“Shit.”
I stepped off the elevator and my box of pastries fell from my hand. I’d been jonesing for them since Anthony and I had eaten lunch at what he liked to call his Friday Café. Now, I wasn’t craving much of anything except an escape route because there stood my mom and her husband, Jason, right outside my apartment door, and they looked mad as hell.
“Kelly Ann Potter, open the door to this apartment right now,” my momma said through her teeth. And I was in deep shit. When my momma said my full name it was all over.
“Momma,” I breathed out, taking her in. She looked good. Better than good. She looked like home, and I didn’t know how she managed to do that since she hadn’t had one in a long damn time. She and Jason had been retired and traveling the United States in their RV for years. But still, her long dark hair speckled with strands of gray, her long flowing skirt that covered her feet, and matching flowery top covered with long silver necklaces and even more jewelry on her wrists and fingers made me feel warm all over her. I’d missed her so much.
“Pick your jaw off the floor and open this door so I don’t have to go all southern on your ass in the hallway, baby girl.”
My wide eyes shot to Jason for a little support, but he only smirked and moved from in front of the door and picked up my pastries off the floor.
I looked back at my momma as I dug my keys out of my purse and opened the door, stepping inside. They followed me, my momma stomping her usually light feet all the way over to my couch and placing her bag there before returning to me quickly and wrapping her arms around me tightly. So snug I let out a grunt as my steel injected spine relaxed for the first time in months. I put my own arms around her back and pushed my nose right into the crook of her neck where I took in the familiar smell of jasmine.
“Momma,” I choked out on a sob.
She rocked me back and forth in the foyer of the apartment. “It’s okay, now,” she cooed at me. “I’m here.”
Great big hiccupping sobs burst from my mouth. Months of tears and heartache and fear drenched the collar of my momma’s shirt while she held me.
“Momma’s here now. Everything is going to be all right.” She ran her hands through my hair.
Ainsley had ratted me out, but then again, she knew I was running out of time and I was never going to call my mother. I was too scared. I was going to kill Ainsley. I was going to kiss her. She was right. I needed my momma.
Even at thirty-two years old, nothing and no one could quite understand me like her. No one would ever quite know my fears, my sorrows, or even my love for the child I was carrying like she would. After all, she’d carried me and loved me, too.
I felt another set of strong arms come around both me and my momma. “My girls okay?” Jason laid his big head to the top of mine and I smiled through my tears. He’d been with my mom since I was seventeen and he was the best. He was good to her and that was enough for me.
We all stayed huddled together like that until my sobs had calmed. My momma was the first to pull back.
She started walking toward the sofa. “Jason, why don’t you make us some tea? I think Kelly and I need to have a talk.”
He smiled a small smile as he left the room for the kitchen that let me know he felt sorry for me because I think we were at the point where my momma was about to go all southern on my ass, and I was sorry for me, too.
She sat down and patted the cushion next to her, and I took my time walking the five feet over there. I’d done wrong by not calling her. By not telling her.
I sat down, my heart heavy and my explanations nil. I’d been wrong.
She leaned back, her look casual. I knew my mom all too well and anytime she looked casual she was preparing to strike. “Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you tell me? Why did I have to hear this from Ainsley?”
Fresh tears spilled over and onto my cheeks. I used the sleeves of my hoodie to wipe them away. “I don’t know, Mom.” I shook my head at how stupid I’d been. Ainsley had been right. I’d needed my mom and here she was and it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was one of the best things about now besides Anthony. And Anthony was amazing. I thought of the night last week when he’d told me I was his best friend. How much we meant to each other. Yes, what we had was definitely something special.
“It seems stupid now, but you always wanted me to travel, get a career, marry, and then have a baby.” I scrubbed my palms over my face. “I know you didn’t want me to make the same mistakes you did.”
Pulling my hands away from my face, she leaned close and placed her own hands at my cheeks, cradling them gently. “Is that what you think, baby girl? That you’re my mistake?”
