Page 30 of Beyond our Forever

Well, at least they weren’t killing each other.

About ten minutes later, they came back in, both smiling from ear to ear. Warren took a couple of beers from the refrigerator and handed one to Bruce.

“What happened?” I asked curiously, when neither of them said anything.

“We agreed that this weekend you’ll go to Yuma to see Bruce’s parents and next week we’ll go to see ours.”

My jaw was hanging almost to my knees, the pair had decided everything.

“Are you going to travel to Page with us?” I was amazed at everything they’d planned together.

“Don’t think I’m going to allow you to travel more than six hours in that heap of junk Bruce calls a truck, plus I’m dying to see Mom’s face when you tell her she’s going to be a grandmother.”

I could almost hear her. Grandma, and not even sixty!

My brother was dying of laughter. Well, at least someone found the situation amusing.

???

The journey from Tucson to Yuma took a little over three hours. It was a small desert city in the south of the state, located at the border with Mexico. I was dying of nerves about meeting the parents of the man I was hopelessly in love with. We’d decided it was better to wait to tell them about the new addition to the family, at least until we had our first appointment with the doctor and the first few weeks had safely passed. Warren had also agreed to keep our secret, we read in a book that the first three months were the most risky, so for the moment, the pregnancy would be kept private.

Bruce was quite close to his family, which by the way, was quite large as he was the fourth of seven brothers. His father owned a small construction company that Brian, the oldest son took over. His mother was a housewife. Just like mine.

When we got there, I was welcomed with hugs from all the members of the Leighton family, allowing me to better understand Bruce. His warmth, his sense of humor, his intelligence.

I think that in my life, I have never had to memorize so many names at the same time, because the whole family gathered to receive us.

“You chose well,” his mother said to Bruce, stroking a lock of my dark hair. “I hope that if you ever have children, they will inherit Ilythia’s hazel eyes.”

I almost choked on the glass of water I was drinking. Fortunately, none of them thought my reaction was strange and lunch continued smoothly.

Could it be true what they say, that mothers know everything?

Was the word ‘pregnant’ written on my forehead?

Bruce and his father bore a great resemblance, they were both tall, slim, and in good shape. Seeing them joke around, my heart jumped with joy, because that was what I wanted for us, to be a close family.

A home in which our child, even when he was older, would be happy to return to.

“Uncle Bruce!” Olivia and Thea, his two little nieces, screamed. “Come play with us.”

“God help me,” he groaned as the girls giggled.

“It’s marshmallow tea,” Olivia said proudly, handing him a pink plastic cup.

“It’s air tea,” Thea added, mocking her cousin.

“Yes, I know that, silly,” Olivia replied indignantly. “But if you close your eyes and use your imagination, it tastes delicious.”

“Did you put sugar in it?” Bruce asked Olivia.

“A little bit,” she answered happily.

They kept talking about the wonders of air tea, while my heart burst with love. Seeing him there, sitting on the floor with a feather boa around his neck, not caring about staining his pants with grass, playing with them, I understood why he yearned for the baby to be a girl. The scene was very amusing, but also touching.

I was glad that he was the father of my baby. He was going to be the best dad ever. It was an unequivocal fact.

“Ladies, the snack is over.”

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