Chapter Fourteen #3
Did he need to stop this? She smiled at him to let him know everything was good. She could tell Leo wasn’t serious. This was
his version of bonding.
She turned to Leo. “What is your success rate with Tyler’s girlfriends?”
He paused, as if momentarily surprised that she was so game. And then he answered, “One hundred percent.”
“One hundred percent what?”
“One hundred percent failure.”
All three of them laughed.
Helen said, “Just as I suspected.”
“Fine. Let’s do shots,” Tyler said.
So the three of them tucked themselves behind the oak, because even though Evelyn apparently drank too much wine according to Gary, she thought hard alcohol was unacceptable.
They didn’t have a shot glass, so each took a swig directly from the metal flask, and it burned going down.
The whole time the three of them talked and passed the flask, Tyler kept looking at Helen, his eyes lighting up with every sideways glance and easy grin.
When Leo lifted the flask to take another swig, Tyler reached out and took it from him. “Pace yourself, man. Gracie’s not
even here yet.”
“Yeah, okay.” Leo lowered his eyes, and Helen realized he was embarrassed. Behind his bravado, anxiety was hiding.
They were still behind the tree when Gracie arrived a few minutes later. Helen looked out and saw two young women talking
to Gary by the smoky barbecue. From photos, she recognized Gracie as the one with the platinum blond bob.
“Who’s the other girl?” Helen asked.
“I don’t know.” Tyler looked at Leo for the answer.
“That’s Gracie’s girlfriend, Adaline.”
Adaline was striking—tall with spindly legs and straight black hair falling toward her waist. Helen watched her reach out
a long, thin arm and intertwine her fingers with Gracie’s. The two women angled their bodies toward each other.
“Wait,” Helen said. “You mean her girlfriend-girlfriend?”
“Yeah,” Leo said. “Oh, you didn’t know?” Leo studied Tyler curiously.
Tyler’s face changed. “What? Girlfriend?”
“They’ve been dating for a few months.” Leo shrugged and walked across the yard to greet them.
Tyler turned to Helen, his shoulders dropping slightly. “A few months? She didn’t tell me she was gay. Or bi. Or . . . ”
Helen understood why Tyler was upset. It had nothing to do with him discovering that Gracie had a girlfriend and everything
to do with Gracie not sharing something so essential with him when the others knew.
“It’s okay, Tyler.”
He looked over and saw Evelyn talking with Adaline. “Jesus, did Evelyn know before me? Fucking Evelyn?”
Helen reached out and clasped his hand. “I’m sorry you didn’t know.”
Tyler responded with a “Yeah” that was so soft it was barely audible. He was still watching everyone across the yard, a quiet
shadow in his eyes.
“Tyler, this isn’t about you.”
“What?” He dropped her hand.
“Listen to me,” she said. “Weeks from now or months from now, you can address the issue of why the two of you aren’t as close
as you want. You can ask her then why she didn’t share something important with you when she’d told the others. But that’s
not what this moment is about. This may be her way of coming out to you. That only happens once.”
The weight of it all took hold of Tyler, and he said, “You’re right.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Yeah, I am.”
“All you show her today is love. End of story. Got it?”
“Got it.” Tyler looked at Helen for a long beat, then his face melted and he pulled her into a hug. “You’re too smart. Just
like the wolf in ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’” Her laugh muffled into his shirt. “Except for the eating people part,” he added.
When Tyler went over to Gracie, Helen hung back at first. From the oak tree, she watched him meet Adaline. She watched him
give both girls big hugs, and she watched Gracie’s beaming smile.
Then Tyler gave Helen a little nod to join them. When he introduced her to Gracie, Helen put her hand out to shake. After
the awkward hug with Evelyn, it seemed like the better option. Instantly, though, she wondered if she was being too formal,
but Gracie radiated immediate friendliness, and Adaline followed suit.
Much later, as the sun began to set, Helen, Tyler, Leo, Gracie, and Adaline ended up down at the beach. Helen stared out at
the water, thinking the day couldn’t have gone better. She felt the magic all around her, and she felt she’d created some
of it.
Helen was no magician though; she was no puppet master.
She could not day in, day out, run around casting spells and pulling strings.
Over the following years, Evelyn would say cruel things from time to time, Tyler and Leo would argue when Leo got too drunk and broke something or made a scene in public, and Gracie would alternate between disappearing and reappearing.
But on that day at the barbecue, Helen sprinkled goodwill throughout that storybook house, weaving the fairy-tale day she wanted for Tyler, and her tiny maneuvers made a difference.
On the drive home, Tyler said, “That’s the most fun I’ve had with my family in a long time. Did you like them?”
Helen said, “I love them.”