Worth the Wait(55)

“You want something to drink, Kenz?” Lizzy asked, pulling me from my depressing thoughts.

“Uh, yeah.” I cleared my throat, trying to rid it of the ball of emotion that had formed. “I’d love a beer.”

“Coming right up.”

The mothers and Nana took their leave to give Luke a hard time, leaving just the girls and me in the kitchen. As I tipped my beer bottle up and took my first sip, Emmy asked, “So Kenzie, what was your baby shower like? I bet you got a shit-ton of gifts since you were cooking up two.”

I ended up choking as my drink went down the wrong way, sending me into a coughing fit so bad that Savannah and Lizzy both had to pound on my back.

“You okay?” Mickey asked once I was finally able to breathe again.

“Yeah, sorry. Went down the wrong pipe.” I tried to make light of it by plastering a fake smile on my face, but I knew they saw through it.

“I…uh…I didn’t have a baby shower for the twins.” I kept my concentration centered on the countertop, not wanting to see the pity I was sure was in each of their eyes. “I didn’t really have many friends…and…well, I haven’t spoken to my parents in years.”

“Looks like you lucked out, if you ask me,” Emmy harrumphed. “This is booooring.” My eyes finally darted up to see the rest of the women staring at her with the same what the hell expressions on their faces.

“What?” she asked defensively. “Oh, come on, like y’all aren’t thinking the same damn thing. It’s a party centered around a baby who’s not even here yet. The games are all lame as hell. All of the presents are for the alien currently taking over my body, not for me. And my giant ass can’t even drink!” she finished, then stated, “Oh, don’t you give me that look, Savvy. Your bitch ass is just as bored as the rest of us.”

A sly smile pulled at Savannah’s lips. “Okay, you’re right. I’d take a game of Flip Cup over Pin the fucking Diaper on the Baby any day.”

“Thank you!” Emmy harrumphed. “This shit’s for the birds.”

“Then why’d you insist on a coed shower?” I asked.

“Because if I’m gonna have to suffer through having every damn person in this house rub my belly like a fucking magic lamp, I’m going to make damn sure he’s just as miserable as I am.”

Lizzy leaned in to tell me, “We get our kicks from making the men in our lives suffer. It makes us all smiley.”

“Cheers to that!” Savannah yelled, and the rest of us raised our drinks in a toast. I smiled and laughed when I was supposed to, and I couldn’t put into words how much I appreciated Emmy jumping in to divert the conversation away from me. But I couldn’t push away that part of me that wished I’d had exactly what Emmy had. I’d have given anything to have a house full of people rubbing my belly and wishing me luck. Emmy was an amazing person, and because of that, the whole town had turned up to celebrate the family she and Luke were creating together. I was just glad she was the kind of person who could appreciate all of the love she had.

“Hey, beauty,” Brett’s deep voice rumbled in my ear as his arms snaked around my waist. The warm comfort of his arms around me instantly pulled me out of my slump.

“Hey, honey,” I grinned as I leaned back into him and turned my face up so he could give me a kiss.

“You looked a little sad there for a second. Everything okay?”

My sweet man.

I was constantly asking myself how’d I’d gotten so lucky to have such a wonderful guy in my life. Even from across the room, he’d sensed my mood and come over just to check on me, unknowingly decimating all my negative thoughts with one loving embrace.

“I’m perfect, baby.”

“You sure?” he asked against my lips.

Squeezing his arms tighter around me, I answered, “Yep.” And I was. Just being in his presence was a calming breath of air for me. As long as he was around I was always going to be okay.

“All right, good.” He leaned in closer and whispered in my ear, “Now can you tell me why the girls are staring at me funny?”

I turned my gaze from Brett to see the girls all huddled together, snickering and whispering, every now and then their eyes wandering down just below the belt. Yeah, I knew why they were looking at him funny. But I wasn’t about to rat anyone out.

“Our friends are weird,” I simply state.

“That they are, beauty,” Brett chuckled. “That they are.”

After several more torturous hours of games which consisted of melting candy bars in diapers and guessing baby names, it was finally time to go. Thank God. At one point, Emmy broke down crying when we played the game where everyone used toilet paper to guess how big around she was. Luke had unknowingly set off the waterworks when his guess was double the size of her belly. There were several choice words thrown around and accusations that he thought she was fat. All of which he vehemently denied. But the damage was done. Men needed to learn, when it came to a pregnant woman’s hormonal rages, they were always in the wrong…even if they weren’t.