45. Conal
CONAL
“Mom, Dad, this is Hazel. The best thing I ever did was marry her, and the worst thing I ever did was almost lose her.”
Next to me, Hazel smiles shyly. She’s surprised when my mom steps forward and pulls her into a hug, but accepts it readily.
“We’re delighted to meet you, Hazel,” Mom says. “From everything we’ve heard, you've been wonderful for our sons.”
“They’ve been wonderful to me, and it’s very nice to meet you, too.”
Mom and Hazel talk for a few minutes, getting acquainted, then Mom pulls out her phone. "They weren’t always big, famous rock stars. Would you like to see some of my favorite pictures of them from when they were little?"
“I would love that!”
The two of them go off into another room, and my brothers and I are left facing Dad.
He’s pretty old-fashioned, and I wasn’t at all sure how he would react to all of us being involved with Hazel.
Not that we’ve officially announced it, but when we all three went down to get her after she left, online rumors of polyamory started to fly, and we’ve deliberately not refuted them.
We don’t want to live a lie, and neither does our wife.
The silence lasts long enough to get uncomfortable before Dad says, gruffly, “She seems like a good woman, by all accounts. Glad she came back to you. You count your blessings, now, and keep ahold of her.”
“Yes, sir,” we all say.