Chapter Thirty-Five
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Mason for about the five hundredth time.
“Yes.”
“Okay. My brother Steve is going to be there also.” I parked at the top of the driveway, but we stayed in the car for a moment.
“Ugh, Steve.” Mason scrunched up his face.
“Hopefully, he’s matured.” Mason lucked out and had no siblings. I had Steve, the guy who was forever an ass-hat.
“He used to call me such derogatory names.”
“I always begged him to stop.” I had punched him a time or two, well maybe a few, over it.
“What if he says the same things to you that he said to me?” Mason looked so worried.
“Listen, if anyone is an asshole or makes you feel uncomfortable, tell me and we’ll leave. Okay?” I said, cupping the back of his head with my hand.
“Same goes for you.”
“I’m more concerned about you in all of this.”
“You have to think about yourself, too.” Mason looked into my eyes.
“I’m going to think about myself, thinking about you.”
He shook his head at me. “Shut up and help me out of this car.”
Mason was due in two months, and his stomach looked like it couldn’t stretch any further.
It led the way everywhere he went.
And it was the first thing that appeared as I grabbed his hand and helped pull him to his feet out of the car. I held his hand, and he squeezed my fingers tight as I rang the doorbell. My mom answered. Dressed in some fancy slacks and a blouse, looking more ready for a nice dinner than a casual lunch. She put her hand to her chest, and her mouth dropped open.
Her eyes were glued to Mason.
“Mom, you going to invite us in?” I asked, looking past her into the marble-floored foyer.
While Mason grew up in a small, modest house, I grew up in an obnoxiously large and expensive one.
“Oh, yes. Yes, come on in.”
She let us in, and the three of us stood in the foyer. Mason standing, holding his back with one hand and blowing out a breath.
“Jesus, baby, are you okay?” I asked.
Mason waved me away. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think from sitting so long in one position, just a bit of a cramp and sore back.”
“Deborah,” my dad called out. “Conrad, you’re here, and so is…” My dad’s mouth dropped open, and he stared right at Mason’s belly.
“Mom, dad, can you stop staring at Mason and maybe offer him a seat, something to drink?”
“Yes. Yes. This way.” My mom walked toward the front room, and Mason looked over at me.
“You okay?” I mouthed.
He nodded and followed my mom. My dad stayed in place, staring at Mason as we walked away.
“Holy shit.” And my brother Steve came out from the dining room and stepped in Mason’s path.
“Real nice, Steve,’ I said, boring my eyes into him.
“I thought you two were somehow fucking with Mom and Dad, but Jesus. Little dude is beyond pregnant. Does that hurt? You look ready to explode. My God.” He made an exploding sound and spread out his hands in front of himself.
“If nobody can act like decent human beings, we’re leaving. I’m not going to stand here and let you call my boyfriend names and gawk at him.”
“Holy shit,” Steve said.
“What now?” I asked.
“You got a dude pregnant by sticking—”
“We’re out. Mason,” I said, holding my hand out to him.
“Can I use the washroom first?” he whispered.
And my mom started crying. “This way, honey. Please, come with me.”
“Thank you so much,” Mason said, holding his stomach and waddling after my mom.
“When he gets back out, we’re gone.” I turned to go wait in the foyer, but my dad grabbed my shoulder. Stopping me.
“I don’t understand any of this. Stay. I want to understand.”
“Do you really?” I asked. Somehow, I didn’t believe him. “When I talked to mom, she wanted to take care of the situation. Fix my problem.”
“There’s nothing here that needs to be fixed. Please, Conrad. Stay.”
“Yeah, I gotta hear about all this shit,” Steve said, rubbing his palms together.
My dad pinched the bridge of his nose and looked over at Steve. “You’re not allowed to speak.”
“Fly on the wall. I’ll be a fly on the wall.” Somehow, I was related to Steve.
My mom came back out with Mason. The two of them were talking and smiling.
I let out a deep sigh. “I guess we’re staying.”
“Good,” Mason said.
“This way, and I’ll bring lunch right out.” My mom led us out back.
Me, Mason, my dad, and Steve sat around the patio table out on the deck. My dad sat up straight, opened his mouth, and then sat back again in his chair.
“Hey, yo,” Steve said.
My dad whipped his head in my brother’s direction and slowly shook his head at him.
“Sorry, I’m being quiet. I needed a moment to gather my thoughts. You are now living as a gay man, Conrad?”
“It’s not like I just woke up one morning and decided to, Dad.”
“He’s gay. That’s how you say it, Dad. Your baby boy here is a gay dude,” Steve said.
My dad nodded, “Okay.”
“And have you always been gay with Mason?”
Me, Steve, and Mason all started cracking up, and as my mom came out with some pasta salad, I told the story of how I fell in love with Mason Donnelly.
“When is the due date?” my mom asked.
“October fifteenth,” Mason said, wiggling in his chair.
“Are you all right, dear?” my mom sounded like a concerned mother. Talk about a one-eighty.
“Yeah, one of them is sticking a foot or some kind of body part into my ribs.”
“So freaky,” Steve said.
“I thought you didn’t have permission to talk, Steve,” I said. “And there’s nothing freaky about it.”
“I’m not saying about him being a dude or anything, just pregnancy in general. There’s like people in his stomach all living and moving around in there. It’s kinda creepy.”
“It’s beautiful is what it is,” my dad said, surprising me. Maybe he was starting to understand.
“Can I ask you a question, Dad?” I asked, blowing out a shaky breath.
“Go ahead,” he said, taking a sip from his glass of lemonade.
“You always say we come from a long line of alpha males. What’s that all about?” Maybe he knew something that he never shared. Something that he kept secret.
“The Mayfairs are known to be strong men, leaders. Men to be looked up to.”
“Nothing else?” I asked.
“Listen, Conrad, you will always be an alpha. You’re a Mayfair, but there’s nothing wrong if you feel like it’s not you. Look at, Steve.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Nice one, Dad,” Steve said. He got up and stormed off. I tried not to laugh. Steve barely squeaked by in college and lived at home. He hadn’t even bothered to try to get a job, so my dad was pretty spot on for using him as an example.
The rest of the time we spent talking about Mason’s pregnancy and how we were going to be the fathers of twins.