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“Ready?” I asked.
She groaned. “Ready.”
It was when we were almost there that I had a thought.
“Do you want me to drop you off?” I asked. “Or do you want to come to my parents’ first, then yours?”
She looked at her watch.
“My dad is on shift today,” she answered. “And won’t be home until tomorrow. I’ll just stay at your parents’ house.” She paused. “But we have to stop by and see my mother. She won’t forgive us if we don’t.”
I grinned and took the street that would lead to her parents’ place.
Ten minutes later, we were pulling up to their door.
“Jesus Christ!” Ashe yelled, throwing up her hands in the air. “Do any of y’all wear any fucking clothes?”
Tru, who had no pants on, narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t wear any either,” she accused. “And you could’ve knocked. Could’ve texted to tell us you were coming. And, you can’t see anything.”
Ashe sighed.
But Tru was right. You really couldn’t see anything.
“Ashe doesn’t wear pants at home either,” I found myself confirming.
Tru’s eyes came to mine.
“I’ve heard that.” She paused. “And you want to know what else I’ve heard?”
I looked worriedly at Ashe.
“That you and my daughter are now ‘doing it.’”
My mouth fell open.
“Mother!” Ashe yelled.
“I’ve heard that y’all have been together for a while now,” Coal supplied.
“I have, too,” Spencer added from the couch in his boxer briefs. “Mom, did you know that Ashe is pregnant?”
My eyes widened.
Ashe’s mouth fell open.
Spencer laughed.
Tru’s eyes lit on me. Then Ashe.
Then she turned her head to Spencer.
Spencer, though, looked at us, too.
The laughter stopped.
“I was joking,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
Then he stood up, a pissed off look crossing his face.
“You knocked my sister up?!” he bellowed.
Ashe sighed and dropped her head into her hands.
Tru made a squealing sound that pierced my eardrums.
“I’m gonna be a grandma!” she cried out, clapping her hands. “Oh my God. Your dad is going to have a fucking cow!” She did a jig that almost made the long t-shirt she was wearing ride up over her ass.
“Mom!” Ashe tried. “Ford doesn’t need to see your underwear! What will Dad think?”
“When are y’all getting married?” Coal asked, his eyes going from me to Ashe and back again.
“We’re not getting married!” Ashe growled at the same time I said, “We’re going to get married once she finishes school.”
Ashe stared at her mother who was still dancing around, but now on the couch next to her younger brother.
“I’m going to have to go by Grammy.” She paused. “Or Gamma. Or Grams.” She paused in her jumping. “This is a really important decision. I mean, I’ll be called this for the rest of my life. Shit, I have to call Viddy. We have to discuss this. We can’t both go by the same thing.”
Ashe caught her mother’s hand before she could get to the phone.
“How about you give us an hour or two to spend here, then we’ll tell his parents?” Ashe said, sounding resolute. “We’d like to do that in person. Not by a phone call.”
Tru immediately nodded her head. “Oh, yes. Right. I can see exactly what you mean.”
She was standing there, her hand practically vibrating to reach for the phone.
“How about we go right now?” I asked carefully.
Tru’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yes! That’s perfect. That’ll give me enough time to talk to your dad. Who, by the way, loves you but is going to hate this. Sorry, Ford.”
I shrugged. “I kind of knew he wasn’t going to be too happy.”
I made a note to go see him before the night was out. Though I knew heading to the fire station and seeing not just him, but Kettle and Sebastian most likely, would open a whole new can of worms.
“Let’s go.” Ashe shook her head. “Mom, we’ll see you tomorrow for the party, okay?”
Tru did another dance that had her hands over her head and her shirt riding up again.
“Shit.” Ashe shook her head again. “Let’s go.”
“Bye!” Coal and Spencer called.
“Bye!” Ashe and I called back.
We made it out to the truck more or less unscathed.
“This is ridiculous,” she admitted. “I wasn’t going to tell anybody. I mean, we don’t even really know if it’s true.”
I reached out and ran my finger along one nipple, causing her to hiss and pull away.
“What the hell?” she asked.
I gestured to her boobs.
“Boobs don’t just get more sensitive,” I pointed out.
She frowned.
“And didn’t you almost gag when we stopped for gas on the way here?” I pushed.
She stubbornly stayed silent.
“And who was it that slept the whole way here and didn’t once wake up?” I teased.
“Those things don’t just appear,” I told her gently. “You’re allowed to be happy about this. You’re allowed to be excited.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to give anybody false hope. I want to make sure that this is true. I mean, what if they get all excited, and my period comes tomorrow?”
