Daylight - Taylor Swift

Chapter 18

December 24th, 2016

Taylor and Jo arrived at Jo's uncle's home, a charming one story bungalow painted yellow with a cute front lawn and an herb garden bedside the covered front porch that was dusted in snow.

It had taken them about fifteen minutes to get across town into the little suburb area where the home was found, a handful of houses that all looked the same in different colours.

"It looks like I beat you up," Taylor sighed, looking at Jo's bruising under her eyes and the bandage on her nose to keep things in place. It wasn't a pretty sight, and Taylor had been expressing how terrible she felt about it since they returned from the emergency room the night before.

"I'm fine, honey. It hurts a little bit, I'll just tell them it was an accident 'cause it actually was," Jo reached over and grabbed her gloved hand, holding the pie in her other while Taylor carried the bottle of wine in a small gift bag.

The door opened and Frankie smiled at the pair, waving them in without a thought. The house smelled like cinnamon, it was cozy and had just the right lighting to make it feel more like a home.

"Hey, c'mon in. How you girls doing?" The man asked, "What happened to your face? You fall? Get hit?"

"No, it was an accident last night. I moved weird and Taylor, oh this is my girlfriend Taylor by the way, she accidentally backhanded my nose trying to put paint on my face," the brunette explained to the brown haired man, watching him purse his lips together.

"Ah, alright. You must be Taylor, you look familiar... have you been around town or something?"

"Oh honey, that's Taylor Swift. I told you she was in the merge last night, you didn't believe me," a woman with a familiar drawl began, coming around the corner to the entry way.

"Oh, yes you do look familiar. Nice to meet ya, I'm Frankie, you can call me Uncle Frankie or Frankie or Boots, that's what they call me around here. C'mon in, take off your jackets," he smiled and showed them where they could hang their coats.

The woman was the same lady who had given them a funny look at the emergency room last night, the receptionist who had taken Jo's forms and filed them.

"It's nice to meet you," Jo extended her hand and was met by a hug instead, followed by Frankie's wife hugging Taylor just the same after the blonde hung her jacket over her scarf.

"I'm Corrine, it's nice to meet you properly. Frankie told me you're Beth's girl, and my, you look just like her," she said gently, studying Jo's features.

"You can see that with the bandages and blue dye that sunk into my forehead?" Jo asked nervously, her mother's name was something she hadn't even told Taylor before, it wasn't spoken very often.

"I've seen pictures, your uncle has old photo albums," Corrine laughed, leading them into the living room area that was decorated in hues of a warm brown and green, throw blankets and beautiful paintings placed perfectly.

"So, I know this kind of is a bad way to start everything but Taylor is kind of hiding out here. She'd prefer if no one knew she was staying in this town or that we're dating, in fact it's really important to both our careers right now that no one knows," Jo explained as they sat down, fearful of the reaction she would get as Taylor felt the same, searching for Jo's fingers to play with to keep calm about it.

"No problem, we'll keep it out of the town newsletter for this month since it's already published but January is up for grabs," Frankie began, "Just kidding, don't worry. We won't out anyone, never ever."

"Thank you," Taylor smiled, "I really appreciate that."

Taylor was nervous because this was the first time that she'd been introduced with the idea that she was Jo's girlfriend. They weren't masking behind a camouflaged lie, she was holding her hand and it was okay to do in front of these people.