“Yes, Mama.”
“Good job, baby girl, you keep it up.”
She beams, always happy for the praise. With the same need for speed as her father, it’s always her goal to outrun every person she comes across. We’ll need help when she learns to drive.
“Pa!” She screams into the screen door, prompting Callahan to walk outside. With her best smile and a quick kiss, she has him melting.
“Race me,” she says, pulling on his beard.
“Don’t let her win this time,” I say, pointing a finger at him.
He looks at me like I must be crazy to think he would do anything else. I leave it be, knowing she has him wrapped around her finger. I don’t know who he loves more.
Farrah comes back and plants herself in the lawn chair next to me. Ready to rejoin the fun, her son goes to the starting line with them.
“Did you ever think it would come to this?” she asks me.
“You mean us having kids and husbands?”
“And blossoming careers. I never thought I’d see the day where we would be this put together.”
Marrying Callahan, moving to San Francisco, and running the dance studio is not what I thought my life would look like seven years ago, but here we are. I didn’t even know this type of happiness existed.
“It’s great though, isn’t it?” I ask.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
We squeeze hands and look at each other, taking in how much we’ve grown. Ageing like fine wine, the years still show on our bodies from laugh lines, to stretch marks, to bigger smiles. We’re no longer those thirty-year-old women searching for our place in the world. We found it with the families we always wanted.
Like they see the memories flashing through our eyes, they all come running to bear witness. Farrah takes the kids into the house to wash up, leaving me and Callahan alone with the baby.
“How’s Jerome?” He asks before taking him from me.
“Nevermind him. Come here.”
Callahan places Jerome in his bassinet and helps me into his arms. Wrapping my legs around him, the feel of him growing reminds me of how he got me to open myself up to him. That monster dick and his charming personality had me thinking about him months after we hooked up.
“Already getting hard?”
“It’s just the sight of you.”
“Jerome’s still in our room,” I say dejectedly.
“So the clown costume has to wait?”
I laugh and swat his shoulder.
“That was a one-time thing,” I say.
“That you enjoyed very much.”
“Shut up,” I mumble.
He kisses the rest of the words out of my mouth until I am speechless.
But it’s not quiet long. The baby makes enough noise for the both of us as he belts and babbles, already proving how much of an O’Connor he is. From the moment he came into this world, yelling, he has, in his little time, shown me that he, too, will never meet a stranger. So much like both of us, our family as a whole shines with every piece of us. Even the surrogate Nathalie said he used to move around like he had somewhere to go.
“I know you’re hungry,” I say, picking him up.
“Me too,” says Callahan, rubbing his stomach.
We head inside so that I can take care of both the men in my life.
I quickly feed Jerome and then join the others for dinner.
We had to have our dining room table custom-made to fit all of the people in our lives. Even when it’s just the four of us, it’s full. Tonight, it’s me, Callahan, Farrah, and the kids. As well as Rowan and Sahara, who recently found their way back to each other.
I watch them and wonder what’s next for them, and if it will finally give Rowan the life that she wants. A life that I am lucky enough to have.
I didn’t know what would happen when I left LA. I was so busy fighting to be the girl I once was, I couldn’t see ahead. When I had to actually battle for a future, I found the strength to heal even the oldest of wounds. I never thought I would get to this place, but I am exactly where I should be, and I’m grateful for the journey I took to get here.
