Page 57 of The Homewrecker's Fate

“Mom!” I yelped in shock. The woman threw her head back and laughed. It seemed Brax was good for healing more than one Acker woman’s broken heart. “You can’t steal my man!” I yelled across the lawn at her.

“Oh, please! I wouldn’t even know what to do with all those muscles he has. Your father was a soft kind of man, doughy in the middle, but I liked him just fine. He knew how to push my buttons.”

“La, la, la, la, la, la…” I covered my ears and wished those words could be unheard.

“She’s such a prude,” Mom told Brax who laughed as he picked her up and carried her into the house.

Once my mom was situated, she made me take a seat, too. “I wanted to get some things for the baby, but Amelia can’t really do my heavy lifting very well on her own, getting me in and out of a car and the house and the store.” I nodded at her explanation. “So, I asked your young man to help an old woman have a shopping day.”

Aww.

“What is in that basket?” Mom asked after she noticed it was still clutched in my hands.

“I tried to surprise Brax at work with lunch, since I keep falling asleep during our dinner dates.”

Mom laughed and Brax grinned at me. “Surprise!” He huffed out with his hands raised and fingers waggling like someone, at some point in time, taught him all about spirit fingers. My guess was Mel.

“Surprise!” I called back to him in a teasing tone. “Guess we got our wires crossed today.”

“Yes, and Mel told me what happened with my secretary. I will have a word with her when I get back to the office tomorrow. Under no circumstances should she have talked to you the way she did. For that matter, she didn’t know who you were, so she shouldn’t have offered anyone else’s name.” His frustration showed for a moment then he moved closer and wrapped his hands around the basket to move it to the coffee table. “You are free to know anything about where I am, so don’t think that’s me trying to hide things from you. I haven’t had the chance to introduce you at work yet, though, so it was like she told a stranger those things. That’s what I’m mad about.”

“I understand completely. I’ll admit it was a bit disconcerting at first, but by the time I was done talking to Mel, I felt better and wanted to come back and do some laundry while I waited to talk to you like an adult about things.”

“Laundry?”

“Yep, I need to wash everything before…”

“She’s nesting. That baby will be along any day now,” My mother clapped her hands together and then pushed her shopping bags closer to me. “This was perfect timing.”

“I’m not nesting just because I’ve been too tired to get things done lately and now it has all piled up.”

We took a few minutes to open the presents my mom got for me and Janine, then we ate the picnic lunch I’d prepared for Brax. “I’m kind of glad you were here with Mom. I didn’t realize how much I made.” Three of us ate off the lunch that I’d made for him alone and there were leftovers.

“Nesting,” Mom teased again.

Chapter 23

“Are you sure you should be going out? You were just nesting a couple weeks ago. You’ve already held out longer than anyone expected you to.” I rolled my eyes at my mother’s warning.

“I’m fine. I’ve been feeling good for a few days now. I just want to go enjoy a nice meal with Braxton that neither of us has to cook. Besides, Dr. Martinez said it looks like I’ll be delivering on time and my due date is still September 12th.”

“Okay, Avi. You know your body better than anyone else. Could you ease my worries a bit and at least put your hospital bag in whatever car you’re taking tonight?”

I wanted to laugh at my mom, but this was her first grandchild, and she was nervous, too. Brax shouldered my bag and winked at Mom as he guided me out the front door. “We’ll be back before nine,” he called to Mom.

“Doubt that,” she whispered loud enough for us to hear her. Amelia laughed, which also gave her away.

“Love you, Mom. Thanks, Amelia.”

It took twenty minutes to get to the restaurant where we decided to have dinner. The whole time, it felt like I couldn’t get comfortable. My back ached and I had this overwhelming feeling of being unsettled.

“You’re squirming a lot over there,” Brax said as he reached to grab my hand.

“I’m just not very comfortable these days.”

“That’s to be expected at 39-weeks.”

“Ugh!” I groaned. “I still have one week to go, too. It feels like her feet are curled under my ribs at this point and her head is sitting as low as it can possibly go without her sticking a hand out and waving at us from my vagina.”

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