Cement Heart(5)
“How old is she now?” Darla asked.
Big Mike sighed. “Six months. Took her forever.”
“Wait,”—Michelle narrowed her eyes at Kacie—“why are you drinking water?”
Like someone turned the dial up on her face, Kacie’s cheeks flushed instantly. She cleared her throat. “Uh… I’m driving.”
“Bullshit,” Darla called her out. “Brody drove here.”
“And I’m driving home,” Kacie shot back defensively.
Brody looked down at the table, playing with an empty peanut shell as he tried to hide his smile.
“No way.” Darla looked from him to her. “You two did it again, didn’t you?”
“Did what?” I was clueless.
“Are you?” Darla ignored me as she pushed Kacie to answer her. Kacie turned her head toward Brody, silently begging for backup.
“Don’t look at me.” He laughed, holding his hands up defensively. “I’m not the fertile one.”
“Oh my God! You are!” Michelle squealed as she clapped her hands together.
“Are what? What the hell is going on?” I growled as I looked around the table, annoyed that I was obviously the only one who didn’t know what was going on.
Brody peeked down at Kacie, who’d covered her face with her hands. “Kacie’s pregnant.”
Darla and Michelle hopped off of their stools and ran around to Kacie’s side of the table, wrapping their arms around her.
“Pregnant?” I blurted out. “Isn’t Emma like… a newborn still?”
Kacie giggled as Darla and Michelle released her. “She’s almost one and a half.”
Brody grinned. “They’ll be a little over two years apart.” Kacie rested her cheek on Brody’s shoulder, staring up at him. She closed her eyes as he gently kissed her forehead.
“I’m happy for you guys, truly.” Mike had a tear in his eye as he raised his glass again. We all lifted our glasses one more time.
“You’re such a fucking pansy ass,” I teased as Mike wiped his eye.
“He’s not a pansy.” Michelle leaned over and kissed his cheek. “He’s a sweet, sensitive man who appreciates family.”
“If by sensitive you mean he has a vagina,” I joked before turning my attention to Brody and Kacie. “Really though, I am happy for you guys. Is this one gonna have a penis, unlike Mike?”
“We don’t know.” Kacie laughed as Mike reached over and punched my arm. “Still too early. And because it’s so early, we’re asking you guys to keep this to yourselves. You all know how it can be when the media catches wind of something personal in our lives, and I’m not ready for that yet. Not until I’m further along.”
“Oh, honey. That goes without saying,” Michelle agreed, shaking her head. “Damn vultures.”
“Man, look at this. You guys are all on your second, third, tenth kids, and here I am living by myself, with no one to come home to at night, no family to love, no one to talk to…” I said as seriously as I could. They all stared wide-eyed at me, not sure how to respond. “Suckers!” I bellowed, laughing as I ducked the hail of peanuts.
“MORNING, SUNSHINE.”
My head throbbed as I cracked one eye open the very next morning. Darla was sitting on the edge of my bed, smiling at me as she tied her shoes.
Blinking away the sleep, I leaned up on one elbow. “Where you going?”
“You’re off work for the summer, but the rest of us aren’t,” she teased as she disappeared into my walk-in closet. “What are your plans for the rest of the day anyway?”
I sat all the way up and stretched my arms out. “I think I’m gonna go visit my grandma.”
“Oh yeah?” She reappeared from my closet wearing a Minnesota Wild sweatshirt.
“Hey, that’s my favorite one,” I whined playfully.
“I know.” She smiled at me. “So… your grandma, huh? Do you visit her often?”
“Not as much as I should.” I sighed, feeling guilty. “It’s hard to get over there during the season, so I spend as much time with her as I can during the off-season. We’re kindred spirits, actually.”
She stopped moving and stared at me for a second, processing what I’d just said. “Kindred spirits? You and your grandmother?”
“Yep.” I laughed. “Believe it or not. Gam’s not a typical grandma. She looks like it on the outside, but on the inside she’s wild and crazy.”
“Hmmm.” She tilted her head to the side. “I’d like to meet her sometime.”