Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Michelle
Thirty-six weeks pregnant
W hile I don’t love sitting in front of everyone so they can watch me eat, I do appreciate Hunter isn’t forcing me to make small talk. I can’t believe my mom showed up uninvited. I realize we didn’t talk about why she’s in town, but it’s not totally out of character for her to show up unannounced. It’s never come with such a large stake attached before.
“Hey, Mich,” Hunter says my name in a way that tells me it’s not the first time he’s said it. “Try to eat something, okay?” He looks worried.
I nod, grabbing a cucumber sandwich from our tower. “Thanks, babe.” I reach over and squeeze his knee. He wraps his pinky around mine and our hands dangle between us. Hunter keeps eating with his left hand, wanting to be sure I know he’s right here.
“Michelle.” I jump slightly as Jax lays her hand on my shoulder. “Shit, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. We’re going to do presents soon. Charlotte suggested I see if you need to go to the bathroom beforehand.”
“Well, I didn’t before, but I do now.” I laugh. “Is there anything she doesn’t think of?”
“If so, I haven’t found it yet,” Jax says. “Hunter, Margaret wants to ask you something, too.” She nods to where his stepmom sits with his dad, Spencer, and Duncan.
“Okay,” he says. He turns to me and says, “See you in a minute?” before placing a kiss right at the corner of my mouth.
I nod and get up, making my way slowly to the bathroom, my hand on my lower back as I walk across the hall.
Pinching my cheeks to bring a bit of color to them after I wash my hands, I meet my eyes in the mirror and steel myself. A little bit longer, and then you can go home, put on sweatpants, and ask Hunter to rub your feet. I give myself a nod and am checking my purse for my Chapstick when I run into the door, hitting someone standing too close to the entrance.
“Oh, shit, sorry ...” I trail off, swallowing and pulling my chin up when I see who’s waiting for me. I should have seen this coming. “Okay, Mom. Let’s have it. Why are you here?”
She rolls her eyes, like I’m the one who confronted her in a hallway. “No need to be so dramatic. Am I not allowed to come to town to see my daughter?”
“Of course you are. I thought we were passed the whole showing up unannounced thing, though. You said you had plans for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t expect you to make a trip anytime soon.”
Her hand waves in the air like she’s trying to brush away cigarette smoke. “Oh, Ed’s long gone. The girls and I spent the day at the casino. I suppose you and your little boy toy were with his family in there?”
Ah. That helps explain why her words have extra venom today. She and her latest fling split up. It’s probably uncharitable to think about your mother, but I’m guessing he left her .
“Yes, Preston and his partner hosted in their building’s club house. It seems to be a new family tradition. I made your apple pie.” I offer up an olive branch.
She snorts. “What, an apple pie from the supermarket?”
I nod. “Don’t tell Hunter. He’s a chef and might die a little. I told him I baked it while he was out, though he might not believe me. I did take it out of the Wegmans container and put it in a baking dish.” I watch as my mother’s face shutters. Shit, why did I say the store?
“Wegmans, huh? Guess that rich boy and you share that healthy food habit you always went on about growing up? Is that where you met him, in the aisles? Your organic baguettes cross?”
Once I finish processing this new entry into the mom trauma diaries, I need to make a note to tell Jax that one as a meet cute for one of her stories. “No, we didn’t meet at the supermarket.” I dread telling her where we did meet.
“So, where then? Bar? A club? Online? Hot Yoga?” She keeps going as I catch Jax standing behind her. Her face is full of questions about whether she should interrupt. I shake my head no and she looks pained, but walks away.
My shake isn’t as subtle as I thought.
“Okay, fine, it doesn’t matter where you met him. What’s your plan when he leaves? You can come home, live with me, and run your little weather internet videos from Kansas.” She seems sincere in this offer, but I can’t believe she’s this delusional.
“What? I haven’t lived in the Midwest in almost twenty years, Mom. And besides”—I shake my head, angry that’s the part I addressed first—“he’s not going to leave. What Hunter and I have is strong. It’s real. I know you don’t like to trust things can last, but this is different. We can.”
She rolls her eyes again. “That’s what they all say.”
My mind catches up to the other thing she said when suggesting I move home. “Wait, you’ve seen my weather videos? You said you hate how scientific I make everything.” Probably another reason it hurt so much when the station made me adjust my on-air forecasts.
“Oh, I still think it sounds like you’re making up words. But my friends kept sending me those links, so I finally watched some, and then went back and watched some more. And you know what I noticed? Your curves changing. I’m your mother. Of course I knew.”
I reel back like she slapped me. “So, you came here knowing I’m pregnant? You planned to ambush me and give me a hard time about this?”
She shrugs. “Maybe. Crashing your baby shower made getting the lay of the land easier. I can tell, Michelle, these are not our people. His family will abandon you when he does.”
“No, they won’t.” Hunter appears suddenly at my side. Where the fuck did he come from? “Even if something happens between Michelle and me, which I don’t plan to ever let happen, my family would still love and care for Michelle and our daughter, because that’s what loving someone is. It’s not something you have to seek out or chase but given freely.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my mother look more offended. “I’m her mother. You think I don’t love her? I’m the only family she has.”
“I’m not saying you don’t, but what I’m watching right now? This isn’t love. And you’re not the only family she has anymore.” Hunter nods to the small crowd gathered at the other end of the hallway—his siblings and partners, Laurel and Caitlin. “She’s one of us now. If she decides to let you, we’ll welcome you in and love you, too. But it’s going to be up to her.”
He wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. “Now, for the well-being of the woman I love and our daughter, I need you to leave.”
The same blue eyes I see in the mirror every day meet mine, a question in them. Am I going to let this man send her away? I keep eye contact, but don’t say anything .
“Fine,” she huffs. “The food here tastes disgusting anyway. I guess I’ll wait for a birth announcement.”
“We’ll be in touch,” Hunter says, and I squeeze his waist.
My mom walks away in a huff. Laurel steps forward with her coat and purse. “Here you go, Aunt Diana.” My mother wrenches them away from her and walks around the corner without a second look.
“No other family? I’m literally her cousin, standing right here,” Laurel says, failing to keep her voice down.
“So not the time, babe,” Caitlin says, but it breaks the mood, and I start laughing. After a moment though, the laughter stops and the tears come. Hunter cups my face and pulls me into him.
“I think we need to take a rain check on those presents,” I hear him say over my head.
“Of course,” Charlotte responds. “You guys get home. We’ll figure everything else out.”
“I’ll go run and get your stuff,” Laurel says, and I hear her shoes clacking at a pace that tells me she’s actually running.
I wipe under my eyes and turn to face my friends. “I’m really sorry you all had to hear that.”
“I’m sorry you had to live with that,” Spencer says, and Duncan elbows him. “What? We were all thinking it.”
A wet laugh-sob combo leaves me. Laurel returns with our jackets and my bag and throws her arms around me, pushing Hunter off. “Love you, cuz. Lunch soon?”
“Love you, too. You’ve got it.”
Waving to everyone else, I let Hunter guide me to the elevator and follow him to the sidewalk and into a taxi on autopilot. He somehow manages to buckle himself into the middle seat so I can lay my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. “Let’s go home.”
T hirty minutes later, I’ve scrubbed my face clean of makeup, twisted my hair into a bun, and have on the comfy two-piece maternity lounge set from Costco I bought in all three colors. This one’s a jewel green.
“I love you in this color,” Hunter says from the couch. He’s changed into grey sweatpants and a tight white T-shirt, showing off more of the ink on his arms, and a hint of the color on his shoulders through the thin fabric. He pats the couch next to him, and I waddle over and sink down.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not even a little bit,” I say, scrunching up my face.
“Got it. I felt like I needed to ask.”
“And I love you for it.” I lean over to peck him on the lips, lingering for two or three more kisses before he pulls away.
“So, what do you want to do? Order in takeout? Foot rub? Movie marathon of your choosing? An orgasm or two? Anything and everything is on the table.”
I laugh and lay my head on his shoulder, hating I had to move it to get out of the car and change. “Definitely takeout, because you never offer that. Then, movie and foot rub for sure. Let’s see how the food settles and what pressure points you hit. The orgasm might be necessary.”
“Here.” He hands me his phone. “We’ll divide and conquer. Pick out what you want to eat. I’ll start rubbing and then the orgasms can start before the food gets here.”
“This is why you’re going to conquer the meal planning world. You’re a genius.” We rearrange so my feet are in his lap, and my back is up against the side of the couch. His thumbs get to work, and from the first second his hands are on me, I’m positive even without the baby hormones, this would end in orgasms. My eyes close and my head tilts back, forgetting I’m supposed to be looking for food.
A knock at the door startles us both.
“Did you order food by osmosis?”
I look down at the phone, making sure I didn’t pregnancy brain my way into ordering something and losing track of time. “Nope, that’s not from me.”
“Maybe they’ll go away,” he says, resuming his rubbing.
“We know you’re in there. Open up.”
“Spencer?” Hunter says, putting my feet on the couch and getting up to open the door.
“Listen,” Spencer says as he tumbles in the door, followed by a parade of Brandts, plus Charlotte, Jax, Laurel, and Caitlin. “If you hate this idea, they talked me into it. But if you love it, I want all the credit.”
Jax rolls her eyes, adopting the exasperated older sister look very well for an only child. I’ll have to get her to teach me. “What Spencer is trying to say is we hated you didn’t get to finish your party. We needed to bring the presents over at some point anyway, so we thought we’d see if you wanted to open them now, in front of a smaller crowd. Nancy let us in. She feels awful about bringing your mom to the shower.”
“Besides, we have this cake Duncan paid the hotel an arm and leg for.” Preston sets it down on the coffee table.
Duncan takes his jacket off and sets it on the back of one of my dining chairs before sitting in it. It’s probably the most causal I’ve ever seen him, including Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. “It was only an arm. You need to watch such overexaggeration in the House, Prez.”
Hunter looks at me and I shrug. He smiles and moves to the kitchen to start getting plates and silverware for the cake. Margaret takes over getting chairs in from the table, and Caitlin organizes the presents again, this time on the floor in front of me. Jax and Charlotte sit on the floor on the other side of the table, continuing a discussion started on the way over. Stephen and Hayden laugh over something Preston said. My heart grows three sizes like the Grinch’s. Though in my case, I think I had a lot of heart to begin with. But now, it pushes against the edges of my ribcage, threatening to overflow and fill the rest of my body .
Hunter sits down next to me and watches me taking in everyone around us. “Like I said, you’re one of us now.”
I bury my face in his shoulder, overcome for a moment, before I take a deep breath and reengage with the rest of the room.
“Someone said something about cake?”
Laurel squeezes in on my other side and hands me the piece Jax cut for me. The cake may be the best thing I’ve ever tasted, surrounded by the large family I’ve always wanted.