Page 103 of More, Daddy
“Kinky Married Moms Club,” Riley says, and my smile slides from my face.
I clear my throat. “West and I aren’t married. And… no baby, not yet.”
The waitress approaches our table with two huge trays full of plates of food. I do not know how waitresses do it, seriously. After unloading each plate and setting it at the correct place at the table (seriously, amazing), Dolly begins cutting her steak, her brows pulled together.
“I’m sure West is gonna lock it down soon, you know, with an engagement.” She takes a bite, moaning around the meat. We glance outside and Riley groans when we discover what the men are now talking about— “I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing about an exhaust pipe,” Riley says.
Dolly talks with her mouth full. “Same.”
Clara June sips her iced tea. “Agreed.”
After another bite of steak, Dolly tips her head to the side, sizing me up a moment as I bite into my club sandwich.
“Propose soon?” I ask, feeling so at home with the group already. “I don’t think so.” The way they accepted me without question, and accepted me as West’s partner, only solidified to me that West and I are fated to be together. Everything has worked out as perfectly as possible. Even my lie has been forgiven. I’m so lucky.
“You are pregnant though, aren’t you?” She uses her fork and knife to cut her steak fries, then takes a bite. Clara June puts her fork down and studies me, then Riley does the same, and suddenly, my skin grows hot and I want the guys to come back inside.
“No,” I breathe, “I’m not.” My hand falls instinctively tomy stomach. “I’m on the pill right now. We haven’t really talked about me going off. Not yet.” I smile. “A little too soon for me.”
Truth be told? It’s not too soon. I love West. I want to be a mother, to raise children to grow up in a home with familial love and care, to have a mama that adores them and dotes on them, and cooks them meals and fills their stockings. I want to be young enough to enjoy sports with them, to get out there and coach their teams, be the classroom mom, host the sleepovers and throw the blowout parties. I’ll be twenty soon, and being a mom at twenty going on twenty-one, it doesn't scare me.
But coming clean to West about how intensely I pursued him before we even spoke onVeiledhas me hesitant to push for more. I don’t want to push for too much too soon. I’m like a sugar loving girl in a candy store just trying to pace myself.
I take another bite of my club sandwich, and after I swallow, I get the courage to ask, “What made you think I was?” I rub my stomach with my hand, finding it flat, still, from many nights of Cup O Noodles for dinner and not much else.
Dolly slaps the bottom of a bottle of A1.
“Wow, Huddy’s lucky,” Riley jokes.
Dolly winks, then returns her gaze to me. “Oh, you just have that four to five week look.”
Clara June, still sipping her tea, nods. “Yeah,” she hums, “you really do.”
I touch my cheek. “Four to five week look?”
Dolly nods, dipping a piece of her steak into the brown sauce on her plate. “Yeah, you know, a touch pale, and sensitive to smell.” She points the loaded tines of her fork at me. “You winced a little when Dolores brought out my steak.”
I did? I try to remember and yeah, maybe I did. “It just smells so strong.”
“That,” Riley points, rubbing her own pregnant belly, which looks to be about five months along. “Super smell is an early pregnancy symptom. When I was first pregnant, I knew when we pulled up at the farmers market and I could smell Juniper’s Berry Jubilee Jam from the truck.”
My sense of smell is always good.
“You’ve yawned a lot today, too and it’s mid-afternoon,” Dolly adds, but the bell on the door dings, and in walks Hudson, Jake, Dean and West.
Dolly smiles. “Well, at least you know the early symptoms now.”
“You can still be part of the club, even if you’re not married or pregnant yet,” Riley adds, blowing a kiss to Jake over the top of Dolly’s head.
As they approach the table, Riley slips out of the booth to make room for Jake. “You were supposed to catch the kiss, babe,” she says to him, sinking into his chest after he gets settled on the vinyl seat.
“That’s… embarrassing,” Jake says, kissing Riley’s cheek. She erupts in laughter, rubbing her very pregnant belly.
“Your friends know you do cutesy romantic stuff, babe. I mean, they do it, too.” She rubs her stomach again. “After all, it’s how we all got here.”
Dolly, also pregnant, places a hand on her belly. Clara June, in the earliest stages of her pregnancy, does the same.
We eat lunch together, the eight of us, talking and laughing, and enjoying the setting Saturday sun.
