“You’re supposed to be resting,” Jake said, dropping his study binder on the counter.
“I am resting. Folding counts as resting.”
I heard my boyfriend come out.
“Folding is not resting, Em.”
He crossed the room and knelt in front of me, placing both hands on my belly, as he did every single night. Nursing school hadn’t stolen that from him yet. That was his focus while we built our little family one paycheck at a time.
“How’s she doing in there?” he asked.
“Kicking me like she’s got rent due.”
He laughed and kissed the top of my stomach. “That’s my girl!”
“How’s she doing in there?”
I playfully swatted him away.
“Go. You’ll be late for the study group.”
“I love you, you know that?”
“I know. Go pass your pharmacology quiz so we can afford diapers.”
My boyfriend grabbed his keys, kissed my forehead, then paused at the door as he always did.
“Mom called again,” he said quietly.
I kept my eyes on the onesie. “And?”
“Go pass your pharmacology quiz.”
“Same stuff. I hung up.”
“Jake…”
“Emma. I chose us. I keep choosing us. Stop worrying.”
I nodded, and he left.
But the truth was, I did worry.
You see, Jake’s mother, Lydia, was the only person who refused to accept our relationship. She’d never even laid eyes on me. Not once. But she’d told half her church, and Jake, that I was a gold digger.
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“I keep choosing us.”
She’d also told them that I’d trapped her son and that the baby probably wasn’t his.
All of that while insisting she never wanted to meet me. Strange, right?
Lydia had opinions about a woman she wouldn’t recognize in a grocery aisle.
But bless his heart, Jake never asked me to choose between him and his mother. He chose us from the very beginning. So I stayed quiet and hoped she’d change her mind before the baby was born.
She never wanted to meet me.
My phone buzzed. It was my coworker, Marcy.
“Please tell me you’re not folding baby clothes again,” she said the second I picked up.
“I’m not folding baby clothes.”
“You liar! I can hear the folding right through the phone!”
“My feet hate me, Marcy. They filed for divorce today.”
“Girl, mine filed years ago. Alimony’s brutal!”
I laughed harder than I should’ve, one hand under my belly to keep everything from bouncing.
“You liar!”
Marcy and I discussed baby things, my relationship, and, of course, Lydia’s intrusions.
“Don’t let her get to you, Em. You’ve got a good one in Jake. He’ll do right by you.”
After we hung up, the apartment settled into that soft hum it gets when Jake’s gone. I ran my palm slowly across my stomach.
“Just a little peace, baby girl,” I whispered. “That’s all Mama’s asking for. A little peace before you get here.”
I didn’t know yet that peace was about to run right through my checkout lane.
“He’ll do right by you.”
