“I love you too!”
Then, oblivious to the fact that there were other people in the room, I crushed my mouth to hers and tried to convey every emotion that was warring inside of me to her.
The sound of someone clearing their throat had me lifting my head, and I turned Zoey with a huge grin and said, “Mom, this is Zoey. Zoey, this is my mother, Annabeth.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” Zoey said softly, her voice full of embarrassment.
I finally looked up from our moment to see my mother standing there, arms crossed, eyes on us. She didn’t look as happy as I felt, and I thought, Oh shit.
“Mom,” I began, but stopped when she gave me the look that had successfully shut me up since I was old enough to talk.
“Zoey,” my mother said with a tilt of her head. “As my son’s guests, you and your sister are welcome in my home …and I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve gotten to know you both better. But I have to admit, the two of you coming into his life, even with the addition of my delightful grandson, has brought up some concerns that I’ll need answered.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Zoey answered softly, her nerves causing her voice to shake.
I realized Chloe was standing there, regret and fear at my mother’s words clear on her face. I placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “Thanks for doing this, Chloe. It really means a lot. Christopher’s doing great. He’s outside playing basketball, if you want to go see him.”
Chloe gave me a grateful smile, and Jasmine said, “I’ll take her,” then they both left the room.
“Mom, I need to steal Zoey away for a minute.”
“Of course, Gabe, I’ll just go get freshened up.”
Taking Zoey’s hand, I led her up the stairs and into the room I’d stayed in the night before, eager for a chance to get to speak with her alone before we got lost in the madness that was my family.
We both sat on the edge of the bed, facing each other, and I was happy to see that although my mom had obviously freaked her out a little bit, Zoey was more like the woman from camp than the one I saw in North Carolina.
“I’m sorry about my mom,” I said, so happy that she’d decided we were worth fighting for, and hoping she wasn’t ready to bolt at the first sign of adversity. “She’s protective, but she’ll come around, I swear.”
Zoey nodded and attempted a smile, but didn’t really pull it off.
Needing to know that she’d come here ready to talk things through, I asked, “Are you okay with Chloe being here? And Christopher?”
Zoey placed her hand on my knee and finally smiled.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last few days. So much, in fact, that if I was never alone again with my thoughts, it would be too soon. I was driving myself crazy. All of the what ifs, and worrying what other people would think ... What the media will say when they get a hold of our story … But I realized, none of it matters. You matter and I matter. What we think, what we feel, that’s all I need to focus on.”
“It makes me so happy to hear you say that,” I admitted, and it really did, but I needed to know it all. “Not to start anything, but I think we need to lay everything out now. I don’t want issues to resurface later because we didn’t discuss them.”
Zoey nodded, so I continued, “The stuff with Chloe … I want to have a good relationship with her. I plan to communicate with her often, about visitation and vacations, everything to do with Chris. Are you going to be all right with that?”
“Yes.”
“Stuff like this, holidays and stuff, I want to be able to invite her along. It’s been just her and Christopher for so long, and I want him to be able to spend holidays with my family, but I don’t want her to feel like I’m taking him away and leave her all alone …so I’ll always give her the option to come along, for both of their sakes. Can you deal with that?”
“I think what I wasn’t taking into consideration before is that she is my sister … not just the mother of your child. Any other relationship that I was in, if I fell in love and married someone else, I’d want him to include my sister and Chris in our family traditions… birthdays, holidays… and that’s what you’re doing.”
Her words gave me hope, but I still had questions.
“And Christopher. The fact that he’d be your nephew/stepson … you said that was an issue for you.”
“I would never not date a man because he had a son, and if it got serious, I’d need to build a relationship with him. The kid could be a delinquent, a brat, or just flat out hate me … the possible areas of conflict are too many to name, but with Chris … well, we already love each other. And I’ve had the privilege of knowing him since he was born, and we already have a wonderful relationship. I’ll always be his Aunt Z, and that’s perfect for me.”
I brought my hands up to cup her face and asked one las
t time, “You’re sure about all of this?”
“Absolutely,” she said, her hands coming to hold my wrists. “I promise you, Gabe, I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t sure.”