“Lady, when do you go back to Chicago? We should all go out before you go. There’s this wonderful club downtown,” Sloane said. She was completely jazzed to have another girl in the family.
“Yeah, we should, and we can all get dinner before,” Dorian, Sloane’s husband, suggested.
“We want to get to know you better.” Ares grinned. He had his arm around his fiancée, Fawn. Ares raised a drink to Lady. “Make up for lost time a little.”
They were all there today, our friends’ sons and daughters. They took Lady under their wing, even though she was a little older.
“That’d be great. I took a short leave from work so I can stay for a little while,” Lady said, and I watched LJ during the conversation. He hadn’t left Lady’s side of course. He was like a sponge wanting to know any and everything, too.
LJ smiled so wide watching his daughter interact with his friends’ kids. It was like everything was coming full circle for him, full circle for us. Lady may not be my daughter, but I imagined a reality in which she was. I would have raised her as my own.
That wasn’t where the cards fell, but that was okay. Lady seemed happy. She wasokayand our friends’ children welcomed her into this family with open arms.
“Ah! This is so wild,” Bow said. A sweet little thing, she was sitting between her boyfriends, Bru and Wells. It was crazy to think this whole thing began at their housewarming party. Lady had told me who she was there, and the whole room had been there to witness. I’d dropped my drink in shock and obviously gained attention.
That all turned out all right, too. LJ hadn’t been there, and he got to have an intimate moment where he found out he had a daughter. The two had been inseparable since that day. We tookLady everywhere in town. She got to see where LJ grew up. She got to see our world.
And she got to know her father.
Lady wasn’t staying at her hotel anymore. LJ and I had her right under our roof at our home here in Maywood Heights. We had a few houses all over the world, but here was where our roots were. Lady had been with us all week, and we got to meet her family, too, through FaceTime. Her parents were diplomats, which was insane but not surprising. They raised such a wonderful daughter.
Lady’s time wrapped up too quickly with LJ and me. I enjoyed the time too, so much. It felt like we had a little family for a while. I cooked breakfast every morning and Lady and I even had some quiet conversations while LJ wasn’t in the room.
“He’s wonderful,” she said to me, and that made my heart so warm. I knew he felt the same way about her and that all our friends did. The Prinzes, Reeds, Mallicks, and Ambroses had all met Lady, obviously. She squeezed my hand. “I’m so happy I came.”
I was sure she was nervous. I mean, who knew the reception she’d get from a man she’d never met?
She had no idea of the love we had in our family and community of friends, but I hoped, by the time LJ and I had driven her to the airport, she’d gotten a little taste of it.
“You’ll text when you land back home?” LJ asked her. My husband wasn’t an emotionless man, but he wasn’t overly emotional. He certainly was during this journey of Lady’s homecoming though. His face was red during this departure, but he had so much joy lacing his expression the whole time his daughter had been here.
He smiled. “I just want to make sure you arrive home safe.”
I stood off to the side during this moment. I wanted them to have this time, but I couldn’t help watching on.
“Of course,” she said, then he froze when she wrapped her arms around him. I hadn’t seen them hug, but this felt like the first time. She squeezed him. “Thanks for letting me stay with you, Pop.”
Pop.
My heart literally melted with that. Lady’s grin was so wide, and LJ’s face was even redder when he hugged her back.
“Of course,” he said, distinct emotion lining his voice. He let go of her, and LJ beamed when Lady was suddenly hugging me.
“Thanks, Billie,” she said, and I had no idea what she was thanking me for, but I received that hug so hard.
I squeezed her. “Keep in touch, okay? You have my line.”
“And mine,” LJ told her.
Lady nodded, looking emotional herself, before she headed toward security. LJ and I both watched her until she disappeared beyond the reaches of our sight.
The drive back home was quiet, but I didn’t think that was because either of us was unhappy. In fact, quite the opposite. Our lives had changed in only the best ways, and, that night, I went to sleep with nothing but elation in my heart.
“Billie, everything all right?” LJ asked when he caught me crying the next morning. I was in the bathroom by myself, and I didn’t realize I was crying until he opened the door. His eyes flashed at what he saw, and I wasn’t surprised.
I mean, what I had in my hands was eye-widening.
I hadn’t had my period in a few months, but I was always irregular. Even still, something told me to take a pregnancy test that morning. I didn’t know if it was my gut or something else. Either way, I did it.
