A Life We Never Expected

Part 11

Grayson laughed slightly, before coming behind her and placing his head on her shoulder.

"You're beautiful," he said softly. She smiled, before laying her head on his. "You're not so bad yourself," she replied.

Grayson lingered for a moment before he left the bathroom, giving Emily the space she needed to complete her makeup.

After about 20 minutes, Emily was ready, coming out of their bedroom with a small duffel bag.

"You going on a vacation that I didn't know about?" Grayson asked with a laugh.

"Yes. I'm running away with Joe Jonas. He spotted me at Taco Bell the other day shoving my face with tacos and decided that he just had to have me and my child in his life," Emily teased with a laugh. She opened the bag to reveal a swimsuit for her and swim trunks for Grayson.

Grayson laughed and walked over to her, taking the bag out of her hand and placing his arm around her shoulder as the two walked out to get in Grayson's car.

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The pair showed up to Emily's house to find the driveway almost completely full. Every year it was a big shindig, so they knew that there were going to be a lot of people.

Upon entering the house, Emily was met with a surprise. Her grandparents were there. Her dad's parents.

Everyone had made their peace on graduation, deciding that even though the Smith part of the family didn't like that Emily was pregnant. They had decided to all but ignore the fact, Emily thinking that they would do so even after she was born.

"Hey, guys! We're here!" Emily greeted, Grayson saying hello as well as he hung their bag on the coat tree.

Emily and Grayson made small talk with Emily's grandparents, trying to make it as little awkward as possible.

Eventually, Emily was all but shoved out of the kitchen by her mom, telling her that she needed to get off her feet and go relax in the pool.

"Mom, I'm fine," Emily complained, tired of being treated like she was fragile.

"I don't care. Go get in the pool with everyone else," Ella insisted.

"But you need help," Emily said.

"I've got Gigi. I'll be fine," Ella shot back, in reference to her mother and Emily's grandmother Gigi. Emily sighed and relented, going to change into her bathing suit to go join everyone else.

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Later that evening, when it was finally dark out and everyone had eaten dinner, all of the family and friends made the trip five minutes away to Aunt Micayla's house.

Ever since Micayla had moved to the little town of Latona, Tennessee when Emily was in preschool, she had lived on the outskirts of Emily's neighborhood. She had a much bigger yard than Emily's parents.

So, every Fourth of July they always set off their fireworks there. Every year the men went out to set them off while the women watched from lawn chairs. Some might view this as sexist, but the women genuinely had no interest in being that close to explosives.

This year, Grayson had been added to that group of men.

"Hey can you do me a favor?" Emily asked from her lawn chair as Grayson walked by on his way to where they had set up the fireworks.

"Sure thing. What can I do for ya?" Grayson asked, stopping and looking at his girlfriend.

"Can you maybe, not set yourself on fire?" Emily asked him with a smile on her face.

"Of course. Is this your way of asking me to be careful?" Grayson asked with a smirk, leaning down so his face was close to Emily's.

"Maybe," Emily said with mock innocence.

Grayson laughed before kissing her quickly and jogging over to the fireworks. Emily made small talk with everyone before it was time for the fireworks to start.

They were all pretty, the group taking note of the ones to buy again next year and the ones that they should never buy again. They had left Bad Mother-in-Law for the finale, and it never failed to impress everyone, especially Ella.

"Happy Fourth of July everyone!" John shouted as the men came back to the driveway.

They each went to mingle, Grayson automatically making his way to Emily.

"You did good babe. I think you are going to be apart of this every year now," Emily said. Grayson smiled, grateful to be apart of another tradition.

Suddenly, Emily felt something that almost felt like something was pushing on her insides. It dawned on her that it was the baby. She was kicking.

Grayson had walked over to talk to Gabe, who was about two years younger than him and Emily and like a younger brother to Emily and now Grayson.

"Grayson! Come over here!" Emily called. Everyone looked at her, concern in their eyes.

Grayson was there in two seconds, concern written all over his face.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked Emily.

Emily said nothing but grabbed his hand and put it on where the baby was kicking. Grayson, having not felt it yet, looked at Emily expectantly.

"What is it?" he asked again, still not having felt anything yet and becoming more and more confused as to what Emily was doing.

"The baby was kicking. I'm hoping she'll do it again," Emily said nonchalantly, not having realized how much she had scared everyone there.

"Wait, what? She kicked?" Grayson asked. With that, the baby must have sensed that she was being talked about because she kicked right where her father's hand was.

"Oh my god I felt it!" Grayson exclaimed.

With that, the night was ended with everyone taking turns feeling for kicks as they celebrated this milestone and their country's freedom.