Ducane
“My girls. Y’all look beautiful.”
Cadence did a spin in the big, poofy dress she’d picked out herself.
Skye stood off to the side, and I lost my train of thought.
The emerald silk hugged her through the bodice and hips before falling to the floor. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, a few loose pieces framing her face while tiny gold pins caught the light. Simple gold hoops. Her wedding ring was the only other jewelry she wore.
Classy. Elegant.
And still the finest woman in the building before we even walked out the door.
“Daddy.”
I blinked.
“Huh?”
Cadence giggled.
“Thank you.”
“Welcome, Princess.”
“What’s wrong, Mama?” I turned from the mirror to face her fully. “What can I do to assure you that I got you and my baby before we leave this house?”
“It’s not that.” She shook her head, then stopped herself, like she was trying to find the actual words instead of the easy ones. “I’m still processing us being a family. Out loud. In public. Walking into a room and not having to worry about anyone’s opinion of us.”
I opened my arms.
“Come here.”
She crossed the foyer and stepped into me carefully, mindful of the dress. I wrapped her up anyway, silk and all.
“I dreamed about nights like this,” I said into her hair. “You in a sexy dress, my child’s hand in mine, walking in together, just living our life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I don’t need a crowd or cheers to do that. Just you.”
She breathed out slowly against my chest, and I felt her settle into my arms more. “You ready?”
She stepped back, inhaled, and nodded.
We headed out. We stepped outside just as Kareem pulled the limo up to the front steps.
“A LIMO?” She took off across the yard, poofy dress and all. Her little heels clicked against the walkway. “I’m a real princess.”
“Watch the grass, baby,” Skye called after her. “You’ll ruin your shoes.”
“Oh, you’ve created a monster.” She laughed bumping my shoulder. “I hope you can keep this up.”
Cadence stopped so fast her dress swished around her legs. Her eyes got big.
“Daddy!” She gasped. “My wand!”
Skye closed her eyes for a second.
“Cadence Noelle...”
“Please?” She clasped her little hands together. “I promise I won’t bop anybody. I’ll play nice.”
I looked over at Skye.
“That’s exactly what you said before ballet.”
“Baby, just let her have it tonight.”
“Ducane.”
I reached into the backseat and pulled out the wand first.
“She’s a princess.”
Then I reached back in and held up the little rhinestone tiara she’d insisted on packing.
“Can't forget this.”
Cadence gasped so loud that Kareem laughed.
“Daddy!”
I walked over and crouched in front of her.
“Hold still.”
She froze, smiling so hard her cheeks puffed up. I settled the tiara over her curls and straightened it with both hands.
“There we go.”
She looked up at me. “Do I look like a real princess?”
I kissed her forehead.
“Sugar, you been a real princess.”
“She’s a menace.”
“Both things can be true.”
Kareem stepped aside with a grin and swept one arm toward the open limo.
“Your carriage awaits, Princess Cadence.”
Cadence climbed in, clutching her wand, careful not to knock it against the ceiling this time.
Skye caught my eye.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“There's a TV in here!” She squealed, pressing her face to the little screen. Skye laughed and climbed in behind her and settled the emerald skirt around her legs. I got in last, pulled the door shut, and for a second just watched them.
“Tell me, brain, what’s on your mind?” she asked.
I reached over and pulled her hand into my lap, thumb running slowly over her exposed thigh.
“Honestly? Same as you. Happy to be here with y’all.” I looked out the window, watching the streets change from residential to downtown lights. “Just hoping happy is still the word I’m using by the end of the night.”
“Only we can control our happiness. So we go in as a unit, heads held high, and we remove ourselves the second the vibe no longer fits us. We…”
“We pivot.”
“Exactly. But I have a feeling Ruben’s going to be on his best behavior tonight. He’s a chameleon, you know that. We’ll let him silently stew. That’ll be fun.”
“You really hate him?”
“Oh, very much,” she laughed, covering her mouth. “But not really. If anything, I feel bad for him. Something, somewhere, happened, and you were just a casualty of that. It doesn’t absolve him of his wrongs. It just gives it context.”
“So wise.”
“I know, I can’t believe I said that. Don’t tell anyone.”
“My lips are sealed.”
Cadence found the button for the little disco light in the ceiling and shrieked when it lit up, and for the length of that whole ride to the gala.
With my wife’s hand in mine and my daughter dancing in her seat like the limo was her own personal stage, none of us thought about what was waiting on the other side of that door.
