Page 20 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

“I’d be mad at you if you didn’t,” I agreed.

He leaned down and kissed me, his breath mingling with mine.

It wasn’t any kiss I would’ve ever expected, though.

When his mouth slid against mine, I gasped. And he used that gasp to push his tongue into my mouth and ravage me.

When he pulled away, I was dazed and a little bit excited.

“What was that?” I breathed.

He winked. “That was the start of the rest of our lives.”

Again with the beaming smile.

“Look here, you two,” I heard one of the men with Dixie call out.

I looked over, the stupidly goofy smile on my face still there, and blinked when a flash momentarily blinded me.

I shook my head when he pulled the Polaroid picture out and handed it to me.

The image was snow white at first, but eventually, the photo developed.

“We need to put this on our first Christmas tree,” Dixie suggested. “What do you think?”

I looked up at him, my hopes and dreams in my eyes, and said, “I think that sounds like a life worth living.”

Chapter

Eleven

Santa is my homeboy.

—T-shirt

BAYOU

Present

“The kids in bed?” Phoebe asked a little later in the night.

I nodded, my head spinning.

I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, then shucked my clothes to crawl into the sheets next to my wife.

Sheets that she’d specifically picked out for me after I’d complained that the other ones were too scratchy, and I could feel my head pulse with each heartbeat.

Phoebe wrapped her arms around me, and I laid my head on her chest—one of my favorite places to be.

“You call into work?” she asked.

“Yeah, for the next week,” I confirmed.

I knew I’d need the time off. Better to go ahead and give them that information now, so we could prepare instead of me having to spring it on them.

“You think it’s gonna be soon,” she guessed.

I didn’t think.

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