It's All Part of the Story

I am gonna love you for a long time

December 2019

"Oh my god, you were so cute," Karlie exclaims nudging Taylor with her elbow from her position on the floor of Andrea's living room where she is propped against the couch beside her fiancée.

"Excuse me, what's all this 'were'?" Taylor says nudging Karlie sharply in response.

"You know I didn't mean it like that," Karlie says keeping her eyes trained on the t.v. which is showing old home movies of Taylor and Austin but still leaning over to press a kiss to Taylor's cheek.

"Did you know that we couldn't get her to say her own name when she was little?" Andrea pipes up from her position on the couch behind the girls.

"Really?" Karlie asks turning to look back at Andrea.

"Oh yeah. Austin's name she had no trouble with but every time we asked her what her name was, she would just say 'me'."

"You think that's bad, I couldn't say my r's properly when I was little. I called myself Kawlie until I was seven."

"You're so cute," Taylor whispers pressing a kiss to the underside of Karlie's jaw, choosing to ignore Austin's muttered 'gross' and shoot him a glare.

"Hey mom?" Austin asks from his position on one of the armchairs beside the fireplace. "What's up with Alice's baby shower invite?"

Taylor's head snaps up as she glares at her brother and he returns her stare with a smug grin. She points at Austin before using her thumb to create an invisible line in front of her throat, mimicking cutting off his head and Austin just shoots her a challenging look in return.

"What do you mean?" Andrea asks, finally looking up from her crossword and completely missing the way Austin's face falls into a placid expression and Taylor drops her hand.

"What even is a gender reveal party?" Austin asks with an exaggerated sigh.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"Oh, thank God," Austin says with a relieved huff before turning back to the t.v..

"But speaking of grandbabies..." Andrea starts, putting down her paper and clicking her pen.

"Mom..." Taylor says as a warning as Karlie sighs, dropping her head to rest against Taylor's shoulder, already resigned to having this conversation.

Austin reaches for his glass of water and sips from it to hide his smug grin but then Andrea falters, having noticed Taylor and Karlie's uncomfortable shifting.

"Austin, when are we finally going to meet your girlfriend?"

Austin chokes on his water, coughing loudly but still managing to turn to Taylor and say, "You snitch!"

Taylor snorts loudly, doesn't try to argue the point because she's too busy trying not to laugh at her brother almost dying and when she looks sideways at Karlie, Karlie's shaking with badly suppressed laughter.

"It's okay if it's not a girlfriend, you know," Andrea says, pushing forward. "Just like with your sister, if you're attracted to people of your own gender, that's more than okay. I'll still always love you and that doesn't make you any less of a man."

Austin's eyes go impossibly wide as he makes several strangled sounds of indignation and Taylor can't keep it in any longer at the sight of her red-faced little brother, bursts out laughing.