Tanner and Esme

Chapter 9 (Tanner): Make The Best Of It

"You were amazing," I told Esme, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Our baby boy was currently on her chest and we were both looking at him with love and awe in our eyes. Definitely some awww in our eyes, too; he was just that perfect. 

"All those months of being so sick and then you go through twelve hours of hell...you're incredible, Ez."

"He was worth it," she said in a wobbly voice, a tear trickling down her cheek.

"Esme?"

Those huge eyes looked up at me. "I wish my mom could see him. I wish so bad she could have seen him, Tanner." She gave a watery laugh and waved her free hand. "Don't mind me. I'm just missing her right now. It's the hormones, I guess."

Grabbing her hand, I kissed it and then pressed my forehead to hers. "I know, sunshine. I'm sorry she can't."

She pulled back and looked at me, both of us realizing I'd called her a pet name for the first time. I'd think about that later, but for now, I knew Ez needed comfort from a mother.

"You want me to get my mom in here?"

She nodded as the tears continued. She and my mother had been seriously bonding in the months leading up to Jude's birth. My mother finally had a daughter and Esme had a mother-figure who completely doted on her pregnant daughter-in-law.

I texted my mother, not wanting to leave Esme for even a second, and two minutes later, Mom and Dad hurried into the room.

Mom made a beeline not for Jude, but for Esme. She kissed my wife's cheek and then wrapped her in a hug, without even looking at her grandson.

"How's my girl?" my mother asked Esme, pulling back slightly to look at the new mother, placing her hands on Esme's cheeks. Esme leaned forward and buried her face in the side of my mother's neck for a minute, and I wished I was the one who could have provided comfort for my wife. I wished Ez's face was buried in my neck. I wished my arms were around her.

My parents' front door swung open not long after I knocked, and Esme wasn't surprised to see me so she'd clearly used the peep hole -- and had still answered the door. That had to be a good sign.

My eyes swept over her, noting her red eyes, her flushed cheeks, the wetness still on them, her hair in one long braid that was draped over her right shoulder.

"Esme, can I please come in so we can talk?"

Without saying a word, she stepped aside and I walked in, somehow feeling like an intruder in my childhood home. Feeling very unwelcome because Esme was glaring at me.

"Can we sit down?"

"I don't want to sit," she said stiffly, none of the warmth I was used to in her voice."Ez, please sit. I want you off your feet."

"Your concern for me is heartwarming," she said, and I'd never heard sarcasm from Esme before in the four years we'd been together. "But I'll stand. This won't take long."

"Esme, this is going to take a while. There's a lot we have to talk about."

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared me down. "Let's start with your girlfriend confronting me in the preschool parking lot this morning when I was walking out to the car after dropping Jude off. That seems like a good place to begin."

Oh, God. Fuck. Shit. "Ez, I'm sorry. She's not my girlfriend, and I had no idea she'd hunt you down. Are you OK? Please tell me she didn't hurt you."

"No more than you already did," she said. "Your girlfriend said you went to her hotel yesterday."

"In the bar. In the bar, Esme, not in her room. To tell her it was over. That I wanted to make it work with you and wanted nothing else to do with her."