Page 83 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“Let’s hope his daddy is gonna see a great play,” Eli said then, and we all agreed.
* * *
“Wasn’tJake just the cutest in his little dwarf costume?” my mother asked after the play was over and we were done clapping.
“Oh, totally,” I responded, just glad that she was too distracted by her existing grandchildren to think about the possibility of future ones. There were no more weird looks. Indeed just a few minutes after our exchange, she was completely enraptured with Jake, who came bounding off the stage to talk to his parents.
“How was I?” he asked, staring up at them with big eyes and a wide grin.
“Absolutely amazing,” Matt said. “You’re a little star.”
Jake’s grin threatened to split his face apart. Conner walked over as well. He looked relieved most of all. I patted him on the back as he passed me. “Good job!”
He gave me a smile. “Thank you.”
“Jake,” Eli stood and addressed his son. “These are your grandparents. I told you they were coming to see the play tonight.”
Jake turned to them and gave the pair a curious glance. “Thanks for coming! Did you like it?”
“It was lovely,” my mother said. “You’re the cutest dwarf I’ve ever seen.”
“You did a good job, kid,” my father added.
Jake beamed. “My daddy made the costume!” he said in his proudest voice, instantly capturing my mother’s heart and making her forget all about my existence.
Thank God I had such an adorable nephew.
“That went well, didn’t it?” I later said to Dean when we were emerging from the school.
“Better than expected,” Dean agreed. “Somehow I feel like we were let off the hook too easy. I wassureyour mother had noticed something.”
I shrugged and gave him a kiss, joy bubbling up in me now that this evening was nearing its end and I could spend the rest of it with my alpha. “Let’s just be happy she didn’t dig any deeper.”
But she did, of course. The very next day.
* * *
I’d barely gottenout of bed when the doorbell rang and I found my mother standing in front of the house.Jesus Christ, I thought, seeing her. I was still in my pajamas and Dean hadn’t even woken up yet. The only reasonIwas awake was that I liked to catch the early morning cartoons with a bowl of Cheerios.
“Mom?” I muttered, trying to get my brain to work in spite of the early hour. “What are you doing here?”
“I want you to tell me what’s going on with that bump of yours,” she said, matter-of-factly.
Bump? I looked down on myself.Oh no.I’d opened the door for her in my pajamas, and now that I wasn’t wearing the baggy clothing I’d had on yesterday, my condition was pretty obvious. “You noticed, huh?” I tried a joke.
She wouldn’t be distracted, though. “Are you pregnant?” She didn’t put her hands on her hips, but I could tell she was close to it. I felt transported back to my childhood, to days I’d been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Something that had happened way too often, by the way. My mother had an uncanny ability to sense when I was up to no good. But perhaps all mothers did.
“Did you really come all the way out here this early in the morning just to ask that?”
“It’s no small question, is it?” She walked past me into the house.
I closed the door, probably to the disappointment of at least one neighbor. “No, I guess not,” I said.
“Do you have coffee?” my mother asked, making her way into the kitchen. I followed.
“There on the counter,” I pointed at the nearly full pot I’d just made for Dean and me.
“Good, good.” She took it and poured herself a cup, and that was all the respite I got before she laid into me again. “You know you shouldn’t be drinking too much coffee if you’re pregnant.”
