Chapter 19
Nineteen
MARISSA
Alex
My flight has been delayed.
Ugh, we need you here now!
I know! I miss you too.
These two weeks have felt like years.
What time will you get in now?
Three
Can’t wait! Love you.
I scroll through our text thread again and then toss the phone on the counter. Even with the delays, Alex should have been here already. There’s a sinking feeling in my gut that something is wrong, but I push it away. I don’t need to give Grace any more reason to blow up today. It’s barely her first day as a teenager, and the attitude is coming out full force.
“There’s my favorite aunt!” Dave walks into the kitchen and, just like his mother, straight to the food cooking on the range. It’s Grace’s favorite—homemade chicken alfredo. He lifts the lid and starts to stick my wooden spoon into the sauce.
“Boy, I’m your only aunt.” I smack his hand. “And you know the rules. No taste testing the food unless you’re the cook!”
“But Marissa.” He looks at me, pouting. Have you ever seen a six-four three-hundred-pound man-child pout before?
“That may have been cute when you were little, but now, you just look like an overgrown toddler.” I swat him on the arm with the spoon.
“You’re just mad because I can reach the cabinets without a step stool.” He crosses his arms and sticks his tongue out.
“Listen here.” I point the spoon at him. “I only need a stool for the top shelves. Thank you very much.”
“I know I don’t hear you in there talking crap to my baby,” Amanda yells from the other room.
“ Your baby started it!” I stick my tongue out right back at him.
“Dave!” Grace squeals, running in and tackling him.
“Hey, munchkin, happy birthday!” Dave says, spinning Grace around.
“I’m thirteen, you can stop calling me kid nicknames now.” She crunches her face.
“Whatever you say, munchkin.” He laughs, ruffling her hair.
“Where’s my birthday girl at?” I hear my mother call from the other room and internally cringe.
“In here Grams!” Grace yells back.
“Okay, that’s it! Everyone out of the kitchen!” I clap my hands, shooing everyone out of the room. “The only person that needs to be in the kitchen is the cook.”
Concerned, I turn and pick my phone up again. No new messages.
“Where’s our guest of honor?” Amanda asks, making me jump.
“Didn’t I just kick everyone out of the kitchen?”
“I wasn’t in here then, so it doesn’t apply to me. What’s going on?” She props her hip against the counter and cocks her head,
“Tell me everything is going to be okay and not to worry.” I pick at an invisible thread on my apron.
“Marissa, you’re an over-thinker. You are going to worry no matter what I say but if you tell me why you’re worried, maybe I can help.”
“Alex was supposed to be here at two. His flight was delayed an hour, so that changed it to three. It is almost four thirty, and he still isn’t here. What if something’s happened? What if he’s changed his mind about all of this? It’s his first time meeting everyone. What if it’s too much for him?” I rub my face with my hands and let out a deep breath.
“Want me to kick his ass?” Dave asks seriously.
“Excuse you, why are you back in here?” I scold him playfully.
“And what makes you think we need you to kick someone’s ass?” Amanda laughs and props herself against the counter.
“I’m just saying, nobody messes with my Aunt Marissa.” He puts his hand on his hips and lets out a huff.
“Oh, good grief, Dave. Save that energy for when you have a daughter one day. Your mom and I are capable of handling ourselves.” I wave him off.
As soon as I’ve finished speaking, my phone beeps three times.
Alex
Just landed.
That was a flight from hell.
See you soon.
“Grace! Come in here please.”
“What’s happened?” She starts to panic. Unfortunately, she gets that from me.
“Nothing’s happened. Alex just landed. He will be here in just a few minutes.” I walk over to the range to check on the alfredo. “And dinner is done, we can eat as soon as he is here.”
After a few minutes go by, my phone beeps again with Alex telling me he’s here. When I walk into the living room, where everyone is, Grace has Uno out already and is telling Dave just how badly she’s going to beat him. She loves that game and almost always wins.
“All right. I have a special guest who’s going to be knocking on the door any minute now. I want you all to be nice and treat him like part of the family.”
“Do you want us to be nice or treat him like family? Because we can’t exactly do both.” Dave takes the stack of cards from grace with a shrug.
“Dammit, Dave, you know what I mean!” I pinch the bridge of my nose and send up a silent prayer he behaves.
There is a knock on the door, and I motion for Grace to open it. Alex walks in looking a little like a deer in headlights. Mom and Dave’s jaws simultaneously hit the floor.
“The child does have a father!” my mother gasps, and I smack myself on the forehead. Why is my family like this?
“Yes Mom, this is Grace’s dad, Alex.” I motion to Alex. “And Alex this is everyone. You’ve met Amanda, this is her son. Please ignore anything he says. And this is my mom, Agatha.” I place my hand on his arm and give it a comforting squeeze.
“It’s about damn time!” Mom yells, and I mouth sorry to Alex.
Grace puts her hands on her hips and stares daggers at her. “Seriously Grams, can’t you just be happy for me. I mean aren’t you a little old to be that pet?—”
I cover her mouth with my hand, effectively shutting her up. When I look at Amanda for help, she has the proudest smile on her face. She leans over to Alex and whispers, “She may get her looks from you, but she gets that from me.”
