Chapter 42 – Knox
forty-two
Knox
“Kylie,” I shout her name at the bottom of the steps, “let’s go or we’re going to be late!” I look up and listen for movement from my bedroom but then hear nothing. “Kylie!” I shout louder.
“Oh my goodness,” she says, walking out of my bedroom, “what is all this yelling about?”
I see her still wearing the lounge set she wears around the house. “Why aren’t you dressed?” I ask her as she stands at the railing, looking down at me, her hands outstretched beside her holding it. “Fuck, you’re beautiful,” I smile at her, “but we are going to be late.”
“I cancelled lunch.”
“What? Why?” I ask her.
“Knox,” she says my name, “you were going to have a meeting with your parents.” I cross my arms over my chest, and she moves to come down the steps.
“I didn’t know how that meeting would go, and the last thing I wanted you to do was feel was like you had to pretend you were okay for lunch.
” She stops on the step above me, putting her hands on my shoulders.
“So I told them I didn’t feel good, and then Lexi went all ‘Oh my God, are you pregnant?’ and I was like ‘Are you insane?’”
I smile and put my hands on her hips. “The baby comes after we get married,” I inform her and she gasps.
“What?” I see her scared face.
“Well, I want to be married before we have a baby together.” I wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her to me. “But if you want to have one before, I guess we can do that.”
“Knox,” she says my name in a whisper.
“Told my parents I’m going to marry you,” I say with a smile.
“You what?” She looks at me, her mouth hanging open in shock.
“Made it clear that this thing with us was as serious as it can be. Since I was going to marry you eventually. And after we get married, there will be children.” I hold up my hand to stop her from talking. “Our children. Part of me and part of you.”
“Knox,” she says my name again, “how was the meeting with your parents?”
“Unimportant,” I tell her and see the worry on her face.
“Fine.” I give in so she won’t worry about me.
“My mother thinks I should give Josephine another chance.” She looks down and avoids looking at me.
“I told them that would never happen.” She looks back up at me.
“That is when I told them I was going to marry you.”
“That’s a little bit much.”
“Is it?” I ask her and she shrugs. “Does it scare you when I say it?”
“The whole thing is fucking scary,” she admits to me.
“Baby,” I say, kissing her lips, “we’ll go slow, but the end of the line is us married with children.”
“How long is that line?” she questions me. I’m about to answer her when the phone rings, and I look down to see it’s Josephine. “I’m not one to say that must be a sign, but I’m also not not saying it.”
I laugh and answer it, putting it on speakerphone. “Hey,” I say.
“Dad,” Vincent’s voice comes out, “can we come to your house now?”
“Um, yeah,” I reply and I feel her go stiff in my arms. “Why?”
“I want to come to your house,” he repeats, and I can hear he is upset.
“Where are you now?” I ask him.
“We just got in the car, and we were going to go to Grandma and Granddad’s, but they called and said they were going out. I don’t want to go back to Mom’s. She has plans anyway.”
“Where is your mother?” I ask. When I look up, Kylie is shaking her head.
“Yeah,” Josephine says when she gets on the phone, “what?” Her tone is pissed and aggravated.
“Drop the kids off here,” I tell her. I don’t even ask her if she’s okay, because frankly, I couldn’t care less if her life is crumbling down around her. I’ll take the kids and look the other way.
“Your parents were supposed to watch them.”
“I’m home waiting for them.” That’s all I tell her. “See you soon.” I disconnect the phone and then look up at Kylie.
“I should go,” she says, and I shake my head.
“You aren’t going anywhere. It’s Sunday and I want you here.” I kiss her and the doorbell rings. “Holy fuck, did they call from the driveway?” I mumble. When I walk over to the door and open it, the kids are all standing there, Nora with an unfazed look on her face.
“Daddy,” she says, coming in and kicking off her shoes, and then she shrieks, “Kylie, you’re here!”
“I’m so excited to see you!” Kylie replies, her voice as animated as Nora’s is as she gives her a hug.
Westley and Vincent come in, and I look out to see Josephine backing out of the driveway. I close the door and then look at Westley going to the living room, followed by Nora who skips. “What is going on?” I ask Vincent.
