Page 69 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
Leaning over, she whispered in her nephew’s ear. “Hey, Ben. I haven’t seen you in a while. What’s new with my favorite nephew?”
A large smile revealed his slightly crooked top tooth. “I won the spelling bee at school,” he said. “They gave me a ribbon.”
Julie rustled her hand through his hair. “Smartest boy I know.”
“He gets it from his Uncle Lawson,” Lawson added, winking at the fourth grader.
Ben shook his head. “Not scientifically possible. We’re not blood-related.” He looked down at his plate, pressing his lips together and trying not to smile. The corners of his lips poked deep dimples into his freckled cheeks, though. “I bet if I had a brother or sister, they’d be just as smart as me. We would be blood-related and I’d teach them everything I know.”
Lawson looked across the table at Micah, who turned to Kat. “Something we don’t know?”
“Kat?” Julie asked, noticing now that her sister did look a little different. “Oh, my God!”
“We have a little secret,” Kat said, laughing excitedly. No one had made a move toward the food on the table yet.
“Oh, my God,” Julie said again, locking eyes with Kat across the table. Then she squealed, and Kat squealed, and the two of them squealed together. “This is the best news ever!”
Lawson sat back and looked at Micah. “Did I miss something?”
“Probably,” Micah said.
“And I never even told the secret,” Ben added. “It wasn’t me.”
Julie and Kat pulled away from their hug and laughed.
“Well, let’s eat before it all gets cold.” Kat wiped a tear from her eye as she sat back down.
Julie wiped a tear from her cheek, too.
Micah placed an arm around his wife, pulling her in to kiss her cheek softly. Kat deserved to be happy. And Julie couldn’t wait to be an aunt times two.
“Pass those beans,” Lawson said to Ben, who could only slide the dish with one arm due to his cerebral palsy. “But don’t spill ’em,” he said teasingly. “Or do spill ’em because I still have no idea what the he—” Lawson caught himself as everyone around the table stiffened. There were young ears listening, including those of an unborn baby.
“Language,” Kat warned, sounding like the school principal she was.
“Right. Sorry.” Lawson looked at Ben sheepishly. “What I was going to say is I don’t know what theheckeveryone’s talking about.”
Ben giggled.
Kat frowned, sternly, but her eyes were twinkling. She was too excited about her news to stay mad. Julie loved seeing her sister beam. She turned to Lawson, not buying for a second that he hadn’t figured things out. Lawson was observant. He didn’t miss a detail. He was a jokester, too, though. Seeing him interact with her nephew gave Julie the warm fuzzies. Everything about Lawson warmed her.
After dinner Julie helped Kat and Ben with the cleanup.
“When did you find out?” Julie asked, setting a pile of dirty dishes beside the sink. She turned the water to warm and started rinsing them before placing them in the dishwasher.
“Two days ago.” Kat pulled a chair toward the sink and sat, wringing her hands excitedly. “I had pulled a student into my office for a good principal-style lecture and I got so nauseous I could barely speak. The poor kid must’ve really thought he was in trouble.” She laughed.
“Aww. This is what we always dreamt about when we were growing up. Love, marriage, and babies. All of your dreams are coming true.”
Kat narrowed her eyes, still wearing her smile. “Looks like you and Lawson are getting closer, too. I saw the way he was looking at you tonight.”
Butterflies swirled to the top of Julie’s chest like carbonation in a shaken soda bottle. Just thinking of him had her flustered these days. “We’re doing great,” she confided. There was nothing else to tell just yet, but the way things were evolving between them, who knew, maybe soon there would be.
“I’m going to go hang out with Dad and Uncle Lawson,” Ben announced, alerting the women to his presence. Julie had completely forgotten he was on cleanup duty with them. “You two are having girl talk and last I checked, I’m not a girl.”
Julie put her dish down and walked over to squeeze her nephew in a tight hug. “Tell the guys hello.”
They watched Ben roll his wheelchair out of the room and then turned to each other again.
