Page 172 of The Holy Grail
“Yes.”
“Well, I can’t say I totally understand this,” Richard said slowly, “but it does make sense that you’re too much for one man to handle—”
“Oh, my God, Dad,” Jules responded with a chuckle. “Stop.”
“So, what happens going forward?” Edie wanted to know, cutting in. “What does that look like?”
“Well, Evan and I will be moving into Malcom’s townhouse at the end of the month, so that’s the first big step. After that, I think we just treat the situation like we would if we were living with one other person, only it will be two other people. And we’ve all spent time together, like during weekends, so it’s not going to be that big of a change.”
Edie seemed pacified, but made it clear meeting Malcom and Evan before they all moved in together was a necessity.
“I agree,” Richard said. “And the sooner the better.”
Jules nodded. “I was thinking we’d come—”
“This weekend.”
“Dad, no, that’s too—”
“This weekend,” he repeated. Then, in hisThis is how it’s going to bevoice, added, “I don’t care how much you have to pay for a last minute airline ticket, Freckles. Make it happen.”
Chapter 56
Living outside the box
“Is this something you can accept?” Evan asked his mother, Evangeline, after giving her the entire lowdown, starting with meeting Malcom and Gwen years ago, meeting Jules a few years later, then the recent run-in with Jules and Malcom, and ending with the establishment of the triad and the plan for everyone to move in together.
To her credit, Evangeline simply listened, without interruption, until Evan was finished.
“And if I can’t accept it?” she asked quietly.
Evan took his mom’s hand and gently held it. In her mid-sixties, she looked like the older version of Evelyn, with reddish-brown hair liberally streaked with silver, and worn in the same shoulder-length style Evan remembered going all the way back to his childhood. Her dark brown eyes, which had been inherited by all three of her children, gazed at him as he answered, “I’d still do it, but it would bother me, knowing you weren’t behind it. Having your support is important to me.”
“Is it what I always dreamed for you?” She paused for a moment before continuing. “No, mainly because I didn’t know this was a thing until five minutes ago, but it’s not surprising, to be honest. You always did like to live outside the box.”
“Is that your way of saying I was a handful?”
“You were a hell of a handful, and still are,” she corrected him, managing to convey humor and aggravation at the same time. “But you’ve always been so easy to love, too, and that makes up for most of your shenanigans.”
“Only most of them?”
“Well, there were a few you really should have thought through first, that’s for damn sure. It could have saved us all some trouble.”
“Are you referring to the girl I dated my senior year? God, what was her name?”
“Jennifer?”
“No, the blonde girl.”
“Elizabeth?”
“No, the other blonde girl.”
“Wendy?”
He snapped his fingers. “That’s her.”
“Wasn’t she a little … crazy … for lack of a better word?”