We were a family. Out loud. In public. No more hiding.
Cars lined up, waiting to drop their passengers. Cadence pressed her face to the window. “More princesses.”
We pulled up and prepared to step out when Skye stopped me, pulled my face closer, and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to my lips.
Kareem opening the door was the only thing that stopped me from chasing that kiss for another ten minutes. I was so fucking happy she was back in my life.
I stepped out first, and cameras flashed. I extended my hand and helped Skye out, and she, in turn, helped Cadence. I anchored them on either side of me, arm around Skye’s waist, Cadence’s hand in mine, and she walked with a bounce in every step.
We headed straight in, not stopping for pictures on the red carpet.
I spotted my mother before we made it through the doors, standing off to the side of the entrance like she’d been watching that exact spot for an hour.
The second her eyes landed on the three of us, her hand flew to her mouth, and she just stood there, tears sliding down her face.
She looked between me, Skye, and Cadence like she couldn’t decide who to look at first.
“Mama, don’t start before we even get inside.” I tried to keep my voice light, but my own throat was tight. I pressed a kiss on her cheek.
“I can’t help it.” She wiped under her eyes, careful of her makeup, and failed anyway. “Look at you. Look at all of you. She’s so beautiful. Oh, my Lord, I’m a Gigi.”
Skye squeezed my hand once, a silent go ahead. I crouched down next to Cadence.
I turned to my daughter. “Sugar, this is your grandmother. My mom. Her name’s Dena. You can call her Gigi.”
Cadence studied her for a second, the way she studied everything, dead serious, before her whole face lit up.
“You have Daddy’s eyebrows.” She pointed between the two of us like she’d cracked a code. “Twins. Like us.”
Dena made a sound that was half laugh, half sob, and dropped to her knees right there in the entryway, gala dress and all.
“I do, don’t I?” She touched her own eyebrow, then reached out slowly, like she was asking permission, and tucked a curl behind Cadence’s ear. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life. A doll baby.”
“I know,” Cadence said, so matter-of-factly that Skye laughed out loud behind me.
“That’s her favorite response. She knows everything,” I said.
Dena looked up at Skye, and for a second, her face said what she’d never managed to. Forgive me.
“Thank you,” Dena said, just to her. “For bringing her tonight. I hope we can speak before you guys go back to Coupeville.”
“I’d like that.”
“Okay, enough crying, let’s get to our table. Ruben is going to have a heart attack, you know.”
I stopped her. “Does he know about her?”
“No, you think?” She said it too fast, like the question was easier to swat away than to sit with.
“Ma?”
“Ducane. I left your father a year ago.” She said it plainly like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. “I didn't want to tell you like this, but I need you to know I would never willingly keep something like that from you. Skye, no offense, sweetheart.”
“None taken.”
She looked back at me and cupped my cheek. “I watched you be unhappy for a long time. Whatever is driving this, keep it. It’s time for a reckoning. I stand behind you and with you. Both of you.”
“You should’ve told me sooner.”
“I know how you feel about me smoothing things over for that man. I heard you say it yourself, more than once.” She didn’t flinch from it.
“I’m not doing that tonight. I’m not going to stand here and explain away thirty years of choosing peace over myself.
I know what the past says about me. But my present is this.
I’m done. Done with him, done with his hatred, done pretending things were fine in that house.
” Her eyes went glassy again, but her voice held steady.
“I turned fifty and realized I’d been asking permission to be happy since I was younger than you are now. I’m not doing it anymore.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. Not because I didn’t believe her. Because I did. Completely. I’d waited years to hear her say those words.
“We still keep up appearances tonight,” she added, quieter. “For the room. Not for him. There’s a difference, and I need you to understand it.”
“I understand.”
She kissed Cadence’s forehead, squeezed Skye’s hand once, and straightened up, gala-ready again in the space of a breath, thirty years of practice showing in how fast she could put the mask back on.
“Now come on,” she said. “Let’s go before your father finds us first.”
We didn’t have to look far.
Ruben was already crossing the room toward us, moving through the crowd, as if the floor owed him the space. His eyes found me first, then Skye, then dropped to Cadence.
I felt it happening before I saw it. Skye’s hand tightened on Cadence’s shoulder at the exact second mine did, and between one step and the next, we’d both eased her back, just slightly, just enough, until our girl was standing behind both of us instead of between.
Neither of us said a word about it. We didn’t have to.