Chapter 7 #2
I squealed. This was insanely exciting. I grabbed the daisies from his hand and tackled the love of my life to the ground.
We were now on the grass—Gideon on his back and me on top.
We were laughing like dummies. “Yessssss! I’ll go to prom with you.
I’m also going to hedge a bet that Zander, Catriona, Tory, Gabe, Rafe, Prue and Abby have never been to prom either. ”
He was as excited as I was. “Good bet! And I’d surmise that the drag queens have never had an opportunity to go to prom,” he said.
I squealed again. The queens would look to-die-for in prom dresses. “And, I would bet the entire house—including furniture, our cars and all of my clothes that Shitty Ritchie has never set foot in a prom.”
“Fuck,” Gideon said with a groan. “Does Shitty Ritchie have to come to prom?”
“Dude,” I said, trying not to laugh. “That’s mean. Yes, Shitty Ritchie is a wad with no manners and no filter, but the little guy would be devastated if we left him out.”
“Left who out of what?” Alana Catherine asked, squatting down beside us with a grin on her face. “You guys need to get a room or something?”
“Oh my god,” I grunted as I rolled off Gideon and got to my feet. “You’re not supposed to talk to your parents like that!”
Gideon was trying not to laugh as he got to his feet. He failed. “To answer your first question, we were talking about whether or not to invite Shitty Ritchie to prom.”
“Prom?” she asked, perplexed.
“Prom,” I confirmed, leading her to the picnic table and getting us settled in. “You missed all kinds of fun things since you went from under one to twenty in a day.”
“And your mom and I were thinking it might be fun to take you dress shopping and have a prom here… with all our friends.”
“I love it!” Alana Catherine announced.
“Me too!” Gram shouted as she landed on top of the picnic table. “Me and Mr. Jackson can really cut the rug!”
“And my second question, Dad?” Alana Catherine inquired with a naughty grin.
Gideon’s brow raised. “I shall plead the fifth on the second question.”
“Oh crap.” I froze. Prom was one thing, but we’d missed some far more important things. “Umm… do we need to… you know…”
Gideon, Gram and Alana Catherine were all staring at me. I was usually more eloquent.
I tried again. “We never… you know… had the talk,” I explained.
My daughter was biting down on her lip, doing her best not to laugh at me. She failed just like her dad had. “Mom,” she said, placing her hand over mine. “Somehow I already know pretty much all I need to know.”
“Periods?” I asked.
“Yep,” she replied.
“Birth control?” Gideon added.
“Yep.”
“Fornication?” Gram chimed in.
“I do,” she replied.
“You better not,” Gideon growled. “Or some young man is going to see the end of my boot up his ass.”
“Dad!” Alan Catherine looked scandalized. “I only meant I knew about it.”
“Good.” He nodded, his expression reflecting his relief. “How about driving?”
“I think so,” she told her dad. “We can test that out later.”
“Excellent,” he said, relieved that he might be able to teach her something.
“What about where babies come from?” Gram asked.
“That’s part of the talk,” I told her.
Gram slapped her forehead. “Right. My bad.”
“Okay,” I said, playing with Alana Catherine’s dark curls. “If you do have any questions, you can always come to your dad and me with anything—and I mean anything.”
“Absolutely,” Gideon agreed. “While we’re on the subject, I’d like to add that we’re fine with whomever you eventually choose to love.
Color, species, religion, or plumbing doesn’t matter to us.
Just please do not bring an asshole home.
...” A sly grin tugged at his lips. “And maybe wait until you’ve been an adult for more than a year. ”
“Agreed,” I said, then wondered if the Higher Powers were even allowed to have mates.
Currently, Jennifer was dating Sheriff Dip Doody.
She adored the man. After as many divorces as she’d had, she’d refused to marry him—said she loved him too much to mess it up with a legal piece of paper.
Was she going to have to give him up? It was given that Shitty Ritchie hadn’t been in love or even in a relationship.
He was a millions-of-years-old virgin. He’d been quite vocal about that.
Did the present Higher Power have a partner? I couldn’t imagine it.
Candy had said that destiny was set and fate was not. The Trinity could make their own choices. They could live where they wanted to and love who they wanted to.
At least I hoped they could. Only time would tell. But in that time, we needed to eliminate the present Higher Power so the future Higher Power could take Its rightful place.
“Should we get back to business?” I asked, not wanting this moment to end, but preparing Jennifer was equally as important.
“We should,” Alana Catherine said with a wistful smile. “This was really fun, though. I love all of you guys.”
“We love you more,” Gram told her.
She giggled. “Not possible.”
And on that note, we left the playground hand-in-hand. We had an eternity of adventures ahead. But first, we needed to defeat the foe for the adventures to truly begin.
And we would… because the alternative was unacceptable.