Graceless - Page 71

“Morning,” they said hesitantly, eyeing her carefully, trying to gauge her mood. Savannah gave them a long stare, just to see them squirm.

“Morning,” she relented, her face splitting into a huge smile. Lane looked relieved, their cheeks going bright pink, before they focussed on loading their plate with breakfast with the concentration a surgeon might require. Brynn arrived, Tucker jumping excitedly at her heels. He leaped onto her lap for a snuggle, chattering about his dreams and Savannah breathed in his little boy scent before he wriggled away and splashed milk everywhere as he poured it on his cereal.

“Morning.” Cassidy arrived, back in her own clothes, her hair neat and washed, her face fresh and as innocent as pie. Savannah watched as Lane simultaneously lit up and went still, greeting her like the rest of the table then trying extremely hard to keep their eyes on their toast. She watched her sister watch Lane and roll her eyes. She slipped onto the bench next to them, sitting close. Lane struggled on, trying to act normal for another thirty seconds. Then they slipped an arm around her waist and squeezed her tight. Cassidy glowed.

Savannah and Brynn met each other’s eyes, something sweet passing between them. Then Savannah cleared her throat, making everyone look up.

“Cassidy,” she said sternly. “If you hurt them, I’ll hunt you down.” Cassidy blinked. Lane looked wide-eyed. “Lane,” she added, “if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you down.” They both stared at her. Then her face cracked into a smile so big it hurt. “I’m just kidding. I love you both.” Their exhalations of relief only made her smile wider and she couldn’t tell which one of them seemed happier to feel her approval. God, what a change from the sister who’d arrived only a few months ago.

The rest of breakfast went on as normal, except that Lane looked happier than Savannah had ever seen them and Cassidy looked brighter than the sun. Savannah would never in a thousand years have picked it, though in hindsight she could finally see how obvious the whole thing had been. They were so cute, Cassidy clearly playing footsie and Lane both wildly uncomfortable and obviously smitten.

The day grew hot and everyone ended up in the pool, Savannah gently swirling her tiny daughter in the water with them, Lane and Brynn water-fighting with Tucker, Cassidy floating dreamily. It felt like the kind of day where everything was magical, where everything glowed and Savannah felt finally, like she’d made it, that this, right now, was the moment that her whole life had been leading up to.

Eventually they all tired of the water and she and Brynn brought the kids inside while her sister and Lane lazed on beach loungers under the shade. She and her wife had only just changed back into clothes, wrangled the kids and headed back downstairs when the gate buzzer sounded and Annabelle answered the intercom. She walked into the room, an odd expression on her face making Savannah come all the way alert.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Your parents are here,” she told her slowly. Annabelle had worked for Savannah for a long time. She knew there was a reason no family visited. “What would you like me to tell them?”

Savannah took a deep breath, looking at Brynn, then her children, Tucker playing cars and Emmeline asleep in her buggy.

“You can let them in,” she said. “But then would you mind taking the kids down the hall with you?” She made one more request, quietly, and Annabelle nodded calmly, as always taking everything in her stride.

“Honey.” Brynn crossed the room and took her hand. She didn’t have to say anything else. Savannah knew her wife was firmly by her side.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Savannah steeled herself and went to open it. On the other side stood her mother, more than a decade older than Savannah had last seen her. Her blonde hair was streaked with gray and the lines around her blue-gray eyes had deepened. For the woman who’d birthed and raised her, she seemed impossibly small all of a sudden. Beside her stood her step-father, still looming large despite his hair graying, those big arms and huge hands as capable as ever of causing harm. Savannah forced herself not to step back.

“Hello,” she said calmly. “Please come in.” This was her home, she reminded herself. Her life, her family, her success, her world. She was not seventeen and terrified, or twenty-five and fighting shame. Wordlessly, her parents followed her through to the living room. “This is my wife, Brynn,” she said evenly, looking at the tall, beautiful, loyal woman she’d married. “My mom, Bethany, and my step-father, Randy.”

“Nice to meet you,” Brynn said politely, but she knew better than to reach out a hand to shake. Savannah gestured toward the couches and her parents sat on one, she and Brynn on the other, facing them down together.

“Where’s my daughter?” Randy asked without preamble. “I know you know where she is.” Savannah forced herself not to look out toward the pool yard.

“She’s here,” she said calmly. “And she’s safe and well.”

“I think that’s debatable, don’t you?” Randy’s voice was hard. Savannah silently prayed that Cassidy and Lane either stayed put, or had headed back into the guesthouse together.

“No,” she said quietly. “She’s good. And she’s happy. Is there something you want, specifically?”

Her mother interjected, her hand on Randy’s arm. Savannah could see her silently beseeching him not to do what Randy always did.

“We want her to come home,” she said. “This isn’t the environment we want her to be in.”

Savannah felt Brynn stiffen beside her.

“This environment?” Savannah looked at her parents. “This environment, where she’s in a loving family and no one gets hit?” She saw her mother flinch imperceptibly then raise her chin. Randy got in first.

“How I raise my daughter is none of your business,” he spat. “And I don’t want her around a bunch of godforsaken queers and perverts.”

At precisely that moment the door opened, Cassidy in her bright bikini, Lane still tugging a t-shirt over their head, both sparkling with laughter, Lane’s hand coming down to touch the small of her back as they stepped into the room. Everyone went still as their laughter died.

“What the hell, Cassidy?” Randy was on his feet. Her sister went white. Savannah and Brynn stood too. “This is what you left home for? To dress like a whore and act like one too?”

“That’s enough,” Brynn snapped, but Randy was already staring at Lane, his face getting harder and more enraged by the second.

“Who the fuck are you, putting your hands on my daughter?”

Savannah stepped in front of him. He towered over her. She reminded herself that she was not a child, not powerless and not under his roof. He’d never before hit her with anyone outside of the family to witness.