Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
JACKSON
“So… like… can we still go to that skydiving place after you, uh… brawled a murderer in it?” Waylon asks as I pull into the parking lot of the zoo.
“It should reopen sometime soon,” I say.
“I’m just bummed that Colby never tried getting in the wind tunnel. It would have been my dream to fuck him up in there,” Leland mutters. “My new dream is to show off how much better my child is than all of the other children at the zoo.”
Waylon sighs. “I feel like I have this weight on my shoulders and it’s such a strange weight.”
As soon as I shut the car off, I look back at him. “Waylon… you could punch an old lady and Leland would still think you’re magical. Really, you don’t have to try too hard.”
“I’d help you,” Leland assures Waylon.
“We’re not punching any old ladies,” he says as he sets his bag with his Steam Deck to the side.
I notice that the cat Tavish crocheted him is attached to it.
Leland told me that he had momentarily considered learning to craft himself out of jealousy over how cute Waylon found it.
Then he decided that unless he could stab someone with one of the hooks, he was no longer interested.
I really think it’s for the best. I don’t see Leland having the patience to crochet.
“I bet Void really misses me,” Waylon says, since dragging him away from his cat that he’s finally named has not been the easiest of tasks. The name came about when Leland teased him that all he does is stare into the void and refuses to look at his fence in the same way.
And it stuck… for some reason.
All three of us get out and head toward the front of the zoo while Waylon stares at it.
“I’ve never been to a zoo,” he mutters.
“I hadn’t either until Jackson took me to one,” Leland admits.
“You seem to like animals, and they have a lot of really good conservation exhibits here,” I say. “Leland’s idea was paragliding off a cliff.”
Leland slowly looks over at me like I’m being the traitorous one for some reason. It was his idea until he decided it was far too risky and unsafe for his new child.
Waylon’s head snaps over to us. “No. Please. I’m putting this out here now. It’s a no,” he says before he seems to pick up the pace a bit, making it quite clear that he’s very excited to go inside.
I notice Leland does too, and I’m left in the dust while the two of them hurry toward it. I swear they love to act like they’re indifferent about things like this and then when faced with them, they’re all in. I wonder if they realize how stubborn they both are?
I rush to catch up before they can enter the gate and leave me behind, seeing as Leland has the tickets on his phone.
“Husband, your speed of walking is quite pitiful,” Leland comments.
“The animals aren’t going anywhere,” I say as we pass through the gate and Leland grabs a map. He opens it and then jabs a finger at something. “Cheetah run in ten minutes. Let’s go.”
“Leland, it’s all the way on the other side of the zoo… and he’s gone.”
Waylon laughs and hurries to catch up with him, and there I am doing some kind of speed walk thing to reach the other end of the zoo without being yelled at by security.
Somehow, we reach it just as it’s starting, and Leland shuffles through the crowd to find some seats which we barely manage to squeeze onto. I’m positive the spot is only enough for one ass, but here we are cramming three on it.
“Like… they’re literally bringing cheetahs out?” Waylon asks, mystified by this.
“Yeah, they drag something and the cheetah runs after it.”
Waylon’s eyes get wide when he sees the cheetah casually walking beside his trainer. “I want one.”
“I will buy you one—Jackson’s look says I will not buy you a wild animal,” Leland says.
I don’t know which of them ends up enjoying the show more, and then we’re off to see the animals. And as I walk beside Leland while he tries to tell Waylon that he once “unalived” a man from the back of a camel, I realize how amazing this feels.
Nothing, not even Leland trying to buy Waylon every stuffed animal the gift shop carries, can stop that feeling.
For so long, I questioned what it meant to be with a man when it seemed like my family looked down on it.
It made me feel wrong about myself for a while, and it felt as though I never knew how to fit in anywhere and there was no place for me.
I felt alone, like I didn’t belong, like I was just going through the motions expected of me.
But here… right now, as I stand next to the man I love more than anything and our kid who has made our family complete, I realize how lucky I am. This is where I’ve always belonged. And it just took me one fateful night and that damn fence to get me here.