EMORY
“For you and Callum I will, Butterfly. I don’t need my career as much as I need your love.”
His words were so powerful that I had to press my hand against my heart to keep it from beating out of my chest. This world is such a funny place and sometimes the pieces to our puzzles just fall into place out of nowhere. Had you told me the first night I met Glenn that I’d desperately want him to love me the way I loved him, I would have told you that you were crazy. Yet here we are. I don’t know exactly when it happened. All I know is when I drove away from his place my heart felt like it was being torn in two. It should have been a sign that I loved him, but it took seeing him bust into that hospital room yesterday to knock some sense into me.
The list of reasons I shouldn’t love him was a mile long. We had a bit of an age gap. He was exponentially smarter than I was. He had way more life experiences. I was just starting on my own while he was established in his career and personal life. We had barely spent time together since being reunited under such an extreme circumstance, but my brain didn’t care. He brought me safety, and security, and made me feel whole.
“I don’t want you to have to give it up, Glenn.” I was wearing nothing but his t-shirt, but I strolled into the living room anyway. Callum was too young to care, all the blinds were closed, and Glenn didn’t mind my look one bit. He set Callum down in his bouncer and opened his arms to welcome me onto his lap. “We can make things work the way they are.”
I settled in, straddled on his lap and Glenn pressed a kiss to my forehead and then encompassed me with his arms. “We could try all we wanted, Emory, but I don’t see it working if we’re apart.”
The beating in my chest did ease at all. I heard the words he had spoken to his father, but I didn’t believe that he’d actually leave his career for a woman he barely knew. I was just waiting for the truth to come out, for him to admit he didn’t mean exactly what he said. “If this is about the visitation plan we made, we can look at it again. I know my mom is fine with my working out of the office and we could spend longer stints of time there.”
“Emory, babe, you’re not hearing me.”
“You said that this won’t work if we’re apart, so I’m trying to figure out ways that we don’t have to be apart for much.”
Glenn pulled me away from his chest and held me at arm’s length, his brown eyes bore into mine, nothing but truth could be said or I would see right through him, “I refuse to have the same relationship with Callum that I have with my dad. Even if you stayed at my place in the city for a week or two, you wouldn’t see me often. Callum would see me even less. It makes no sense that I’d ask you to come to me when I couldn’t be with you.”
“There has to be a way,” I pleaded.
“I’m telling you the way. I’ll step down from my current position.”
I shake my head, “You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” He chuckled in disbelief, “I don’t understand you, Butterfly. I thought you wanted to be together, did I misread this entire thing?”
“That is what I want Glenn, I just don’t want you to make such a sacrifice.”
“Why?” I looked down, refusing to make eye contact with him. That wasn’t acceptable, so he took my chin and lifted it until our eyes met again. “Answer me, Emory. Why don’t you want me to make the sacrifice? Didn’t we just have a huge fight about this? You didn’t want to leave your job, I didn’t want to leave mine. I’m pretty sure I said something about lawyers and your brother punched me in the face later on.” I cringe remembering that night, but Glenn just laughed. “It is different now, Em. I’ve seen the light, so to say. I don’t want to be my dad. I want to make better choices for my family, for you.”
“What if you regret your choice?” I confessed. “How do you know that two years from now you won’t be pissed off that you gave up everything and all you got was a mediocre home in a small ass town?”
“I don’t know what I’ll be doing in two years, but I sure as hell know I won’t be regretting my choice.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“I can, Butterfly because I’m choosing the woman I love and our miracle that we made together. Hell, in two years I might be trying to convince you to give me another miracle.”
A tear escaped, but Glenn was quick to wipe it away with his thumb. He leaned in a pressed a sweet kiss to my lips, “I love you, Emory Bishop.”
“I love you too, Glenn.”
A huge grin spread across his face, “Say it again.”
I giggled and grabbed his face with my hands, “I love you so fucking much, Glenn Barnes. I don’t understand it, but who the hell am I to fight it?”
“I know you are used to fighting, but don’t fight this.”
“So….what now?”
“Not sure,” he shrugs, “I’ve never quit a job before. I guess I should call it resigning because that sounds better. I’ll have to call my boss and speak with him. They’ll probably expect me to meet with the hospital board as well. I’ll also need to give them an end date, that is the least I can do.”
“And then what? You want to move here?”
“If you’ll have me. I know it is a lot of big changes, so we can take things one at a time. If you don’t want to live together I can find an apartment or rent out a room at the hotel.”
“Don’t you think it would be silly for you to live somewhere else?”
“Emory,” he laughs, “You’re being awfully impossible right now. More than anything I’d like to be here full time with you and Callum. I want to tuck him in every night, share the evening feedings, and get him ready in the morning so you can get some extra sleep or just worry about getting yourself to work, but I’m giving you the option because this is a huge change for the both of us.”
“And you promise you won’t end up regretting this?”
“No, Butterfly,” he gently kisses my forehead, “The only thing I’ll ever regret is missing out on your pregnancy and Callum’s first few months.”
