“You’re not coming in?” he asks, holding the top of the door.
“Kit wanted to do this alone.”
He nods, giving me a small wave, and walks up the pathway. Kit opens the door, says something I can’t hear that makes his mouth quirk, and Izan tackles him in a tight hug. My eyes water watching it, seeing the pure joy on Kit’s face.
I don’t drive back to the coffee shop. I just sit in the car, staring at my phone.
A knock on the window scares the shit out of me, my phone getting thrown in the air. Kit is standing on the other side, grinning. I roll down the window.
“Would you like to come inside, sweetness?”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“Not intruding. Not at all. I need you.”
I smile back at him and roll the window back up before opening the car door. He takes my hand and leads me back up the path. I stop him before we enter. “It’s going okay?”
“It’s going great. Everyone is very freaked out and very confused and they all keep poking me. But they believe I’m me, and that’s what matters right now.”
Kit walks me inside to the living room, where everyone is gathered. Tears in all of their eyes, they smile up at us.
“This is Lacy,” Kit says. “My…girlfriend doesn’t feel like a strong enough word. My favorite human in the world and the love of my entire goddamn life. And the reason I am standing before you all now.”
“Hello,” I say awkwardly.
Kit’s mother gets up first and pulls me into a tight hug. “Thank you,” she whispers in my ear.
I receive hugs from the rest of the family, lastly from a muscular man with a dark beard. “Xander?” I ask incredulously.
He laughs in a deep voice. “Yeah, that was the same reaction Uncle Kit had.”
“You look older than him,” I say before I can stop myself. “In a good way. Or, ah, a neutral way.” I blink myself back to the present. “Sorry, last time I saw you, you were six and tiny. Er, I mean a picture of you. Sorry.”
Kit’s hand finds mine again. “I’ve maintained my youthful glow, while Xander here has discovered protein powder. He’s healthy as a horse.”
I squeeze his hand, knowing just how joyful that makes him. We take a seat side by side on the couch while Kit continues to endure an endless stream of questions. The main one that keeps hitting us over and over is: “How?”
Eventually, Kit says, “Magic. Can we just go with that? It’s the only explanation I have.”
He holds my hand tightly, and I know it will all be okay.
That evening,we’re lying in Kit’s childhood bedroom on a full-sized bed with my head on his chest and his arms wrapped around me. I’m wearing an old World of Warcraft T-shirt ofKit’s that he dug out of a box that has been in this room for ten years. It smells a little musty, but Kit insisted, saying he wanted to see me wearing his clothes. I could hardly argue that desire.
“Izan has a kid and another on the way. Isn’t that crazy?”
“It is,” I agree. Even though Kit was away for many years, I can’t imagine the shock of coming back and discovering your best friend has created two more people since you’ve been gone.
“Thank you for coming with me today,” he whispers.
“Thank you for letting me,” I whisper back. My fingers move absently over his chest.
“Having you here helped. I know they’re my family, but I was so scared.”
“I know, kitten. I’m glad it worked out.”
“Lacy?”
“Hmm?”
