Jake held my hand, and I looked towards him. “What?”
“You should know that your mother just got here, too.”
I tensed a little, but then I reminded myself that our relationship had made strides in the last two years. Mom had finally accepted my decision not to have a relationship with Ted, and she had also stopped butting into my life and allowed me to make my own decisions.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Has she seen Isabelle yet?”
Jake smiled. “I was standing in between them when they met,” he nodded.
“And?”
“It went surprisingly well,” he said. “They didn’t talk about anything other than you. Your mother mentioned Daphne once, and then they moved on.”
“Well…that’s good.”
“Don’t be worried,” Jake said, taking my hand. “I’ll be right beside you.”
After sharing one last kiss, we walked out together. The crowd mostly comprised of our friends and colleagues from work and a few other people who had made a difference in our lives. Luis came up to me and gave me a hug.
“Kristen, you look wonderful.”
“Thanks, Luis,” I said. “It’s great to see you. Where’s your new bride?”
Luis scanned the crowd. “Cathy?” he called.
A tall, beautiful woman approached. She had dreadlocks that fell to her middle back and light hazel eyes that danced when she smiled.
“Lovely to meet you, Kristen.”
“The pleasure’s mine,” I replied. “I must say, we were both so curious to meet the woman who finally managed to convince Luis to settle down.”
“It wasn’t easy,” she laughed. “But I convinced him that I was more than willing to be an army wife.”
“My next deployment will be my last, though,” Luis said. “Then it’s time for me to start a new chapter.”
“Good for you, man…and if you ever need some help getting a job when you’re back here for good, just give me a call,” Jake said, clapping him on the back.
As the group kept talking, I glanced up and noticed my mother standing in one corner looking straight at me. I excused myself and headed over to her.
“Hi, Mom,” I said, leaning in for a hug.
“My God,” she replied, patting my stomach. “You’re so big.”
“I definitely feel big,” I nodded.
“You look lovely,” she said, and I could see that she was a little emotional.
“You have a lovely apartment,” she continued, looking around.
“We moved in right after we got married,” I said. “Jake wanted a place in a good school district, and we needed a bigger space because we knew we were going to start a family soon.”
“I wanted to thank you for inviting me,” she said. “I wasn’t at your wedding, so it makes me feel good to know I was included in the baby shower.”
“No one was invited to the wedding, Mom,” I reminded her. “There was no wedding to begin with. Jake and I eloped, and the only person with us was Noah.”
“You didn’t want a wedding?” she asked, and I knew she still didn’t understand why we had eloped.
“No,” I said. “We just wanted to be married; we felt the wedding was unnecessary. I did wear a white dress, though.”