Page 13 of Two Weddings and a Shoot Out

“Please. Something from home would be welcome, but we’re not here to talk about me,” Beth said.

“Oh, nice segue in,” Jesse said, grabbing a sandwich along with chips.

“I agree. Dad, get a place, then we can chat,” Winnie directed.

Locks paused with a plate in his hand, looking around at his girls.

“Why did that feel like a threat?” Locks asked.

Remi chuckled. “Consider this lunch with your girls an intervention.”

“I thought we were going to go into this lightly,” Sarah said, tossing a sandwich on her plate, glaring at Remi.

“No, that’s what you suggested. I believe I agreed to do what I thought was right,” Remi grumbled, nudging Sarah away from where Remi wanted to grab a sandwich.

“Pregnancy has not made you any nicer,” Sarah grumbled.

“Oh my gosh, Winnie and Jesse weren’t kidding,” Beth said.

Remi and Sarah turned to glare at the screen with Beth.

“About what?” they growled.

Laughter pealed from the other sisters.

Locks chuckled too. Both his pregnant daughters had been a tad more sensitive to disagreements.

“Oh, like you both don’t know. You two fight over everything and use your pregnancy as an excuse to try to get your way. It’s so funny when you’re against each other because then you can’t use it because you’re both pregnant,” Winnie said.

“Let’s sit down and eat,” Winnie said, motioning to the table beside the island.

Remi was glad they were meeting at Winnie and Bear’s place because she didn’t want to have to clean up the kitchen after, and if it was at her place, she’d need to. Winnie’s snotty tone just guaranteed Remi would be walking out before clean-up. Sure, she might have used her pregnancy a couple of times to get her way, but honestly, why the hell shouldn’t she?

After becoming pregnant, she believed that everyone should be catering to pregnant women. She was growing the next generation while her husband got to strut around acting like he’d done all the work byknocking her up. His part had taken seconds—okay, maybe minutes when he was working hard—but her part took months. She and every other friggin’ pregnant woman didn’t get nearly enough credit for their contribution to the continuation of the species.

Sarah had brought up those machines that simulate labor for men after she’d been complaining to Scoop about how the baby seemed to give her a pain in her vagina. His glib response about the beauty of pregnancy had put him on Sarah’s shit list. The group text with the sisters had gotten a little heated. Remi wouldn’t be surprised if Sarah ordered multiple machines to let every man on the compound experience just a little bit of what they were going through.

Last night they’d gone over how to bring up Locks’ moving on, but Remi wasn’t so sure it was the right way now. She took a bite of her sandwich and groaned at the flavor. It was just a sandwich, but Beth had suggested Bolthouse’s Burger SpecialSauce to put on it and sent them some. It gave her sandwich a fantastic flavor.

Of course, it could be because she was past the puking stage of pregnancy, and Remi was just thrilled to be able to eat anything and keep it down.

“So what’s this intervention you all think I need?” Locks asked, then took a sip of his iced tea.

Remi had to hand it to her dad; he wasn’t one to shirk from a hard conversation. She chuckled.

“What’s funny?” Locks asked.

“Your words made me think you’ve never run away from a hard conversation, even though there were times I’m sure you wanted to. The ‘boys’ conversation,” Remi said, giggling.

Laughter pealed from the girls.

“Oh my? Mom had given us the birds and the bees, the period talks, and valuing yourself, but Dad had to give us the duct tape demonstration,” Winnie said, chuckling and grinning.

“Yes, oh gosh, the duct tape,” Jesse said.

Remi chewed and swallowed before continuing. “I am so going to use that with my boys and girls when it’s time to talk to them. Seeing Dad take it and adhere it to the sand-covered counter again and again made such an impression.”

“I’m a visual learner, so seeing the duct tape get less and less adhesive with each time really hit me. A reminder that not only was I giving a part of myself away each time but also taking a part of them with me,” Sarah said.

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