That Saturday didn’t seem to come quick enough. I thought, as I sat at work on Friday afternoon, that time would just stop and it’d never get here. But finally when I woke up on Saturday morning, I felt the nervousness rise into my chest as I stepped out of bed.
It was around 5:15 in the evening that Monday morning as I put the marinated chicken into the oven. My wife would be home soon and us and our 3 year old son would eat dinner for the first time in our new house.
It wasn’t too big, but it was just perfect for us as a family.
There were three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The master bedroom and bathroom was downstairs, while upstairs held the remaining rooms, as well as a small loft that overlooked the living room. The front yard was small, but enclosed by a white picket fence that needed repainting. In the backyard, there was a tall oak tree that had an old tree house in it that looked out over the remainder of the lawn.
As soon as I had seen this house, I knew it was the one I wanted for our family.
“Hi baby!” I heard a voice call out after the door slammed shut.
Even after being married for eight years, I still got butterflies when I heard her voice.
I heard her set her purse down and walk into the kitchen as I set the timer for the chicken. My heart fluttered as I felt her wrap her arms around my waist from behind and pull me close to her.
“How was your day?” She asked.
“Hmm…” I turned around to face her, “Better now that you’re here.”
She giggled quietly and kissed me softly. I lightly ran my hand through her auburn hair and pushed myself a bit closer to her.
“Hi Mommy!” A squeaky little voice rang out.
Instantly the two of us broke apart when we realized our son was in the room. He was genetically my wife’s son, so he had her hazel eyes and light patches of freckles on his cheeks and nose.
I felt my cheeks turn bright red as my wife picked up our son.
“How was your day?” My wife asked him while resting him against one of her hips.
“It-it-it was goooood.” He squeaked out, “I got peanut butter and pretzels for snack today at school.”
“Well that sounds tasty.” She giggled to him after ruffling his hair a bit. I always loved watching how she interacted with him. There was a little something that sparked inside of her that only happened when she talked to him. I don’t know if it was her motherly instinct or what, but I just adored watching her while she spent time with him.
Glancing up at the timer, I saw we still had another twenty minutes until the food was ready. We decided to sit down in the living room for a bit as our son played with his favourite firetruck his uncle (my wife’s brother) had gotten him for Christmas the previous year.
“Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!” Our son yelled out his best impersonation of a firetruck as he rolled over one of our cat’s tails.
“So,” My wife began leaning back into the couch, “My mom called me today.”
“Oh ya?” I leaned against her, but tilted my head upward to see her face.
“Ya, she asked if we wanted to come over this weekend.”
“What?” My jaw dropped. Ever since our wedding, my wife’s parents had been quite distant. (So had my parents, but not nearly as much as her’s). They still did not like the idea of their daughter being with a woman rather than a man, but they did their best to not interfere. And by not interfering, that meant not being around us. Thankfully they had agreed to come to our wedding, but you could feel the tension in the air (from both sides of the family unfortunately). Since the wedding, my wife had made solo trips over to their house about once a month up until our son was born, but since then she had only been over a few times.
“Ya, I know, right?” She scoffed. “She specifically said she wanted to see her grandson and daughter-in-law.”
I wanted to say something, anything, but I was literally speechless. Her mom had called me daughter-in-law. Was she feeling okay?
“I told her,” She continued on as our son tried to run the firetruck up our dog’s back, “That we would stop by on Saturday evening for dinner, if that’s okay with you.”
“Ya.” I finally was able to spit some words out, “Ya, that’s totally fine.”
“Are you okay?”
“Ya, totally. Just…shocked.”
“I know. I wasn’t exactly sure if I had heard her right, but she said it a couple of times and you know what?” She paused and looked at me, “She sounded happy.”
“Wow…” Was all I could say. Maybe things were finally working out. There wouldn’t be anymore tension in our family. We could actually feel comfortable about talking about our parents.
“How would you like to see your grandma and grandpa this weekend?” My wife happily asked our son who had crawled up onto her lap.
“Yay grammie and granpie!” He giggled with a smile.
Just then the timer went off letting me know the chicken was done. I was still in a bit of happy shock as I walked to the kitchen, feeling almost as if a weight was slowly being lifted off of my shoulders.
—-
Later that evening after we had tucked our son into bed, I cuddled next to my wife and asked her, “You’re sure she sounded happy?”
She chuckled quietly, “Yes, sweetheart. I’m sure. You’re worrying too much.”
Frowning to myself, I replied, “I know, but still…”
“No.” She said curtly before rolling on top of me, “No but still’s tonight or tomorrow or any day up until Saturday. This is a good thing. So stop worrying.”
“Okay…but…” Except before I could finish, her lips were on mine and moving in a very familiar way.
She began running her hand along my side as my hands entangled in her hair and her lips moved down to my neck and bit ever so slightly. I heard myself let out a quiet gasp as her hands moved around more, causing goosebumps to form instantly over my skin.
She rolled so that I was on top of her now, letting me take some control. Kissing her lips, I began to work my way down to her neck. Moving along the jaw line and nipping at her ear before biting her neck as well. I bit a few more times, slightly harder each time, but not hard enough to leave a mark.
Just as she was letting out a gasp, we heard a voice through the door.
“Mommy, Momma…I’m thirsty.” Our three year old whined.
“Ugh.” She let out a frustrated sigh while I rolled off of her.
She walked over to the door and opened it to our son in his rocket ship pajamas holding his teddy bear.
“Now what did I tell you about leaving your bed after I tucked you in?” She asked him sternly.
“To not do it unless I-I-I had a nightmare.” He said rubbing his eyes.
“Exactly. Cause then you interrupt mommies’ time.”
“I-I-I knowwww.” He dragged his voice out as he whined, “But, but, I was thirsty and couldn’t sleep.”
