Chapter 21 Reggie
Twenty One
Reggie
“Can I have syrup, Mama?” Annalise asks, attacking her pancakes like she hasn’t eaten in days.
“Say please, baby.”
“Can I have syrup, please, most beautiful, amazing mother in the whole world?”
“Better,” I laugh, handing her the syrup bottle.
It’s Saturday morning, and we’re all gathered around the kitchen table for what’s become our usual weekend breakfast chaos. Blayne’s at the stove flipping another batch of pancakes. The easy way he moves around my kitchen makes my heart and nether regions all warm and tingly.
“These are really good,” Nia mumbles around a bite, which is high praise coming from my eternally skeptical teenager.
“Secret ingredient,” Blayne replies, winking.
“What secret ingredient?” I ask.
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be secret, babe.”
“That’s not how relationships work. We don’t keep secrets.”
“Since when?” Jaylen jumps in like he’s just been waiting for an opportunity to ambush us. “You two have been keeping the biggest secret of all.” Uh-oh.
“What secret?” Annalise wants to know. Adorably wide-eyed, with syrup all around her mouth.
“That they’re in love,” Nia singsongs. Wow. “It’s pretty obvious,” she adds with assurance. What is happening right now?!
I nearly choke on my coffee. “We haven’t been keeping it a secret.”
“You kind of have,” Jaylen points out. “All the sneaking around, pretending like Blayne just happens to be here every morning.”
“We weren’t sneaking around.”
“Mama,” Nia gives me a look. “I caught you tiptoeing back inside the house after walking Blayne to his truck at two in the morning the other night. That’s literally the definition of sneaking around.”
“Okay, fine. Maybe we were being a little… discreet.”
“Why?” Annalise asks. “Are you embarrassed about Blayne?”
“Oh no, baby. I’m not embarrassed at all. We just wanted to figure things out before we made it official.”
“Well, it’s official now, right?” she continues. “Because the other day that lady said we were a beautiful family, and Blayne said we were married.”
“We’re not actually married, sweetheart,” I clarify quickly.
“But you’re together?” Jaylen wants to know. “Like, officially together.”
“Yes, baby. We’re officially together.”
“Good,” Annalise settles it.
Blayne turns around from the stove, a plate of fresh pancakes in his hands and an amused expression on his face. “You all knew?”
“Duh,” Nia says. “You’ve been here every night for three weeks. Your toothbrush is in her bathroom. You know where everything is in the kitchen. Plus, Mama’s been walking around looking like she won the lottery.”
“I have not been walking around looking like I won the lottery.”
“You’ve been humming,” Jaylen points out. “Mom never hums.”
“I hum.”
“You hummed when you were married to Dad,” Nia says. “And you stopped when things got bad. Now you’re humming again.”
The observation is so mature it takes my breath away. My kids have been watching, paying attention, and understanding more than I gave them credit for.
“So what does this mean?” Annalise asks.
“What do you want it to mean?” Blayne asks, setting the pancakes on the table and sitting down next to me.
“I want you to stay,” she replies immediately. “Forever. And I want to keep calling you my stepdad when people ask.”
“You called me your stepdad?”
“Yesterday at the arcade. This kid asked if you were my dad, and I said you were my stepdad.”
Blayne looks at me, and I can see something soft and vulnerable in his expression. “Is that okay with you?”
“More than okay.” I take his hand in mine.
“What about you two?” he asks Jaylen and Nia. “How do you feel about all this?”
“Honestly?” Jaylen says. “It’s weird calling someone else dad. But… you’re not trying to replace him or anything. You’re just being yourself. And yourself is pretty cool.”
“High praise from a teenager,” I tell Blayne.
“I like you better than Dad,” Nia says bluntly. “You actually show up when you say you will. You remember things that are important to us. And you make my mom happy instead of making her cry.”
“Nia!”
“What? It’s true. Dad made you cry all the time, especially in the end. Blayne makes you smile.”
“Your father loves you,” I feel compelled to say, even if it’s been a while since Richard has so much as texted them.
“Maybe,” Nia says with a shrug. “But love isn’t just a feeling. It’s what you do. And what he does is work, travel and forget about us. What Blayne does is show up.”
Out of the mouths of babes. My fourteen-year-old daughter just summed up the difference between her father and Blayne better than I ever could.
“Well,” I say after a deep inhale, clearing my throat because this shit is heavy, and important, and fucking beautiful. “I’m glad we’re all on the same page.”
“So what now?” Jaylen asks. “Do we tell Grandma and Grandpa? Because I think they already know too.”
“Everyone knows,” Annalise says with authority. I shake my head. With her small, sassy self. “Mrs. Patterson asked me yesterday if my mom was dating the handsome construction boss.”
