Page 38 of Burden to Bear

I shrugged. “I mean, I haven’t done anything major recently. I helped her with snow removal a few times over the winter. And she actually needed to borrow two eggs from me this morning to make the cookies. I guess that was a reason she felt compelled to share.”

“How does Izzy know her?” she pressed.

I wanted to laugh.

Moms. They were like private investigators.

Even when Chris and I were kids, my mom always knew when someone wasn’t being entirely truthful or when something happened that she should know about. We’d get home from school, and she’d ask about something specific that happened while we were there. We never understood how she knew, and when we asked her, she insisted that it was a superpower of being a mom. I was beginning to think she hadn’t been lying.

“Mia was out for a walk in the neighborhood last Saturday, and she happened to be heading back to her house when Izzy and I were outside,” I explained. “I introduced them, and Izzy invited Mia to have lunch with us that afternoon. That’s all. It was entirely innocent.”

“What does innocent mean, Daddy?” Izzy chimed in.

“That word has a few different meanings, princess, but Uncle Brock just means that your lunch together with Mia was simple and fun,” Chris explained.

“Oh,” Izzy replied as she nodded slowly with understanding. As quickly as she took that in, she turned her attention to my mom and said, “Nana, I can’t wait for you to open your presents. Daddy got you a special one at the store, but I also have one that I made for you.”

My mom’s face lit up. “You know that one is going to be my favorite, right?”

I let out a sigh of relief, because from that point forward, the conversation had shifted away from the discussion about Mia and on to other topics. And while Izzy did a great job of keeping everyone entertained and distracted with her random thoughts and discussions, with one look at my brother, I knew the conversation about Mia was far from over.

The four of us enjoyed a nice dinner together, followed by dessert. Of course, we also showered my mom with some gifts before the evening was over and helped her carry them all to her car when we left the restaurant.

Chris and I were parked closer together on the other side of the lot, so we took off in that direction with Izzy after our mom thanked us for a wonderful birthday.

We got to my brother’s car first, and after I said goodbye to Izzy and lifted her into the backseat to make sure she was safely buckled while Chris started the car, I got the interrogation I’d been expecting.

Chris had turned on a movie in the car for Izzy and closed the door as we stood beside it. Then he said one word to me. “Cookies?”

I gave him a nod.

“Did something happen between the two of you since last Saturday that would prompt the delivery of cookies to you today?” he pressed.

Shaking my head, I answered, “No.”

He narrowed his eyes. “So, you expect me to believe she shared these for no reason?”

“She’s pregnant,” I blurted.

“What?”

“Mia woke up this morning and was craving lemon cookies,” I started. I went on to explain how and why she didn’t have eggs and needed them, but also realized after she made the cookies that she didn’t want to eat them. Of course, I shared how she hadn’t wanted to throw them out, so she thought she’d see if I wanted them, and in the midst of our conversation, she revealed she was pregnant.

“Why didn’t she keep the cookies for the dickhead boyfriend?” Chris questioned me.

“Because he left her on Christmas Eve when she shared the news about the pregnancy.”

“Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“Wow, that’s horrible.”

“I know. And the worst part is that while she was at my place earlier today, she asked me if I wanted to have dinner together tonight. Obviously, I couldn’t because we had this planned, but before I could explain the specifics, she got the wrong impression. Or, I think she did.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before she left my house last week, we talked about getting together for dinner one night, but we hadn’t managed to plan that yet. So, when she asked me about getting together for dinner tonight and I had to decline, I think she believed it was because of this news about the pregnancy, because she excused herself so quickly and was out of the house in a flash,” I explained.

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