Jillian looks over at her, and her whole face lights up when she talks about her being a teacher. “I am. I teach kindergarten.” She chuckles. “I tried teaching sixth grade, but I tend to like the young kids.”
“How does your family feel?” my father asks, and my mother just looks at him. “About this whole situation.” He finishes talking, and my mother gasps, and he opens his eyes when he rethinks his words. “Not situation like that. I mean situation like…”
“What he means to say is how does your family feel about you having a baby.” Matthew corrects him, and for once, he is making more sense than my dad. “Was it a shock for them?”
Jillian smiles at my father. “I knew what you meant,” she tries to comfort him. “My mother was not okay at the beginning,” she says, and I can see she’s trying to hold back tears as she thinks back to it. “But she has come around. I have a twin sister, her name is Julia, and she has been behind me the whole way.”
“We have twin sisters also,” my mother says. “Zara and Zoe, their bond is something we can’t explain.” She blinks her own tears. “I’m happy you had that support.”
“I’m grateful also,” I say to her, and she smiles at me. “Even though we started on a rocky ground.”
“Zara would have skinned you alive,” my uncle Matthew says.
“Zoe would have buried your body,” my mother continues.
Jillian laughs from beside me, and all of us smile when we hear it. “Will you let us be involved?” my mother asks softly. “Regardless of how you two end up.” Her lower lip trembles. “All we want to do is support you and the baby.”
“It’s okay, angel,” my father says to her in a soft voice. She looks up at him, and his hand comes out to wipe the tear away from her face.
“I want you all involved,” Jillian confirms. “We don’t have a big family,” she says with her own tears in her eyes. “It’s just the three of us,” she shares, and my mother puts her hand to her mouth. “So I would love for you to all be there.”
“Are you sure you mean all?” Matthew asks, and she laughs through her tears.
“Of course, the more people involved, the more love our child will have,” she says, and the way she says our child, my stomach goes to my throat. “Regardless of how it happened.” She side-looks me. “She or he is coming.”
“I think it’s a boy,” Matthew says. “I can feel it.”
“I really hope it’s a girl,” I counter. “Just so you can be wrong.”
“I don’t care what it is,” my mother says. “As long as the baby is healthy, we will take it.”
“When is your due date?” my father asks.
“I’m due the second of July,” she replies, and Matthew looks over at me and smiles.
“Perfect timing,” he says. “Off-season and right around family vacation time.”
“We can do the family vacation here,” my father offers. “Rent a couple of houses here.” Matthew just nods his head.
“We can drive down to the beach,” Matthew cuts in. “I’ll throw it out to the family.”
“What’s going on?” Jillian whispers to me as she watches them make plans for July.
“We have a big family,” my mother says. “As you can imagine with five siblings and then their kids. Plus extended family members.”
“Our last family vacation.” I use quotations around family. “We were one hundred and twenty-five.”
“Oh my God,” she says, her eyes going big. “And all of them will come here for the birth?”
“No,” my mother says, shaking her head and looking at my uncle and my father. “It’s not a circus. It’s their first child. It will be who she wants there, and that is it.”
“I’m not saying we all have to go in the room with her,” Matthew retorts, then looks at her. “But we can show her our support by being here.”
“Why don’t we table this discussion for another time?” I suggest when Jillian squeezes my hand.
“How has your pregnancy been?” my mother asks, and I can see that she just wants to know everything.
“It’s been okay,” Jillian says, putting her hand on her belly and rubbing it. “I had severe morning sickness at the beginning and couldn’t keep anything down.” She shrugs. “I ended up in the ER a couple of times for dehydration. But I just get sick when I don’t snack during the day.”
My mother shoots up off the couch. “You’ve been here for over an hour and haven’t eaten anything, and you have been sick,” she says with worry all over her face, and all Jillian can do is put her hands on her face as she cries. I lean to her side and take her in my arms. Now I’m the one glaring at my mother for making her cry.