Tethered (Book Two of The Invisible String Series)

Welcome To The Farm

My mother glances away from the road to give me a quick smile. "Y/N, sweetie, I'm your mother. I know you. After watching you and Lizzie both fret over this girl I had my suspicions. For what it's worth, though, I think you two are going to make great parents. And I think what you and Lizzie are doing is very admirable."

"So you don't think it's a terrible idea? Or that we're getting way in over our heads with this?"

"I think that it's very obvious to see how much you both care about her, and if you both feel like this is something you need to do then I will give you my full support. Besides, I'm excited to finally be a grandmother. I'm going to spoil that poor child rotten."

Rolling my eyes, I let my mother carry on with the conversation, listening in to all the things she plans on doing with her new granddaughter. Every single thing warms me to my very core, and it makes me so very happy to know that our families are so onboard with this. If any of them had objected to the idea of us taking Olivia in...well, I can only imagine how that would go down. Because Lizzie and I have both spoken about this at length with one another, and it's abundantly clear that this is something we both want.

Eventually my mother exits the highway and passes the familiar, worn sign that welcomes all visitors to our little town and I smile as I try to rouse the sleeping beauty next to me. "Lizzie, baby, we're here."

I somehow manage to get the brunette awake and coherent enough just as we enter the town's main stretch of life. It's pretty simple, about fifty or so feet of shops and businesses that crowd either side of a single stop-light road. I point out a few places as we pass by, like the tattoo shop where I got my first tattoo done at sixteen and the bar that we'd be visiting for the New Year's Eve party tomorrow night. Lizzie seems to take it all in, looking genuinely excited and like she wants to know all of this, and it makes me fall that much more in love with the other woman.

Honestly I hadn't been all that willing to bring Lizzie here, because it's painfully obvious that she and I had very different childhoods and grew up in very different houses, halfway across the country from each other. When Lizzie was sixteen, she was attending movie premieres with her family and I was just trying to survive my Geometry final. I was a little afraid to share that part of my life with her, but looking at her now, asking questions about things and looking so happy to be here...it's just so...Lizzie. My sweet and wonderful Lizzie, who has never once cared that I grew up in a one-horse town in the middle of fucking nowhere and who didn't have the same opportunities as her, and I suddenly feel a little silly for ever thinking she would look at me any differently for it.

Finally we manage to make it to the farm's entrance, and I smile widely as my mother turns onto the gravel road and I instantly scoot further in my seat to peer out the windshield as everything comes into view. The farm is pretty nice, especially for this area, and it's certainly not the exact same house that I once grew up in. I made sure that every repair was made the second I got my cut of the money from the band's first album, so it's been fairly renovated over the years. But it's still the same two-story farmhouse, painted that light colored blue that my father and I spent an entire summer painting my first year of middle school.

I'm out of the truck the second my mother puts it into park, bending down to meet Benji as he trots over towards me, his stump of a tail (and therefore his entire backside) wagging behind him at warp speed. Benji is a fairly new addition to the farm, since my mother got him after I moved out to LA, but he's still one of my favorite things about coming home. He's a five year old Australian Shepherd, and the goodest boi ever. "Hello, Benji! You are just as handsome as ever!"

The dog lets out a light yap, hopping up to slather my face in dog slobber and forcing me to laugh loudly. I somehow manage to wrangle myself away from him, smiling a little when he instantly trots over to Lizzie and acts as if he's known her his entire life. But he's always been good about people and the vibes they give off. He's fiercely loyal to very few, and good at his job of protecting the farm animals and my mom. It doesn't surprise me at all that Lizzie gets his seal of approval.