AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No one can hear us,” he whispered against my ear. “Most of the parents over here are also deaf. It’s just us.”
“Not for long it looks like,” I warn seeing the two couples headed towards us.
“We can make a run for it…” he suggests, and I elbow him lightly in the gut.
“Be nice.”
“I can’t stand Dennis and Emily,” he said motioning towards the couple on the left. “They’re only slightly worse than Renee and Bret.”
“It won’t be long. We can handle it.”
“I hope so because if they so much as look at you wrong, I’m likely to put my fist through their faces.”
“Violence…shame on you Rafe,” I tease slightly comforted by his overprotectiveness. “Are they hearing or non?”
“Renee and Bret are both non, Dennis has slight hearing and Emily is non,” he explains as the group reaches us.
‘Rafe so good to see you,’ Bret tells us giving me a long assessment.
“You too,” he replies, but I could tell how much he was controlling his emotions. He saw their glances my way and reluctantly introduced me. “This is Amelia. Amelia, this is Renee and Bret, Dennis and Emily,” he says showing me their name signs as he did.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I tell them while also using sign language and the surprise is still comical.
‘And you,’ Renee claims but I can tell by the look on her face she doesn’t mean it. That’s when it hits me that the women are all coveting Rafe, discretely but it’s there and he’s oblivious to it, which makes me feel better.
The four start up a stream of conversation and I know they don’t think I can follow along with it, but honestly it’s just getting monotonous. It’s all trivial dribble and I get bored easily when people talk about the same thing over and over, only changing names and such to make it appear to be a new topic. It’s all still gossip, and I detest it.
There’s a slight lull and I grab the opportunity. “Rafe…I’m going to go check on Maggie. She’s seemed to have finally run out of steam.”
“You’ve worn her out with all the excitement the last few days,” he teases. “Why don’t you see if you can get her situated while I talk with Principal Howard for a moment? Then I’ll take you both home.”
“Sounds perfect,” I reply giving him a light smile.
“Do we need to pick up dinner or did you manage to get by the store with the little terror?”
“Don’t call my girl a terror,” I counter with a laugh. “She was great the entire time you were away. We missed you but it was fine. I’ve got something on for dinner so we’re good to go whenever you are.”
“Perfect, I’ll be right back,” he says saying good-bye to the others who seem stunned and can’t do more than say good-bye in return.
I move over to Maggie, and she hugs my neck as we head to the other side of the room where a couple of her friends that she wants to say goodnight to were. How that turned into me sitting in the corner with Maggie and several of her friends telling them a story I don’t know. It started as a way to keep Maggie awake because I know she was ready to crash and Rafe would want to spend more time with her, but it turned into a mass production that had several of them giggling as it went on.
By the time I finished it’d gotten completely dark outside, and I realized we’d been there for nearly an hour with it. Iglanced up and caught Rafe’s gaze as he watched leaning against the wall. Maggie scrambled onto my lap and hugged me telling me all over again that this was the only thing I wanted for the future. It was perfect and that spelled trouble.
“You’re incredible,” Rafe says as he picked up Maggie and held out a hand to me.
“Sorry, I didn’t think it’d turn into that long of a story.”
“I’m glad it did. You’re meant to have a dozen kids around you,” he states as we head out.
“Rafe…don’t,” I warn lightly.
“Why not? It’s been almost five months since we got together, four months since I mentioned marriage and you’re still running scared.”
“No I’m not.”
“No? Then why haven’t I met your parents? Why don’t they know you’re living with me now?”
“I’m not. I’m simply staying with you some nights.”
