a bowl.
“It’s mulled wine!” she says excitedly to Hattie, her grandmother, and then looks up to see me standing in the room. “Lily! Bowen, Lily is here!”
My man rounds the corner and smiles a mega-watt smile. “Welcome to chaos!”
He’s so jubilant, it’s contagious. We meet in the middle of the room, our kiss sweet and happy. Then Bowen takes me by the hand, pulling me into a quieter side hallway.
“How was your mother?” His tone holds something back, and I know he’s trying to allow me to talk without prying too much.
I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my head in his T-shirt. Because I can do that now, touch him whenever I want with no reason or backlash at all.
“She was okay. It was … not an easy talk, to say the least. I’m still not convinced she didn’t know, although she swears it. Says she hasn’t even spoken to Dad in two weeks, although they’re staying together. That much is clear. She’ll always be the good wife; they’ve been through too much now. To me, this is the worst betrayal, but I … I think she knows where the bodies are buried. They’re a team, which I guess is admirable. It’s just … it’s all so messed up, Bow.”
He pulls me in tighter, raining kisses down on my cheeks. “I know it is. I feel the same way. My father isn’t here to answer for his wrong-doings, and I know you don’t even want to hear it from yours.”
“It’s like … I’m furious at him for keeping us apart, for making me lose ten years that I could have had with you. But at the same time … in an adult sense, I can see how our fathers wanted to protect us. It might have been a convoluted way of doing it, but …”
I trail off and he tips my chin up with two fingers, those blue eyes searching mine. “What, baby?”
“My mom said something a while back. She said that even though they were our parents, they were still people. They had flaws, made mistakes. Maybe that’s why I’m allowing forgiveness to sit side by side with my fury.”
Bowen swipes his thumb across my cheek. “How do you always know what I’m thinking?”
“Because I’m in love with you.”
He kisses me, and there has never been anything sweeter to taste. The freedom of doing this whenever I feel like it … it’s going to take some getting used to. In fact, I think I’ll need to try it out over and over again.
“Do you think … do you think you’ll talk to your father?” Bowen pulls his mouth away from mine.
I sigh, exhausted from the whole thing. If I had a dollar for how many times I didn’t want to think about any of it anymore.
“Right now, absolutely not. After the stunt he pulled at my townhouse … I’m pretty sure our relationship is irreparable. It will only lead to more anger. My mother was trying to reason with me, to see his side of things, but this close, I can’t rationalize anything he did. I need to make sense of my feelings in the situation, and eventually, maybe. But right now, it’s a hard no.”
Bowen’s eyes narrow, but he still keeps me in his arms. “And I guess I’ll have to respect that. How are you so much more mature than me?”
“I think it may have something to do with my anatomy.” I wink.
“Mmm, you may be right. Care to test the theory … again?”
When Bowen bends down to kiss me, I dodge him. “I have a turkey to prepare.”
As he chases me through the hall, into the kitchen where his family is busying themselves with food, I laugh.
Because I let him catch me. Because I’ve been chased into a place which is right where I want to be.
41
Bowen
“Opening presents on Christmas Eve? We’re going to have to talk about that.”
I tickle Lily’s side gently as she takes a seat on the rug next to me, with Presley on her other side.
“Well, it was only me, and in the morning we always went to church. I’m not saying I’m not willing to change traditions. Or create ones of our own.”
“I like the sound of that.” My hands bury in her hair as I kiss her.
“Hey, no funny business during the Christmas Eve movie!” Forrest scolds us.
Mom chuckles where she sits on the couch, next to Fletcher. The dog that Presley and Keaton recently adopted, a