EPILOGUE

R aleigh pressed her hand to the shower wall and sucked on Hollis’s neck. As her fingers thrust inside, Hollis breathed hard into her ear.

“Almost,” Hollis told her. “God! Almost,” she added as she gripped Raleigh’s ass and pressed her closer against her. “I want you.”

“You have me. I’m right here. Come for me.”

“I want to be…” Hollis’s head went back against the shower wall next to Raleigh’s hand. “Inside…”

“You will,” Raleigh replied, smirking against Hollis’s neck as she came.

“Mommy!”

“Shit,” Hollis said, coming back down instantly and cupping her hand over her own mouth.

“It’s fine. I locked the door.”

The door opened.

“Shit,” Raleigh said this time, removing her fingers from inside her girlfriend and quickly trying to figure out what to do. “Hi, baby,” she said to Eden.

“I’m ready for breakfast. Can I have cereal?”

“Sure. Can you wait outside for me?” she requested, pressing Hollis against the wall, hoping Eden wouldn’t open the shower curtain.

“Can Hollis take me to school?”

Hollis went to respond on instinct, but Raleigh shook her head and smiled at her.

“You can ask her,” she said to Eden.

“Where is she? She’s not in the bedroom, the kitchen, or the living room. I looked,” Eden replied .

Hollis was trying to contain her laughter, so Raleigh pointed at her, turned, and pulled open the curtain just a little, making sure to only reveal her head.

“Maybe she’s in your room, waiting for you to ask her. Did you check there?”

“No,” Eden said.

“Okay. Go check and maybe get your backpack ready, okay? I’ll make you your cereal when I’m done.”

“Okay,” Eden replied before leaving the bathroom without closing the door behind her and then turning the corner.

Raleigh waited an extra second, climbed out of the shower, getting water all over the floor, closed and locked the door, and then got back inside, where Hollis burst out laughing.

“Where were we?” she said, attempting to kiss Hollis.

“I can’t.” Hollis continued to laugh. “She almost caught me mid-orgasm, Raleigh.”

“Yes. But now, I’d like to be mid-orgasm. You have to leave for work soon.”

“I’ll take her to school first,” Hollis told her, turning Raleigh around and pressing her to the wall as the water sprayed.

“Are you sure? It’s out of your way.”

“I’m sure. She asked for me. That’s a big deal,” Hollis replied, kissing Raleigh’s neck. “But if we don’t stop talking about it, I won’t have time for this.” She reached between Raleigh’s legs and stroked.

“Shutting up now,” Raleigh stated.

It had been a little over a year since Eden had been brought home and they’d lost Olivia. In that time, Eden had gone to therapy once a week, and Raleigh had made it work financially because it was for Eden. She’d picked up a few more clients and changed her benefits plan to include at least some of the appointments Eden would need. Raleigh had continued her own therapy as well but only went twice a month, feeling immeasurably better now that she had her daughter back.

The trial for Eden’s kidnapper wouldn’t likely begin for at least another year, but the woman was behind bars as she’d been denied bail, thankfully. While Eden had remembered Raleigh and had adjusted rather quickly when she’d returned, there was still a lot of lingering confusion she was dealing with. Therapy helped, and when the doctor thought it made sense, Raleigh often joined her sessions so that they could help her work through that together. Raleigh had kept her out of preschool, but when it had been time for kindergarten, she’d wanted Eden in school with other kids to make her world as normal as possible.

“Hey, am I taking you to school?” Hollis asked when she and Raleigh entered the kitchen to find Eden sitting at the table, attempting to pour her own milk. “Let me get that for you.”

Raleigh smiled because Hollis had caught Eden just before she’d been able to spill the milk all over the table instead of her bowl.

“Mom said I have to ask you,” Eden replied. “Will you take me?”

“Please,” Raleigh reminded.

“Right. Please.”

“Sure,” Hollis said. “Can I get your backpack for you, though, so you can eat, and we can go?” Hollis placed the milk on the table and ran her hand through Eden’s hair.

Raleigh smiled at how much Hollis loved her daughter and how much Eden seemed to love Hollis right back.

“I’m allowed to bring two books.”

“Did you pick them out?” Hollis asked.

“Yes, they’re on my bed,” Eden said.

“I’ll get them.” She kissed the top of Eden’s head as Eden dipped her spoon into her cereal. “Be right back.”

