as I said,” Ra said as he turned back to face her parents. “Shelly goes where I go. In this life and the next.”
“Damn,” Tara breathed out. “Dude is brutally honest.”
“Yes, he is,” Shelly agreed. “Usually, that’s a great thing.”
“But not so much when he’s admitting to your parents that if he dies you die?” Elias added. “Ra, you might want to rein that possessive streak in, mate. Shelly’s parents don’t look like they can take much more of your honesty.”
“How did this happen?” Shelly’s mom asked, her face nearly as broken as it had been when she’d opened the door.
“Ra, please,” Shelly said as she tried to step around him again. “Let me go to her.”
“They can’t keep you,” he said softly, though his eyes were hard as steel.
“They won’t,” she assured him. “But I can’t leave them a mess. I have to make them understand.”
He finally stepped aside, and Shelly walked over to her mom, who had her hand over her mouth, her shoulders visibly shaking. “I know this has to be hard, but I’m not sorry it happened.”
Her mom’s eyes snapped to hers. “Why would you say that? You were taken from us to hell? Who would be okay with that?”
“Only Shelly,” Tara said.
“I’m okay with it because it brought me to Ra. Mom, would you trade any part of your life, no matter how bad, if it meant you wouldn’t have met dad?”
Her mother looked over at her father and slowly shook her head. “No. No, I wouldn’t.” She looked back at Shelly and reached out her hand. Shelly took it and her mom squeezed it tightly. “You’re still so young. It’s just difficult to let you go.”
“Shelly,” her dad said in a desperate voice that she’d never heard from him. “How can you ask this of us? We just got you back.”
Shelly looked at her dad and held out her other hand. He took it and stepped closer to her. “Dad, every kid grows up and leaves home. I’m just doing it a little sooner.”
“But you’re not going off to college,” he pointed out. “You’re running off with a guy you just met and into danger. It’s not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” she agreed. “But, it’s better than me running off with some toothless hillbilly because he knocked me up and wants me to be the queen of his single-wide trailer.”
Tara groaned. “Way to show them the silver lining, dork.”
Her mom laughed. “I guess it could be worse.”
“I realize this is a lot, but we really must be going.”
Her parent’s hands both tightened on hers. She smiled up at them and blinked away the tears. This was not goodbye. “I love you both,” she said. Dammit, they are both crying again. “This isn’t goodbye, it’s just … see you soon.”
Her dad pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her head. “I love you, Shelly. More than you will ever realize. You’d better come back to us, or I’ll be forced to hunt down that guy who won’t take his eyes off of you and open a can of whoop-ass.”
Shelly laughed. “Sure, dad. I’ve no doubt you could take him.”
He chuckled and let her mom pull her from him and into her arms. “We’re so proud of you. I don’t think we told you that enough as you were growing up. But we are.”
“I know, even if I didn’t give you a whole lot to be proud of.”
“Don’t say that,” her mom scolded. “You’re the most loyal person I’ve ever known.”
“You’re confusing stalking tendencies with loyalty, Mom,” Shelly said as she grinned.
“That’s true,” Tara agreed. “If there was a contest for stalking, she’d win that one hands down.”
That seemed to release some of the tension in the room, and Shelly felt like she could breathe again.
“I will protect her at all cost,” Ra said as he stepped up beside her and held out his hand to her dad. “This is not the way I would have chosen to meet you, but I am glad I have gotten to see the people who brought my remarkable mate into the world.”
Her mom seemed shocked by his admission as she stuttered, “Um, yes, well, th-thank you.”
“Please don’t make me regret this,” Shelly’s dad said as he shook Ra’s hand.
“You have my word.” Ra bowed his head.
“And what about you two?” Carol asked.
Shelly turned to look at her best friend, who was wrapped in Elias’s arms, her back pressed firmly to his chest.