19. Chance #2
“She wasn’t sure who to reach out to,” Rena replied, looking over her shoulder at me. “She didn’t think that any of my grandparents’ friends wanted anything to do with us.”
“It wasn’t true.”
Rena shrugged. “Look at my grandma’s eyes,” she said, pointing at the photograph.
I walked over and looked at the photo over her shoulder.
I knew immediately what she meant.
Irene’s mouth was smiling, but if you covered that with your fingertip, her eyes were sad and worried.
Rena spent about an hour looking over the different pieces we’d found, telling me stories about things as she remembered them.
Most of the stories were ones her mother had told her, but a few of them were hers.
She’d been so young when her grandparents died that her own memories were mostly just flashes and impressions.
If the light would’ve held, she probably would’ve stayed there all night, but since we hadn’t bothered to add electricity, it got dark as the sun went down.
I locked everything up carefully, even though we’d vetted every single person who came on the property, and with a disappointed groan, Rena let me tug her toward home.
She carried the scrapbook tucked safely under her arm, unwilling to leave it behind.
We’d barely reached my parents’ driveway when Reese called.
“Hey,” she said suspiciously.
“He showed me,” Rena replied, smiling at me as she rolled her eyes.
“Oh my god, I’ve been waiting for fucking ever. What did you think? Did you cry? Of course you did. You’ve got all those hormones going on.”
“Stop talking about my hormones,” Rena shot back.
“Hey, man, takes one to know one. I’m just glad it’s you and not me. I’m drinking all the booze over here.”
“How’s that going?” Rena asked with a laugh.
“It’s great,” Reese replied. “Beau is perpetually sober, so he makes sure I get back to the hotels.”
I choked back a laugh. I was sure my stodgy brother was loving that.
“So how’d he do it?” Reese asked. “Did he, like, wrap it all up so you had to open it?”
“He put it in the shed?—”
“Boo.”
“He set it all up on those shelves I got in Lafayette,” Rena said, cutting her off. “It was perfect.”
“Mom helped,” I admitted.
“Am I on speakerphone?” Reese asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Chauncey! We went to that restaurant you recommended in Italy, and it was as good as you said it would be.”
“Told you,” I replied.
“Everything is better in Europe,” Reese announced. “Ugh, I swear, I want to come back here every year.”
“When are you coming back here?” Rena asked.
“Next week,” Reese replied. “Beau wants to get a look at our house. Apparently, photos from Mattie aren’t cutting it anymore.”
“Flu needs to micromanage,” Rena replied with a laugh. “But good. I miss you.”
“Miss you too, Re.”
“I’m glad you’re having fun, though.”
“We’ll have to come back after my nephew is old enough to travel,” Reese said. “You’d love it here.”
“We’ll make a plan,” Rena agreed.
“Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
“Bye.”
“We should’ve gone with them to Europe,” Rena said, wrinkling her nose at me.
“We’ve still got time before the baby gets here.”
It was a conversation we’d had at least five times before. Beau and Reese had invited us to come along, and Rena was bummed that she was missing out on the trip, but she didn’t actually want to go anywhere. My mate was a homebody through and through, especially with our son on the way.
“Dinner time,” my mom called from the porch, smiling excitedly. “And you can tell me where you’re going to put everything in the new house!” She turned and disappeared inside.
“Never mind, let’s stay here,” Rena said softly, leaning up on her toes to kiss me. Her belly pressed against my side, and our son pushed against the pressure.
“You just want Mom to spoil you,” I accused, not for the first time. “Usurper.”
“I can’t help it that I’m the favorite,” Rena shot back as she walked toward the house.
“You know what’s my favorite?” I asked, staring.
“Stop looking at my ass and hurry up. Your parents are waiting.”
Dinner had become quieter lately.
Danny and Rosemary spent most of their time at Gary’s.
They’d announced the month before that Rosemary was pregnant and that they’d decided to build a house on her father’s land so they could stay close and also help him with the property.
He was still strong as an ox, but he wasn’t getting any younger and was confined to a wheelchair full-time.
My parents hid their disappointment, but they missed them.
Everyone had gotten used to being in the same house, and it was an adjustment having them gone.
But we also knew that we would have unlimited time with Danny and Rosemary, and Gary wouldn’t.
“Did you love your surprise?” Charlie asked Rena as we sat down to eat. He’d been making more of an effort lately. I wasn’t sure if it was because he knew how much it wore on Lucy when he didn’t, or if he actually wanted the company.