“You didn’t know,” I remind him of the obvious.
“I didn’t know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t regret not being there. I’m making it up by being there for everything else, okay?”
“Yeah,” I put my hand on his face, “This is probably the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m all in Glenn. I just have one question.”
“Anything, Emory.”
“Can I still call you Doctor?”
Glenn playfully growled and I could feel his cock growing between the two of us, “I swear the God the second he goes down for a nap I’m bending you over wherever you are and fucking you so hard.”
I bit down on my bottom lip, “Sounds like a deal.”
—--
I stepped out of the shower when I heard the doorbell ring. It was the middle of the work day and I wasn’t expecting any guests. Everybody in my family knew what was going on with Callum and that I wouldn’t be at work today. Kelsey even sent me a text to tell me she’d change our shared drive password if I attempted any work. Normally I would have called her bluff, but Glenn made sure that I went nowhere near my computer today. Once Callum went down for his morning nap, he pulled me into the bedroom and did all the things he promised he would. I'm pretty sure I made him orgasm early when I called him doctor in my huskiest voice. He made up for the early discharge a couple of times over. When Callum was ready to get up, Glenn was out of bed before I even registered his crying.
Maybe having him around wouldn’t be so bad after all. He was capable of getting me to let my guard down and ask for help. Both things were scary, but I felt a lot less fearful taking those chances with him around. While he took care of Callum, I was able to take a nice long shower. He also must have answered the door, because I heard muffled voices coming from downstairs. I opened the bedroom door just a bit and immediately recognized Cody and Blair as the two voices. I hurried up and pulled on some clothes and went downstairs to meet them, they were all in the kitchen, Blair with Callum on her hip.
“Hey, I didn’t know you two were going to stop by!” I hugged my brother and then gave Blair a little side hug.
“I sent you a text, but I didn’t wait for an answer, maybe I should have.” Blair glanced at Glenn and back at me and then wiggled her eyebrows.
“Jesus, Blair, you’re going to make me lose my lunch.” Cody pretended to gag, but his wife just playfully smacked his shoulder.
“Grow up, Cody, nobody cares.”
“Cody and Blair were nice enough to bring us something for dinner tonight,” Glenn pointed to the baking dish on the counter. “I didn’t even get punched in the face this time.”
“I don’t regret it, you still deserved it.”
“I did, but hopefully that’ll be the last one,” Glenn rubbed his jawline.
“Just treat her right and it will be.” Cody looked back to me, “Mom said Callum was doing better this morning, so I hope it is okay that we stopped by. We didn’t bring Esme because she’s a germ factory.”
“We’re already worried that she may have been the one to get him sick, to begin with. She’s been kind of stuffy, but we didn’t think much of it. We’re sorry, Emory,” Blair frowned.
“Oh no, don’t be too hard on yourself. He needs to spend time with his cousin and I’m well aware that it could mean catching a bug. I think I overreacted a bit too.”
Blair grinned, “Yeah, we heard it was quite the scene.”
“At least I didn’t punch anybody,” Glenn quipped.
“Should have,” Cody grumbled back.
“Okay you too, that’s enough. I don’t think we need any more violence or fighting. Callum is going to be just fine and Glenn, well I guess if you want to share the good news I should let you.”
“Good news?” Blair asked excitedly.
I walked over to Glenn and he put his arm around my waist and kissed the top of my head, “I decided that I’m going to step down from my position at the hospital and move here. Medicine is always going to be there, but Callum is only little once and I want to be there for as much as I can.”
“Oh my gosh, I’m so happy for the two of you!” Blair hands Callum off to Cody and gives Glenn and me both a huge hug and then one to just me. I’m glad I’ll always have her support, even if other people might question if we’re moving too fast or doing things the wrong way. I am so lucky to have a good group of friends here now and I don’t know what I would do without them.
Cody and Blair stuck around for a little bit longer to just chat about nothing specific at all. Cody even exchanged numbers with Glenn so he could invite him to some of the morning workout sessions he has with the guys. We’re not sure when he’ll be here full-time just yet, but at least he can start building those bonds as well. We walked them out to their car, thanking them again for the lasagna roll-ups that we could heat up for dinner. I was holding Callum and walking with Blair while the guys were ahead of us talking about baseball…of course.
Blair slipped her arm into mine and pulled me a bit closer, “You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“How could you tell?”
“Girl, I’ve practically known you your entire life. I don’t think you need to worry though.”
“You don’t?”
“Nah, Glenn’s got that same look for you to Cody has for me and Dalton for Elizabeth and Chaz for Kelsey, and Harrison for Ang…you get the point.”
“He might regret leaving his job, he’s a doctor after all.”
“So?” Blair shrugs, “There is a perfectly good hospital just down the highway and a medical director that would probably hire him. Take the win here, Emory. You deserve to be happy and so much more. That man right there is going to make you happy.”
“I love him,” I said, staring off at the men in front of us.
“I know. Take it from somebody with experience, love always finds a way in the end.”