Emily tried again. “Tom, I saw her and Tyler kissing on the porch!”
“Yeah,” he turned on her, “because she’s our wife.”
“Son of a bitch!” one of the men in the hall uttered. Peggy shushed him.
“I wanted to put off doing this, but let’s get it over with.” Thomas continued. “Tyler has every right to kiss her.” He put his arm around Tyler and Nevvie. “It’s the three of us. Do you understand me? Tyler and I asked her to be our wife. No, we can’t legally marry her, but she’s our wife.”
Emily’s face reddened. “You can’t do that! That’s not right!”
“You said the same thing when I brought Tyler home and you’ve accepted him.”
“That’s different!”
“No, it’s not different, Em. I love her as much as I love him. You don’t decide who I can and can’t love.”
Cheryl was slow on the uptake. “What the hell are you talking about, Tommy? You mean the two of you share her?”
“You asking for details or generalities, Cher?” Thomas shot back.
“No, I mean…Wow.” She sat, stunned.
Emily tried to enlist help and turned on April and Karen. “Are you two going to just stand there or say something?”
Karen held up her hands. “Hey, we don’t have a problem with it. We like her.”
“What?” Emily realized something else. “How the hell long have you known?
April shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. They love her.”
Katie, realizing they were no use, shook her head. “Mom, come on, help us talk some sense into Tommy.”
Peggy stepped forward. “Girls, you are apparently the only ones with a problem. It’s not our business. She’s a guest in my home. You have two choices—stay and be sociable, or leave.”
Emily’s color darkened. “You have got to be shitting me! You cannot stand there and tell me you’re fine with this!”
“It’s not our business. I think she’s sweet, and I think she loves them. They obviously love her.”
Katie leaned against the cabinet, her hands pressed to her forehead, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this. I just cannot believe this.”
Thomas turned to Cheryl. “Are you okay with this?”
Realizing he was talking to her, she looked up. “What? I don’t know.”
He turned to Katie. “Kate? How’s this going to be? Are you going to respect my decision, or are you going to keep going at her? If you can’t play nice you need to leave, or I will take her and Tyler and go to a hotel. I will not have her picked on by you two.”
Katie had drifted from righteous indignation to confusion now that her mother had weighed in. “What, are you guys like swingers or something? I can’t believe you’d—”
“Tyler and I have been faithful to each other our entire relationship. We met her and both fell in love with her. Lucky for us, she felt the same way. We’re like anyone else, except there’s three of us instead of two. This has nothing to do with sex, it’s about love. We love her, she loves us. If you can’t wrap your head around it, that’s your problem, not ours.” He turned to Emily. “That goes for you, too. Back off, or we’ll leave. Take your holier-than-thou crap and shove it up your ass.”
Peggy stood next to Tyler and Nevvie. “What’s it gonna be, girls? Can we move past this and get on with dessert?”
Katie reached for the bottle of bourbon and poured a few splashes, downing it. “I need some time with this.”
“That’s fine,” Thomas said. “I’m not asking for your approval or blessings. I’m only asking for respect and civility. For all three of us.”
Katie nodded. “Okay.”
That left Emily, who looked ready to explode. “Well?” Thomas asked.
“How dare you do this to our mother! It wasn’t bad enough you brought Tyler home, now this?”
Peggy stepped forward and shook her finger in Emily’s face. “You listen to me, lady. I love Tyler, and I think I’m going to love Nevvie, once I get to know her. Don’t you be thinking you have to fight some morality battle for me. You suck it up or get the hell outta my house.”
Emily looked shocked then stormed out of the kitchen. They heard the back door slam a moment later.
The collective relief was palpable.
Karen sighed loudly. “Well, now that the floor show’s over, can we have pie?”
Nevvie nervously laughed. Karen’s tone and inflection was so similar to Thomas, she couldn’t help it.
At first, tension filled the air. As the others settled into the news, nerves eased and eventually all relaxed. Emily returned a half-hour later. She grabbed her husband and hugged Peggy.
“I’m sorry, Momma, but I need to need to go. I’ll call you.” She left without saying goodbye to anyone else.
