Chapter 25
THEIR FUTURE
“Hi, Mom,” Nelson said on Saturday. “How are you doing?”
His mother leaned in to give him a quick hug and kiss, then shoved him out of the way. “Great. Let me greet your wife now.”
He closed one eye at her and shifted out of the way for Kenzie to get a hug from his mother.
“It’s nice to meet you in person,” Kenzie said.
“Aren’t you just a lovely lady,” his mother said, hugging his wife and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Has Nelson been picking up after himself?”
Kenzie turned to look at him, the blush creeping up his neck. “Some. He’s getting better.”
“I’m trying,” he said.
It was hard to break a lifetime of bad habits.
He threw shit out when he was done with it. Most times.
Half-eaten food never sat out on the counters, but crumbs and sticky rings were another story.
His bathroom sink often bore the evidence of his morning routine. Stray toothpaste foam, a dusting of beard trimmings, sometimes more if he shaved completely.
He did flush the toilet though, that should count for something. And he put the seat back down and hadn’t had to worry about getting a lecture for years.
His mother looked at Kenzie. “He is. I’d hate to think of how bad it’d be if he weren’t. I’m still not keen on having a cleaning person once a week, but it helps.”
“Money well spent,” he said.
“Nelson is the worst of all my children. I’ll take the blame for it.
Not that I went around picking up after him, but I didn’t keep on his butt to do it daily.
When he moved into the apartment in the basement, Lord, I was scared to go down there.
Had to force myself to do it once a week and stand over his shoulder while he picked up. ”
“And trust me, nothing is worse than my mother when she’s ticked off.” He dropped his arm around her shoulder. “Right, Mom?”
“You’d know. You found yourself in the doghouse enough.”
“Seems like I’m still doing it,” he mumbled.
His mother patted his cheek. “You’re a good boy, Nelson. When you want to be. When you try. I think you’re trying harder than ever now.”
The embarrassment over his mother’s words wouldn’t be shown.
He was trying. He needed to.
He wanted to make it work with his wife.
If that meant scooping his dirty underwear off the bathroom floor right after a shower instead of letting it sit there for hours, then fine. It was a small price to pay for something that mattered this much.
The fact that his wife acknowledged his efforts was worth it.
“He’s a great guy,” Kenzie said. “You did well with him. With all your kids by the sounds of it.”
He heard laughing at the back of the house where his sister was resting. His mother had stopped them at the door.
“No,” Laken shouted. “She did a great job with the older ones. The younger ones are messing up left and right but at least getting themselves out of it.”
“Hey,” he said, moving toward the sound of his sister’s voice. “Not fair.”
“Really?” Laken said.
“Rowan didn’t mess up anything. He did the noble thing with Saylor.”
“You’re right,” Laken said. “He did. Talia...”
“Now, now,” his mother said. “Accidents happen. I know that more than anyone. I had two of them.”
“You did?” Kenzie asked. “Are you okay?”
Nelson burst out laughing. “Babies. West wasn’t planned and we recently found out neither was Rowan. Both were oops because my mother is a breeding machine.”
“As long as she didn’t pass that trait down to her son, the one I’m married to, to each their own.”
“I like you,” his mother said to his wife. “Not everyone has a lot of children. I’m positive none of my kids will have over three.”
“Three?” Laken said. “One more for me, maybe. Not something I want to think about after just giving birth, but since my son is perfect, I can see the appeal.”
“You’ll have three with Penelope if you try for another,” Nelson said.
“True. And speaking of my perfect son. Do you want to hold your new nephew?”
“You know I do,” he said, moving over to the bassinet. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted him disturbed.”
“He’ll want to be fed soon,” Laken said. His sister got up and walked to the kitchen. He assumed it was to get a bottle.
Nelson scooped up Calder in his arms, his eyes softening over the tiny sleeping figure in front of him. It was impossible for him to tell who the baby looked like, but Calder was family and that was all that mattered.
Kenzie had come to stand next to him and put the gift bag down, then looked over his arm, her finger tracing the baby’s soft cheek.
“Do you want to hold him?”
“I’d love to,” she said.
He passed his nephew into his wife’s arms and watched how naturally she drew him into the crook of her elbow, her hips rocking in a quiet, instinctive rhythm to keep him sleeping.
His palms sweat, his chest expanded and his heart grew with the love and the image of his wife with a baby in her arms.
In that moment, he could see it so clearly. Kenzie with that tender, gentle smile, her eyes misted over, her thumb brushing across a few silky strands of dark hair. That was his future.
Their future.
If he could get her to believe it also.
