Forever Yours

chapter thirty-three

Joel and I break apart so fast. We stand up from the church pew and turn to see Dad and Connie standing behind us, shock evident on their faces. Holy shit! My dad stomps over to Joel, "You little punk, who the hell do you think you are, smooching on your stepsister?"

Connie gets mad at this, "Don't you dare talk to my son like that Eric!" Oh god, this is not good.

"What do you mean Connie? Did you not just see what I saw?" Dad's loud voice booms through the church.

"I know they must have an explanation for this," she fights back.

"We do!" Joel and I say in unison.

"Oh really? I would love to hear what explanation you come up with," he says sarcastically. "You know, I knew there was something going on between you two."

I shake my head at him. This is a freaking mess. How could this be happening right now? I look at Joel and he's looking at me. I finally get the courage to say what I've wanted to say for so long.

"Dad, Connie," I say, "I'm in love with Joel."

"In love?!" They say in unison.

"And I'm in love with her," Joel says. Our parents look at us in disgust. I give Joel a look that says shut up and he lets me do the talking.

"Listen," I say to Dad and Connie, "before you guys met, Joel and I were in a relationship with each other that had been going on for a year." Connie looks confused so I try to clarify. "The girl Joel was dating wasn't Lola, it was me. Lo... Willow." Connie starts to understand as her mouth drops open and she covers it with her hand. She's in disbelief, I can tell. I look at Dad; he's livid.

"I thought I told you no boys," Dad says calmer than he has been.

I roll my eyes and shake my head, "That's a little old, don't you think Dad?"

"This is terrible Willow! Why didn't you tell us?" He's still as angry as all hell.

I get mad now too, "Don't you dare be mad at me! We wanted to tell you so many times. And we almost did that night you told us you were getting married. But we couldn't. And you can't be mad at me for loving someone Dad!"

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Connie asks calmly, trying to defuse the situation.

"When we found out that you guys were dating, we decided not to tell you because we saw how extremely happy you both were, and we didn't want to break you up. We continued dating while you did because, honestly, we didn't think you two would last. But we stopped once you told us you were getting married. The kiss you just saw was one last goodbye kiss," I explain.

Connie looks sad and guilty, while Dad still has a scowl on his face. I start to tear up, so Dad finally softens up. We're all silent for a while until my dad finally says, "We would've let you two be together."

I glare at him, "No you wouldn't. You never let me date, so it's not like you would have cared to respect that."

He thinks this over for a second, "We could have figured something out." He's not super angry anymore. He's definitely calmed down.

"He's right kids," Connie says, "we would have let you two be together."

Joel finally steps in, "Like Willow said, we saw how happy you two were and didn't want to break you up. No offense, but you two aren't getting any younger and you were both looking for someone to be with for so long and you finally did."

"But what about you?" Connie asks, sympathy evident in her voice.

Joel looks at me and says, "We'll be okay." I don't know if he's talking to me or Connie. Maybe to both of us.