Page 127 of Love It or List It
“Speaking of—all going well?”
“Yes.”She smiled that glowy smile of the happily pregnant.“Honestly, it’s been easier this go-around than my first, which is not something I anticipated.Joe gave me the worst morning sickness.”
Austin snorted.“Well, he is something of a morning person.”
“Who’s a morning person?”
Austin caught Joe around the waist and pulled him in.“Just this terrible guy I know.Always making me coffee in the morning and reminding Will not to forget his homework.”
“Hmm.”Joe smacked a kiss on his cheek.“Sounds like a catch.”
“Actually, he prefers to—”
“Oookay, who let you into the Jell-O shots?”Joe interrupted.
Maria cackled.
“Please.As if I need alcohol to embarrass you in front of your mom.”Making Joe blush was its own reward, always.“Speaking of embarrassing—are you gonna give a speech for the fruits?Tell them all you’re so proud as they go off to their new grown-up lives?”
Joe wrinkled his nose.“Not really my style.I’ll save it for their weddings.Or in Meg’s case, her first Olympic gold medal ceremony.”
“What are they up to next?”Maria asked.
“Meg’s off to U of M, full ride, obviously.Alex got into trade school, so they’re going to learn welding and, I don’t know, make the big bucks in a factory or create enormous obscene metal sculptures.Could go either way.”
“Both,” Austin said confidently.
“Definitely both,” Maria agreed.
“Will’s starting nursing school at the college to get the first two years of credits out of the way before transferring to the university.And Gavin….”
Austin snorted.“Gavin is about to learn the extent of Joe’s morning-person perversion doing physical labor five days a week.”
“He just wants Alex to see him with a tan and, like, muscle definition.”
“I think he wants to be able to take them on an actual date that’s not to Tim Hortons.”Though Austin would admit some of it might be ogling-related payback.Austin was the one who’d somehow ended up at Bikini Village with Meg and Alex as they shopped for their graduation do—the pool party Meg’s parents had thrown.Which unfortunately meant he’d been in earshot when Meg asked,So what are we going for here?You want to be comfortable and not get a sunburn, or do you want Gavin to have to ice his crotch in public?Even more unfortunately, he had also heard Alex answer, without hesitation,Crotch icing for sure.
He’d seen the swimsuit.He had not, thankfully, been present for the party.However, every so often one of the kids would now say something like,You know, eggplant is a fruit, and Gavin would blush and grin sheepishly and Alex would look very smug.
Apparently Joe was having similar thoughts, because he said, “I think I might have preferred it when they were desperately and successfully hiding their relationship from us.”
Austin snorted.“Right, babe.Successfully.”
“You’re mocking my pain.”Joe pouted, and Austin patted his hair.
Maria continued to laugh at them.“Payback for all your youthful indiscretions, dear.Karma,” she said gleefully.
Joe’s pout intensified.“I didn’t have any youthful indiscretions.”
“That’s not what I remember.”Joe’s dad stepped up to their group and unknowingly mimicked Austin by slipping an arm around his wife and kissing her cheek.
They’d eloped at the courthouse a month prior with Joe and Austin as the only witnesses.Austin was uncomfortable at first, until Maria pointed out that Joe was the only guest the bride and groom wanted and Joe would want Austin with him for support.
Joe stiffened, his posture screaming guilt.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Julio snorted.“No?Am I getting senile in my old age?Because I remember the summer you lived with me in Ottawa before you went to grade eleven—”
Austin was never going to pass up an opportunity to learn about Joe’s past shenanigans.“I think I need to hear more about these youthful indiscretions.”
