Chapter 16
Christmas
Steffi had heard for years and seen all the Christmas cards, festive slogans, and commercials that pushed the ‘family’ and ‘togetherness’ aspect of the holidays… but her ‘Folgers-Commercial-Moment’ was, shall we say, a little ‘off’.
Drake’s mother was a joy. She insisted on being called ‘Mama Walker’ or ‘Mom’ – and nearly smothered Steffi in a bone-crushing hug the moment they’d arrived in Quinlan.
Drake grew up in a small frame house on a dead-end street, clapboard siding, shutters, a wooden porch, complete with a clothesline attached to a tree outback.
She looked around, drinking in everything, and once again marveled at her husband – and how down-to-earth he was.
Money wasn’t everything… but family was.
They were about to get very cozy with family in the small three-bedroom frame house for the next week or so.
Tommy arrived with his wife, Jamie, and their son.
Jamie was demure, composed, cool, and collected – classic CEO vibes – until she sprinted up to the front door of the house, hugging Mama Walker with enough enthusiasm to topple a mountain.
Tommy was grinning, walking up to the house with a ‘baby’ in one arm – and a diaper bag on the other – and that baby had to be the size of a small dog, with rolls of fat everywhere.
It was utterly adorable, and a strange cooing sound escaped her throat before she could stop it.
Drake noticed.
Tommy chuckled with a knowing look.
And Mama Walker literally released Jamie so she could fist pump the air with an emphatic ‘Yes’ before shouting “Gimme my sweet baby boo…” – and took the child from the carrier before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
“Should we talk?” Drake murmured to her – and Steffi felt her face flush as she ignored his comment, only to get hugged immediately by Jamie, then Tommy… as yet another car pulled up to the house.
Jeez… this was an onslaught of Walkers, apparently, she thought silently as the driver’s door opened and a tall man with dark hair got out, stood up on the frame of the car to boost himself so he had a better vantage point, and yelled at Drake.
“Hey, look – I think little Drake is getting shorter…”
“Really, Pete? Are you freakin’ kidding me?” Drake muttered with a groan and chuckled, looking toward Steffi. “I used to be the tallest of the three kids, but then a certain hard-headed big mouth hit his growth spurt finally…”
“Do you lose an inch with every homerun?”
“Unbelievable…”
Steffi looked between the car, the smiling faces beside her, and her distinctly perturbed husband, who was frowning at his brother’s arrival.
“Awww! W-2! Hi-ya!” a blonde woman with glittery buns on the top of her head exclaimed happily, waving practically her entire arm, including her shoulder, so hard that her body wobbled.
“Is that Steffi? Ugh! I’m so in love with any woman that can put up with your arrogance and that ‘Walker-Sassafras’… ”
“And that would be Sunny - Pete’s wife,” Drake chuckled again in defeat. “I think I left my ego and sanity in Wichita Falls. It might be a long week.”
“Nahh,” Steffi smiled, feeling a rush of warmth in her heart, realizing that she’d fallen in love with a man who simply had a very sarcastic and loving family that was welcoming her in the only way they knew how…
by teasing her husband. “Enough of that, everyone. If you are smart-mouthing my husband, how am I supposed to hug and kiss all those sweet babies?”
“Oh, I like her,” Mama Walker exclaimed to Jamie – and immediately pushed the roly-poly little boy into her arms. “Watch him because that sweet little pumpkin drools like a rabid squirrel…”
Steffi laughed nervously. “And what does a drooling, rabid squirrel look like exactly?”
“Your husband’s O-face, I’m sure,” Tommy grinned as Steffi’s husband cussed under his breath as everyone else burst out laughing wildly – except their mother, who grabbed the tall man by his ear like he was five and yanked him into the house.
“Mama, I was joking… It was funny. Drake knows I was just teasing… Mama, my ear hurts - that’s my ear! Owww!”
Sunny walked up beside her, holding their daughter and grinning. “Hope, this is your cousin, Jabba…”
“Sunny!” Jamie exclaimed, horrified as another ripple of laughter passed through the onlookers who were family. “That’s not funny – and his little rolls are adorable.”
“They are – no doubt,” Sunny agreed, unfazed. “I cannot wait to snuggle him to bits and pieces.”
“You don’t mentally scar my child, and I won’t mentally scar yours.”
“Don’t make me get mad…”
“Uh, ladies?” Steffi said nervously, unsure of what was happening right now – only to have Sunny laugh easily as she bumped her hip playfully.
“Relax, Steffi-fo-feffi,” she exclaimed in a happy voice. “If you can’t play nice, then you learn to play nasty – but it’s still playing, and Jamie knows I love her to pieces.”
“We’re just drawing the lines,” Jamie agreed, plucking Hope out of Sunny’s arms and nuzzling the infant sweetly. “Don’t you let your Mommy put those goofy buns on your head, sweet girlie… You just call your Auntie, and I’ll straighten her out.”
“See?” Sunny chuckled, grinning, before clapping her hands at Steffi. “My turn to snuggle the baby – go make your own, Newbie.”
“Oh my gosh,” Steffi laughed as Drake and Pete hugged, disappearing inside where Tommy was still getting a talking-to from his mother in the distance.
“Is the coffee ready, Jamie?”
“You know it…”
“Um, yeah – my favorites: baby smells, drooly kissies, and caffeinating… let’s go inside. I need to feed my eyeballs, and Pete wore his sexy jeans today. That man’s tight butt is a carnivore's dream,” Sunny exclaimed, walking off with the child.
