Chapter 6
Reagan
2 years later
“Who would’ve thought all those years ago when you came to visit with your boyfriend Jamie that you would one day be going to his ex-girlfriend's wedding?”
I laughed as I struggled with my tie. “What I’m more surprised by is that I’m at the wedding of your first love.”
Charlie put her arms around me from behind and rested her chin on my shoulder as we both looked into the mirror. “Mary Beth was not my first love. She was just the person who took my virginity.”
“Still a pretty big deal.” I lifted an eyebrow so Charlie could see it in the mirror. “Should I be jealous?”
“Hm. Maybe.” Charlie tapped her finger against her chin. “I do enjoy a woman in a nice dress.”
“What about a woman in a suit?”
Charlie ran her hands up and down the front of my body, making me wish I wasn’t wearing said suit. “I enjoy that even more.” She reached up and squeezed my boobs and god, why does there have to be so much fabric between those hands and my skin? “But in this situation, I actually enjoy it much more when you’re not wearing any clothes.”
I groaned and turned around to face her. “You can’t say things like that or we’re going to miss the wedding.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time we were late for a celebration,” Charlie joked, her hands continuing to explore my body as my willpower dwindled.
I laughed at the memory. “I really thought your brother was going to kill us when he realized why we were late for the reception.”
“Eh. Whatever. Wasn’t the first time he wanted to kill us.”
“And I’m sure it won’t be the last either.”
“So, is that a yes?” Charlie asked as she moved her hand over the front of my pants.
Stay strong, Reagan. You can do it. I looked at my watch to see if there was any chance we could get the deed done quick enough to not miss the beginning of the wedding. Shit. Not possible . I groaned once again. “I hate to be the mature one, but we really shouldn’t.”
Charlie stuck her bottom lip out at me. “Boo. I don’t like when you’re the mature one either.” She reached up and fixed my tie for me. “But I’ll forgive you since you look so good today.”
“Just today?” I joked.
Charlie rolled her eyes at me. “Fishing for compliments, I see. Obviously, you look amazing every day, but this suit is really doing it for me.” She licked her lips as she ran her eyes up and down my body.
“I can tell.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the hotel room to keep myself from doing what I desperately wanted to do.
The wedding ceremony and reception were taking place on the farm that Mary Beth and Jackie now owned together, and they had it decorated beautifully. The ceremony was quick, but sweet, and I could feel the love radiating from the two of them.
“What a wedding, huh?” Jamie asked as we walked beside him and Ethan over to the area where they were having the reception.
I nodded. “Super beautiful.”
“Mom’s going to be pissed that it was nice.”
Charlie laughed. “Is she still salty over not being invited?”
“Oh god, yeah. That's all I’ve heard about recently. You’re so lucky you don’t live nearby. She’s been even more insufferable than usual.”
“I don’t know. I think she might be getting better.”
Jamie rolled his eyes at his sister. “You’re only saying that because you guys had that high moment two years ago and have had some weird bond ever since.”
“I think the word bond is a bit strong, but it definitely didn’t hurt our relationship.” Charlie shrugged. “She was annoying about the fact that we decided to get a hotel rather than staying at their house, but I’m just thankful they’re watching all three kids until tomorrow morning.”
“Why are you staying at a hotel?” Jamie asked as he looked between me and his sister. “I get not wanting to stay with Mom and Dad, but you’re obviously always welcome to stay at our place.”
I felt a smirk cross my face as I thought about all of the ways I could answer that, most of which would make Jamie physically ill. “Do you want the real answer or what we told your parents? Because the real answer is that your sister just keeps getting better looking with age, so we need some alone time. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to hear the sounds I plan to pull from her tonight.”
As expected, Jamie cringed at my words. “Ew. I’m so sorry I asked.”
He turned toward Ethan, clearly looking for backup, but Ethan put his hands up as if he was surrendering. “I could have told you not to ask that. How long have you two been friends? Close to twenty years? I don’t understand how you haven’t learned by now.”
