Cassidy looked at her sister for a second, a glimmer of hope appearing in her eyes that Cadence hadn’t seen since before the incident in Philadelphia. She also glanced at the expectant faces of her parents before she turned to look at Brandon, whose eyes were the size of saucers. Without another word, Cassidy pulled herself up off the couch and slowly proceeded to the front door. Cadence wanted to give her some privacy, but at the same time, she didn’t want to miss her sister’s expression if Elliott’s impeccable timing had led him to choose that exact moment to reveal the good news.
Pulling the door open cautiously, Cassidy gasped and let it swing against the wall, her hands covering her mouth. She stood frozen for a moment, Cadence, her parents, and Aaron only a few steps behind her.
“How’s my favorite teenager?” Elliott asked, his arms wide open, his feet still planted on the porch, giving her a second to process.
Cassidy seemed to assess him for a moment, and Cadence could identify with the necessity in making sure what she was seeing was real. A split second later, Cass flung herself into his arms, simultaneously bursting into tears. As Elliott stroked her little sister’s hair and reassured her that it was really him, Cadence turned to find Brandon sitting on the armrest of the sofa, as if he wasn’t quite sure how he fit into this Kodak moment.
With a smile, Cadence stepped over to Brandon and put her arm around his shoulders. “You okay?” she asked.
He nodded, a dazed expression in his eyes.
Cadence squeezed him, and once Cassidy regained a bit of her composure and released Elliott, the rest of the crowd parted so that Elliott could tentatively approach the son he’d never known he had.
He stopped a good three feet from where Brandon still perched on the sofa arm. “Did that portal open to 1967?” he asked, “’cause I swear I’m lookin’ in a mirror.”
Brandon let out a soft chuckle, but he didn’t move yet, and Cadence kept her arm around him as they gave him time to process.
“Hi. I’m Elliott,” he said, extending his massive hand. “You must be Brandon.”
Brandon stood to take his hand, looking down as they shook as if he thought his hand might pass right through his father’s. After a moment, he managed, “I’m sorry. I just… I never thought I’d have the chance to meet you.”
Elliott nodded. “I know. And I never thought I’d have the opportunity to be a father again. But it’s really great to meet you. You take as much time as you need. You’ll find out soon enough what a great guy I am.” The last sentence was punctuated with a wink, and Cadence couldn’t help but punch her friend in the arm, though she was a bit gentler this time after his complaint on the airplane.
“Elliott, it is absolutely incredible to see you,” Cadence’s mother said stepping forward to embrace him. “When Cadence said she had good news, I never would have even dared to dream this is what she was talking about.”
“It’s nice to see you, Mrs. Findley,” Elliott replied, patting her on the back. “Mr. Findley,” he continued after releasing her mother and extending his hand to Cadence’s father, “I’m so very sorry for your loss. Janette was an amazing woman.”
“Thank you,” Cadence’s dad said, tears forming in his eyes again. “While I’m still shocked to hear about Mom, it’s nice to know that you are back. And I guess you can vouch for how wonderful things are for my parents now?”
Elliott nodded. “Though I can’t say that I remember everything exactly, I can definitely say that I have an overall impression of peace and joy whenever I think about the place I’ve been for the last eight or so months.”
Eli Findley nodded. “That’s very comforting to hear.” He offered a weak smile to Elliott, and then turning to address his family, he said, “Well, I think I need to drive over to Lorraine’s house and let her and Ralph know what has happened. I’m sure that Jacob and Ella will take it very hard since they don’t know about all of this yet.”
Cadence stepped forward to hug her father, thinking about how hard it would be for her cousins, who were only ten and twelve, to hear about their grandmother passing. Her aunt lived south of Shenandoah, a good four hours from Des Moines by regular human driving, so she wasn’t sure how often the younger kids got to visit their grandmother, but she was certain it would be a heavy blow. “I love you, Dad,” she said, kissing him on the cheek.