The mood lifted with their departure. Thomas cornered Nevvie in the kitchen a few minutes later.
“I’m sorry, Nev. I knew she’d explode one way or the other, and I was hoping maybe if she had a chance to get to know you…She’ll come around eventually, sugar. She did the same thing when I brought Tyler home.”
Nevvie glared at him.
“Okay, not quite as bad, but it took her a while to accept him. It’ll be okay. Hey, four out of five, plus Momma, that’s good.”
Tyler joined their hug, kissing the back of her neck. “Are you all right, sweet?”
“Yeah. I’ll be okay.”
“Ooh! Me too!” Karen rushed across the kitchen and hugged Tyler from behind. “Hiya, Blue Eyes.”
The others laughed. Nevvie understood this was a not quite completely innocent running joke with her. “Sorry, Karen. They’re a matched set. If you take one, you’ve got to take the other.”
Karen released Tyler with a shudder. “Ick! My brother? Yuck. Thanks for the ice water on my fantasy. Blech.” But she smiled. “Don’t worry. Em’s big concern was probably that you guys would give Clay bad ideas. I swear that man is gay.”
“I doubt it,” Tyler said. “He’s never made a pass at me.”
“That means he’s blind, Ty, not straight.”
The rest of the evening was relaxed as they passed the eggnog around and the mood stayed light. With promises to get together for lunch on Sunday at the house, they all said good night a little after eleven.
Peggy smiled at Nevvie. “Could have been a lot worse, sugar. You did good today.”
“Thanks, Mom.” She wouldn’t deny it felt good calling her that.
Peggy yawned. “I’m going to bed. Whatever’s left in the kitchen, we can wash it in the morning.” She started down the hall to her bedroom when she turned.
“Oh, Tommy?”
“Yes, Momma?”
“Try not to fall out of bed again. You shook the whole house.”
They all laughed. “Yes, Momma. I’ll try.”
* * * *
The weekend flew by. All the sisters except Emily dropped by the house at various times to visit or have dinner. Nevvie relaxed and eventually felt like part of the family. The boys carefully kept their public displays of affection to a minimum around others, and the three crammed into the too-small bed to sleep every night.
Nevvie and the boys helped Peggy put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house, apparently an annual tradition. Tyler was relieved when Nevvie insisted he stay on the ground while she went on the roof with Thomas to help string lights.
Peggy watched them from the front yard, standing next to Tyler. “She’s good at that kind of stuff, isn’t she?”
“Absolutely. She loves working on the Ford with him, things like that. She’s amazing. You know I’m bloody worthless at this, always have been.”
Peggy shook her head. “Funny how this all worked out, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He looked at her. “Now you understand.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, Tyler. I can’t say I understand. As long as y’all are happy.”
Tyler loved Peggy. He wasn’t close to his own mother, usually saw her only once a year, if that. They talked on the phone from time to time, but she always steered around the subject of Thomas like he was non-existent, treating him like the elephant in the corner. Tyler hadn’t bothered trying to tell her about Nevvie.
Peggy, however, felt like a mom to him.
“She’s had a rough life, Mom,” he said, dropping his voice. “She was adopted, then her adoptive mother basically abandoned her after her husband died and she remarried. We’re the first real family she’s had that she can count on.”
Peggy nodded. “I can tell. You two hold onto her tight. I think it would kill her to lose you.” She sat at the picnic table. “We once had this little dog, it’d been abused. Poor thing scared of its own shadow. The longer we had it, the more it settled down, but it still clung to me. If I left a room, here it’d come, on my heels. She’d get frantic if I went outside and didn’t crate her first. She’d try to look out the windows and find me.”
Peggy watched Nevvie. “She reminds me of that little dog, Tyler. She only looks comfortable if one of you are around. If you’re both there, she relaxes.” She leveled her gaze at Tyler. “Don’t go ruining this by being stupid men, either. Stay focused on the important stuff and stay away from the petty crap. Hold her tight, son.”
Tyler nodded. “Believe me, we will.”