“In my defense, it didn’t bother me before she started saying these things about my sister .”
“Consider this a prolonged payback for waiting so long to tell me you had a sister.”
Jamie pointed between me and Charlie. “Can you blame me? It took you like a week to swoop in on her.”
“What can I say?” I smiled at Charlie and pulled her tight up against me. “I see what I like and I go for it. And in case it wasn’t obvious by now, I like her a lot. ”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said sarcastically. “We all know. After all this time you’re still madly in love. Yada yada.”
I kicked my foot against Jamie’s. “You love it. Don’t act like you don’t.”
“Fine. You’re right. I do.” He pointed a finger at me as if he was a parent about to lecture their child. “But no more oversharing.”
“No promises,” I said with a wink before dipping Charlie and giving her a long kiss that was so disgustingly romantic it made me weak in the knees.
When we reached the reception area, there was a large sign that had the table assignments written on it. As we searched for our names, a middle-aged woman walked up beside us. One look at her told me she had to be related to Jackie, because they looked eerily similar.
“Hello,” she said sweetly as she smiled at us. “I’m Jackie’s Aunt Dawn. I don’t believe we met. How do you all know the brides?”
“That’s actually a very funny story,” I said, unable to resist.
Charlie threw a hand over my mouth as she focused her attention on Dawn. “It’s really not that funny.” She used her free hand to point between her, Jamie, and Ethan. “The three of us graduated with Mary Beth.”
Dawn clapped her hands together as if this was the best news she ever heard. “A friendship that has stood the test of time. So sweet.”
Oh lady, you don’t know the half of it. Instead of risking my life by saying something else, I simply smiled and nodded.
We made small talk with Dawn for a few minutes before heading in the direction of our table.
“You weren’t really going to tell her the truth of how we know Mary Beth, were you?” Charlie whispered as we walked.
“Just the bullet points—Jamie did the dating. You did the banging.” I said it loud enough that Jamie and Ethan would hear, too.
Jamie shook his head at me, but he chuckled after only a few seconds of trying to keep a straight face. “It’s amazing how you have three kids, and still have the maturity of a high school boy.”
“Speaking of kids…” I raised both of my eyebrows at Jamie so he knew I meant business. “When are you two going to have some?”
“I’m not sure.” Jamie shook his head again, but this time let out a dramatic sigh. “I’ve been trying to knock Ethan up for months, and it just doesn’t seem to be working for some reason.”
“Maybe you’re using the wrong door.”
Charlie spit out the water she had just taken a sip of. “Ew.”
I couldn’t hide my pride at grossing out both of the Miller twins. “I know, right? Why are you drinking water when there’s a bar over there?”
Ethan handed Charlie a napkin off of our table to clean up the water she had gotten on her dress then turned toward me. “To answer your question, we only want one, and our plan is to adopt within the next few years. We just want to get a few things in order first.”
I nodded in understanding. Good for people who actually thought through their life plans. “That’s a much smarter idea than diving right into trying for kids and ending up with three before you’ve even been married for two years.”
“But they’re so cute,” Ethan said as he pushed out his bottom lip. Clearly his baby fever was much worse than Jamie’s.
“They really are.” I took out my phone and started showing them the millions of pictures I had taken since the last time we saw them.
We continued to do this until the DJ announced it was time for the couple to be introduced. When he said, “I present to you for the first time as wives, Mrs. and Mrs. Royerford,” we all leapt to our feet and hoots and hollers filled the barn.
We watched as Mary Beth and Jackie weaved their way through the tables out to the makeshift dance floor, where they immediately went into their first dance. I instinctively brought my arm around Charlie’s waist and held her tight up against me as we watched them sway to the music.
“Do you remember our first dance?” I asked, leaning in to kiss her temple.
Charlie sighed and pushed her body even closer to mine. “Of course. How could I ever forget?”