Wetness filled her eyes and one lone tear trekked down her cheek. “You were not a mistake, Kelly Ann Potter. You were my everything.” Her grip on my face tightened, not to the point of pain, but to the point of her letting me know this was important, so I was sure to pay attention. “You still are.”
She used her hands to steer my forehead to her lips where she laid a long kiss before leaning back on the couch and taking me with her. I curled into my momma’s side and laid my head on her chest, my forehead grazing the crook of her neck.
She dragged a hand through my hair and said, “I was so young, but it didn’t matter. You were such a gift. How could you ever think I regretted a single moment of it? Those were the best and hardest days of my life, and I wouldn’t have traded all the tea in China or all the stairs in Paris for a single day with you.”
She stopped stroking my hair and used her hand to lift my face to hers and when I met her eyes I saw a world of love and pain and fear and pride, and I knew in that moment that’s what being a mom meant.
“You were my greatest adventure, baby girl.”
My face crumbled. “I’m sorry, Momma.”
She kissed my cheek, her mouth close to my ear. “Was it Cash?”
I nodded. It was, indeed.
She let go of my face and pulled me into her arms again, and I let out a relieved sigh. This felt good. I needed it. I needed her.
“It’s okay, honey. I’m here now. We’re gonna get through this.” She gave me a squeeze and said into the top of my hair, “And I’m gonna be a grandma.”
I rubbed my hand over my stomach. “I hope so,” I whispered my greatest fear. And I wondered how much Ainsley had told her.
She squeezed me harder to her. “We will. Ainsley said you came here for a doctor friend of y’alls. I have faith, pumpkin. You should, too.”
And just on cue, the front door opened and Anthony came barreling in, clearly straight from work as he had his backpack thrown over his shoulder and his bow tie and blazer still on. He was staring down at his phone and we were staring at him. He didn’t even notice.
“Hey, short stuff,” he called because clearly he didn’t realize I was right here since he was responding to a text on his phone. “Did you see there’s an RV double parked right out front?”
Guess it was time to meet the parents.
I sat up as I said, “Doc.”
His eyes hit mine and his face fell, worry etched in the plains of it. He ditched his backpack in the foyer and darted toward me, kneeling down in front of me and taking my face in his hands the way he did so often. “Have you been crying? Why are you upset? What happened today?”
I smiled through my tears and used my eyes to motion to my mom behind me. His head turned slowly, finally registering that someone else was in the room with us.
“Doc, this is my momma, Abigail, but you can call her Abby.” I grabbed Anthony’s hands and pulled them from my face. Placing them in my lap, still clutched in between mine, I said, “Momma, this is Dr. Anthony Jackson.”
Anthony studied my momma a beat before he stood up and held his hand out. Meanwhile, my momma sat there stunned, and my momma was never stunned.
“You’re the doctor?” she said quietly as Jason entered the room with two cups of hot tea.
Anthony smiled down at her, hand still out. “I’m a doctor, yes.”
“The doctor she came here for?”
He nodded.
Momma stood up and Anthony’s hand finally dropped.
“And do you make house calls for all your patients?”
“Never,” he answered easily, smiling at me.
“So, my daughter means something to you, then?” Lord have mercy, my momma was a straight shooter and I’d been embarrassed by her plenty in my life, but I had a feeling what she was about to say was going to take the cake.
Anthony didn’t hesitate. “She means everything to me.”
And my heart flip-flopped around in my chest at his admission. He meant everything to me, too.
“Lord have mercy,” my momma exclaimed, turning to me. “Did you hear that, baby girl? This beautiful, statuesque doctor said you mean everything to him.” She was fanning herself and yet here I sat hot all over, praying my momma stopped talking. God wasn’t listening worth a damn, though.
“He’s beautiful, Kelly, and he’s a doctor! If I were a little younger and single”—she looked at Jason pointedly—“I’d be asking for some mouth to mouth, honey. I’d need a little resuscitating. If you know what I mean?” She jabbed me with her elbow.
