Chapter 7: Julie

Sarah and I talked after we got the kids down, over two glasses of wine. She told me the whole story, including the fact that Carrie was transgender. I was completely surprised. She didn’t look like what I thought a transgender would look like, she just looked like a regular young woman. No, she looked like a hot young woman. I looked in on myself, and knew I couldn’t judge. My first sexual relationship was with an older woman. It didn’t last, and I convinced myself to stay off the girls’ team, but after my marriage cratered, I’d find myself looking at men and women with equal interest. I smiled to myself, thinking I just might get one of each. Mike had done it, and it seemed to be working out fine.

Sarah was very insecure about it. “Relax. I see the way he looks at both of you. I don’t think he could pick one over the other. You seemed to be a matched set. Keep it that way, don’t get jealous of each other, or it’ll tear you apart. Does he treat Carrie better? I thought not. Just keep doing what you guys are doing now, and it’ll be fine.”

We woke in the night, hearing voices. Sarah flew into my room in a panic. “It was Carlos. Some guy chased him off, let me know through the door he’d be watching the rest of the night.”

I held her until she calmed down, then we moved into the master bedroom, leaving the kids to sleep, and I spent the rest of the night cuddling her. Not a bad experience, not at all.

Just as we were about to go to the boat my parents arrived. I had forgotten I had called them. We exchanged hugs, I introduced Sarah, and we all went to fetch Carrie and Mike. Mom simply grabbed Mike, crying on his shoulder, thanking him for taking care of her babies, and expressing her sorrow over his parents.

He told us about the memorial service, and they said they’d love to attend, but they didn’t have a place to stay and needed to get back. Mike had asked me once how often they came up, when we were up on the top deck alone.

“They don’t. When the economy tanked, it caught dad by surprise. He had a lot of high risk investments, and just like that, the life savings were gone. He managed to hold on to the house, but he had to give up all the toys to be able to. They haven’t had a vacation in two years.” Mike wanted to know why they didn’t call on his parents. “We were going to, but the weekend before they were coming to see them, the accident happened.”

He just grinned and told them that was unacceptable. he had promised the kids he was going to take them to a street fair today, and he didn’t go back on his promises. “I rented one of the guest cabins for you, for the rest of the weekend. Now, let’s go get some breakfast. I’m so hungry Nat is starting to look mighty tasty.” He gave a fake growl, and she ran off giggling and screaming, peeking out from behind her grandmother to see if he was chasing her. He left us all with our mouths open as he climbed into the truck. I rode with my parents, the kids rode with Mike. They gave me a grilling over everything that had happened since I called. I told them the truth.