The music continued, but I wasn’t watching the happy couple anymore. My eyes were stuck on the woman next to me; the one who had made all of my dreams come true. This was one of those moments I had to pinch myself to remind myself that this was actually real. Life gets crazy and sometimes it feels like I’m just going through the motions, but it’s times like these that bring me back to earth and remind me how lucky I am.
I gave Charlie another kiss. “Do you know how much I love you?”
“I think I do, but maybe later, you could show me.” She gently bumped her hip against mine.
I instinctively licked my lips at the thought. “There’s nothing I want to do more.”
“Nothing you want to do more than what?” Charlie asked in a teasing whisper, clearly aware of what my answer was going to be.
“You,” I whispered, making sure to keep my voice extra breathy.
Charlie shivered beside me and it sent a chill through my body as well. I loved that we both still had this effect on each other. I was so caught up in my own thoughts, I didn’t even realize that the first dance had ended and now Mary Beth and Jackie were dancing with their dads.
Halfway through the song, they switched partners, and it amazed me how comfortable they all looked together. I wondered what it was like to have normal in-laws.
Charlie’s parents had grown a lot from the first time I met them (her dad more than her mom), but they would never be my favorite people. That didn’t matter though. I was happy to sacrifice good in-laws to get to spend my life with Charlie.
And, hey, at least my brother-in-law was okay. I chuckled to myself as I thought about how full circle my life had come. Who knew the guy I met freshman year of college who thought he was much cooler than he actually was would someday be family? I chuckled softly at the thought. This life.
“What are you thinking about?” Charlie whispered just a moment later.
“Your brother,” I answered honestly.
Charlie pulled away from me slightly and scrunched up her nose at me. “Not the answer I was expecting.”
I took this new angle as an opportunity to lean in and capture her lips with mine. “Don’t worry, babe. You’re still my number two Miller. After Nana, of course.”
Charlie leaned into me once again. “Of course. Nana is everyone’s number one.”
After the first dances were done, the DJ told us to sit and they began to bring out our food while the toasts were made. Jackie’s man of honor was her brother and his speech contained a lot of jokes about all of the signs of his sister being gay. Near the end, he became more serious as he talked about how lucky Jackie was to have found Mary Beth, how perfect they were for each other, and how lucky he felt to now have her as part of their family. Mary Beth’s maid of honor was a cousin of hers who I had obviously never met named Nicole. Honestly, I had never even heard about her which made me wonder how close they could really be.
“Who is this long lost cousin?” I asked Charlie as I listened to the speech that was actually ridiculously funny.
“It’s Nicole Dawson. Well, I guess going by her introduction, it’s now Nicole Dawson-Fields. I actually forgot they were cousins. Nicole went to a high school about thirty minutes from us and was a super athlete. She was also super cocky. When we were in high school, Mary Beth couldn’t stand her, but I think they’ve bonded over the fact that they’re both gay.” Charlie’s eyes went wide as if she had just made a major discovery. “Oh my gosh. I just realized who her wife is. It’s Courtney Fields.” She said it so bluntly as if that was someone that everyone knew.
“Should that name mean something to me?”
Charlie shook her head. “No, sorry. It was an internal realization. Courtney Fields was also super athletic. Although, I’m pretty positive they didn’t go to the same school. I wonder how they met.”
“I guess we’ll just have to ask.” I was always down for meeting more gay people. I just never expected them to be at this wedding. I really thought we were the only gay people Mary Beth knew. “I can’t believe I didn’t know Mary Beth had a gay cousin.”
“Like I said, they were never super close. I’m actually surprised she would make her the maid of honor.”
“Maybe it’s because two of the people she’s closest to are the guy she dated in high school and the girl she banged. Knowing Mary Beth, she would probably want to avoid having to explain either of those relationships to anyone.”
Charlie snorted quietly beside me. “Probably.”
“We should introduce ourselves to Nicole and her wife, so we have more gay people to hang out with when we come to visit Maryland. I could always use a little extra gayness when we’re stuck here.”
“Don’t you get enough of that at Ethan’s cafe?”