She winked at Raleigh, who took Eden’s cereal distraction as an opportunity to squeeze Hollis’s ass as she walked past her.

“Mommy?” Eden asked with cereal in her mouth.

“Eden, close your mouth to chew,” Raleigh told her, laughing at her daughter .

“Is Hollis coming to the show?”

Eden’s kindergarten class was performing a few songs over the weekend.

“Yes, she is. Why?”

“My teacher asked if both my mommies would be there,” Eden explained before she took another bite.

“You mean me and Hollis?” Raleigh checked, wanting to make sure Eden wasn’t talking about the woman who had pretended to be her mother for a year of her young life.

Eden nodded in response.

“Your teacher asked you that?”

“She asked if you would be there. I told her yes and that Hollis would be there, too, because I thought she would. She asked who Hollis was, so I told her.”

“You told her that Hollis is your other mommy?” Raleigh asked.

“Yes,” Eden replied, taking another bite of her cereal as if she’d said nothing important at all. “It’s okay to have two mommies. They said so at school.”

Raleigh laughed a little and said, “Yes, it is. It’s okay to have one mommy or one daddy or two mommies or two daddies or a mommy and a daddy or just a mommy or a daddy. Every family is different, and it’s all okay.”

“I’ve got two books and my backpack, so I’m going to go to school,” Hollis said as she reentered the room.

“Those are my books and my backpack,” Eden said.

“What? I thought they were mine. I have to go to school.”

“ I go to school,” Eden said. “You go to work .”

Raleigh laughed at the teasing between them, looked over at Hollis, and mouthed, ‘I love you,’ to her. Then, she cleared the milk and the cereal box while Eden finished eating and Hollis sat down and talked to her about what she was going to learn in school today.

“Can we go to the library after school?” Eden asked as she slid the backpack over her tiny shoulders.

Eden listened as Hollis told her that they could go another time because Hollis was working, and then she’d come home to help Raleigh with dinner.

“I can sit and read,” Eden told her. “I’ll be good.”

“I know you will,” Hollis replied. “Another time. Maybe this weekend.”

“My show is this weekend,” Eden reminded.

“I know. We can go to the library during the day and then your show at night.”

It had been hard for Raleigh to let Eden out of her sight for months after she got back. When Eden was in the living room, Raleigh made sure all the doors were locked in the house and would just sit there, staring at her as Eden played. Eden knew Hollis worked at the library a town over from their own, and Eden, like Hollis, loved to read, but she didn’t understand that when Hollis was working, she couldn’t keep an eye on her there. Even though Raleigh had gotten a little better with her worry, it was still very much there, and Hollis knew that.

“Can I get a book from the grown-up section this time?” Eden asked.

“We’ll see, baby,” Hollis replied. “Are you ready? Kiss Mom goodbye.”

Eden gave her a quick kiss and a hug and returned to Hollis’s side.

“Hey, I get a kiss from you, too, right?” Raleigh said to Hollis.

“You can have a lot more than a kiss later, if you remember to lock the bedroom door,” Hollis whispered as she kissed her once on the cheek and then on the lips.

With that, they were gone. Hollis had her own child seat in her car now so that she could drive Eden, which freed up Raleigh sometimes to get more work in while Eden was in school. As she sat down in her office and opened her laptop to do just that, though, she thought about what Eden had said, and she decided it was time to start her search.

“Engagement rings,” she said to herself as she sipped her coffee.

◆◆ ◆

Hollis waited until Eden was in the classroom with the teacher and other kids, with the door closed between her and the room, before she left the school. She’d managed to find a job at a small library only about thirty minutes away from home, so while it was a little out of the way to take Eden to school, she jumped at the chance when she could.

She loved being in the car with Eden and listening to her talk about random things. Gone was her love of green dinosaurs. It had been replaced with the solar system, and she’d asked Hollis that morning if they could make one together with Raleigh this weekend. The kid had a lot of energy when she was talking about doing stuff, but Hollis knew they’d spend an hour at the library and then go to the show, and Eden would crash right after. Later, Eden would spend the rest of the weekend playing in the backyard, where Hollis and Raleigh had built her a swing set and the garden in honor of Olivia. It had sunflowers, to be sure, but they’d also planted vegetables and some herbs.

Eden liked learning about gardening along with Hollis, and Hollis liked that they were learning something together. She liked it so much that it had her thinking about the years she’d missed with Eden. She’d met her when the girl was four, but so much had happened before that. Hollis wished she could just go back in time somehow and have more of it with her. Well, she wished she could have more time with a few people, her mother included.

