Page 106 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

“He talked about you non-stop when you ate wings with him after your roller derby mishap,” Neesha expounded on Chris’s cryptic comment. “We group chat a lot. Video call a lot, too. This family is beyond connected. I can’t sneeze and pee without Chris calling to tell Jeremiah, Noel, Ginger, and Cinda about it.”

“Well, it was at the same time. It was funny,” Chris defended himself.

“It was embarrassing.” She rolled her eyes. “Just be warned. No topic is too much information for them. Hope you don’t care about your privacy.”

Merriam’s eyes sparkled as she said, “I ceased having any privacy when I had my daughter.”

“Oh, you have a daughter?” Neesha’s brown eyes widened.

“I hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” Chris admitted. “We were just talking about the candy store when we heard y’all over here.”

“We were working on the baby’s room.” Neesha patted her round belly. “Would y’all like to get into the hot tub with us? Though, it’s actually not all that hot. More like warm bath water since they don’t recommend getting into a hot tub when you’re pregnant.”

“Oh, I can’t.” Merriam looked sad. “Which reminds me, you should probably go wash your hand that I shook. My daughter has a cold, and she’s running a fever.”

“We just got over whatever it was going around,” Neesha and Chris said at the same time.

“The nieces shared it all with us before their Christmas break,” I grumbled.

“And I hope that Dix told you that he’s a horrible sick person.” Chris rolled his eyes.

“Actually, he did, when he tried to convince me to stay with him,” Merriam said.

“Let me go change and we can move into your half of the apartment.” Neesha all but ran away.

Chris and I both chuckled.

“The fact that she still has that much energy…” Merriam shook her head. “When I was that pregnant, I was like a beached whale.”

“Neesha is a sprinter.” Chris shrugged. “She’s been to two Olympics and won bronze twice. This last time, she was six weeks pregnant when she won. Her goal for this next Olympics is to get gold.”

“She got bronze six weeks pregnant?” Merriam gasped.

“She did,” he confirmed, puffing up his chest. “I’m proud as fuck of her.”

Chapter

Thirteen

Snows out, hoe out.

—Coffee Cup

MERRIAM

“You should be,” I said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to be around these two.” He jerked his chin backward, then forward toward Jeremiah. “They’re so fucking athletic. And I’m not. I try to keep myself in shape for them, but I’m just way better with a hammer than working out.”

“You don’t have time to do much more than what you’re already doing.” Jeremiah snorted. “If you wanted to work out more, you couldn’t, because you work too much.”

Chris grinned. “He’s right. I just got the business off the ground. I’m neck deep in the downtown restoration for Hooker, and sometimes barely tread water.”

“He’s fantastic.” Neesha swept back into the room with leggings, socks over her leggings, and a massive sweatshirt that must belong to her husband, billowing over her tiny frame.

“I’ll bet.” I gestured to the room around us. “If this place is anything to go by.”

Chris blushed, which was adorably cute.

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