“No. I realize it’s the hang out place for all five gay people within a hundred mile radius, but it’s also overflowing with heteros.”
“Ew,” Charlie responded, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“I know, right? Disgusting.”
After the speeches were over and everyone was busy eating, Charlie and I made our way to the table Mary Beth’s cousin was sitting at. We decided to act like we just wanted to tell her how good her speech was so we didn’t look like the weirdo gays who sought out other gays wherever they went (which was exactly what we were).
Charlie lightly tapped on Nicole’s back when we made it to the table. When she turned around, Charlie smiled at her. “We just wanted to come over and tell you how much we enjoyed your speech. I’m Charlie and this is my wife, Reagan.”
A large smile that appeared almost devilish spread across Nicole’s face. “The infamous Charlie. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Charlie giggled, but there was definitely a strain to it. “I’m not sure whether I should be flattered or worried.”
“Honestly, probably a little of both.” Nicole winked at Charlie and if she hadn’t been sitting by her wife, I probably would have assumed she was flirting with her.
Charlie put her hands over her face and shook her head. “I’d like to say it’s all lies, but I’m sure it’s true.”
“Nothing to be embarrassed about. I’ve loved all of the stories I’ve heard. I was actually hoping I would get to meet you here. I was pissed when Mary Beth didn’t have a bachelorette party or bridal shower for that reason. Damn her for wanting to make things easier on us parents.”
“You have kids?” Charlie asked.
I couldn’t help but smile. This was even better than I expected. Not only would we have more gay people to hang out with in Maryland, but gay people with kids.
“My cousin really doesn’t talk about me, huh?” Nicole teased. She pointed across the room where two girls who appeared to be around five or six years old were sitting at a table with other children from Mary Beth’s family. “Those are our kind of twin girls, Alice and Shaun.”
“Kind of?” I asked. I knew she had more so been addressing Charlie since we hadn’t been formally introduced, but I was intrigued since I didn’t know there was such a thing as kind of being twins.
Nicole laughed at my question. “My wife and I accidentally got pregnant at the same time and our daughters happened to be born on the exact same day. Speaking of which,” Nicole held her hand out toward me and pointed the thumb of her other hand at the woman sitting next to her. “I’m being super rude right now. I’m Nicole and this is my wife, Courtney.”
“No worries at all. It’s nice to meet both of you. I need to ask though. How do you accidentally get pregnant at the same time? How did you get accidentally pregnant at all?”
Nicole laughed again. “Okay, so it wasn’t completely an accident. We were both technically trying to get pregnant in hopes that it would take in one of us. Never in a million years did we actually think it would work in both of us and we’d be pregnant at the same time. We live a pretty crazy life.”
I pointed at Charlie. “We know all about that. When we attempted to get pregnant with our first child, we got much more than we bargained for as well—two more than we bargained for to be exact.”
Courtney’s eyes went wide beside Nicole. “You two have triplets?” When I nodded, she blew out a long breath. “I can barely handle two that are the same age. I don’t even want to imagine what it would be like with three. No offense.”
I threw my hands in the air. “None taken. It’s a complete shit show.”
Both women laughed as they shared a knowing look. “I’m sure it is,” Nicole said between her laughter.
I pointed to the plates in front of them that were still filled with food. “We’ll let you two get back to eating, but I’m sure we’ll see you out on the dance floor later.”
And that’s exactly what happened. After all of our dinner and many drinks later, I literally bumped into Courtney as Charlie and I attempted to do something that somewhat resembled dancing. “I’m sorry,” I said politely before I turned around and saw who it was I had just run into. With no filter left thanks to the alcohol running through my veins, I put my hand up for a high five. “Hey, it’s our new gay friends.”
Luckily, Courtney seemed to be just as drunk and hit me with a sloppy high five. “It’s me!” She pointed behind me. “Hey, I know you. You own that cafe that Mary Beth took us to last week.”
