“Hi, Mom,” Cael said, kissing her cheek. He’d called her mom for years now but somehow, it felt different this time. “How are you feeling today?”
“Better now that my boys are here with my granddaughter.”
Zach bent and hugged his mom from behind. “Anything we can get you?”
“Yes. A beer.”
“Sounds good,” Cael said. “Think I’ll grab one too. You want one, Pook?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Zach pulled out a chair and sat beside his mom. “Where’s Dad anyway?”
“Bathroom,” Amy answered as Cael grabbed three Dos Equis from the fridge. Cael popped the caps with the bottle opener and returned to take a seat at the table, choosing the seat closest to Zach. He slid them each a bottle.
“Here, Mom,” Zach said after taking a sip. He reached for Taylor. “You want me to take her?”
Amy’s hands shook as she nodded, and Zach lifted his niece from his mom’s lap and set her on his thigh. “Thanks, honey.”
Taylor stretched her hands out and slapped the table with her good hand. Zach pushed his beer bottle out of her reach.
“Hey, Tay-tay.” Cael reached across and drummed his fingers on the table next to Taylor’s then tickled the back of her hand, making her giggle. “I’m gonna get you.”
Taylor squealed. The binky fell out of her mouth and dangled from the strap attached to her sweater.
“So,” Zach said, expertly holding the bouncing toddler with one arm secured around her middle. “Dad mentioned the other day that you started a new medication. How’s it working?”
“Okay, I guess. It’s experimental right now and takes the edge off the pain, and I don’t have the constant tremors, but it makes me really sleepy, so for now, I’m only taking it before bed.”
“Sorry, Mom,” Zach said. “I wish there was something we could do.”
She gave him a tight smile and patted his hand. “You’re already doing it, honey.”
“I am?”
“You both are.”
Zach glanced at Cael then back to his mom and furrowed his brow. “We are?”
Amy nodded. “I’ve watched you both for a long time. I watched you grow up together. I watched you go from friends to best friends. I watched you fall in love with each other. I see how happy you both are when you’re together, and I see the emptiness in you both when you aren’t. You belong together, and you have no idea how content it makes me that you both figured out your happiness is with each other.” She shifted her gaze between her son and Cael.
“What about Dad? Is he okay with this?”
“Okay with what?” She looked genuinely confused.
“With me in a relationship with Cael?” Zach clarified.
Amy grinned. “Your dad was clueless until you sent that picture this morning. You should have seen the look on his face. Priceless.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, Mom.”
“Well, that all depends,” Alex said as he entered the kitchen.
Zach stared at his dad, his eyes a little wide. “Depends on what?”
“On whetheryou’reokay with it.” Alex paused near the oven and opened it, inspected the casserole, then closed the oven door. He leaned back against the counter and bracketed his hands on the edge with his elbows pointing backward the way Zach often did. “So, are you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m okay with… you two being more than just friends. It just may take me some time to get used to it, and not because I have anything against it, but because I never saw it coming, son.” Alex tapped his thumbs nervously on the counter’s edge. “So, um, dinner will be ready in about ten minutes. Did you get the bread?”
