“If you did get hurt, though, if some boy did take advantage of you, it wouldn’t be your fault,” Blake says. “No matter if you took drugs or not.” He glances over to Luke, who is obviously not paying the slightest bit of attention to any of us and is now singing an orc battle song he made up a few days ago. And I know what Blake is going to ask. He lowers his voice. “DidTanner . . . do anything to you? Did he touch you, or . . . or hurt you in any way?”
Ivy shakes her head, and relief nearly makes me dizzy.
“No.” She shifts in her seat uncomfortably. “I liked the way he looked at me at first, but then I didn’t really like it anymore. It felt weird.”
Ugh, I bet. I want to punch that little punk. And I can tell by Blake’s expression he feels the same.
But Ivy doesn’t need that from us.
“I know what that feels like,” I say. “And it can be scary.”
She looks up and meets my eyes, and I can tell I got that right. She was afraid and didn’t totally understand why. I squeeze her hand tightly.
“I didn’t like the way it felt, either.” Her voice is a whisper. “The drugs. Like, I thought I did, but then I just . . . didn’t know what was going on in my brain, and everything felt wrong.”
God, I definitely know whatthatfeels like, and not because of any pot brownies. My poor baby. I just want to hold her and never let go.
“That makes sense,” Blake says, and he puts his hand on her back. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.” He sighs. “The truth is, we can’t protect you from everything, as much as we wish we could. But the rules are there to protect you from as much bad stuff as possible. And it’s all because we love you so damn much. You get that, right?”
She nods, and tears trickle down her cheeks. She brushes them away furiously with her free hand. Blake pulls her in close and she leans into his chest. She’s squeezing my hand so hard it hurts, but I’m not going to complain about that, ever.
“That love doesn’t change, even with Dad and me being together,” I say. “It won’t change when we get back home, and Dad lives there with us. It won’t change when we get re-married. We will always, always love youso much.”
“And me too!” Luke chimes in happily from his pile of Legos on the other side of the room. I guess he started listening at some point, after all.
“You too, Lukey,” I say. “Both of you. You guys are our world.This family, all four of us, together.That’s what matters.”
Luke starts singing the battle orc song again, lost in his Lego adventure.
Ivy sniffles and sits back up. “So you guys are getting married again?”
“We haven’t set a date yet,” I say. “But yeah. And I’d love it to be soon.”
I’m not sure if it was the events of the last day, or me finally standing up for myself and my family, or maybe that picture of a Kim able to face her fears, but I’m not afraid anymore that the wedding will be about anything but us.
I could marry him today, happily.
A smile spreads across Blake’s face.That smile like sunshine that I want to see for the rest of my life. “Me too,” he says. He glances at Ivy. “I know you might not be happy about that, but—”
“It’s okay,” she says. “I’m okay with it.”
“Yeah?” I can’t hide my surprise.
She nods. “You should get to be happy again. Even if it’s still gross to know you two have sex.”
Blake laughs. “Yeah, well, knowing your parents have sex is kind of unavoidable, but we’ll do our best to not let any more of it get recorded, so no one has toseeit.”
She wrinkles her nose, but smiles despite herself. “Thanks.”
And it’s in that smile that I can see that she really is okay.That she’s going to be okay with us as a family—that really, she’ll be better than she knows, because Blake and I together and happy will be better parents than we were miserable and apart.
She sighs, resigned. “So I’m guessing there’s still consequences to talk about, but can I take a shower? I smell gross.”
“Sure thing,” Blake says. “And when it comes to consequences, that apology and taking responsibility goes a long way to making those lighter, you know.”
She brightens again. “Really? Because if I could get evensupervisedphone time again—”
“Shower,” I say with a laugh. “Then we’ll talk.”