“I want to live with you,” he announces, folding his arms over his chest.
“I’m going to go and…” Kylie says, and I nod at her as she leaves the two of us.
“Come sit with me.” I motion with my head to the side and sit on the step, and he sits next to me. “What’s going on?”
“I want to live with you,” he repeats, and I see him angrily wiping the tears away from his face. “I hate her.”
“Vincent,” I say his name, “you don’t hate her; she’s your mother and no matter what happened between the two of us, she loves you very much.
” He doesn’t say anything. “Even though I would love to have you live with me full time,” I put my arm around him, “your mother would miss you terribly.” I bring him to me and kiss his head.
“We are going to have you talk to someone,” I tell him as he looks up at me.
“It’ll be good. You can talk to them about everything you are going through and what you feel. ”
“Okay,” he agrees softly, “but when I turn fourteen, I can decide where I want to live.”
“Why don’t we see how you feel then?” I tell him and he gets up. “Did you guys eat?”
He shakes his head. “You hungry?” He tries not to smile. “Forget that question, when aren’t you hungry?”
“Kylie,” I call her name and she shouts back.
“Yes.” She walks into the room. “What can I do for you?” She looks at me then looks at Vincent.
“The kids haven’t eaten, so you want to go change and we can go and get something to eat?”
“Um.” She looks at me then back at Vincent. “I could stay here.”
“Go get changed,” I say between clenched teeth, and she glares at me, making Vincent laugh.
“She’s mad,” he whispers to me. “I don’t think she liked that.”
“I did not,” she confirms. “Remember that when you get a girlfriend.”
“You’re Dad’s girlfriend?” he asks, and Kylie literally puts her hands in her face, and she groans.
“I didn’t mean it,” Kylie starts to say, and I laugh.
“She’s my girlfriend,” I admit to him.
“Cool,” Vincent says.
“Go and tell your brother and sister we’re going out to eat,” I urge and he nods before walking out of the room.
“I’m so stupid,” Kylie says. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” I ask her, laughing. “Baby, I was going to tell them we are together at lunch.”
“We really need to talk about things before you just go and do stuff.”
“Daddy.” Nora runs into the room. “Kylie is your girlfriend?” she asks with her eyes big and then she smiles at Kylie.
Westley comes into the room next. “Kylie is my girlfriend,” I inform them. “We like each other a lot.”
“Do you stay here when we aren’t here?” Westley asks her. She looks over at me and I smile at her.
“I do,” she replies, “but I don’t go in your room.”
“I’m glad, I didn’t want him to be by himself.”
“I was fine, buddy,” I assure him, “but I’m better now.” Then I look at Kylie. “Can you go get dressed so we can go eat? I’m starving.”
“Yeah, me too,” Vincent adds.
“I need a snack,” Westley says.
“I’m going,” Kylie concedes, and she walks to me, and I wrap my arm around her, stopping her from going up the stairs. “Knox,” she says my name.
“Hurry back.” I look into her eyes and bend my head to kiss her. “The kids are hungry.”
“All I have to do is get dressed. It would go faster if you let me go.” She puts her hand on my cheek, and I give her one more kiss until I let her go, and she runs up the stairs to the bedroom.
Less than two minutes later, she’s running back down the steps wearing a pair of jeans and my sweater. “That’s Daddy’s.” Nora points to my sweater.
“He’s sharing it with me,” she explains, smiling as she puts on her sneakers.
We walk out the door when Nora looks up at Kylie. “Do you love Daddy?” she asks her and then I see her smirking when she looks at me before looking back at Nora.
“I do. He’s pretty great.”
“Yeah,” Nora agrees, as if she gets what she’s saying. They pile into the SUV and I stand here looking at Kylie.
“You love me?” I joke with her as she rolls her eyes at me. I wrap my arms around her, and I pick her up off her feet.
“Yeah,” she confirms softly, “I love you.”
“Good,” I say, looking into her eyes, “love you too.” We share a look and it’s only interrupted when the door opens and we hear Vincent.
“Are we going to eat or—”
“We’re going.” I let her go, watching her walk around the SUV and get into it. I open my own door. “Okay, let’s go eat.”