Chapter 13
As soon as she stepped off the plane, Hope felt out of place. She carried the carry-on bags to the baggage claim, while Kelley carried a sleeping Lily. Kelley knows Hope’s skeptical about being here. After that last dinner with her siblings, the goalkeeper tried to talk her way out of coming to the wedding. It’s not that it went badly, no harsh words were exchanged, but Erin hasn’t exactly tried to hide the fact that she’s skeptical of Kelley’s new girlfriend. It’s something Kelley can’t quite understand.
The trio got their luggage and went outside, where Jerry was waiting. He drove them to their hotel, which is only 10 minutes from the wedding venue. After making sure they were settled, Jerry said his goodbyes and left to go pick up his suit. Hope and Kelley spent most of the night at the indoor pool with Lily. Hope tried to help the girl learn how to swim, but usually just ended up getting splashed or jumped on, while Kelley laughed from the lounge chair she watched from.
It’s Friday, the day of the rehearsal dinner. They’re all meeting at the location of the ceremony at 4. Erin had asked Kelley to be one of her bridesmaids only last month, so the bartender had to scramble to find enough money to buy the dress and get it altered, but she figured it out. Hope and Kelley found simple dresses to wear to the rehearsal. Hope is currently straightening her hair, while Kelley’s getting Lily out of the bath.
“Lil, do you know you’re meeting your Grandma and Grandpa today?” Kelley asks, trying to prepare the girl for the new faces she’s gonna encounter. Lily nods. “Yea, you already told me, mommy.” Kelley smiles, as she wraps a towel around the girl. They make their way out of the bathroom and Kelley gets Lily settled on the king sized bed that they’re all sharing for the weekend. She turns the TV on and let’s Lily choose what she wants to watch while Kelley starts doing her makeup.
Hope finishes up her hair and follows Kelley into the bathroom. She watches, as Kelley searches through her makeup bag for whatever it is she’s trying to find. “Are you nervous?” The goalkeeper asks. Kelley looks at the brunette, who’s leaning against the doorframe. She shrugs. “A little. But my expectations aren’t really high.” Hope walks into the bathroom and closes the door so Lily doesn’t hear them talking.
“If you don’t want to tell them about us, you don’t have to. I mean-I obviously don’t want to hide, but I don’t want you to be forced into telling them.” Kelley shakes her head, immediately. “I’m not hiding from them.” She states, shrugging. Hope leans back against the closed door and looks at the bartender through the mirror. “Okay.” They fall silent, as Kelley starts doing her makeup. Hope watches for a few minutes, debating on pushing it further, before deciding against it and making her way out of the bathroom so she can start her own makeup.
Once 3:30 hits, they make their way outside, where Jerry is waiting for them. Kelley offered to get a rental car, but Jerry had no problem being their taxi for the weekend. During the short ride to the venue, Hope can basically feel the nerves radiating off of Kelley. Lily spends the ride babbling to her uncle about the airplane and how much ‘fun’ it was going through the clouds. Hope couldn’t disagree more. As they pull up, there are already a couple of other cars in the parking lot. Hope can only assume that one of those cars is Kelley’s parents’.
Hope helps Lily out of the car, while Kelley starts walking towards the building with Jerry. Hope assumes Kelley wants to talk to her parents alone before she and Lily join them so Hope keeps the child busy for a few minutes, looking at a caterpillar she had found on the ground. When she thinks it’s been long enough, she leads Lily down the walkway. Lily reaches up to grab the goalkeeper’s hand.
When they get to the entrance, Kelley’s waiting outside for them with Jerry, a look on her face that tells Hope she’s already talked to her parents. They make eye contact and Kelley just shakes her head. Jerry reaches out for Lily. “Come on, kid. There’s cupcakes inside.” Lily’s face brightens and she skips her way to Jerry, who leads her inside.
“Didn’t go well?” Hope asks, grimacing slightly. Kelley shrugs. “It was awkward. We didn’t say much. I told them about you. Mom just walked away and Dad shook his head. He told me I shouldn’t have come. But Erin wants me here, that’s all that matters, I guess.” Her eyes fill up and Hope clenches her jaw. It takes all of her will power to not go in there and tell them just what she thinks of them. Instead, she reaches out and pulls Kelley into her arms. She feels the smaller woman’s shoulders start shaking, slightly. She rubs her back, until the shaking ceases, and Kelley pulls back, wiping her face of the few tears that escaped.
She looks up at Hope with watery eyes. “Let’s go get this over with.” She says, softly, before reaching out and grabbing Hope’s hand. She leads the goalkeeper inside, making a show of holding her hand, proudly. Hope locks eyes with Kelley’s Dad, at one point. She recognizes him from the pictures Kelley had shown her. She shoots him a glare, before deciding he isn’t worth her time. “Lil, come on. Come meet your grandparents.” Hope looks at Kelley, confusedly. Kelley just shrugs. “She has to meet them, at some point.” She mutters to the goalkeeper, before leading Lily over to where her parents are sitting.
“Mom. Dad. This is Lily. Lily, this is your Grandma and Grandpa.” Kelley says, trying to sound excited about it. No matter how hurt she is, she doesn’t want Lily’s view of her grandparents to be contorted because of her own issues with them. Dan smiles, which comes off as more of a grimace. “Hi, Lily.” He says, reaching his hand out for a handshake. Hope furrows her eyebrows. He’s offering his four-year-old granddaughter a handshake? Karen has the decency to bend down and pull the girl into a short hug. “It’s nice to finally meet you. You look just like your father.” She says, as she stands. She gives Hope a look that makes the goalkeeper think that was supposed to be a shot at her.