Jamie looked at her, smiled, and angled her head, staring at Steffi with this determined look that was unsettling. Frankly, this whole introduction to Drake’s family in person was a lot, but oh-so welcoming too.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” Steffi said in a hushed voice, instantly defensive.
“Do you need me to ask?” Jamie said softly as the corner of her lip turned upward in almost an arrogant tone.
CEO vibes, indeed. “When we talked about babies and Sunny said ‘go make your own’ – usually that’s followed by a ‘No’ or ‘Someday’…
or an announcement,” Jamie paused, her eyes piercing.
“So is my brother-in-law getting a surprise for Christmas?”
“You’re scary, you know that?”
“I’m good at my job – which includes reading between the lines when necessary and analyzing data.”
The two women looked at each other for a moment before Sunny leaned out the front door, beaming from ear to ear, and whispered loudly. “Congrats, Steffi-fo-feffi…” and then made a ‘zipped lips’ motion before disappearing again.
Steffi groaned in disbelief, rubbing her forehead - as Jamie laughed and her shoulders in support and understanding. The older woman kissed her forehead, chuckled again, and whispered in a hushed voice between them.
“Drake’s gonna be an amazing father – and welcome to the family, hon…”
Eight months later
Steffi woke up slowly. She heard the sounds of humming in the distance – a faint, gentle, deep humming of a lullaby. Drake was somewhere close, humming to their son… David.
Cracking her eye, she drew in a breath as her entire body sighed in relief.
Labor was hard, but the wait to meet their child was even more difficult.
The last several months had brought so many treasured talks, tender moments, fanciful wishes discussed in the still of the night as they held each other close… and now – this.
Her body ached, a part of her felt the emptiness of her stomach, but her heart felt infinitely big right now, recalling the last twelve hours.
Some of it was a weird, hazy blur… she knew the labor had hurt, but her mind had pushed the pain to the side in the strangest way.
She remembered Drake being at her side, telling her to push…
and then that look of amazement on his face before it cracked.
Her bold, playful, outgoing husband cried harder than the baby did.
She would never forget the wild, frantic, frightened, and erratic movements of their son as he moved his limbs outside of the womb for the first time, almost like he was floundering.
The tiny swollen eyelids, the soft downy hair, that button nose that looked almost like an accordion it was so scrunched up…
and the staggering feeling of connection, of a mother’s love, the moment she laid eyes on their child.
Pyroclastic flow, eat your heart out… because nothing – nothing – would compare to the surge of love that swept over her, through her, and surrounded her in those first minutes.
She understood the ‘mama bear’ cracks, the jokes about ‘not looking good in prison orange’ - because as that fragile, helpless child was laid on her chest in the delivery room, Steffi knew there was no limit to what she wouldn’t do for David.
Their whole lives had changed in twelve hours.
She became a mother.
Drake became a father.
They became a family in every sense of the word.
Pushing herself to a seated position in bed, Steffi cringed as her swollen chest ached and wondered what it would feel like in a few days when her milk actually came in.
The nurses said it was colostrum right now – and those nutrients were vital for David.
As she adjusted again slightly, about to get up to go check on Drake and David, he appeared in the doorway, holding a tightly swaddled bundle, smiling at her with such love and adoration it was staggering.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“Hey,” she replied in a hushed voice – and then gave him a wry smile. “Did you get the plates on that freight train that drove through me?”
“I don’t think freight trains have license plates,” he smiled sympathetically and nodded. “We were trying to let you sleep as much as possible, but I believe my son keeps saying ‘boobs’… and who am I to deny him?”
Steffi huffed and rolled her eyes. “He’s not saying boobs… in fact, he’s not saying anything at all.”
“It’s in man-speak.”
“Oh, is it now?”
“I’m fluent.”
“I have no doubt.”
He held the barely-fretting child up slightly and smirked at her, before whispering once more. “What was that, David – why yes – yes, son, they are lovely boobs that make you feel so much better…”
“Do I need to go back to calling you names, Dearest Walker?”
“You could just call me yours forever, and I’d be happy,” Drake smiled tenderly as he stepped forward and took a seat gingerly on the bed beside her. “He was fretting a bit, but I think he just likes to be held.”
“I think you like holding him,” Steffi chuckled in understanding as she stared at him, drinking in the sight of the two of them. These moments would be forever in her heart, branded on her soul. “Maybe he inherited that from his sweet Daddy, who likes to be held too.”
“Probably…”
They shared a smile as David made a different, more distinct noise – and grunted.
“He gets that from his Daddy too,” Steffi said flatly, lifting an eyebrow as Drake looked sheepish but proud as he winked at her.
“That’s my boy.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Oh? Oh?” Drake whispered dramatically and looked at Steffi. “Did you hear it?”
“Boobs?” she chuckled as David grunted again and let out a mewl of discomfort that probably had more to do with what just happened in his diaper than his tummy.
This was a learning experience for both of them, she realized, and laughter was the best medicine – for her heart, her soul, her everything.
Holding out her arms, she accepted the baby and smiled up at Drake as he whispered to her, kissing her forehead.
“Bingo – and I’ll grab a diaper.”
Ready to meet Pete and Sunny?
Get ready to laugh, smile, catch-your-breath, and swoon as these two opposites collide in the best way possible…