“She did not,” I gasp.
“She did! And I said yes, and she said it was about time.”
“About time?”
“Uh-huh. She said you and Blayne have been making googly eyes at each other for years.”
“Oh, my God! We have not been making googly eyes for years.”
“Mom,” Nia says patiently, “you used to get all flustered whenever he came to Grandpa’s house. It was pretty obvious.”
“Child, I did not get flustered.”
“You totally did,” Jaylen agrees. “Remember that time he helped us move the couch, and you couldn’t figure out how to work the coffee maker?”
“That was… that was just a coincidence.”
“Uh-huh. You’ve made coffee the same way for years,” Nia points out.
Blayne, the traitor, is trying not to laugh, but I can see his shoulders shaking. “Something funny?”
“Just thinking about you being flustered. It’s cute, babe.”
“I was not flustered. I was being polite.”
“Right. Polite.”
Before I can defend myself further, my phone rings. I glance at the screen and see Mama’s name.
I answer the call. “Hi, Mama.”
“Regina, honey, are you busy today?”
“Not particularly, Ma. Why?”
“Well, your father and I were thinking about having a little barbecue this afternoon. Nothing fancy, just family. Maybe invite a few neighbors.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Oh, and honey? Tell Blayne.”
I palm my forehead, then look across the table at him, and he raises an eyebrow in question.
“Mama, why would I be the one telling Blayne? Why don’t you call him to invite him?”
It’s like I can feel her eye-roll through the phone. “Sweetheart, half the town saw you at that family center the other day. Ms. Nancy called me this morning to tell me what a lovely family you all make.”
“Ms. Nancy called you?”
“She did. Oh, and Mrs. Henderson. And Rosie from the diner. Apparently, you guys have fans.” She laughs warmly.
“We don’t have fans, Ma. We just… existed in public.”
“With a very handsome cowboy who is clearly smitten with you and your children. In a small town like this, that’s big news, baby.”
“Great.”
“It is, honey. People are rooting for you. You deserve to be happy.”
I let out a sigh. “Thanks, Mama.”
“So, two o’clock? And tell Blayne to bring his appetite. Your father wants to show off his new grill.”
“I’ll ask him.”
“Don’t ask him, honey. Tell him. He’s family.”
She hangs up before I can respond, and I set my phone down with a sigh.
“Let me guess,” Blayne says. “We’re going to your folks’.”
“How did you know?”
“Because your mom’s been waiting for an excuse to feed me and interrogate me properly for weeks.”
“She’s not going to interrogate you.”
“She’s totally going to interrogate him,” Nia laughs. “Grandma’s been dying to get the full story.”
“What full story?” I start sweating.
“About how you two fell in luuuv.” I hate my child. She keeps going, ticking on her fingers. “When you knew it was serious, if you’re thinking about marriage, when you’re going to give her more grandchildren…”
“Nia Scott! I will whoop you!”
She’s dying with laughter. They all are. Traitors, all of them. “What? That’s what she asked me last week.”
“She asked you those questions?”
“She asks everyone those questions, Ma. We just tell her to ask you herself.”
I bury my face in my hands. “This is going to be a disaster.”
“Hey,” Blayne says gently, pulling my hands away from my face. “It’s going to be fine. Your parents love me.”
I look up at his handsome face. “They do love you. But they also love embarrassing me.”
“That’s what parents do,” Annalise says wisely. “It’s like you guys’ job.”
“Plus,” Jaylen adds, “it’s kind of nice for them to have something positive to gossip about for once. Usually it’s just who got divorced, drunk, bankrupt or arrested.”
“Your mother and I are not gossip,” Blayne protests through a chuckle.
“You are now,” Nia replies, smirking. “The divorced woman who moved home and fell in love with the local hottie.”
“Nia, don’t call Blayne a hottie.”
“Mama,” she gives me a look. “Have you seen him? Half the single women in town have been trying to get his attention for years.”
“That’s not true.” Blayne shakes his head, rolling his eyes.
“It’s totally true,” Jaylen confirms. “Mrs. Rodriguez at the hardware store always finds excuses to talk to you. And that lady who works at the bank is always smiling really big when you come in.”
“How do you even know any of this?” I moan.
“Because we pay attention,” Nia says. “And because it’s obvious. Blayne’s like the most eligible bachelor in town. Was the most eligible bachelor. Now he’s taken,” she finishes with a huge smile aimed at said ex-bachelor.
“Very taken,” he agrees with a returned grin, and they freaking fist-bump.
Annalise giggles. “Good, because I don’t want to share him.”
“You don’t have to share me, princess. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You promise?”
He turns a sweet smile her way, and my poor ovaries explode like fireworks. “I promise, sweetheart.”