“She’s beautiful,” my mother whispered.
When I looked back at my mother, she had tears running down her face.
Amanda walked up to me and I put my arm around her. I swore I felt her body tremble. There was no way I was going to ever let my mother hurt her again.
My father walked up and smiled at Amanda and she returned the smile. “She’s breathtaking, Amanda.” He said as he smiled down at Maegan, who reached out for him with her hand. He took her hand and kissed it as she buried her face in Amanda’s neck.
I watched as my father talked to Maegan, and my heart broke into a million pieces. I peeked over at my mother and watched her face as my father talked to my daughter. When he stepped back, he looked at my mother. Before she took a step closer, she looked at Amanda.
“May I?” she asked.
Amanda nodded her head and took a step closer to my mother.
“Hello, Maegan. My goodness, you are the spitting image of your daddy,” my mother said as I watched a tear slide down her cheek. My heart was pounding in my chest.
Amanda looked up at me and smiled. “I told Brad she looked like him.”
My mother looked right at Amanda and giggled. “I’ll have to give you some baby pictures, the resemblance is unbelievable.”
“I’d really like that,” Amanda said as her voice choked.
What happened next really surprised me and took my breath away. My mother put her hand up to her mouth and started crying as she looked at Amanda and placed her hand on Amanda’s face.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry…I’m so very sorry for treating you so horribly.” She turned and walked into my father’s arms. He held her while he stroked his hand down her back and kept saying, “Shh…baby. Shh…”
Amanda looked at me with a stunned look on her face. I was just as stunned and didn’t really know what to do. Amanda motioned for me to invite them into the house but I shook my head no. She tilted her head and gave me another look. She mouthed ‘Brad’ to me and I rolled my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was open it up for her to hurt Amanda more.
I took in a deep breath and quickly let it out. “Dad, did y’all want to, um, come in for a bit?”
My father pushed my mother away and looked at her. He looked back up at me and said, “I think your mother and I would really like that.”
My mom spun around, quickly wiping her eyes and putting on a smile. “I’d love to be able to get those pictures to you…” her voice cracked.
Amanda nodded her head. “Of course, please just let me know when and maybe we can meet y’all for lunch sometime.”
The expression on my mom’s face was pure shock.
She began shaking her head. “Why? Why would you be so nice to me after all of the horrible things I did to you?”
I glanced down at my beautiful wife. I knew why, because that was just Amanda. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body, but at the same time, she was very guarded and I trusted that she knew what she was doing.
“It does me no good to hang on to hurt and anger. Will I ever be able to forgive you? Yes. Forgetting is hard, but I’m willing to give it a try.” She glanced up at me and smiled. “For Brad, because I love him and I know he loves his parents and I know Maegan will want to know her grandparents. So will the new baby.”
My mother dropped her head and then looked back up. The tears were flowing and a part of me wanted to take her into my arms.
She quickly wiped away the tears and smiled. “Okay, well. We have presents…for each of you,” she said as she looked at me and winked. I had to wonder if they did have presents for Amanda. When my father opened up the trunk of their car, Maegan started clapping and smiling. She somehow knew that what she was looking at would surely mean lots of fun for her.
I helped my parents carry the more than ridiculous amount of presents as we put them under the tree. I couldn’t help but notice that there were about six presents with Amanda’s name on them. I glanced over at my mother, who was now holding Maegan. For some reason I got the idea that deep down inside, she liked Amanda. She was just too stubborn to admit it.
The afternoon went on as my mother played endlessly with Maegan and my parents chatted with Amanda’s parents. We had waited for Amanda’s parents to get there before we opened up presents and poor Maegan could hardly keep her eyes open from all the excitement of the day.
I stood over Maegan’s crib, watching her sleep. Amanda grabbed my hand and I turned to around to face her. The smile on her face about blew me over.
“Are you happy?” she whispered.
I brought her in for a hug and held her tightly against my body. “I’ve never had such an amazing Christmas before.”
As we walked into the hallway I could hear my parents talking to Amanda’s. I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone seemed to be getting along.
“I love you, Manda. I love you because I know you stepping out of my truck and walking up to my parents with Meg had to have been hard for you. Especially with everything my mother said to you.”
She got up on her tippy toes and kissed me. “I love you. And I see how guarded you’ve been this afternoon. You have to admit it was nice seeing your parents playing with Meg. Didn’t you think so?”
As much as I wanted to admit I loved having my parents here, I was still angry at my mother.
“Brad, let it go. Baby, let the anger and hurt go. We have so much to look forward to and what is in the past is in the past.”