I turned around to find that it was Ethan she was addressing. I stepped next to him and proudly put a hand on his shoulder. “This is my brother-in-law, Ethan. He’s married to my other brother-in-law, Jamie. Jamie is Charlie’s brother, but has also been my bestie since college.”
Nicole stepped up beside Courtney and raised an eyebrow. “Oh yes, I’ve heard all about that story.” She looked at Courtney and winked. “I’ll tell you about it later, babe.”
“I’m surprised with living in this area that last week was the first time you’ve ever been to Ethan’s cafe,” Charlie said, clearly attempting to change the subject.
Nicole laughed as if she had just told a joke. “Oh god, we don’t live in Maryland anymore. I love my family and appreciate the place I grew up, but hell no. I had to get out of here. We live in Pennsylvania in a town called King of Prussia. It’s like an hour from Philadelphia. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it. One of the biggest malls in the country is there.”
“Heard of it?” I laughed hysterically because I couldn’t believe what a small world this was. “We live like thirty-five minutes from there.”
“No way,” Nicole said as she and Courtney laughed along with me.
Courtney put an arm around Charlie and swayed into her. “Now that we are literal besties, I need to tell you something crazy that I just heard from Mary Beth. I’m not sure if you two read, but apparently, sapphic romance goddess Laurel Lake is married to a girl who went to your high school.”
“Oh, we know.” Charlie smirked over at me. “I don’t read, but Reagan does. Speaking of which, do you want to hear something even crazier?” When both Nicole and Courtney nodded, their eyes wide in anticipation, Charlie reached over and squeezed my hand. “We actually met Laurel Lake at an event Ethan hosted a few years ago and this one right here has actually designed the cover of three of her books, one being her newest.”
Both Nicole and Courtney’s eyes went even wider and their mouths dropped open as they stared at me as if I was a celebrity.
“No way,” Nicole said.
“Seriously?” Courtney asked, completely awestruck. “You made the cover for the one coming out next month?”
“Guilty.” No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to hide the proud smile that came to my face.
Nicole and Courtney shared a look before Courtney focused her attention back on me. “That’s literally the most gorgeous book cover I’ve ever seen. We’ve been gushing over it ever since she revealed it. I can’t believe you’re the one who did it. Wow. I feel like I’m in the presence of royalty or something. That’s awesome.”
“What is Laurel like?” Nicole asked. “Is she as funny as she seems to be online?”
I nodded enthusiastically. “Even funnier. She’s such a sarcastic asshole. I love it.”
“Sounds like we’d get along great,” Nicole said.
Courtney laughed and patted her arm. “Oh, for sure. Assholes unite.”
Nicole nudged her wife playfully. “Hey, at least I never broke someone’s nose.”
Courtney looked at us and shook her head. “I promise it’s not what it sounds like. We have quite an interesting backstory.”
“And we definitely want to hear it later,” which wasn’t a lie. I couldn’t believe we found new queer friends who lived near us and were fans of Laurel Lake. I pointed toward the brides that were now walking toward us. “But we need to congratulate the lovebirds first.”
Charlie and I walked hand in hand as we closed the gap between us and the brides. When we were close, I dropped Charlie’s hand and held out my arms. “Congratulations!”
I gave Jackie a hug while Charlie hugged Mary Beth and then we switched. “So, what’s the plan now?” Charlie asked once the hugs were over.
“Well, now that this is all over, we’re going to focus on starting our family,” Jackie explained. “Neither of us want to carry, plus with our age, it would be considered higher risk, so we’re going to adopt.”
“We want a big family,” Mary Beth added excitedly. “At least four or five kids.”
We’ll see if you’re still saying that after you adopt the first one. I bit my tongue and nodded. There was no need to rain on their parade. And, hey, who knew? Maybe someone who didn’t acquire three at one time would be open to more.
“What about you two?” Jackie asked. “How’s the new business?”
“Not so new anymore,” Charlie said with a shake of her head. “We’ve owned it for almost a year now.”
“No way. Time really does fly, huh?” Jackie looked over at me. “Are you still helping out there?”
