“Umm…grandma? You mean your mom knows about us? The baby?”

He skewers a piece of steak. “She’s known since you took the test. We’re close. She’d have killed me if I kept this from her. She can’t wait to meet you, so if you’re free, you’re more than welcome to come to Alabama with me.”

He says all of this as if it’s the most natural thing. Like we’re making dinner plans, not plans to meet the freaking parents. He looks up at me and must notice my pale face.

“What? Was I not supposed to tell? Sorry, babe, but that’s one secret that’ll eventually come out. She’s thrilled. Don’t worry about it.”

I have no idea how he’s being so casual about all of this. No freaking clue. “Kale, I’m supposed to go home for Thanksgiving. And well, my mom doesn’t know. I was going to tell her then. I…I’d love it if you were with me so she could meet you, but I don’t want to take you away from your family…” I respond, trailing off. It’s true. I want him there when I tell my mom the good news, even if it’s just so she can see that he’s nothing like my dad.

Kale gives me a sweet smile, and holy hell if I’m not melting. “I’d love to meet your mom. I told you we’re in this together, and I meant it. I’ll be by your side every step of the way. Let’s make a road trip of it. We’ll go see your mom, and later on in the weekend, we’ll go see mine. Sound good?”

Surprisingly, it actually does. I’m more than anxious to meet the woman who raised him, and I can’t wait for my mom to fall in love with him.

“Sounds perfect, Kale.” Reaching across the table, I take his hand. “Our lives are changing quickly. You sure you’re ready for this?”

“Baby, I’ve never been more ready for anything.”

Lucy

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND comes way too quickly, and to be honest, I’m not ready to introduce my mom to Kale. Or rather Kale to my mom. While I know he’s going to charm her ass off, she’s going to freak the hell out when I break the news to her. My sperm donor did quite a number on her, and all my life, I’ve had safe sex practices rammed down my throat. She even put me on birth control before I’d even had my first kiss, telling me that she didn’t want me to end up in a loveless marriage like she had. After having grown up in a house with said loveless marriage, I didn’t argue with her.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve known what it’s like to be the product of lust, not love. At least one-sided love, because somehow my mom fell in love with an asshole named Tim Parsons, and she believed he loved her, too. And maybe he did, but once a screaming baby came along, he changed his tune and for the next ten years lamented having not one, but two balls and chains. Yeah, I didn’t get ‘princess’ or ‘baby girl.’ I was ‘a hassle,’ ‘a tie-down,’ and I will forever be thankful that Steve Dawson stepped in the first time he saw Tim knock my mom around. But that’s a long story for another day.

Let’s just say, she’s going to freak out when she finds out I’m pregnant. She knows I haven’t been seeing anyone seriously, and I’m not sure I have the heart to tell her how it happened, but she’s my mom and she deserves my honesty.

Kale comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, resting his hands on my belly, a move he’s mastered over the past two weeks since we’ve been dating. It’s weird, because like he said at the doctor’s office, it feels like we’ve been together so much longer. Maybe we have. It wasn’t official, but nothing feels different except that we have spoken labels now. All I know is I love it, and I’m so happy all our feelings are out in the open.

I smile to myself, remembering the day I snuck onto Facebook and made us social media official. He was waiting for me in the parking lot after school, a huge grin on his face as I approached him. The way he pulled me into his arms as his thumb and forefinger cupped my chin was tender, and he looked down at me with joyful eyes as he asked me if I’d hacked his account, even though he already knew the answer. Needless to say, Kale was a very happy man that day.

He nuzzles his face in my neck, kissing me lightly. “Babe, you’ve been sitting here for thirty-five minutes. We’ve gotta get moving if we’re going to make it to your mom’s in time for dinner,” he tells me, and I know he’s right.

Although it makes more sense to go to his mom’s first, my family always does Thanksgiving Wednesday night since the restaurant puts on a big buffet-style feast for tourists who are on vacation for the holiday.

I lean my head back against his chest and wish we could just stay here. “Let’s just go to Alabama. I’ll tell my mom something came up.”

His chest rumbles with laughter, and he turns me in his arms. He places a soft kiss against my lips, and I move to deepen it, but he pulls back. “Woman, stop trying to distract me. It won’t work. The car’s packed, and you can’t let my first impression on your mom be a bad one. I’m already stealing you away early so we can go to my Mom’s—a bomb that I wish you’d have dropped on her already. She’s going to kill me when you tell her you’re only staying for a day.”

I wince, and I know he’s right. She already had a million questions when I told her I was bringing someone. Mom’s made plenty of hints over the past couple of years that she’s ready to be a grandma—once I settled down, of course. Well, now she’s getting her wish. Just in the wrong order.

“Okay, okay. Let’s hit the road, but if we’re late, I’ll blame it on the baby. ‘Sorry, Mom, I had to stop to pee every ninety minutes because I’m pregnant. Oh, I forgot to tell you? Well, I am. That guy’s the baby’s father.’ How’s that?”

He chuckles and shakes his head as his hands rub up and down my arms. “Good thing we have hours to work on your delivery, because if you refer to me as ‘that guy,’ you’ll have more problems than just with your mom.”

Stepping up on my tiptoes, I give him a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Kale. You’re so much more than just ‘that guy.’ So much more.”

A slow smile spreads over his face. “Good to know. Everything will be fine, okay? I’ll be there with you the whole time. You and me. We’re in this together.”

I nod in confirmation, and my nerves settle a little bit. The butterflies in my stomach slowly fade away, and I realize that, as long as I have Kale by my side, I really do think I can get through anything.

HOURS LATER, Kale is shaking me awake. Grinning sheepishly, I apologize for dozing off, but he waves me off. “You need your rest, babe. Don’t worry about it. I’d let you keep sleeping, but we’re here and I’m not sure me carrying you into your mom’s house is the best way to introduce myself.”

As I look around, I notice that we’re in the driveway of Mom and Steve’s house. “Hey, you never know. She might think it’s romantic and fall in love with you on the spot.”

He shoots a sexy grin at me, and I want to lean over and kiss the smile off his lips. “Like mother, like daughter?”

I playfully shove his shoulder. “In your dreams, Montgomery,” I tease, and he just grins even wider.

“Oh, Ms. Dawson, you’ve starred in my dreams, but they’ve definitely been a lot sexier than you just falling in love with me. That’s just the icing the cake.”

I’m about to respond when I hear a high-pitched squeal. Looking up, I see my fourteen-year-old half-sister, Marisa, bounding down the porch towards the car.

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” I tell him and then get out of the car.

“You’re finally here!!” she says as she runs to me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

Having been an only child for the first thirteen years of my life, I was ecstatic when Marisa was born. I got to be the super-cool older sister, and with our age difference, we never fought. Even though she had the best parents in Mom and Steve, I spent my time showering her with all the love I could, all the love I’d missed in my own childhood. And she returned it tenfold.