The One to Hold Your Hand, page 24
“That’s what you get for marrying me. That girl is just like me.”
“Ugh, I know, and just like you, she’s going to cause me to have a nervous breakdown before I even hit forty.”
Bette couldn’t help but smile. Her life may have been a bit crazy, but it was great. The ten years since she and Reese officially got back together seemed to fly by. So much had happened in that time.
Just six months later, after they bought their first house together, Reese took Bette to the very playground they were sitting at right now and proposed to her. This time it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. She had bought a ring and planned out a whole speech about what their life together was going to be like.
Except no one could have prepared them for just how perfectly crazy their life was going to be. After it took Reese a year to get pregnant with their daughter, they decided to start the process with Bette as soon as Margaret was born to make sure they were close in age. What they didn’t expect was for Bette to get pregnant on the first try. Taking care of a newborn while dealing with morning sickness wasn’t exactly the plan, but she wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a little girl’s high-pitched scream and Reese muttering shit under her breath, before jumping from the swing she was sitting on.
Bette looked toward the monkey bars and saw Margaret lying on the ground holding her arm. “It hurts,” she cried. “Mommy, it really hurts.”
It was a good thing Reese kept her cool in situations like this because Bette already felt her heart rate picking up and her palms becoming sweaty.
Reese, on the other hand, calmly bent down next to their daughter with a reassuring smile. “Where does it hurt, sweetheart?”
“My arm! It’s my arm!” Margaret squeezed her eyes shut as more and more tears started to stream down her face.
“Well, lucky for you we’re right next to a hospital that I happen to know has very good doctors who can make that arm feel all better,” Reese said soothingly.
“No. I can’t go there.”
“Why not?”
“I’m scared.”
“I know, but you don’t need to be. You have your mom, mama, and brother right here, and guess what? I’m going to be the one to hold your hand.” Reese scooped her daughter into her arms and stood up. She reached her other hand to grab Bette’s.
Bette watched her wife. She watched her whole life come full circle, and she couldn’t help but smile. She was so happy that the hand she chose to hold all those years ago was the one she still held today.
About the Author
Erica Lee finished writing her first book, Dear Santa: I’m Gay, in December 2016. Since then, she has published a total of fifteen books.
Erica currently lives in Pennsylvania with her wife, son, dog, chinchilla, and bunny. She spends her days working as an optometrist and her nights snuggled up on the couch with her little family, binging on netflix or youtube.
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Lee, Erica, The One to Hold Your Hand