I shook my head. “Manda, how can you say that after the things she put you through? She put us through? She said some horrible things and I’m…I’m just not sure I can forgive her.”
She slipped her hand behind my neck and brought my lips down to hers. She gently kissed me as she moved her hand through my hair. She stopped kissing me and barely took her lips from mine.
“I can forgive her because of this. Our love, Brad. Our love is so much stronger than any words she can spit out, and I really, truly honestly believe that she didn’t mean it. I think you were her baby, and no matter who your wife was…she just had it set in her mind they were not good enough. I think the moment she saw Meg it all hit her. She’s missed out on so much and I don’t think she wants to miss out on any more.”
I took a deep breath in and slowly blew it out as I closed my eyes.
“Listen, I’m not saying let’s have your parents over for dinners and tea parties, but let’s try and let them be a part of our lives. A part of our children’s lives. We’ll just take it one day at a time. How does that sound?” She scrunched up her nose and winked at me and I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
“I don’t think they will be trying to come over and bother us too much, especially after we move.”
“Yeah I don’t think so…huh? What do you mean? After we move?”
“I think it’s time for me to give you your Christmas present. I was waiting for the parents to all leave but seeing as they are all catching up and shit, I’ll just have to give it to you now…I could care less if they’re here or not.”
She smiled and nodded her head like a little girl. “Oh wait! Is it something sexual? I’ll wait if it is!”
I laughed as I put my arm around her as we began walking to the living room.
“No baby…well, at least your big present isn’t. The other present is going to have to wait until they are gone for sure though.”
She let out a gasp and gave me that smile of hers that reminds me each time I see it how much I love her.
Oh yeah…I wasn’t sure which present I was looking forward to giving her more. That’s a lie. I knew which one I was looking forward to giving her, and I was going to do everything in my power to get everyone out of my house within the next fifteen minutes.
Chapter 7: Amanda
As we made our way into the living room, I caught my mother looking at me. She gave me a slight smile. I knew she was being friendly to Brad’s mother for the sake of Brad. I had to pull her aside before they walked in to tell her not go crazy ape on her.
I gave her a look that said time to leave now, and she nodded her head.
“Well, I’m exhausted and know Manda and Brad have had a long day. I think we’ll take off. Forty-five minute drive back home and all,” my mother said as she winked at my father.
I walked up to her and hugged her. “Thank you, Mom, so much for coming over and spending Christmas with us. It meant a lot to me,” I whispered in her ear. “Thank you for holding your tongue too!”
She pulled away and winked at me.
“I guess we better head on out as well. I know you’re both tired,” Carol said. Brad reached over and gave his mother a hug good-bye, but quickly stepped away before she could lean in for a kiss. I saw disappointment etched all over her face. He shook his father’s hand and turned to lead everyone out.
When we walked back in, we both collapsed onto the sofa.
“Motherfucker, that was emotionally exhausting,” I said as I peeked over at Brad. He had his eyes closed but nodded his head. Then he snapped his head over to me and gave me the biggest panty-melting smile I’d ever seen. I swore I was wet between my legs within seconds.
“Your gift,” he said, in the sexiest damn voice I’d ever heard. I was practically panting just from the sound of his voice.
He got up and reached down for my hand.
“But what about the mess?” I asked.
“Screw the mess,” he said as he kissed the back of my hand. He began walking backwards as he led me through the house and up to our bedroom.
“Sit down on the bed, baby.” His voice was so deep my whole body trembled. He walked into the closet and after a few seconds he came back out with two boxes.
I bit down on my lower lip and said, “Do I get to pick?”
“Sure,” he said with a laugh.
I looked at both boxes. One was big, like it contained maybe lingerie. The other was smaller.
I pointed to the smaller box and said, “Bigger is always better, so I want to save that one for last.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Good choice, baby.” He handed the box to me and stood there with a goofy grin on his face.
I began to slowly take the wrapping paper off. I opened the box and a piece of paper was folded up in the box. I glanced up at Brad, who had a smile from ear to ear. I set the box down on the bed next to me and began opening up the piece of paper. It was a real-estate listing. Fifty-five acres in Fredericksburg. I glanced up and looked at Brad, confused.
“What is this for?” I asked.
“Well, I know how much you love being close to our friends, I know how much you love Fredericksburg, and now with my new promotion…” he said with an evil grin.
Oh. My. God. Is he saying what I think he is saying?
“Brad…are you saying…”
He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a standing position. “Yes baby, I’m saying what you think I’m saying. I want to have your dream home built on this piece of land. I want to raise our children there and I want to be closer to our friends. They’ve been through thick and thin with us and I don’t want to be so far away from them.”