I was horrified, but not surprised. I buried my face in my hands, trying to hide, but to no avail.
“You heard her, little bit. I’m a hot doctor.” Anthony snickered and I wanted to crawl into the cushions of the couch and disappear.
“Helloooo, I brought dinner.” I heard yelled from the foyer and looked around Anthony’s legs to find his mother in the foyer. Oh, but Lord help me. This was like a bad family reunion that no one wanted.
Anthony introduced Lucy to my momma. I was still sitting here horrified and dreading what else my momma might say or do.
“I’m Anthony’s mother,” Lucy elaborated, and I rolled my eyes.
I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “How nice of you to offer up that bit of information right away.”
Lucy leaned around Anthony and rubbed my hair. “Oh, sweet thing, I thought that was water under the bridge.”
It was, of course.
“Oh, you must be so proud of Anthony,” my mother gushed to Lucy.
“And Kelly is just so wonderful. We love her dearly. You did an amazing job with her,” Lucy said.
Anthony stood over me, and we just gave each other looks while our moms talked like we weren’t here at all.
The doorbell rang. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, who could be here now?” I was done.
My mom opened the door and grabbed a package from an older gentleman and closed the door. She studied the box for a moment and started to open it up. “Expecting a package from Miranda?”
Alarm bells went off in my brain like the ones I heard when I was in elementary school and we would huddle in the hallway and hide. Only now, I couldn’t hide, unfortunately. “Oh, Momma, don’t open that!”
Too late, she was peering inside with Lucy leaned over her shoulder. Nosy ass women!
“What do we have here?” Lucy said with a smile.
My momma held up a book with a hot couple on the cover, clutching each other dramatically and sensually. The tagline across the cover read “What To Read After Fifty Shades of Grey.” I paled. Fuck my life. Hard.
I looked over at Anthony, horrified, and the bastard had the audacity to laugh.
“And look at this.” Lucy held up a box with what looked like a small lipstick. It seemed pretty harmless except for the fact the label read, “Vibrating Lipstick—for your on the go needs.”
My face flamed red-hot and I tried to snatch the box from the parents from hell. I was going to kill Miranda.
“Oh, there’s a note in here, too! “For all your hot doctor needs. Love, M,” my mother read.Jesus Christ, take the damn wheel right now. I was horribly embarrassed.
Burying my face in my hands, I heard Anthony laugh. “See, shortcake, everyone thinks I’m a hot doctor.”
“I have dibs on the book. It looks delish,” said my crazy ass mother.
“That lipstick is all mine! I don’t have a man, after all. Come to the kitchen. You can help me plate dinner.” Lucy put her arm through my mother’s.
My mother looked back at us and turned to go with Lucy. “Aren’t they adorable together?” she whispered, and I felt my eyes get big.
“They are! They argue and fight like an old married couple. You just wait and see, they are the cutest thing ever!” Lucy whispered back.
I threw myself on the couch, beyond mortified. There was a special place in hell for Miranda. And she had something good coming to her. Payback was a bitch and I’d be her dealer soon!
Anthony sat down next to me and pulled me under his big arm. I laid my head on his chest despite my embarrassment and breathed out deeply. Because I was at ease. My momma finally knew. And she was here. That was all that mattered. It didn’t matter that I’d gotten the most awkward package of my life in front of both mine and Anthony’s parents.
“Neither one of them can whisper worth a damn.”
I laughed. “True story, Doc.”
We all ate dinner around the table in the apartment, our moms cackling and carrying on like old friends over a bottle of red wine. Anthony, Jason, and I stayed quiet for the most part, enjoying their ridiculous stories about us as children and rolling our eyes at them when they’d clearly had too much to drink. No one mentioned the book or vibrator. Thank God.
At the end of our meal, I was full. Full of food, full of love, full of family. It had been a good night and when I felt Anthony’s ankle settle against mine under the table, a good evening became a perfect one.