“Best surprise ever,” Rena replied. “When do you guys leave?”
“Thursday,” Lucy answered, grinning. “We’re going to visit the Rennos in Pennsylvania, then to Massachusetts so we can go to all the witchy shops, hit some museums, do all the touristy shit that we didn’t do when we were living on the East Coast.”
“Sounds awesome.”
“Why anyone would want to glorify that period is beyond understanding,” my father whispered to my mother. “They were hanging women for no reason whatsoever.”
“I know, my love,” Mom replied, shooting him a look to shut up.
“Don’t worry, we’ll only be gone a couple of weeks, so we’ll be back in plenty of time before the baby gets here,” Lucy added.
Rena waved her off. “I’m not worried.”
Ambrose looked down at his plate and asked quietly, knowing that only my father and I would hear, “You still panicking about the birth?”
I glared at him down the table and flipped him off.
“What?” Rena asked, looking between us. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” I replied, giving her knee a squeeze. “Ambrose is just being an asshole.”
“Secrets don’t make friends, Ambrose,” Rena said sternly.
“Apologies,” Ambrose replied, holding back a smile.
Later that night, I watched from the bed as Rena stood naked in the bathroom and slathered herself in lotion.
Sometimes she let me do it, but more often than not lately, she wanted to do it herself.
She said it helped her wind down at the end of the day, which she couldn’t do if I was riling her up in the process.
I thought it probably had more to do with the fact that she was trying to soak in every minute of her pregnancy, and that included the nightly mapping of the changes to her body. I was with her every step of the way, but there were some things in pregnancy that were elusive, even to me.
I’d shut off all the lights and gotten into bed by the time she came out of the bathroom, her hair tied up in a knot, wearing nothing but her opal ring on a gold chain around her neck.
“Tired?” I asked as she lay down next to me.
“I mean…” She drew out the word and turned, nestling her ass against my crotch. “Not too tired.”
I grinned.
Almost four months later, I thought about that night. The way we’d stayed up long after we were replete, just talking. How relaxed Rena had been. How calm and sure and serene.
She wasn’t serene any longer.
“We have everything we need here,” she argued with the doctor, pointing to the medical equipment Ambrose had ordered.
“I still believe we should deliver you in a hospital,” the doctor said, attempting and failing to soothe her. “You’ve been in labor for twenty-five hours already.”
“And?” she spat, pacing the floor. Her hair was a sweaty mess, she smelled like a goat, and she’d never been more beautiful. “Sometimes babies take a while.”
“Matilda,” the doctor said quietly, looking for some help from my mother.
“I had every one of my children at home,” she replied dryly. “I don’t think my word will carry much weight.”
“We have a fully operational hospital room right here,” Rena said stubbornly. “If we have to do a C-section, Ambrose already told you he’d assist.”
“We have no anesthesiologist,” the doctor said. “There’s no way that Ambrose has stocked every medication we could possibly need in every eventuality?—”
“He’s right, Re,” Reese told her.
“Oh, nice,” Rena glared at her best friend. “Take his side.”
Reese glared at me to do something.
“Snookums,” I called. “Can we find a compromise?”
“Are you going to push this baby out of your vagina?” she asked, swiping little tendrils of hair out of her face. “No? That’s what I thought.”
“I want Alice,” Rena breathed, stopping to pant through a distraction.
I was pretty sure everyone in the room wished Alice were there, not just my mate.
“Let’s give it a few more hours,” I told the doctor. “She’s still walking around. Still talking. If she gets too tired or something else is wrong, we’ll revisit.”
“That’s fine,” he said with a nod. “I’m going to go get some coffee.”
As soon as he’d left the room, Rena glared at me.
“I don’t want to be here,” she complained. “I want to be in our home, in our bed, surrounded by our things. I don’t need a hospital room. Women have been doing this since the beginning of time.”
“Yes, but they didn’t have the access to the care you do,” my mother reminded her gently. “And they died.”
“I’m not going to die. I’m immortal,” Rena countered.
None of us said the other part, that the fragile mortal baby that my mate was carrying could die if something went wrong.
“Ambrose,” Rena bellowed, startling me. “Get in here!”
A few seconds later, my brother’s head peeked around the doorjamb.
“I want to go home,” Rena told him, putting her hands on her lower back as she continued to waddle back and forth.
Ambrose looked at me for help.