Her eyes softened. “I know you understand. In the end, my bisexuality was another way she tried to control and criticize me. She didn’t want a queer daughter, so her first step was to try and show me where I was mistaken or had poor judgment. My bisexuality was only confusion at first. And then a hormonal phase. And then plain not real.” Tabitha’s lips quirked up at the ends. “Our support group taught me a lot about ownership of my identity. My bisexuality doesn’t exist or not exist based on her belief or approval. It’s mine, all mine. And I’m so proud of it.”

I brought her hand up to brush my lips against her knuckles. “I’m proud of you too.”

She bit her lip. Then crawled across the couch to kiss me sweetly. When we parted, the way she stared at me wasn’t temporary. Used to be when I was in the ring, I thought if you anticipated a hit, it hurt less. It became one more thing to analyze. Pain avoidance as a topic of study. My gut told me I wasn’t some meaningless hookup for her, though we were only having fun. Yet every morning together felt less temporary. More permanent. She didn’t talk about Texas and I didn’t bring it up. I wasn’t thinking about my two job offers. And she didn’t pry.

I wasn’t so sure I could avoid what I already saw coming. And still couldn’t dredge up enough willpower to stop it.

A knock on the door startled us both. I could just make out Alice’s white hair.

“Tabitha? Are you decent?”

She smirked and swung her legs around, walking to the door. She pushed it open and said, “Have I ever been?”

“My favorite types of women rarely are,” Alice replied. “And I wanted you to know that I’ve just put my face on and Eddie’s telling Annie stories if you’d like to make a movie about us again.”

Tabitha’s face brightened. “You look gorgeous. I wasn’t planning on filming today, but…” She tossed me an amused grin over her shoulder. “What the hell? Let’s make a movie.”

A few minutes later and we were back in front of the bench. It didn’t take Tabitha long to get set up, positioning Eddie and Alice the way she had the other day. I leaned against the fence behind them. Rowan came round the corner with his usual bag of groceries for his grandmother.

“Are we doin’ a photo shoot?” he asked.

I nudged his shoulder with mine. “We’re making Alice and Eddie internet famous again.”

“Tabitha, you can put my grandson in the video too if you need additional charisma,” Alice said.

Tabitha raised playful eyes at the two of us. “Hi, Rowan. Did you bring some extra charisma for me?”