Her Reluctant Wife: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

Coralyn gathered her courage and made sure that her panic

didn’t show on her face before she slipped into her father’s

room. The whole thing smelled clean and fresh, like there was

new life inside, not an old man waiting to pass into the next

life. He called it that. The next life. Coralyn didn’t know what

to think about it. She didn’t want to think about it. She’d

thought about it endlessly after her mom died, and now she

was losing her dad as well.

At twenty-two, she was going to be an orphan.

“Dad?” The curtains at the window were closed, but there

was no sunlight left anyway. February in Chicago meant cold

days that turned dark before most people were even home

from their workday.

“Coralyn.” Her dad was propped up in bed with several

pillows. The TV in the corner of the room was turned off and

he had a book open on his lap that he hadn’t been reading. His

eyes were closed when she came in, but now he opened them

with difficulty, pulling himself back to the present in order to

be with her. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She grabbed a chair and dragged it to her dad’s bedside. The

rails were up, caging him in. She’d become numb to all the

tubes, wires, and beeping machinery a long time ago. They

were the sounds of life. They were the sounds of dying.

Coralyn took her father’s hand, thin and bruised, the skin

sallow and the bones sticking out. She pretended not to notice.

She swallowed back the acid that climbed up her throat and

the sorrow that tugged her heart into a slow, sluggish beat that

hurt with every pulse.

“I’m glad I’m here too.”

“How was work?” Her dad struggled with each word, his