When Charlie first took over at the practice, I helped with a lot of redecorating then did pretty much any random job she needed me to. Now that she had it up and running more, she didn’t need me quite as much. “I just fill in when someone calls out or goes on vacation.”
Charlie leaned into me and kissed my cheek. “She’s been a huge help. One of the many benefits of having a kick ass wife who works from home.”
“Speaking of which, how is the graphic designing going? Still getting a bunch of commissions?”
I nodded excitedly. “More and more every day. It’s actually getting hard to keep up.” I didn’t say anything else because I knew if I got started, I wouldn’t be able to stop. I was still so happy with what I was doing for a living. I couldn’t believe there was ever a time I didn’t do it.
After a few minutes, Mary Beth and Jackie moved on to talk to more guests and we spent the rest of the night dancing with Jamie, Ethan, Courtney, and Nicole. When the reception ended, I was so drunk on alcohol and love that I could barely walk straight.
I blinked down at my phone as I tried to open the Uber app to find a ride back to our hotel. Charlie put her hand over the screen so I couldn’t see it. “I have a better idea. Let’s walk to my parents’ house.”
“You want to stay at your parents’ house?” There was no way I heard that right. Charlie had been even more adamant than me about getting a hotel. “What was the point of getting a hotel?”
“We’re still going to stay at the hotel. We’re just going to stop there on the way.” Charlie loosened my tie, then took it off of me and put it around her neck instead. The act was super hot and if she hadn’t just told me she wanted to stop at her parents’, I would have thought she was trying to seduce me.
“No one is even going to be awake at their house.” I needed to think of any excuse not to go there. Charlie looked way too sexy wearing my tie with her dress to go anywhere with other people.
“That’s kind of the point.” Charlie ran her eyes up and down my body the same way I had caught her doing multiple times throughout the night, and even though it wasn’t the first time, her gaze still set my body on fire. “We’re not even going to go inside. I thought maybe we could reminisce on that first summer we got together.”
“What do you—” My mouth went dry when I realized what Charlie was getting at. “You want to have sex in the lake behind your house.” I swallowed hard, barely able to breathe just at the thought of the first (and only, unfortunately) time we did that.
Charlie had looked so incredibly sexy as she led me to the water that night. Except, the thing was, ten years and three kids later, she was even sexier to me. I wouldn’t have been able to say no if I wanted to, and I definitely didn’t want to. “Let’s do it.”
Charlie and I giggled the whole time we walked to her parents’ house. We tried, and failed, to hold our laughter in as we made our way through the yard. It was as if we were two teenagers who had just snuck out of the house for the first time ever.
We fumbled around as we sloppily removed our clothes. Since Charlie had less to take off, she jumped in before me. Seeing her naked body pop out of the water was enough motivation to get the rest of my clothes off and hop in after her.
Charlie swam over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “It might not have been our smartest idea to do this after we’ve been drinking all night.”
“I have a solution for that.” I slid my hand between her legs and ran my fingers through her folds. “Why don’t I get you drunk on something other than alcohol?”
Charlie moaned and laid her head on my shoulder. “You don’t need to touch me for me to be drunk on you. I’m always drunk on you.”
“Even after all this time?” I asked softly, my voice cracking since this moment mixed with the alcohol had me on the verge of tears.
Instead of answering right away, Charlie picked her head up and brought her mouth to mine. She kissed me long and hard until I forgot all about where we were. Hell, this kiss was so good it had me forgetting my own name. When she pulled away from the kiss, Charlie stayed still and stared at me silently for what felt like forever. When she finally spoke, her words cracked me open. “ Especially after all this time.”
I spent the next hour making love to my wife in the lake behind the house she grew up in. The house where I first met her. The place where we fell in love. This place might have held a lot of bad memories for Charlie, but I hoped she was able to hold dear all of the amazing memories we had made here.
As I held onto her as we both floated in the water (completely spent from what we had just done) and kissed her slowly, I thanked god for bringing me to that awful family reunion all those years ago.