He thought she might. Or hoped it more.
Their first full week as a married couple living together hadn’t been horrible.
Might have been better if he had realized what a slob he really was.
She hadn’t said a word about it. Not one.
But he’d watched her picking up after him and jumped up to intercept it and finish the job.
They’d talked and he’d told her to remind him and she came back with, “I’m not your mother. Figure it out on your own.”
A swift arrow to his gut to grow the hell up and take responsibility for things.
He was. He had to.
“He’s tiny, isn’t he?” he asked.
“I don’t think your sister felt that way a few days ago.”
“No,” Laken said, moving over. “I didn’t. His bottle is ready if you want to feed him when he wakes up. Should be soon. It’s been over two hours, but if he’s sleeping I’m not sure I want to wake him either.”
“Best to get him in a routine,” his mother said. “But you’re right, sleep works too.”
“Are you getting much?” he asked Laken.
“Jamie and I are taking turns getting up with him. So every two hours, that’s letting us get four hours straight. Kind of. I wake up when he cries.”
“And you will for years to come,” his mother said. “I didn’t start having a full night’s sleep until Talia moved out of the house.”
“Stop,” he said, laughing.
“I’m not lying. Talia might have been sleeping through the night when she was one, but then I was worrying about your father, where we were living, what you kids were doing if you weren’t home.
Once West hit the teenage stage, I couldn’t sleep until he was home. Until all my kids were under one roof.”
“Then once they went off to college, you worried then, right?” Kenzie asked.
“That’s it right there. When this one got older and was out, nope. No sleep for me. He and Rowan together, talk about stressful situations.”
“I’m getting scared about wanting to have a child with you, Nelson,” she said.
The fact she’d made that comment meant she was at least thinking beyond the here and now.
“I’m nervous,” Jamie said. “I know what I was like. Not even as a teen but more in college and after.”
“But you’re not that person anymore,” Laken said. “And we’re both tough. We’ve got this.”
“No one is tougher than Laken,” Nelson said. “Or maybe my wife is. She’s putting up with me like a champ.”
Kenzie’s head shifted and landed on his shoulder for a brief second. His mother saw and grinned.
Calder started to stretch and stir, his eyes opening, his mouth going with it and some tiny cries coming out.
“Looks like he’s ready to eat,” she said.
“You can feed him if you want,” Laken said.
Kenzie moved to a chair and sat, he handed over the bottle to her and watched how expertly she fed his nephew.
“Have you had practice? It looks it to me.”
“I babysat when I was younger. I couldn’t get a job other than that and it was a way to make money. I like kids. The younger ones are easier than the older.”
“Nelson, why don’t you and I go have a chat?” his mother said.
“Sure. Time for my lecture,” he said.
“Stop,” his mother said, nudging his arm. They walked outside. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to leave his wife alone, but he saw her content with the baby and chatting with Laken. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“How are things going? From my perspective, you look happy. Wary and cautious, but still happy. I’m not sure what is causing the first two but they are there.”
He sighed. “I want to make her happy. She’s struggling to adapt. Or I think she is. She doesn’t say much.”
“Then how do you know she is? You don’t know her well enough to read the signs. Could be this is just her way until she gets her footing under her.”
“True,” he said. “We aren’t fighting or anything like that. She’s not tiptoeing around me in the house, but she’s still not taking it upon herself to make changes.”
“Nelson,” his mother said, her voice dripping with sarcasm worse than a melting ice cream cone in the height of a North Carolina summer. “She’s been here, what? Ten days. Not even two full weeks. It probably still feels like an extended vacation.”
“You’re right. And she worked two days and has been studying. We’ve gone around town together. She won’t take my car without me.”
“Give it time. Or buy her a car for herself.”
“And cause a fight? I don’t think so. She was pissed I gave her a credit card, but she knows she’s not paying for anything in the house. She feels better having a job and some money coming in to take care of her debt.”
“It’s hard for you not to deal with that for her, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I just want to take care of her. You raised us that way.”
“I raised you all to be independent and figure out your life on your own. If that means taking more than you give, then suck it up. Do what is right for you, not what you think West or Braylon or I would do.”
“I know. It’s not easy.”
“Marriage isn’t. Even more so under these circumstances. But you’ve always been my stubborn one and I’m rooting for you.”
“Because you don’t believe in divorce.”
“No,” his mother said. “It’s not that. Times are different. I believe in you, but that doesn’t mean I want any of my children to settle or be unhappy. Things take time and patience.”
“I don’t have a lot of patience.”
“Then you better figure out how to get some.”