“We would love to,” my mother agrees. “Count us in.”
“Me, too,” Alex calls from her room.
“You aren’t invited!” I shout back at her, shaking my head, and she opens the door up again. Coming next to me, she pushes her face into the phone screen.
“Jillian, can I come?” she asks her softly, and I roll my eyes.
“Don’t fall for that soft-voice shit,” I warn Jillian. “She’s like Medusa. You look into her eyes and turn to stone.”
“Talking about turning to stone,” Alex teases. “Someone is excited to see his girlfriend.” She points down at the towel. I gasp and cover myself as Jillian just laughs.
“I am not,” I deny, shaking my head and looking over my shoulder at my father, who just shakes his head.
“Sick,” he says, closing the door.
“Well, that was fun,” I say, walking back to my room. “I love when they visit.” I close the door behind me and see her eyes shining bright. “Are you in your new bed?”
“I am.” She smiles and turns over. “At first, I thought it was hard like a rock, but then, you get sucked into it.”
“I’m glad you like it,” I say softly to her. “How was dinner?”
“Good,” she says and then looks at me. “I wish you hadn’t left.”
I smile. “I figured you needed some sister time.”
“No, you didn’t,” she rebuts and sits up in the bed, her shirt falling off her shoulder. “You left because Julia makes you uncomfortable.”
I roll my eyes. “She doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” I hedge. “But I know she doesn’t like me, and I don’t want you to be stressed, so I took myself out of the equation.”
“Well, next time, don’t,” she says. “I wanted you to stay.”
“For the record,” I say, looking at her. “I wanted nothing more than to stay. I wanted nothing more than to spend the night with you by my side.” Her eyes go soft, and she yawns. “Go to bed and call me tomorrow when you get up,” I advise. “What time should I be at your house?”
“I can meet you at my mom’s,” she says, and I glare at her. “Fine, if you can be here by eleven thirty, that would be great.”
“I’ll see you then,” I confirm, and then I remember. “Hey, how many weeks are you exactly?”
“Seventeen,” she answers. “Why?”
“I bought a couple of baby books, so I wanted to know.” I hold up the book I bought. “The What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and the other one is The Expectant Father’s Guide.”
“You bought books,” she says in shock.
“Well, yeah,” I say. “I want to know everything.” I open the book to seventeen weeks. “The baby is the size of a hand. Do you have stretch marks?”
“I’m going to bed,” she deflects. “I will give you complete access to my stomach tomorrow after my mother’s house, and you can inspect it.”
I look at her. “Just your stomach?” I ask her softly, lying down in the bed. “I really like you, Jillian.” The words come out without me even knowing what I’m saying.
“I really like you, too, Michael,” she says softly. “See you tomorrow.” She hangs up the phone, and I get up, slipping on boxers and shorts.
I walk out of the room at the same time as Alex walks out of her room. “I need water,” she says, and we walk into the kitchen. She looks over at me. “If me coming tomorrow is going to be too much, I’ll stay back.”
I shake my head. “I need all the help I can get,” I share honestly. “Her sister isn’t exactly welcoming, and I don’t expect her mother to be that happy to see me.”
“Why?” she asks, grabbing a juice bottle.
“I left her alone for the first seventeen weeks of her pregnancy,” I admit, sitting on the stool and taking a deep breath.
“It’s not like you did it on purpose,” she reminds me. “It’s not like you knew and didn’t give a shit. Granted, you’re an idiot,” she offers. “But the minute you found out, it’s not like you walked away.”
“I thought I heard you two,” my mother says, coming into the kitchen in her robe. “What were you two talking about?”
“Michael thinks that Jillian’s mother and sister hate him,” Alex blurts, taking a sip of her juice.
“I didn’t say hate,” I say, looking at my mother, who looks like she’s ready to rumble.
“Well, what did they say?” she asks, walking to the fridge and grabbing some water.
“They didn’t say anything,” I reply, getting up. “I just, can we not go crazy tomorrow?”
Alex just looks at me and laughs. “Yeah, let’s for once act like normal.”
“We are normal,” my mother says in a shocked voice.
“I want you all on your best behavior tomorrow,” I plead to both of them as they look at each other. I point at both of them. “This means a lot to me.” They both nod at me, and I walk out of the room, seeing my father there listening.