39. Stand Up To Him
39
STAND UP TO HIM
“ H ello, hello,” Helena said as she walked in the front door the next morning.
“Hi,” Angel said. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”
“Coy told me he was in the mood for chicken noodle soup,” Helena said. “It got me thinking he might be struggling a bit and wanted the comforts of home.”
“ He’s struggling?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.
She was trying not to get worked up over that.
After her blow-up last night, Coy had been great. He’d apologized a few times and said he was going to try to not be overbearing any more than a normal new father would be.
She supposed she couldn’t ask for much more than that.
Maybe she shouldn’t have let it build for so many weeks. She was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the longer she waited to bring it up, the more he ran in front of her to do things.
“Oh,” Helena said, giggling. “Maybe it’s you that is struggling and gave him what-for over it and he’s rubbing a sore butt from a verbal beating?”
“That sounds more like it,” she said, smirking. Not that she wanted to air her dirty laundry out with her mother-in-law. It was one thing to tell her mom, but another Coy’s mother who would most likely stick up for him.
“Where is Coy?” Helena asked as she moved into the kitchen and put the big container of soup in the fridge. There looked to be bread with it too.
“He’s down by the water and doing some work on the beach. Said he needed to clear his head.”
“You can tell me what is going on,” Helena said. “I won’t judge you if Coy is overstepping in his attempt to make things easy for you and it’s ticking you off. It just tells me all my boys are like their father and need their butts handed to them. And if you did that, then good for you. I’m glad to know you can stand up to him.”
It might have been the best thing that could have been said to her.
“Really?” she asked, her eyes getting a little teary.
“Oh, honey,” Helena said, moving over and hugging her. “It’s okay. I went through it four times with Scott. By the time Coy came around, he’d settled down some. They don’t realize we women are tougher than they think.”
“He’s driving me nuts,” she said. “I know we don’t know each other well or for as long as other couples.”
“You know the right things about each other and that is what matters,” Helena said. “But Coy should know how you hated to be watched over and babied by your father and brother more than anyone else. You’d think I raised a smarter child than that if he’s doing it to you.”
“Sorry, but I guess you didn’t,” she said, laughing. “Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea?”
“Tea would be lovely,” Helena said, “and we can have a nice little chat about my stubborn son.”
“I love him so much,” she said. “Please never doubt it.”
“Never,” Helena said, patting her hand. “Between us, I saw it the first time I met you. Why do you think my other sons were giving me grief that I said you had a crush on Coy? The fact Coy didn’t see it tells me he was blind as a bat.”
She snorted. “I thought so too, but I realized it had more to do with him not wanting to feel that way rather than not seeing it.”
“Because of Spencer?” Helena asked.
“Yes,” she said, putting the cups under the hot water at the coffee station. Coy did like some of the finer things and she had to admit this was a nice perk. God only knows how much it cost for this setup.
“But he got over that easily enough,” Helena said.
“They had a rough road for a day or so. I know they are good now,” Angel said. “But that weekend, it was pretty touch and go.”
“Understandably,” Helena said, reaching for her tea. “Thanks.”
“Would you like some cookies? I tried to make some this morning. I’m not sure how good they are, but Coy ate four of them.”
Angel pulled the lid off and searched around for some that didn’t have a crisp bottom.
Helena took it and bit in, the crunching of the chocolate chip cookie not lost on her.
Her mother-in-law just dunked it in her tea and went with the flow. “It’s like a biscotti. Learn to adapt. At least that is what I tried to teach my boys.”
“Coy is probably down there sick to his stomach after eating that many.”
“He most likely deserves it,” Helena said. “I hope all is okay now?”
“It is,” she said. “He’s babying me like you guessed. He won’t even let me carry in a bag of groceries. I pointed out that I lift weights with him that are more than groceries.”
“Good for you. I bet he didn’t have a response for it.”
“It’s as if it didn’t occur to him. Can I ask…has he always been so particular about things?”
“You mean like the way his clothing has to be folded, his toothbrush stored, and his food labels facing in the same direction when you open the cabinet door? That kind of particular?”
She burst out laughing. “I should have talked to you before.”
Helena reached her hand over and rubbed Angel’s arm. “I’m here any time you need an ear or want to vent. If I think my son is wrong, I’ll be the first in line to say it. I’ve had a lot of conversations with Sam. Bode is wrong a lot . They got through it too. Drew isn’t too bad, as he’s laid back and Amanda is such a nurturing person that those two just have a different dynamic.”
