Warren: Both. I’m not alone this time. My dad’s joined in on the last-minute fun.
Harriet: Like father, like son.
Warren: He’s excited to meet you. They all are.
Harriet: Me too :)
Harriet: Merry Christmas from me and Button!
Warren: Thank you. I hope you have fun celebrating with your friends. Get anything nice?
Harriet: Gift cards, pajamas. Oh, and a foot spa! What about you?
Warren: Couple of books and a new sweater.
Harriet: You’ll have to wear it for me next week at your parents’ party. Do a little fashion show.
Warren: Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.
Warren: Pick you up tomorrow at 4?
Harriet: Are you sure? I don’t mind driving home.
Warren: Never been more sure. There are drunks out this time of year, and the roads will be icy. There’s plenty of space for you at my parents’.
Harriet: Should I bring anything?
Warren: Yourself will be more than enough.
TWENTY-TWO
HARRIET
FOURTEEN WEEKS PREGNANT
“A canoe?”
“Foot-long sub?”
“A zucchini?”
“A PENIS!”
Warren stands irritably next to the flip chart, massaging the bridge of his nose while glaring at his younger brother. “Why? Why, with every game we play, do you always bring something phallic into the conversation?”
Ben shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s a guessing game. What am I supposed to do? Stay silent?”
“That would be ideal,” Warren grits, though there’s zero malice to it.
As planned, he picked me up and drove us to his parent’s house for New Year’s Day celebrations. The entire ride over, my insides were knotting and twisting with nerves until puking felt inevitable. I worked a short shift at the distillery the night before and was home before midnight. Rather than seeing thenew year in with a bang, I spent the night tossing and turning, worried what his family would think of me.
Warren, sensing my anxiety, reassured me repeatedly they were excited about the newest family member and to meet me. Easy enough for him. I was an outsider, and for all they knew, I was only here to trick their son into a loveless marriage and steal the family fortune before riding off into the sunset with a younger man.
Perhaps a tad dramatic.
The second Warren’s mom, Jackie, answered the door, my fears subsided. She tugged me into a mama bear hug and told me how happy she was I was there. One after the other, each family member greeted me with a hug, and by the time I got to his sister, my anxiety vanished.
It was slightly hectic from there, with no time to put my bags away before I was carted off into the living room and the first game of the evening began. It sucks I couldn’t spend the holidays in Maine this year, but seeing Warren’s family tease and joke with one another reminds me of home, and not once have they made me feel left out.
