Page 75 of Talk About… Rivalry

The air smelled like homemade food and my stomach growled loudly.

“You sound just like Avery,” Mama Whitaker said as she pulled me into a hug. She held on for a few extra beats like she always did. “Gifts are over in the living room and then you can come in the kitchen and help me out.”

“Of course,” I said easily, stopping to drop the gifts on the table she had set up before hurrying in.

“Sidney,” Avery said, opening her arms for me to hug her. It was a little more difficult these days. I swear that her stomach had doubled in size since the last time I saw her.

Pregnancy was crazy.

This did not make me want to have one of my own. She looked downright miserable. She had dark circles under her eyes and she was puffy from head to toe.

She was still as gorgeous as ever, though. Her hair was curled and shiny and she was wearing a pretty, floral maternity dress.

As I pulled away she let out a little gasp, both hands flying to her stomach. Mama Whitaker and I both froze but Avery just let out a small laugh.

“They’re moving if you want to feel.” She didn’t even wait for my answer before she took my hand, pressing it to her stomach where I could feel something moving inside.

“That’s so fucking weird,” I said as a shudder ran through me. She didn't fight me as I pulled my hand away, laughing at me instead.

Mama Whitaker had no such reservations. She rushed forward and placed her hands on Avery’s belly. She put on a cutesy voice as she talked to her grandbabies.

“Oh, your Mimi can’t wait to meet you. You’re going to be just as spicy as those uncles of yours,” she teased before placing a kiss on Avery’s forehead.

“What can I do to help?” I asked when she turned back to the kitchen.

The next twenty minutes were a whirlwind of plating up the dishes, finishing off the final touches on lunch, and demanding that Avery stay off of her feet.

She was never one for sitting back and letting others take care of things, but now she had no choice. She’d be a hazard with that belly at this point.

“Why don’t you just go settle in the living room, honey, and then you won’t have to move for a while.”

“Just because I’m the size of a house right now,” she argued with a winded huff. “Does not mean that I can’t do anything.”

“Listen to your Mama,” I said, teasing her, but also gently guiding her to the living room and settling her in the comfiest armchair. Avery let out a sigh of relief as she sat, all the fight leaving her.

Mama Whitaker and I had just finished putting the final touches on the buffet table when the doorbell rang.

There was everything from fried chicken, to mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, salad. Anything Avery called comfort food. She hadn’t missed anything.

Then there was the dessert table filled with tiny little Bundt cakes. I just hoped that she had gotten these from the bakery, not made them herself. I swear this woman was going to work herself to death one day.

Despite being exhausted, Avery was captivating. She greeted everyone with smiles, telling them all about the babies and her pregnancy.

She passed around some 3D ultrasound pictures. You could make out the babies’ features but it was a little weird. The takeaway from this experience was that I was destined to be a cool aunt, not a mom.

Especially if Maverick and I were actually mates. He could keep his triplet genetics to himself.

After everyone had eaten their fill of Mama Whitaker’s cooking, Mama Whitaker and I carried the gifts over one by one for Avery to unwrap. Her mates were going to need every single truck they had to take these all back to their pack house.

These babies would be spoiled beyond belief.

When she got to my gift, I started to get nervous. It was one of those gifts that wasn’t expensive, but took time. I’d worked on it for months when I first found out she was pregnant. It was truly a labor of love.

I shouldn’t have worried. This was the kind of thing Avery went crazy for. When she pulled out the three matching quilts, her eyes lit up.

“Sidney you didn’t,” she gasped.

Mama Whitaker looked at me with a grin. She’d helped me gather all of our old T-shirts from all the things that Avery and I did together. We’d outgrown them by now but there was everything from school events, to town-wide carnivals, to our first concerts. It was a timeline of our friendship.

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