“You must be Kelley’s friend?” Karen asks, offering her hand to Hope. Lily giggles. “Hopey is Mommy’s girlfriend, Grandma, not her friend!” She exclaims, giggling at the woman’s mistake. Karen’s face hardens and she retracts her hand before Hope can shake it. “She knows?” She whispers, harshly, at Kelley, who nods. She looks down at Lily, who thankfully got distracted by Erin, who wanted to say ‘hello’ to her niece.
“Of course, she knows, Mother. She loves Hope.” Karen scowls, distastefully, as she looks Hope up and down. Hope doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t want to give Dan and Karen any reason to hate her more than they already seem to. “I’m sure she does.” She says, glaring at the goalkeeper. Kelley rolls her eyes. “Hope hasn’t done anything wrong, so if you could stop sizing her up, that’d be great.” She says, trying to diffuse the situation.
“Hasn’t done anything wrong? She pulled you into her life of sin.” Hope actually falters at the words. ‘Life of sin?’ She thinks. Hope’s never been exposed to this type of homophobia. She’s lived in Seattle most of her life. She remains silent, refusing to take the bait. “Pulled me in?” Kelley laughs, her hand still gripping Hope’s. “I pursued her.” She states. She knows it’s only a half-truth, but she just wants to shut her mother up. “Okay, Kelley, that’s enough.” Dan jumps in.
Karen looks traumatized by Kelley’s admission. She looks up at Hope, who’s trying to hide the fact that she’s visibly shaking at this point. “You’re disgusting.” She spits out, keeping her voice down as to not attract any attention from anyone else. “You’re disgusting and you’re vile.” She finishes, looking directly into blue eyes. Hope blinks a few times, but doesn’t respond. She hasn’t said anything this entire conversation and she’s still getting attacked.
Erin was walking up behind her parents when she heard her mother’s words. ‘Is she really gonna do this on the day of my rehearsal?’ She thinks. “Mom, that’s enough.” She states, glaring at her mother, who’s eyes are still glued to Hope’s. Hope looks away first, deciding she’s not worth it. She feels Kelley give her hand a reassuring squeeze. “We’re about to start. I need you three.” She says, motioning to Kelley and her parents.
Hope stands off to the side with Lily, while everyone goes over what they’re doing. When Lily starts getting impatient and fussy, she takes her outside. “Hopey, this is boring.” The child says, petulantly. Hope smirks. “I know it is, Lil. They’re almost done, then we get to go to dinner with your Aunt and your Uncle. And your Grandparents.” Lily shrugs, kicking at the pavement beneath her feet. Hope walks over to a set of concrete steps that lead to a picnic area and takes a seat on the third step.
Lily walks up the stairs, past Hope, and looks at all the different flowers that had been planted. She picks two red flowers, before making her way back down the stairs to Hope. She knows something’s wrong. She knows what her mom looks like when she’s upset and Hopey has seemed sad ever since they got there. She sits down next to her and extends her arm. Hope smiles, looking down at the flower. “Thanks, Lil. Is the other one for your mom?” Lily nods, excitedly.
“You’re the best.” The goalkeeper states, pulling the child into a side hug and planting a kiss to her head. Lily smiles, before sliding herself onto Hope’s lap. Hope almost rolls her eyes, a little bit, at how easily the girl snuck her way closer. In any case, she wraps an arm around her, while the other rests on her lap, playing with the flower Lily gave her. Lily reaches out and grabs Hope’s phone, immediately going to one of the games she likes to play.
Kelley listens to everything Erin tells her. It’s simple, really. Wait until the doors open, walk down the aisle, stand behind Britney, Erin’s maid of honor. It shouldn’t be taking this long, but Karen is still fired up about her ‘altercation’ with Hope and isn’t really listening to what’s being said. Kelley notices Hope and Lily sneak outside and sighs in relief. At least now, if Karen blows up, Lily won’t have to witness it. Eventually, they get it down well enough to feel confident that it will go as planned tomorrow.
They all make their way outside and Kelley looks around for her girls. She finds them sitting on the steps, Lily on Hope’s lap and Hope’s phone in her hand. Hope smiles up at her. “We’re all done. You ready to go eat?” Lily perks up at the mention of food and nods, enthusiastically. She jumps off of Hope’s lap and holds the flower out to Kelley, who takes it, proudly.
The dinner goes by without any more altercation. Kelley, Hope, and Lily are seated at their own, small table so they didn’t have to make small talk with people they didn’t know. Nothing more than a few glares were exchanged between Kelley’s parents and Hope and Kelley. It’s clear, to Hope, that Karen and Dan don’t feel like they’ve done anything wrong. They don’t feel like they owe Kelley anything, including acceptance.
Erin thanks them for coming and they head out, along with Jerry, who gets them back to their hotel in one piece. Their night ends, quietly. Neither Hope or Kelley bring up the altercation they had with Dan and Karen while Lily was with them. They simply ignore it and focus their attention on Lily, who insisted upon swimming until Kelley finally decided it was time to settle down for the night.