“If I get you some water will you go to sleep then?”
“Uh-huhhhh.”
“Okay, let’s go.” She scurried him out of the room and back up the stairs into his bedroom.
A few minutes later she reappeared, looking a bit frustrated, but smiling like she always did when she was dealing with him.
“Remind me to always put water by his bed for now on.” I joked.
“Don’t worry, I’m going out tomorrow to get one of those water carafes for the bed for him.” She laughed as she snuggled into bed next to me, “Now…where were we?”
—-
That Saturday didn’t seem to come quick enough. I thought, as I sat at work on Friday afternoon, that time would just stop and it’d never get here. But finally when I woke up on Saturday morning, I felt the nervousness rise into my chest as I stepped out of bed.
The day drug on though as we did some housework and quizzed our son on shapes. He kept mixing squares and triangles up, until we told showed him a piece of American Cheese and a Dorito — then he finally got it.
I decided to wear some black slacks and a light blue top over to my in-laws house; something I found not too flashy. We left around 6:15 for the 45 minute drive into the city that they lived in. My wife drove and I sat in the passenger’s seat, both trying to calm our son’s energy level as well as curb my nervousness, both I seemingly failed at.
We pulled up in front of their house at exactly 7 o’clock. My wife parked the car and wrestled with our son’s car seat for a few minutes, before it finally came unhooked and broke our son free.
“You can show grammie and grandpie your Wolverine shoes as soon as we get inside.” She said as he squirmed in her arms.
“Do you want me to hold him?” I asked when seeing her struggle with his toy bag and him.
“Ya, would you, please?” She answered somewhat curtly. As I took him from her arms, I could see the tension and worry she had been hiding all week plastered all over her face.
Quickly I kissed her and whispered, “It’s gonna be okay.”
She gave me a nervous smile before ringing the doorbell.
We waited about a minute before we heard a rustling of clicks and the door opened. It was her dad who answered the door.
“Well hi there!” He bellowed as he held open the door for us.
“Hi Dad.” My wife said with a small smile filled with stress.
He gave his daughter a hug and kiss on the cheek as we walked in. Crouching down a little, he said, “Hey there big guy!”
Our son giggled and turned his head into my shoulder.
“He’s not very comfortable around people he doesn’t spend much time with.” My wife clarified.
“Ah. I see.” Her dad cleared his throat and stood up straight again.
“It’s nice to see you.” I smiled at him, quite nervously I might add.
“And you.” He gave me a curt head nod.
“Do you mind if I set him down?” I asked, looking around their living room to make sure there wasn’t any valuables within three year old grabbing distance.
“Not at all.”
As I set him down, I heard a voice call out. “Oh! You’re here!”
“Hi Mom.” I heard my wife say as I looked up and saw the two hugging.
I could see the stress still in my wife’s shoulders as she hugged her mom, who truly seemed to be happy.
“And you’re here too!” Her mom came over and gave me a hug. I was startled by her sudden embrace that I’m sure I looked like I had just seen a ghost. Quickly, I hugged her back and gave my wife a worried look. She shrugged back, but seemed a bit relieved in how things were starting to pan out.
We broke apart when she saw our son rolling his firetruck along the entertainment unit. “Oh! Now this must be my beautiful grandson I’ve heard so much about!”
Our son beamed at her when she acknowledged him and said, “Hi grammie! Look, look, look at my shoessss!”
“Well those are pretty cool shoes you got there fellow!” She smiled back at him.
“Can I get you two anything to drink?” Her dad asked us as we watched her mom interact with her grandson.
“Coke, please.” My wife answered.
“Uhm…maybe just a water please?” I asked.
“No problem.” He replied and left the room.
We began making small talk with her mom as she admired our son’s light up Wolverine shoes.
She asked how our new house was, how our jobs were going, if our son was in preschool, if we were planning any vacations soon (and if we were and we wanted to just be alone, she wouldn’t mind watching her grandson).
It was as if things from the past had never happened. Like, I was finally accepted as part of the family.
We had a London Broil for dinner that her dad had barbecued (our son insisting on only having the Mac&Cheese side dish her mom had made) and a raspberry pie for dessert.
After dinner, we sat outside on the deck and talked. Our son was curled up sleeping on my wife’s lap as her mom spoke, “Now, I know how this evening seemed strange compared to how things have been for the past several years now, but we’ve just now been able to truly accept how things are with you two.”
She reached for her husband’s hand and smiled at us lovingly, “Seeing how happy you two are, hearing how much joy you bring my daughter, watching how you interact with your son — it shows us that you two really love each other. There’s something that not even straight couples have that you two have; a real connection, real love.
I know we haven’t been the best in supporting you two, but it’s a hard thing for parents to accept. When you have a child, you want what’s best for them. And when it comes to love and a relationship and creating your own family, no one ever seems good enough for your child. I think you can better understand that now that you have a son.
So in our case, when our daughter fell in love with you, we were worried. You were no where near what we ever expected for her. Except, now we know that you are everything we wanted for her. You may be female, but you love her. You trust her. You cherish her. You respect her. You keep her safe. You make her happy. And that’s really all that matters.”
I let out a quiet sniffle as I wiped my eyes quickly before the few tears could come splashing out. I saw out of the corner of my eye, my wife close her eyes and give a sigh of relief that flowed over us both. They understood.
“Thank you.” I croaked as a few tears slipped out of my eyes, “I love your daughter more than anything in this world. And knowing you understand that, it means more than anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Her mom leaned forward and took one of my hands. She glanced at both of us as she spoke, “It took so long for us to understand. Welcome to the family.”
I smiled as a wave of relief spread over me. Instinctively I grabbed my wife’s free hand and squeezed it gently.
We were going to be okay.
We were finally going to be okay.
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