Eden and Raleigh had helped with Hollis’s grieving, but nothing could stop it. Finding a job at a library, moving in with Raleigh and Eden, and finally visiting her father, who was serving his sentence in the northern part of the state, had helped, too. She hadn’t forgotten what her mother had requested, and Hollis made sure to relay the message to her father.

“She forgave me?” he’d asked.

“Yeah.”

He’d sighed and then asked, “What about you? Do you forgive me? ”

“I’m working on it,” she’d replied. “It would be a lot easier if you could actually admit that what you did was terrible and wrong and that you caused people, including your only child, pain because you couldn’t figure out something else.”

He’d nodded and said, “I’ll work on that, too.”

Hollis didn’t know what kind of relationship she’d have with him when he got out. Luckily, Eden was still young enough that she didn’t have to explain anything about her father. Eden did know about Olivia, though, and when they’d told her, she’d asked if Olivia had been like her grandmother. Raleigh had said yes, and that had made Hollis cry.

Since Raleigh was picking Eden up from school, Hollis stopped off to get them dinner. Leaving work, she’d texted Raleigh that she didn’t have the energy to cook, so Raleigh had requested she grab something from a restaurant near the library. Hollis also picked up two bunches of flowers from a street vendor at a light and parked in the driveway next to Raleigh’s car. Moving in together had happened more out of necessity than anything else, but they’d also both been ready for it. They’d talked to Eden beforehand, and her response had made them both laugh.

“Doesn’t she already live here?”

Hollis recalled that memory as she grabbed the bags to carry them inside the house. It had been about three months prior, and Eden was right to ask the question. Hollis had spent multiple nights each week at Raleigh’s house ever since her mother’s death. As much as Hollis had wanted to keep the house, she just couldn’t be there without her mom, so they’d talked about it and decided they were ready to live together. Hollis had packed up the house, dressed up the garden in the back, making sure to say a few words to her mom about the garden she’d make at her new house with Raleigh and Eden, and then, she’d moved in.

“Hey, babe,” Raleigh said with a smile when Hollis walked in the door. “What are those?” she asked.

“They’re flowers,” Hollis replied, passing Raleigh a bunch. “For you.”

“For me ? Should I be worried you have another girlfriend?” She pointed at the other bunch in Hollis’s hand.

“It’s true: I have two girls in my life.”

“Hollis is home!” Eden yelled as she ran down the hallway toward Hollis.

“I am,” Hollis said. “And I got these for you.”

“Me?” Eden asked, surprised.

“One for you; one for your mom.”

“Cool,” Eden said. “What do I do with them now?”

Raleigh laughed and stood.

“Come on. Let’s put them in water while Hollis gets dinner ready.”

They walked into the kitchen, where Raleigh got a stool for Eden and showed her how she trimmed the flowers. Eden wasn’t old enough to use the adult scissors, so she just watched and asked questions. Hollis put out the food she’d picked up on the table and listened as Raleigh explained things.

“Mom, can we go out to the garden after dinner?” Eden asked.

“It’ll be too late,” Raleigh replied. “Tomorrow.”

“No, it won’t. We have lights.” Eden turned around on her stool and faced Hollis. “Mom, can we, please? I want to check the tomatoes.”

In that moment, Hollis realized that Eden was talking to her. Raleigh must have had the same realization because she stopped trimming and turned around. They both looked at one another as if silently asking each other what to do about this new development.

“Mommy Hollis?” Raleigh asked her.

Hollis nearly melted inside, and she nodded at Raleigh mostly, but Eden took that as a yes that they’d go out to the garden later, so they did. Raleigh and Hollis sat on a bench they’d bought at a garage sale and watched as Eden diligently checked the growing vegetables.

“Is it okay?” Raleigh asked, resting her head on Hollis’s shoulder .

“More than okay,” she replied, kissing the top of Raleigh’s head. “I was just thinking earlier about how I love how inquisitive she is and how much I wish I’d been around when she was born.”

“She just cried and pooped a lot, mostly,” Raleigh replied.

Hollis laughed and then said, “You did it all on your own.”

“Yeah.”

“Would you maybe want to do it with me this time?”

Raleigh lifted her head and looked at Hollis as if she had not been expecting that question.

“Or not,” Hollis added quickly.

