in his office as I headed out to make sure the registration for the ceremony was working without any hiccups.
My phone buzzed with a text from Jason, letting me know they’d arrived. Thank goodness they were early because the more I’d thought about it, the more I realized that they should be here, with me, when I, we, told Marie.
“Ahh, Peter, just the man I was looking for. Are Jason and Jarrod here, yet?” Marie stood before me. Her usual smile was not present which didn’t surprise me. Today would be hard, watching her baby girl graduate from high school and her husband not being here by her side. And here I was about to make everything worse. Fuck.
“They are. They just texted me.”
She wrapped her hand around my arm. “Then let’s find them because I have a feeling there’s something you need to talk to me about that includes them.” She glanced around. “And it’s probably something that these people shouldn’t overhear.”
As soon as we found them, she lifted Liam from his stroller. “What a handsome Little Man, you are. All dressed up in a suit for such a special day.”
He smiled at her before squirming, wanting to be put down so he could toddler around. Jason took him back, settling him in the stroller with a bribe of a healthy chew cookie Katy had made him.
She looked at us expectantly.
“Marie,” I started. “Jason, Jarrod, and I wanted to let you know that we all love Katy. We want to have a relationship with her, make a family with her.”
“We promise to keep her heart first, to keep her needs first.”
“And we promise to never take advantage of her,” Jason added. “We won’t deny her any of the experiences she wants, the things others of her age get to do.”
We held our collective breath as Marie examined each of us, raking her penetrating gaze over our souls.
“I can’t say I didn’t expect this. And you haven’t stopped her yet, allowing her to keep her relationship with Ethan. But I’m guessing you’re telling me this now, because you want to take this public.” We nodded. “Does Katy know and agree?”
“She does. Not the exact circumstances, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she guessed. But we’ve talked about this, about becoming public and she’s fully in support of it.”
“Then I won’t stand in her way.” Marie took a step closer. “But if you ever hurt her, I know how to kill and make it look natural.”
We nodded as she grabbed hold of the stroller and began to push it back to where everything was set up in the football field with us following dutifully behind her.
“Nelson, Katherine. Graduating with an eighty-seven average and four AP credits.”
We whistled and clapped as Katy crossed the stage, receiving her handshakes from the principal and Mr. Taylor. As she walked over to the side of the stage where the stairs were, we stepped in front. Jarrod held out his hand to escort her down a few steps until she stood at the same height as us.
“Mama,” Liam cried out. He jumped from my arms to hers.
“Congratulations Kitty-Kat.” And then Jarrod kissed her, surprising the people around us.
When he stepped back, Jason took his place. “Congratulations Baby Girl.”
He kissed her, stroking her lips with his tongue. Around us the crowd began to take notice as things on the stage stopped, ready to watch our reveal unfold.
As soon as he stepped away, I took his place, placing one of my hands against her cheek. “I love you, Katy. For always and forever.”
And then I kissed her, too, not caring about what people would say. Because I knew that when you found a love like we shared, you couldn’t let things stop you, you couldn’t give up. To do so would be to live half a life and that wasn’t what I wanted.
So, forever and for always it would be. The four of us, Liam and any other children we might have. And for those who would have been naysayers, saying our relationships were inappropriate, well, they’d just have to eat their words.
The End
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