TILL DEATH DO US PART | JENLISA

TWENTY-SIX

JENNIE

***

What Victory Feels Like

May 20th, 2029

(1 year left)

***

The sparrows sing in the tree above us. I can see them, hopping around and lingering, despite the warble of Celeste’s whine.

“Jennie.”

I glance over at Lisa. She gives me a smile that knows me so fully and so well, I feel exposed under the intensity.

“Can you pass me the musical toy?” I do and when her fingers brush mine I feel the charge into my bones. That is how it has been since I told her. Even here, in the mundane moment of lounging in the front yard, it’s no less powerful. Everything between us is as sharp as a razor’s edge, so blessedly deep and electric.

She winds the little plastic toy for Celeste, and I direct my eyes to the amber eyed toddler between us as she quiets and listens to the music play. She brushes her bangs out of her face as the rest of her hair splays on the blanket beneath us like she is floating in water.

Celeste is so very much a mix between Lisa and myself, our baby through and through. I marvel at her, and the bright smile she got from her mother when she looks at me and speaks. “Hi, Mommy.”

“Hi, baby girl.” When I look up at Lisa, she is leaning back regarding me with that mirrored expression. “What?” I ask softly, putting my hand through Celeste’s hair. She coos contentedly and I keep the motion going idly as I stare at Lisa.

“Just looking at you.” Her dark eyes move over me and when she cocks her head, her curls catch the light. “You’re so beautiful against the grass. It makes your eyes so green.”

I feel the same way. “You, too.”

She wets her lips, forming a smile. “Nothing on this earth will ever be as beautiful as you.”

It makes my heart skip a beat, and I feel my blush move up my neck because of the sincerity she says it with. “I don’t know if that is tr–”

“It is. Don’t fight it. Just let me say it over and over, because it’s the truth.”

So, I do. I halt the words coming out of my mouth and form a smile instead. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, my love.” She leans over, looking past me. “Emily! Get off your phone and enjoy the day!”

“Mom, come on!”

I roll my eyes.

“She just did that same motion. Wonder where she gets it from?” Lisa glances at me with a smile and pushes to her feet. She pauses beside me, her fingers gathering in my hair and scratching lightly against my scalp. “Emily, let’s swing. I’ll push you.”

“I’m too old for that. God, why can’t you just let me do my own thing?”

“Tell whoever it is you’ll talk later, or I’m going to take that phone and read through every text on it.”

I watch as Lisa approaches her and holds out her hand. Emily shifts from one foot to the other, somehow juggling her soccer ball deftly as she literally makes the phone disappear. I’ve never seen electronics vanish that quickly. She doesn’t do it happily, not at all, wearing a very angry glare stunningly reminiscent of one of my own. She stomps the ball into a bounce and then kicks it into the bushes. And boy, does she have the temper her mother once had.