“Cindy, I want—we want—to apologize, for before. We let the situation get out of hand, we were stressed. It’s not an excuse. We should never have treated you that way, and we’re sorry.”
Her mom took his hand. “You’ve been a good daughter. Always. We haven’t told you that.” She looked at Jonas. “You made us look in the mirror, see what we’d done. Or hadn’t done. Thank you for that. And thank you for being there for Cindy.”
Cindy’s throat tightened. She’d told herself she didn’t need their validation, and she didn’t, but it was really, really nice to have it. She took a deep breath. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Her father looked like he was going to launch into more, but she held up a hand. “Let’s leave it at that for now. It’s late and the kids will be up early.”
They looked disappointed, but didn’t argue, just said their goodbyes.
Cindy hugged Bill and Juanita and took Jonas’ hand. They went into the guest bedroom and he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight while they listened to the other two close up the house, turn off the lights, check on the kids. When they heard the bedroom door close, she lifted her face out of his sweater.
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she whispered.
“It was a lot. You’re allowed to feel that.”
“Let’s go sit on the porch.” She felt like a teenager sneaking out of the house as they tiptoed through the dark rooms to the front door. It had begun to rain on their drive back from dinner, but the porch was covered. He grabbed a blanket that was on the back of the living room sofa and wrapped them up in it before sitting them on a chair that wasn’t meant to hold two. But he made it work.
“I want one of those porch swings. With a bunch of pillows,” she told him.
“Bright colors,” he guessed.
“Of course.”
“It should only be a couple more days and the land is officially ours.”
“I’m so happy,” she said.
“Me, too.”
The rain fell all around them, but they were snug in the little cocoon. They’d be able to do this at home, she thought. Watch the rain or the stars. Sit together after a long day, when their own child was asleep inside.
“We have to start thinking of names,” he said. “Start a list.”
“Yeah. And tell your parents. They’ll be so freaking excited. We should think of a fun way to tell them. World’s Best Grandparent shirts, or something like that.”
His arms tightened around her, and she knew she was home. Didn’t matter that she was at her brother’s house, in a different state. Didn’t matter that the beautiful house they wanted to build didn’t exist yet. She was wrapped up in his arms, so she was home.
* * *
*****
