Shock fills me.“Youreallywant me to move in with you?”
“Uh,yeah.That’s what I’vebeensaying, baby.”He smiles.“You two have spent too damned long apart and I miss my boy like crazy.Liam misses you, too.None of us are getting any younger.Let’s stop fucking around, okay?”
Here come my tears again.He pulls me in for a long, tight hug as he chuckles.“Is that a yes?Please tell me that’s a yes, because I’m exhausted and working on a headache, and all I want to do is cuddle with you right now.I don’t know if I have the energy to tease and torture you into a yes.”
“Yes!”
A moment later we’re naked in bed, snuggled tightly together, his arms around me and my head resting on his chest.
This is the most peaceful I’ve felt since…
Well, since college.When I discovered that happiness might be possible, if I could only nut up and stand up to my father.
Until I realized my father was a true monster and it wasn’t just his displeasure I’d be risking if I defied him.
We all know howthatplayed out, don’t we?
“You’re taking Monday off from work,” he quietly says.“You’re coming to Tallahassee with me.By the end of Monday, we’ll work out the timeframe of you resigning from the law firm and moving.Tuesday, you’ll start arranging the logistics to put your condo up for sale and have your things moved.
“Next weekend, you’ll fly up to DC on Friday and spend the weekend with us, flying back here on Monday.And every weekend, until you sell the condo and have officially resigned.Once you’re finished working here, and you have your condo emptied, you’ll live with us in DC until we finalize the arrangements in Massachusetts.We’ll establish your residency and arrange for you to take the bar.Then we’ll set you up in business there as an attorney.You will live in the Massachusetts house and commute back and forth between there and DC so that we’re spending at least a couple of nights together every week, and on the weekends.”
He nuzzles my forehead with his lips.“Once Liam’s term ends, you two will practice law together, or do political consulting, or whatever you want to do, and I’ll run the office.We’ll do that until I can convince you two goobers to retire permanently.”
Terror grips me, a familiar, visceral reaction I’ve grown entirely too comfortable with during my life.
It’s time I banish it and reach for the risk, climb for the higher fruit instead of settling for the half-rotten ones laying scattered on the ground around me.
Instead, I deeply inhale His scent and realize how comforting it is.
“Yes, Sir.”
“That’s my good boy.Now close your eyes and sleep.We’ll spend all weekend together.”
I try to but I have a question.“What if I want to retire now, Sir?I can afford it.”
He sighs.“Then you and I will gang up on him and make it an order.It’s probably not a bad idea for you to take the bar in Massachusetts, though.Just to have the certification.I know you can practice under Liam’s license, but you should have one of your own.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I’m nearly asleep when he speaks one last time.“On second thought, you need to contact your partners tomorrow morning and tell them you’re resigning.Cite personal reasons and leave it at that.Tell them you’ll be in sometime on Tuesday to hand everything off and clear out your office.”
My pulse spikes.“Yes, Sir.”
Long after he falls asleep I lie awake, trying to figure out what emotion is currently surging through me.
Finally, it strikes me.
Joy.
This is what joy feels like.
How sad is it that I never truly felt it before now?