“All right! I think we just need to calm down and not say things we’ll regret. Isn’t that right, Gracie?” Using the hand that’s still covering her mouth, I move her head up and down. “Okay, now let’s have a nice family dinner.”
I shove Grace toward the dining room and take Amanda by the arm. “That is not something to be proud of,” I say through gritted teeth.
After I serve dinner, we all sit around the table in awkward silence. Even though I’m desperate to break it, I’m worried that I’ll say something to set someone off. Luckily, I don’t have to wait too long because my mother always has the ability to make things worse. “So, Alex, what’s so bad about you that made Marissa choose to be a single mom over having you in Gracie’s life? Would you have even stepped up if you had known about her?”
“Mom! Why would you ask something like that?” I gasp.
“What? I think that is a perfectly valid question.” She shrugs looking completely nonchalant, like she hasn’t just dropped the bomb.
Alex squeezes my hand under the table and gives me a look as if to say it’s okay. “I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t in any position to raise a kid back then. I was accused of some pretty serious crimes—that I didn’t commit.” Mom starts to interrupt but he puts his hand up to stop her. “I know what you’re going to say; I have proven my innocence and have been acquitted of all crimes. I love your daughter and always have. Without a shadow of a doubt, I would have been there for her had I known. However, that would have created even more problems for both of them.”
“Hey, I’m kind of jealous. My life may have been better if Mom hadn’t told my dad about me, but here we are. Not much we can do about it now, Grams.” Dave smirks as he watches her jaw almost hit the floor at his words.
“Well, I just think that?—”
“Yeah, Grams. We all know what you think. You’ve always made comments about me not having a dad. Did you ever think about how that made me feel?” Grace starts.
I open my mouth to tell her to stop, but before I can, Amanda leans in and whispers, “Let her get it off her chest, Mar.”
Grace hits the table with her fist and sands from her seat. “You’ve always been so mad that she refused to let him be a part of my life. You know what? I was mad too, but I had a right to be mad—you didn’t. Now, he’s here, and you’re mad because he wants to be a part of my life? I don’t understand you. Do you not care about me at all? Is your life really that miserable that you have to make everyone else miserable too?” She drops back into her seat.
“Okay Grace, that’s enough,” I finally interject.
“Of course I care about you, sweetie. That’s why I’m asking these questions. I don’t want you to get attached to someone only to be hurt when they walk away, or your mother decides she no longer wants them to be a part of your life.” She side-eyes me.
“I may have missed thirteen years of Grace’s life that I will never get back. But I can assure you I am not going anywhere. I will spend the rest of my life making up for that missed time. Make no mistake, I love Marissa and Grace, and I plan on being here for them in whatever way they need me.”
Mom seems satisfied with that, and even apologizes, which surprises everyone.
After the outbursts at dinner, things went much more smoothly. Grace and Dave beat everyone multiple times at Uno. Everyone had way too much chocolate cake, and Grace got way more presents than any child needs. Most of them were from Alex. He really did take the whole ‘making up for missing the first twelve birthdays’ thing seriously.
Eventually, everyone leaves, and it is just the three of us. I have been ready for it just to be us for hours. “Look, I’m sorry about my mom. I know she can be a lot to handle, but deep down, she means well.”
“Honestly, I was expecting a lot worse.” He laughs, and then his face becomes more serious. “I have one more present—this one is for both of you.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a slip of paper and hands it to me. It takes me a moment to realize it is a class schedule, but I’m not sure what anything is beyond that. “They approved my request to teach a hybrid schedule. I only need to be on campus once a week.”
Before I can even think about what Grace will think, I grab Alex and pull him into a tender kiss. After a minute, we come back to our senses and move away from each other.
“This means I can move here?—”
“Here as in here. In this house. With us?” Grace looks up at us expectantly.
“No, here as in Bellevue,” Alex corrects her, and her face instantly falls.
“But that’s what I wanted for my birthday. For us to be a family.” She looks as though she is on the verge of tears.
“Oh, Grace, that doesn’t mean we can’t be a family. Families look many different ways. Just because we don’t live together doesn’t mean you don’t have a family who loves you and supports you no matter what.” He tries to comfort her by putting his arm around her, but she gets up and runs to her room.
“Alex…” I turn and place my hands on either side of his face. “I love you.” Passionately, I place a gentle kiss on his lips. “Move in with us.”
“Marissa, I’m not going to move in with you just because our daughter threw a teenage fit. When I move in, I want it to be because you want me here.”
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. I know it’s soon, and to anyone else, it might sound crazy. That time we spent together in Germany made me realize what I had been missing. We’ve already wasted thirteen, almost fourteen, years of our lives. I don’t want to spend another moment without you.” I look into his eyes, pleading with him to say yes.
“How can I say no to that?” He kisses my forehead and smiles against it. “I can’t; not when you just told me everything I’ve been dying to hear.”
“All right, it’s settled.’ I take his hand and stand from the couch. “Now, let’s go tell our daughter.”