Page 58 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)
The obvious joy in her eyes made me smile. “Yes, you will be.”
She beamed at me. “You know this means you can't run again, right? I will chase you to the end of the world if you do and you'll get more than a grounding when I find you.”
“I promise I won't.” Her eyes were teary and I felt myself get there too. Stupid hormones. I was just so relieved that she was willing to forgive me. That she still cared about me.
“I brought you a present for the little one,” she said. It was only now that I realized she was holding something in her hand. A bundle of blue fabric.
“My blanket...” It had been my favorite thing to cuddle up with when I was a toddler. “I didn't know you still had it.”
“How could I throw it away?” my mom asked as if I was being silly. “You loved this thing. You couldn't sleep without it.” She held it out to me and my hands shook as I reached for it. This was nothing more than a small blanket, but that she'd held on to it meant something--meant the world to me.
“Thank you.”
She hugged me again. “No need to thank me, sweetie. Now you shouldn't keep your other guests waiting. You have more presents to unwrap, and a cake to cut into.”
“Yes!” Finn spoke up. “Cake! Have you seen the cake?” Taking my hand, he led me to a table at the other end of the room. A giant cake sat in the middle of it--and it was shaped like a sleeping baby. It was sweet, in a way, and not only because it was sure to consist almost entirely of sugar.
Things got a bit awkward though, when Finn handed me a knife.
“I'm not cutting the baby,” I refused.
Finn looked at the knife and then at the cake. “Oh.” Suddenly he laughed. “Oh Gods, I didn't think of that. Yeah, we can't cut that cake.” He turned around to our guests. “No cake, everyone. Unless one of you wants to stab the baby.”
Adrian groaned audibly. Apparently, he'd been looking forward to cake. Next to him, Tyrel stood from his seat and came over to me.
“Give me that knife. My mate is hungry.”
I handed it to him with a laugh, making a mental note not to let Finn choose the cake for this baby's birthday parties.
Tyrel pragmatically cut the cake into pieces, put it on plates and distributed it among our guests.
“Thanks,” I told him, when he handed me my plate.
The rest of the party went without any major hiccups. At the end of it, Finn and I were left with piles upon piles of wrapping paper. It had been a fun day, but exhausting too, and I was glad I didn’t have to clean up after everyone had left. Everyone but my mom. She was going to stay the night and return in the morning, since the only visa Finn had been able to get for had been severely limited, but I was glad she’d been able to come at all.
“How did you get my mom here?” I asked Finn after he’d shown her to one of the guest rooms.
He shrugged, sitting on the couch with me in between all the wrapping paper. “I called her and asked whether she wanted to come. It was easy.”
“You certainly make it seem easy.” I yawned and looked at some of the gifts we’d received. Adrian had brought us diapers you could use on baby dragons.Lifesavers, he’d called them. Next to them lay a bunch of picture books. Michael and Kylan hadn’t made it to the party, but they’d sent copies of all their favorite children’s books. Of course.
I’d never feltblessedbefore in my life, but taking in the room around me now, filled with presents my friends had made me and my baby, I kind of did.
“Thank you,” I told Finn, resting my head on his shoulder. “You’re amazing.”
“Yeah, so you keep saying.” Finn laughed softly. “But do you know why I did this?”
I shook my head.
“Because you deserve this. I wanted to show you that, no matter what you did, there’s people here who would… miss you.”
“I guess.” He had done a good job driving that point home. Even going so far as calling mymotheron me. “I’m glad I still have my hair. I never wanted my mom to see me so sick.”
“It’s not like she would love you any less for it.”
“Not if she’s anything like you, huh?”
He kissed my forehead. “Exactly.” He grew quiet, as if deep in thought. I closed my eyes--until he started speaking again. “I don't see a sick person when I look at you. I see someone who fights. Just think of all the crap you've had to put up with while being with your asshole of an ex, but you didn't let that get you down. No, you continue to fight to stay alive and to bring our baby into this world too. Because you, you just do whatever it takes. Whether that means putting up with abusive bastards or going through chemotherapy. You said I was amazing, but I know you're just as amazing. You don't see it, but it's true.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that while all this was very touching, he was really overestimating me, but then I didn’t. Didn’t I owe it to him to at least consider what he was saying might be true? “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” I said eventually. I didn’t know whether I was amazing or anything, but Finn had gone to great lengths to show me that I had friends here who wanted me to be well. That had to count for something, right?
