Page 106 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“Allison?” She perked up, pushing past her towards the courtyard. “I thought she was working until eight!”

I sighed. “All but quit her job to come see you. Lovesick puppy. I’ll take over cooking while Ryan takes a shower and you go be sickly sweet with Allison.”

The house was filled with chatter and laughter in no time—although I made sure to switch away from Stella’s ghastly bubblegum pop and put on some decent music—and I got drinks on for everybody to gather around the living room, spilling out across the back patio as well. The sweet, nostalgic feeling in the air was drenched with the sensation ofsummer’s last party, the air outside still warm but not hot as the sun was lower on the horizon than it had been recently at this time, longer sleeves on people’s outfits.

It was a bittersweet feeling, like a party coming to a close when you still wanted to squeeze out just a little bit more fun—it was a bittersweet feeling I was very familiar with, like every summer before, saying goodbye to summer crowds and holing up for the cool quiet of the shoulder season, but it was different this time. This was a party coming to a close when you knew there was something just as exciting happening the next day.

“God, you’re so gone,” Allison snorted, partway into the evening, as I stood by the brick oven on the back patio with the wind in my hair and a drink in my hand, gazing across the patio to where Ryan was laughing about something together with Stella and her friend. I elbowed Allison lightly.

“Just thinking,” I said.

“About how stupidly in love you are?”

About how much I’d been worried a serious relationship would be difficult now that I’d gotten here, that I’d get buyer’s remorse, cold feet, want to go back to my old ways, but how now that I was here, I couldn’t think of anything easier. How sweet it felt that I was building up something real and lasting together with her, and that every day together was part of something we made, not just another fleeting experience that meant nothing in the bigger picture.

About how much I was excited for every single day with this woman.

“Sure,” I said. “We can say that.” When Stella glanced over, I raised my eyebrows, gesturing to Allison, and Stella smiled sweetly, breaking off from the conversation and crossing the patio over to us, where Allison was about to make another glib comment but was instantly gone when Stella slipped an arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Hey,” she said, and Allison bit her lip, ducking her head, hiding her flush. How she still got this giddy and shy over the littlest things with Stella… I’d laugh, but I wasn’t any better. “What are you two giggling about?” Stella said, and I made up a lie that worked.

“How it’s so typical of Allison,” I said brightly, “that she’d date my girlfriend’s sister. Always the hanger-on.”

“Shut up,” Allison laughed, but the way she was all butterflies and hearts in her eyes the second Stella was around really made it hard for her to tell me off. Stella grinned, squeezing Allison.

“Ryan always tells me the same thing. Like,seriously, I date a girl so you have to immediately go dating the girl closest to her? You can’t be a little more original?I guess it makes sense we all match.”

I laughed. “I mean, Allison’s always telling me she doesn’t know why you’re dating her, either.”

“Allison!” Stella turned on her. “You’ve still been going on about that!?”

Allison put her hands up. “You’re too hot for me! It’s an objective fact!”

“I’ll show you exactly what I think about that,” Stella muttered, grabbing Allison by the wrist and just about physically dragging her away. A bit menacing for taking her girlfriend to a quiet corner to make out with her, but I guess the energy did match Allison’s, after all.

“Do you think,” Mrs. Bell’s voice said from behind me, and I jumped, turning back to where she stood with a glass of pinot noir, swirling it slowly and watching Allison and Stella disappear around the corner, “that they’re good together?”

Her voice was small, wistful. I guess it couldn’t be helped—having both her daughters swept off in romance at the same time was bound to leave her worrying just a little for them. I smiled warmly. “Stella is the first thing on Allison’s mind in the morning and the last thing on her mind at night. She’s twice the person she is otherwise, trying to be good enough for how much she adores your daughter. Allison’s a little bit messy around the edges, but damn, she’s just… I don’t want to make myself sound old, but really, she’s just a good kid. And genuinely loves Stella. I wouldn’t trust anyone more with her.”

She smiled softly at me, corners of her eyes crinkling. “You do have a way with words. Yes…” She let her gaze drift off in the direction Stella had disappeared around the corner. “Yes. Stella really is happy. I just…” She laughed. “Did they have to both find girls so far away?”

“Hey, Allison’s still finding out where she wants to be. Her parents never really did come around properly about her being a lesbian…”

Her face fell, but she softened when her husband came up next to her, a hand on her back. “It hasn’t been… tidy. In our family, either. Oh, I’m sure you know that,” she said, her voice thick. “Poor Ryan’s been caught in the crossfire. Bless her, she’s much stronger than I am. I don’t know how she’s managed to carry herself like none of it bothers her. If I got the kind of treatment from my family that she’s been getting from her grandparents, her aunt… I wouldn’t be able to just brush it off like she does.”

Mr. Bell made a low noise in his throat. “Well,” he said, a little bounce in his voice, “you know how young love is. She’s so happy with Brooklyn.”

Mrs. Bell nodded, beaming at me, and I suddenly felt awkwardly on the spot. “Brooklyn’s the person I trust Ryan with the most, too,” she said softly. “I still remember you laying into me in the café just up the road from here.”

“Ah, well. I might have been less confident if I’d realized Ryan actually wanted to stick around with me and you were going to be a major part of my life.”

She tutted. “Well, then I suppose I’m glad for your crisis, because I did need to hear it. I’d really thought I was done navigating family dynamics for a minute there. Maybe I should also move away to an island paradise, escape from it all…”

Mr. Bell laughed quietly, giving her a light squeeze. “Ryan’s an adult now, you know. We can’t go inviting ourselves to follow her around all over the place.”

“Oh, Mark. Do I look like I want to hear the voice of reason right now?”

Ryan’s voice cut through the conversation, coming up to us with a soft glow in her eyes, the same kind she always got when she looked at me. And only at me. I’d never get used to seeing that—to charting out the ways Ryan looked at me. Guess Allison was right—I really was down bad for this girl.

---