Keeping Tabs

Chapter 19

Colin looked up and I saw the look of unchecked fury that consumed him the instant that he saw Jared, recognition and hatred flashing in his blue eyes all at once. Chris looked at me, then at Colin, then to Jared.

“Colin, that him?” Chris asked, and Colin nodded, his jaw locked tightly. Both of them left me standing with Micah as they walked forward. I began screaming for them to come back, but they weren't listening and Micah wasn't letting me get in the middle of this. Jared looked a bit nervous as they stepped up to him, and he looked a bit embarrassed when his friends began talking back to them.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could tell that it wasn't a friendly invitation to a family barbeque. Jared's friends stepped back when Chris said something to both of them. Jared looked over at me, surprise and sadness mingling in his hazel eyes. I was shocked that they all kept their hands to themselves, but Colin and Chris ushered us back into the car and we left, anyway. Neither of them ever told me what they said to Jared, no matter how much I asked or argued.

A week before I was due, I was sitting on the couch with Chris' hand on my belly, and we were watching hour after hour of baby delivery shows. We both cringed at the bloody parts, and he'd squeeze my hand reassuringly every time we watched a terrible complication arise with one of the new mothers on the TV. Colin burst through the door, his mood incredibly light, even springy.

“It's finally ready!”He said, jumping up and down a bit for effect. Chris and I both looked at him as though he'd lost his mind. He rolled his eyes at both of us and said, “The house? It's finished! Micah's place out back just got painted this morning.”

“Micah's place? As in mine?” Micah asked, stepping out of his room at the sound of his name.

“Well yeah. I hoped you wouldn't mind too much, but I knew you'd practically live there once the baby was born, anyway. So I had a guest house built for you and Bryan. Fully furnished, ready to move into as early as tomorrow.”

“Oh! Well, thank you!” Micah replied, his eyes as round as dinner plates. He stepped back in his room, and the sounds of items being packed began coming from behind his door. Chris and Colin arranged to pack all of my things, and both of them yelled at me when I tried to do it myself. By the next morning, all of my things were being transported by a moving company.

When they got everything off of the truck, I got a bigger surprise than the house. All of our families were there. Emily, Colin's sister came running up to me, her hands going straight for my distended belly. His mother and eldest sister Marie shook my hand politely, but it was obvious that they were uncomfortable there.

My mother and father came to hug me, my mother crying hysterically, and my dad joking about me swallowing too many watermelon seeds. Then Chris' parents came out of the house, his mother's arm wrapped around another woman that Chris called his aunt Lucille, and both women came to hug me tightly, chattering about all the children they'd had with Chris' father Jim, which in turn caused me to ask Chris just how many siblings he had. He said twenty-three as though everyone came from such a large family, and I was too surprised to say anything different.

“You are a beautiful addition to our family, and that baby is, too. This is universal karma at its finest, man. Son, you couldn't have chosen better,” Jim said as he hugged me, rubbing my belly for luck.

He was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor and a laid back attitude. He not only accepted our situation, but praised it, saying that the world needed more love in it, and everyone should be so lucky. I suddenly realized that everything I loved about Chris came from his dad. Colin kept me away from his family as much as possible, except for Emily, who he couldn't have kept away had he tried.