“I’m learning everyone has a different relationship. I think I’m laid back. I’m adapting or changing to the way Coy likes things. I don’t care enough about the creases being a certain way in my clothing. I just started to fold mine like his. I pointed that out too. I won’t even talk about the fact I can’t pay for anything.”
“Get used to that. It did bother me at first. I didn’t work after Bode was born. Times were different when my kids were younger. Maybe I didn’t want to work either and wanted to be a mother.”
“You are so involved in the community though,” she said. “I don’t have time for that and worry that I’m not going to be able to do it and if it will be expected.”
“It’s not expected,” Helena assured her. “There might be a time you have to do an event or so, but you’ll have plenty of notice. Sam has a career also. Even Amanda owns a business though she doesn’t work full time. You be you and do what works. Not what I did or anyone else does. I mean that. It could be because I didn’t work for long and wanted to feel as if I brought value to the marriage that I volunteered so much in the community. Then I came to love it.”
“That’s me,” she said. “I want to bring value here.”
“You bring me a lot of value,” Coy said, opening the door. “Some of it is teaching me a lesson.”
“I don’t want to be bitchy,” she said. “That’s not me. I hate feeling like I did last night.”
“You weren’t,” he said. “I had it coming to me. You should have said something before now. Mom, did you bring me soup?”
“I did. I figured you were feeling ill or down.”
“Just my butt is sore,” he said. “From getting it kicked last night.”
Angel and Helena laughed.
Coy reached for the container of cookies and pulled the lid off. “You don’t have to eat them,” she said. “I know they are bad. Your mother dunked hers in the tea.”
“I didn’t want to break my tooth,” Helena said. “Though one of you would have fixed it.”
Coy looked at his mother after that reply, then back to Angel. She was smirking and he put the cookie back. “I don’t want to make you mad again. That was scary.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just remember that, Coy. Don’t piss off a pregnant woman.”
“Trust me, I won’t. Though we made up and that might have been worth it too.”
She felt her face flush over that comment, but Helena had her head down drinking her tea.
“I think you were conceived after one of mine and your father’s fights,” Helena said.
This time Coy blushed. “Mom!”
“You asked for it,” Helena said. “I did bring you soup over and some bread. I wanted to talk to Angel anyway about her baby shower. I thought we could do a Jack and Jill one if you’re okay with that?”
“I’d love it,” she said. She’d worried that it’d be full of Coy’s family and her mother. She didn’t have any close friends though she did talk to Sam and Amanda via text or visit them, but not much more.
Amanda was due in a few weeks and she and Coy had Liam last weekend. That was...entertaining, and let her know she’d have to prepare for the toddler stage.
“This would give more people the opportunity to meet you in the family.”
“Since there was no big wedding,” she finished for Helena.
“I’m not saying all the men will come, but some will if they can. It just leaves it open.”
“I love the idea,” she said. “I really do. My mother asked me when I wanted to have a shower. I said I didn’t care.”
“Your mother and I have been talking. She liked the idea too and asked me to bring it up.”
She smiled. She could see her mother knowing that Angel wouldn’t tell Helena no. “It’s a great idea. Would you be upset if I said I’m not fussy, just like the wedding? If you and my mother want to do the planning and surprise me, I’m fine with that.”
Helena was rubbing her hands together. “That is what I was hoping for. Barb and I have so many ideas. I can’t wait.”
Coy’s mother finished her tea, then said she was on her way to bring soup to Amanda and visit too.
“Thanks for that,” Coy said.
“For what?”
“For letting my mother do this for you for the baby.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, going into his arms. “Thanks for asking for soup, knowing that she’d come over and realize we might have had a few issues.”
He snorted. “Didn’t get that by you, did I?”
“No,” she said. “I’m not only tougher than you but smarter too. I still appreciate the gesture.”
“Not mad over it?” he asked, leaning back.
“No. See, that’s the difference. You didn’t do something for me. You gave me the opportunity to find something out on my own. If you told me what your mother said to me, coming from you, I’d be mad. I can choose to talk or ask questions myself. I did.”
“Message heard loud and clear.”
“Good,” she said, picking up the container of cookies and throwing them out.
“Thank God,” he said. “I think I chipped a tooth. Will you look?”
She turned and ran at him and he took off on the deck and down to the beach.