Page 86 of The Deviation
When I step inside, he hugs me close, and we take a minute to simply enjoy the hot water and each other. “You weren’t tempted to go back?” he asks, finally. “I know having that job helped you feel secure.”
“Not lately it didn’t,” I say with a shake of my head. The pressure to put the company’s profits above the good of my clients had only been increasing. I’m honestly not sure how much longer I would have lasted. “The idea of working for myselfis terrifying, not gonna lie. But in some ways, it feels like the safer option.” No more waiting for someone to pull the rug out from under me. No one questioning the validity of my values. “You and the guys are taking a chance by believing in me. It’s time I believe in me, too.” I pause to consider some of the benefits that will come with this new kind of future. “This does mean you’ll have to keep doing what I tell you to.”
A mischievous grin appears on Johnny’s face. “Based on forethought and planning?”
“Exactly.”
“Remind me to buy you a pack of gold stars,” he says, his hands starting to roam once more.
“Gold stars?” I tilt my head in question. “What would I do with those?”
Johnny smiles. “I have a few ideas.”
EPILOGUE
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JOHNNY
One Year Later
Mid-morning on the day of Hannah’s twenty-first birthday party, bolts of lightning crack the sky open, and torrents of rain fall from the heavens.
“Maybe we should cancel the party,” she grumbles from the kitchen table, her fingers idly strumming the chords of her most recent song.
“No,” Cal and I reply in unison as we continue to work around each other at the counter. He’s busy rolling handfuls of beef mince into burger patties while I chop lettuce, tomatoes, and other sides. The buns are already buttered and ready to go. Thankfully, there’s a roof over the outdoor patio of the small house the three of us moved into about six months ago. Even if all the guests have to stay inside to keep dry, we’ll still be able to cook the meat on the barbecue.
Scowling, Hannah plucks aggressively at the strings of her guitar. “It’s such a perfect day to stay home, though. People shouldn’t have to risk drowning to celebrate my existence.”
Beside her, Oz swallows the last bite of his late breakfast. “Sweetness, your guests will happily risk drowning for you.”
“Not to mention,” I say over my shoulder, “if we try to cancel because of a little rain, they’ll show up anyway.”
She looks out the window, where the unrelenting downpour continues. “A little rain? Seriously?”
Cal stretches a long length of cling wrap over the beef patties. “Rain, hail, or cyclone, people are going to start arriving in an hour. You should get ready.”
“Fine.” Sighing dramatically, she tosses her ginger curls over her shoulder and rises to head for her bedroom, her guitar still in hand. It usually is these days. “But I’m still in charge of the music. I’ve been working on this playlist for a month.”
A secret smile crowds onto my face. When I sneak a glance at Cal, I see my amusement mirrored in him. Despite her complaints, Hannah has been helping us plan this party for weeks. She’s come to love having her new ‘family’ around her. Over time more and more of the ‘sweetness’ Oz glimpsed the night they met has started to shine through.
“Righto,” Oz says after he’s finished cleaning up from breakfast. “What can I do to help?”
Half an hour later, we’re about done setting up when my parents arrive. Mum excitedly shows us the birthday cake she made for Hannah. “The white chocolate icing doesn’t look fancy, but the inside is bright rainbow layers of sponge cake. Do you think she’ll like it?”
Calum’s eyes mist up as he drops a kiss on Mum’s cheek. “She will love it. Thank you.”
Dad holds up a small bag. “We weren’t sure if you had enough candles.”
“Hannah isn’t a fan of birthday candles,” Cal says as Dad puts the bag on top of the cake box. “Thank you, anyway.”
My parents look at each other in confusion but follow Cal’s lead when he moves to another topic of conversation.
Watching the three of them together, my heart swells with happiness. My relationship with my parents is better than it’s ever been, though it’s taken time for us to get here. After my revelations last year, they finally sat down and listened to FifthCircle’s album. They heard the song I wrote about them, and it hurt them—badly.
We fought about it at first. Then the anger turned into questions which turned into long and difficult conversations. We’ve learned to be more honest and open with each other. They’ll probably never stop trying to convince me to go back to my old job ‘as a backup’ in case this ‘rock’n’roll business’ doesn’t pan out. But they’re doing their best to accept me for who I am, and I love them all the more for it.
In the end, it was easier for them to get used to me being in a relationship with a man than I imagined. It helped that Calum and Hannah came as a package deal. The first time I invited them over to my place to meet Calum, they naturally asked about his family. Cal didn’t go into detail, but he did tell them the truth. They were bereft at the thought of two children left to fend for themselves. Within minutes they insisted on lunch at their house the following weekend so they could meet Hannah.