“I love you,” I tell him, raining kisses all over his cheeks, jaw, and lips. My heart is overflowing and heavy with joy. I think I’m crying, or is that dog drool I missed? No, they’re tears, I hope. But they’re happy tears. And just because I know my parents are watching, I reach around and grab Taylen’s ass.
“Good heavens, Ginger. She’s touching his bottom!” my dad gasps.
“She appears to be doing that, Roger,” my mom mutters, sounding awestruck.
“She’s telling him she loves him.”
“And he told her that he loved her first. There was some business about a curse and a soul contract. I’m afraid she’s been dabbling with the devil.”
I break away from Taylen and smile at my parents. “No, mom. Not the devil. We sold our souls to each other a long time ago, but don’t worry. It’s probably not official. The curse, though? You’ll have to take that up with Helen Cromwell. She gave Taylen the brooch, and it was meant to help him find his soulmate. I don’t know why it only started acting up now since we’ve known each other forever, and in a way, we’ve been soulmates forever, but it did. Now we’re cursed, and we can’t break it because Helen won’t tell us how. She might not even know, so don’t get grandma to torture her in an attempt to get it out of her. I don’t want the curse to be broken because I’m happy. I would never have been happy with Henry. I didn’t love him. I know you want me to be safe, but being safe isn’t the way to live. I can’t live without taking chances. And I want this chance. I want Taylen.”
My parents are both misty-eyed, and I hate that I made them cry, but then they surprise me. They look at each other like they remembered why they got married in the first place. And it’s because they loved each other. Because they were soulmates too.
“We never meant to hold you back,” my dad says softly.
“And we never wanted to hurt you. We were trying to do the right thing, but maybe we got carried away. You never said you didn’t like Henry or that you didn’t want to marry him. We thought you did love him.”
“I didn’t want to say anything because I knew how much it would upset you.”
I now realize we all made a huge mistake. Me, mom, and dad. We’ve all been living in this unhealthy way, but we love each other and can fix things. We can learn how to let each other breathe and have some space.
“And about my dress, I left it in a gas station bathroom. I’m sorry, but it was hideous.”
“You never said you didn’t like it,” my mom gulps, swallowing back tears.
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. I’m sorry.”
“What happened to the cake?” my dad asks, even though it’s clear he doesn’t really want to know the answer. I can tell he’s bracing for the worst.
“Umm…” I try not to look at Taylen. “It was donated. To uh, someone on the street. Kind of anyway. It was left on the street? It’s a long story.”
“A story you’ll have to tell us sometime,” my dad says kindly.
To my surprise, my parents aren’t looking at me like I’m some kind of deviant, and they’re not angry. They’re not mad that I ran from my wedding, ditched my dress, and that the cake was stolen. They’re not mad that I don’t want to marry Henry. They’re just worried about me, and they truly do want me to be happy and safe and well. They want what any parents want, which is what’s best for their child. We just got it all crossed and confused for so long. We all did. Now it’s time for me to learn what it means to live my own life, an adult life. I want my freedom, but I also want them. I want them to know how much I love and care about them.
I realize, though, they already know. They were never trying to trap me. If I had asked them about leaving sooner, they would probably have agreed and come up with a plan to help me succeed. If I’d ever told them that I didn’t want to marry Henry, they wouldn’t have forced me. And if I had said I hated the wedding dress, my mom wouldn’t have picked that particular one. I guess that for her, the dress was beautiful. We all seriously need to learn how to communicate with each other. I remember what Taylen’s granny said about assumptions. I don’t know about that old saying, but I do know they can mess things up and do some real damage.
“I’m moving out,” I announce, which doesn’t seem to surprise either of my parents, but I don’t miss the worried glances they exchange or my mom’s trembling lips as my dad sighs. I continue, “But I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to leave NOLA. We’ll figure things out. I’m not abandoning ship. I would have been going to live with Henry anyway.”