I don’t know when it happened, or how, but Logan somehow managed to make Josh his best bud. I probably should’ve noticed sooner. They lived in the same house, after all. But somewhere between Desi getting married, me losing my mind about Desi getting married, and all the other chaos around here, the two of them formed an alliance right under my nose. It probably sounds like I’m jealous, but that’s totally not the case. I mean, Josh is cool, and who wouldn’t fall in love with Logan? And I love that Josh likes Logan. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been quietly concerned about that. Not everyone is so understanding of my blue alien son. Even though I knew Josh was a good guy, knowing someone is a good person and watching them love your kid exactly as he is are two different things. Logan had him figured out since the very beginning, and he followed Josh around like a tiny shadow. Josh never seemed bothered by it. If anything, he encouraged him. Half the time I couldn’t tell which one of them had started whatever nonsense they were into.
Watching them together made me smile, but it also put another thought in my head. When he and Desi leave, Logan will lose two best friends now. My little guy was super intelligent and understood way more than I gave him credit for, but he was still too young to understand marriage and moving out and starting a life with someone. As far as Logan was concerned, Desi and Josh lived here because this was where they belonged. His birthday was coming up soon, however. Hopefully, the maturity that came with the child stage would help him understand things a little better. If not… Well … I supposed we’ll be making a lot of trips to Desi’s new house.
Speaking of Desi and Josh, the closer we got to moving day, the more I realized how much I was going to miss watching them.
I know. That’s strange coming from the guy who was going toe-to-toe with a body bag a few days ago. But once I got over myself, stopped questioning every decision they’d made, accepted our new reality, and actually looked at them, I saw what had probably been there the whole time. They had something special. They were each other’s favorite person and talked constantly about important things. Stupid things. Things that apparently required entire conversations despite making absolutely no sense to anyone who wasn’t them. Sometimes I’d be sitting right there, and I don’t think either of them remembered I existed. I tried not to take it personally, heh. But watching them reminded me so much of Sophia and me at the beginning. Before careers and kids and responsibilities piled themselves on top of everything else, we could talk for hours about absolutely nothing. Desi and Josh were like that. They were best friends. And as her father, that comforted me more than almost anything else I’d seen since they got married because feelings fluctuate. There will be days when they’re crazy about each other and days when they’ll get on each other’s last nerve. There’ll would be arguments. Stress. Bad decisions. Things neither will see coming. But if they protect this—the friendship underneath all of it—they’ll have somewhere to find each other again.
I smiled as Desi said something that made Josh laugh. Even though I’d moaned, whined, questioned, and dragged my feet through this entire thing, somehow we ended up here. She had exactly what I’d always wanted her to have. I just hadn’t expected her to go get it so damn fast.
At some point, I realized I’d been standing there watching them for entirely too long. So before someone accused me of stalking my own daughter, I grabbed Rosie’s leash.
“Come on, girl.”
She didn’t need to be asked twice and led me to stop and investigate every shrub, mailbox, suspicious patch of grass, and whatever else dogs found fascinating, which gave me plenty of time to think. A week ago, I’d been terrified Desi and Josh were making the biggest mistake of their lives. Now? I still thought they were young. I still wished they’d taken their time. And I still would’ve preferred finding out about the wedding before it happened. But I wasn’t afraid for them anymore. As long as they kept trusting each other, talking the way they did now, and figuring things out together, they’d be fine. Not perfect, but fine. With any luck, they’ll never have to realize there’s a differance.
When Rosie and I got back, Logan was parked on the couch with his other favorite person, Aunt Lessi. What a guy. I’d never met anyone with so many favorite people. At this rate, he’s gonna be a problem when he starts school, but in the best possible way. I should probably start working on my speech about girlfriends now instead of waiting until the night before I need it. Knowing what a charmer he is, I’ll probably need it on the first day, heh.
I didn’t stick around for much of Logan and Alessia’s conversation, but from what I caught, she was still trying to crack the code on getting on the alien’s good side. Logan, meanwhile, had cars on the brain. Good luck with that, Less.
A few minutes later, the front door opened again. Apparently Logan’s fan club was having a meeting, and I was not invited. Rude. Justin walked in, and I was genuinely glad to see him. It had been a minute since we’d gotten a chance to really talk. Logan barely acknowledged him, though. He’d decided Alessia needed to do flash cards. Expeditiously.
“Come, Aunt Lessi,” he demanded.
She let him drag her toward the kitchen, and I laughed as I watched them disappear around the corner. Poor woman never stood a chance.
When I turned back toward the living room, Justin had taken her place beside Josh. No clue where he came from. I started toward them, already wondering what I’d missed. Then I saw Justin’s face. He was leaning toward Josh with a snarky smirk like a dad sizing up his daughter’s boyfriend for the first time. He’d been like an uncle to Desi. Maybe even a grandfather. He definitely had opinions. And after everything that had happened this week, I could only imagine what they were about. Naturally, I wanted to hear every single one of them, but I never got the chance to ask.
