“You what?” She looks at me, her mouth hanging open in shock.
“Made it clear that this thing with us was as serious as it can be. Since I was going to marry you eventually. And after we get married, there will be children.” I hold up my hand to stop her from talking. “Our children. Part of me and part of you.”
“Knox,” she says my name again, “how was the meeting with your parents?”
“Unimportant,” I tell her and see the worry on her face. “Fine.” I give in so she won’t worry about me. “My mother thinks I should give Josephine another chance.” She looks down and avoids looking at me. “I told them that would never happen.” She looks back up at me. “That is when I told them I was going to marry you.”
“That’s a little bit much.”
“Is it?” I ask her and she shrugs. “Does it scare you when I say it?”
“The whole thing is fucking scary,” she admits to me.
“Baby,” I say, kissing her lips, “we’ll go slow, but the end of the line is us married with children.”
“How long is that line?” she questions me. I’m about to answer her when the phone rings, and I look down to see it’s Josephine. “I’m not one to say that must be a sign, but I’m also not not saying it.”
I laugh and answer it, putting it on speakerphone. “Hey,” I say.
“Dad,” Vincent’s voice comes out, “can we come to your house now?”
“Um, yeah,” I reply and I feel her go stiff in my arms. “Why?”
“I want to come to your house,” he repeats, and I can hear he is upset.
“Where are you now?” I ask him.
“We just got in the car, and we were going to go to Grandma and Granddad’s, but they called and said they were going out. I don’t want to go back to Mom’s. She has plans anyway.”
“Where is your mother?” I ask. When I look up, Kylie is shaking her head.
“Yeah,” Josephine says when she gets on the phone, “what?” Her tone is pissed and aggravated.
“Drop the kids off here,” I tell her. I don’t even ask her if she’s okay, because frankly, I couldn’t care less if her life is crumbling down around her. I’ll take the kids and look the other way.
“Your parents were supposed to watch them.”
“I’m home waiting for them.” That’s all I tell her. “See you soon.” I disconnect the phone and then look up at Kylie.
“I should go,” she says, and I shake my head.
“You aren’t going anywhere. It’s Sunday and I want you here.” I kiss her and the doorbell rings. “Holy fuck, did they call from the driveway?” I mumble. When I walk over to the door and open it, the kids are all standing there, Nora with an unfazed look on her face.
“Daddy,” she says, coming in and kicking off her shoes, and then she shrieks, “Kylie, you’re here!”
“I’m so excited to see you!” Kylie replies, her voice as animated as Nora’s is as she gives her a hug.
Westley and Vincent come in, and I look out to see Josephine backing out of the driveway. I close the door and then look at Westley going to the living room, followed by Nora who skips. “What is going on?” I ask Vincent.
“I want to live with you,” he announces, folding his arms over his chest.
“I’m going to go and…” Kylie says, and I nod at her as she leaves the two of us.
“Come sit with me.” I motion with my head to the side and sit on the step, and he sits next to me. “What’s going on?”
“I want to live with you,” he repeats, and I see him angrily wiping the tears away from his face. “I hate her.”
“Vincent,” I say his name, “you don’t hate her; she’s your mother and no matter what happened between the two of us, she loves you very much.” He doesn’t say anything. “Even though I would love to have you live with me full time,” I put my arm around him, “your mother would miss you terribly.” I bring him to me and kiss his head. “We are going to have you talk to someone,” I tell him as he looks up at me. “It’ll be good. You can talk to them about everything you are going through and what you feel.”
