“No, I just really have to go puke now.”
“What?” I’m instantly on alert. “You’re sick? Oh myGOD!” I shout. “You’re pregnant again?” My delight cannot be matched.
“No,” she shouts back. “Nononononono.”
“Oh.” I sound as dejected as I feel. I love all my nieces and nephews, and I’d be very happy if I had ten more than the five I already have.
“Three is more than enough, AJ.” She tries to use her mom voice on me, but she should know better.
“Oh, come on! You make such cute kids, Sandy.”
“You go ahead and have three kids and then we’ll talk,” she grumbles. “I seriously have to go. See you next week.”
She hangs up before I can even say bye, and though I pout for a second, I then send Mom a text.
AJ:
Sandy’s puking her guts out.
Not pregnant, I asked.
I add two full lines of sad emojis.
But can you send her some soup?
She also said she’ll be home with the whole gang next week in case she hadn’t told you.
And since I can see Mom hasn’t seen the texts immediately, and I know it’s going to take her a while to write back, I stop stalling from having to go to Cam’s house.
Love you, can’t wait to see you.
Yeah, I’m a momma’s boy, and I wear that badge fucking proudly, but now it’s time to put on my big boy pants and just get this conversation with Rosa out of the way so Cam and I can relax a little.
“Yeah, uh, so...”Cam trails off with the phone still pressed to his ear. He’s been catching up with his mom for about thirty minutes and now it’s time.
Like it does before every first snap, my body calms like it knows some shit is about to go down.
I smile at Cam, hoping he can calm the nerves I see tightening his shoulders and flattening his mouth.
“Imma put you on speakerphone, Mom.”
“Okay, honey.” I hear her clearly.
“There’s something kind of important I wanted to tell you, and AJ is here too.”
“Hi, Mrs. Jameson.”
“Oh, hi sweet AJ. How are you?” I can hear the smile in her voice and that helps me feel confident, not only calm.
“I’m real happy, ma’am.”
“I’m sorry about that game, AJ, but since the Pumas are going to the Super Bowl, then at least you know you got beat by the best this year, right?”
“That’s exactly right, ma’am. It’s how I like to look at it, at least. And we’ll get ’em next year.”
“You sure will, sweetie.”
“So, yeah, uh, Mom?” Cam interjects and he sounds so damn nervous I put an arm around his shoulders—as much as I can since he’s more than half a head taller than me.