“I’m proud of you, Cadence. So was your grandmother,” he replied, kissing the top of her head as he often did when she was a little girl. He said his goodbyes to his wife and Cassidy, who had recovered a bit from her initial shock at seeing Elliott, and made his way out the door.
Once he’d left, Cadence stepped over to her sister. Spreading her arms wide in the air, she said, “Surprise!”
“God, you’re such a dork. I thought you were going to tell all of us you were pregnant,” her sister shot back on the IAC, her arms crossed in front of her, the only indication that she was actually happy with Cadence’s decision a slight twinkle in her eye that hadn’t been there earlier.
“Shut up!” Cadence fired back. “Would that have been the good news or the bad news?”
The only answer Cadence got was an uninterested shrug. “Come on, Elliott. Come upstairs. There’s so much we need to tell you,” Cassidy said, stepping between her sister and her fiancé who had been even quieter than usual during the whole introduction, and grabbing Elliott by the arm.
“Well, okay then,” Elliott replied, looking at Liz as if he was asking for permission. The mother only laughed, and Cassidy took Elliott’s arm in one hand and Brandon’s in the other and pushed and pulled them toward the stairs.
“Do you let her take Brandon to her room?” Cadence asked, turning to face her mother as her sister’s suddenly chipper voice evaporated up the stairs.
Liz shrugged. “I let you take boys to your room.”
“And how did that turn out?” Cadence shot back, her eyes wide. She knew that her mother was aware that she and Jack had gotten more than a little friendly in her bedroom, though never with her parents actually home.
“Cassidy is a good girl,” Liz explained, tidying up the sofa pillows as Cadence chased behind her.
“So was I,” she reminded her mother. She felt Aaron’s hand pulling back on her shoulder, a sign that he thought she might be overreacting or stepping into her mother’s territory, and she reined it in a bit.
Liz just shook her head. “You’re staying here tonight, aren’t you?” she asked, as if it were a foregone conclusion.
Cadence looked at Aaron, who didn’t really provide her with an answer, although his lack of response was an indicator that it was up to her. “I guess so?”
“Good. Your father will be happy to see that you’re still here when he gets back from your aunt’s house.”
“In that case, I need to use the washing machine,” Cadence replied, realizing she’d worn every outfit she had more than once and some of them in the dusty desert.
Liz was walking toward the kitchen, but she paused, and shouted over her shoulder, “It’s in the same place it’s been for the last twenty years!”
“I wasn’t implying I wanted you to do it!” Cadence hollered back, though the kitchen door was already swinging closed.
“Ah, nice to see everything is back to normal,” Aaron said, shaking his head as he pulled her closer.
“Oh, yes. Quite normal. There’s a dead guy upstairs in my monsister’s room, and my grandma just disappeared into another dimension. Just another day in the life of Cadence Josephine Findley.”
He laughed at her, as he pulled her head against his shoulder. “Monsister?”
“Monster sister,” she explained. “And not because of the Vampire blood either. Oh, no, her attitude has won her that name.”
“And what am I? Your boyfiend?” he asked, kissing her forehead.
“Nah, I don’t need any fancy millennial terms to describe you,” she said, turning to wrap her arms around his waist. “You’re just a jackass.”
His hands slid down her back and came to rest just above the band of her jeans. “You’ve called me worse,” he reminded her. “You definitely outsmarted me this time. I’ll give you that.”
“I’m sorry I had to lie to you,” she replied, looking into his blue eyes and feeling a bit of the constriction around her heart release.
Rather than verbally accepting her apology, he found her mouth with his, and if there had ever been any doubt that they could make it through this riff, it all melted away as he breathed her in. He continued to kiss her passionately for several moments before he finally released her. “I love you, Cadence. Nothing can ever change that.”
“I love you, too,” she replied, and she meant it, the recent thoughts of whether or not they actually loved each other or only thought they did because of their positions starting to fade away.