“You want to have a baby?” Raleigh checked.

“I was thinking about it, yeah.”

“Really?” Raleigh said softly.

Hollis nodded.

“Babe, are you sure? We’re not exactly young, and we have a lot going on.”

“I know. It’s okay if it doesn’t happen. Hearing her call me that tonight for the first time, though, just made me feel like I love being part of this with you. I think I’d like to do it from the beginning.”

Raleigh smiled wide and nodded at her.

“Yeah?”

“Yes, but…”

“Oh, there’s a but?” Hollis teased.

“I want to be married first, Hollis.”

“Oh,” Hollis said.

“So, I was thinking that I could buy a ring and get down on one knee at some fancy destination or something, or I could skip the fancy place, and we could watch our daughter play in the garden dedicated to your mom, and I could ask you now.” Raleigh took Hollis’s hand. “I’ll save up for that ring I want to get you, but, Hollis, I love you. I love the life we’ve made in spite of everything. I love how you love Eden. I love how she’s somehow just like you, and it’s this mystery as to how that happened, but I like to think it’s magic and maybe your mother’s influence up there, too. I want you with us forever. Will you marry me, babe?”

Hollis stared into Raleigh’s eyes, which had tears in them, but she knew they were happy ones this time.

“Yes,” Hollis said softly.

“Mommy Hollis, the tomatoes are bigger than yesterday,” Eden said triumphantly as she bounded up the stairs.

“Prepare to be interrupted times two if we have another one,” Raleigh stated, kissing Hollis quickly. “We’ll do more of that later.”

“Can I go inside and color?” Eden asked.

“Sure, honey. We’ll be right in,” Raleigh replied.

When Eden opened the back door and ran inside the house, Hollis kissed Raleigh hard. She kissed her with everything she had because this was happening; she’d found her family.

“Save some of that for the bedroom,” Raleigh teased.

Hollis smiled, nodded, and said, “You know, my mom left me all these gifts; two for each year I was gone. I’ve opened some of them, but not all of them. I was thinking that maybe we could give some of them to Eden. I’m sure they’re old, but a lot of them are books, and she loves to read. Maybe we could give her one tonight and tell her it’s from my mom?”

Raleigh nodded and said, “Are you sure? She’s five. It could get destroyed.”

“Mom got it for a kid to read or play with. She knew what she was getting into. And I’d like Eden to have things from her.”

“Let’s give it to her, and we’ll get her to bed after her bath.” Raleigh pulled Hollis in for another quick kiss. “And, Hollis?”

“Yeah?”

“If we’re getting married, there should be a honeymoon,” Raleigh said, leaning in. “Honeymoon sex, babe.”

Hollis laughed, but as Raleigh pulled back, Hollis could tell that she was very serious .

“Small wedding. Save money. Nice honeymoon,” Raleigh listed, holding up one finger after the other. “We deserve a nice honeymoon.”

“We do,” Hollis agreed. “Can we get married at my mom’s church? They host same-sex weddings. I checked.”

“You did, did you?” Raleigh smiled. “When, exactly, did you do that?”

“About a month ago, right about when I bought you an engagement ring that’s currently under a pile of shirts in our closet.”

Raleigh’s eyes went wide.

“Yeah, let’s go. You should try it on now.”

“Why didn’t you ask me when you bought it?”

“I was waiting for the sunflowers to bloom,” Hollis replied. “I wanted my mom to be here for it.”

“Oh, babe. I ruined–”

“We’re outside in the garden. She’s here. I know it’s silly… She’s always with me. It was more symbolic than anything. But we were here, and Eden was , too, technically, so it was perfect. I love you, Raleigh.

“I love you, too,” Raleigh said. “I’ll take care of her,” she added as she looked skyward, and Hollis knew who she was talking to.

“We’ll take care of each other,” Hollis replied, kissing Raleigh’s lips once more. “Let’s get inside and see what she might have destroyed in five minutes.”

Raleigh laughed as they walked inside hand in hand and then into Eden’s room, finding the girl already asleep.

“We’ll give her the gift tomorrow,” Hollis whispered, tucking her in.

Raleigh pulled Hollis out of the room and into their own, where she closed the door and turned into Hollis’s arms, pulling her in for a long hug.

“Are you going to lock the door?” Hollis asked.

“I think I just want to hold you tonight. Is that okay?”

“That is always okay,” Hollis replied.