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"My mama wanna meet you." Chantal doesn't have to be facing Nova as they lie in her bed spooning to know that her girlfriend's eyes have gone wide. Her silence says it all.
"......Oh? Why?"
"Whachu mean 'Why?'? Because you've been dating and damn near living with her first-born child and only daughter for almost a year?"
"Nah, nah. I get that." Nova pushes herself up on her elbow and nudges Chantal down onto her back so she can look into her eyes. "I just...What all you tell your mama about me?"
"That I have a brilliant, beautiful, sexy, funny woman who brightens my days and puts it on me just right."
Chantal's smirk says she could be teasing, could be not, and Nova can feel her palms start to sweat. "Wow. Okay."
"You alright? I mean, I told her I'd run it by you before I gave her an answer one way or another, so you ain't on a hook or anything like that."
"Yeah." Nova can feel her eyes blinking rapidly in shock, but she still tries for calm and even when she speaks. "I'm good. Just......wow.
Chantal tilts her head in question, then, because "good," she clearly was not. "Nova."
"I haven't met anybody's parents since I went to senior prom with Trevor Fontaine. And that wasn't exactly the best of experiences, seeing as how they were color- struck, but too "polite" to say anything in front of me."
She makes a mental note to check Nova's Facebook friends for him later and curses the fact that she lost all her yearbooks and pictures to Katrina before pressing forward. "Well, my mama doesn't have those issues, and she said she's not sending anymore real cascarilla until she's looked you in the eye, so if you gon go, we better make it sooner rather than later, or it's gonna be healing with egg powder for us, babe."
"Is this gonna be one of those 'what are your intentions with my daughter' type of deals?"
"Most definitely, yes."
"Ah." Nova laces her fingers with Chantal's when she offers her her hand to hold. "Shit."
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Two weekends later, Nova finds herself the passenger side of her own Prius, playing DJ as Chantal navigates them through the Blue Ridge Mountains to reach their hotel in Nashville, the half-way point between New Orleans and Detroit.
Besides the involuntary tensing of her butt muscles every time Chantal whips around the corner of a cliff a little too fast, the drive is pretty pleasant and uneventful. Chantal focuses on the road and the tunes. Nova focuses on figuring out what she's gonna tell Mama Williams when she inevitably pulls her to the side for that one-on-one talk and thanks the gods that she won't have to answer to her mother and her father at the same time.
Because she knows exactly where this is headed, what her "intentions" with Chantal are, if she feels the same way Nova feels about them. She wants to wake up to her dimpled smile every morning and cook her breakfasts worthy of the way she worships in her body while the light of the rising sun filters through their bedroom window. She wants it to officially be "their bedroom window" because she asks Chantal to move in with her, and wants to feel the press of Chantal's body against hers when she says yes and jumps into her arms.
And that scares her as much as it thrills her, the thought of being accountable to someone else - responsible for someone else - for life. Nova's never believed that someone would see all her scars and flaws laid to bare and still choose her, but Chantal shows her every day just how much she loves every part of her. She's not just some random someone, and Nova never wants to risk losing her again because she's made her feel like she could take her or leave her. She feels the absence of her presence in the very heart of her when she goes out of town for days on speaking engagements, and she still remembers the way her heart clinched around the emptiness she'd left when she'd walked out of her life all those months ago. It's worth it, it's worth it, it's worth it is her mantra. And it's not that she needs convincing, just conviction.
So when Chantal takes her to Opryland, she spends the day looking into her eyes as she gushes over the sights and exhibits and staring at her when she's not looking, buys her a cowboy hat and cotton candy and laughs when the sugar rush leaves her covered in sticky finger prints and kisses. She even sucks up her fear of heights to ride The Hangman with her, clenching tightly to her hand while she cheers and throws her free hand up beside her. Safe and happy. That's all she's felt since Chantal's come back into her life, and it's made her realize how much she didn't have before. Her garden is flourishing, her skin is clear, her dreads are fresh, and her relationship with Charley is thriving. She's even happy to put up with the way they gang up on her since they became fast friends over poker and red wine and embarassing stories from Nova's formative years.
When they're back in the car the next morning, it's Nova's turn to drive while Chantal expertly navigates, and somewhere between her unwrapping Nova's Egg McMuffin without even having to be asked and stealing a corner of her hashbrown, Nova figures out exactly what she's going to say. What she has to say.
"I love you."
"I know." And before Nova can finish rolling her eyes, she adds "I love you, too."
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They make it to Detroit right in time for dinner, the smell of pernil and rice and beans and freshly chopped salad vegetables making Nova's mouth water as soon as she's over the threshold. The enticing smells, and vibrant decor, and lingering love in every room remind her of Aunt Vi's, and Nova instantly knows she's home there.
Cynthia Williams, a taller, darker-skinned twin image of her daughter, sweeps her up into a back-cracking hug on sight and looks over her shoulder to wink at Chantal and say "I like this one. She's got good energy." Nova feels the same way about her, laughing when Chantal takes her hand to escort her to her bedroom and her mother yells "Enjoy it while you can because you're not sleeping in there" after them. Definitely home.
Chantal's baby brother is initially a little harder to read, but his love for his sister is on full display, even if it manifests in a Wrestlemania reenactment in the middle of the entertainment room during a game of Madden. That Chantal delivers a fairly decent Crossbody off of the couch makes her fall even deeper in love. That Sharif lets her have first pick of the cueritos tells her that she's won him over, too.
So when Cynthia finally does escort her out to the patio after coffee and sweet domplines, her heart doesn't race, her palms don't sweat, and her voice doesn't waver.
"Mama Williams," she says. "I wanna marry your daughter."