CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
When Beau saw her coming down the driveway, he started barking and wagging his tail. His head was out the backseat window as she came around the car.
“Did you miss me sweet boy?” He pressed against the door and gave an appreciative whine. “Aw, I missed you, too!” She shot Aidan a disgusted look over her shoulder. “You shouldn’t have left him in the car this long!”
“All the windows are down.” He gestured to Beau’s wiggling body. “Look at him. He’s perfectly fine.”
“I guess so,” Emma murmured, scratching behind Beau’s ears.
“You spoil him too much,” Aidan mused, tossing her suitcase in the backseat.
“I do not.”
“Oh really? Every time I come in the door, he starts looking for you. He could give a shit less about me now. Not to mention, he expects to lie around on the couch and eat my table scraps.”
She blushed. “Oops.” As soon as she slid across the seat, Beau leaned over the headrest to lick her cheek. “Are you ready to get the city grit out of your fur?” Emma asked, patting the Lab’s head. He wagged his tail and licked her again. “Yep, I think he’s ready.”
Aidan snorted as he pulled out of the driveway. “Once he sees all those wide open spaces, he may never want to come back.”
After he took the 75 North exit, they started their pilgrimage out of the city. The urban backdrop melted away into an emerald blur of trees and pastureland. The closer they got to the mountains the cooler the swirling air around them became.
A pang of homesickness reverberated through Emma as they drove along the familiar roads. She had spent her whole childhood in the mountains until she had gone to college in Atlanta. There was a very large part of her that longed to move back, especially when it came to raising the baby.
When they neared her grandparents’ property, she leaned forward in her seat. “Okay, you’re going to turn right at the black mailbox.”
Aidan turned to her in surprise. “Onto that gravel road?”
“Yep.”
After they wound around a couple of curves, they came to an open field. Up the hillside was her grandparent’s house and barn. Aidan turned to her with widened eyes at the sight of the multitude of cars and people milling around. “This is all your family?”
She nodded. “There are usually about fifty people or more. By the time the barn dance starts tonight, it’ll be around a hundred.” She eyed the skeptical expression on his face. “You sure you’re up to this?”
“Sure, it’ll be fine as long as no one wants to kick my ass for knocking you up.”
Emma laughed. “Most of my family is okay with my pregnancy. My grandfather and some of my uncles might give you a hard time though.” She hesitated before dropping a bomb on him. “Um, since we aren’t married, don’t plan on us sharing a bedroom tonight.”
“Excuse me?”
Emma grimaced. “My grandparents are very old-fashioned. They won’t condone us sleeping in the same bed if we aren’t married.”
“Even though you’re pregnant with my child?”
“Yes.”
He exhaled noisily. “Good thing I got some before we left. It would have been a long, long weekend.” He laughed when she smacked his arm playfully in outrage.
“Come on. Let’s go face the firing squad,” Emma said, with a grin.
“Fabulous,” Aidan groaned as he climbed out of the car. He clipped the leash to Beau’s collar and let the squirming lab out of the backseat.
Delicious aromas filled Emma’s nostrils, and her stomach growled. She was so thankful her nausea had passed because she wanted nothing more than some of her grandmother’s Brunswick stew.
“Is that homemade BBQ I smell?” Aidan asked.
“Yes, it is. Everything will be homemade from the apple pie to the moonshine.”
“Damn, I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. Well, not exactly at the part about the moonshine.”
Emma giggled. “Good luck not having my uncles force some homebrew on you. They’ll want you to prove your manhood.”
Aidan opened his mouth to protest, but a woman’s voice cut him off. “Emma!” she shrieked, clapping her hands. Emma didn’t even have to turn to recognize the voice. Just the sound of it echoing around her coated her body with a thick blanket of love. Spinning around, she saw her grandmother striding towards her.
From her teased silver bouffant hairdo to the worn red and white gingham apron she wore tied firmly over her dress, Grammy never seemed to age or change. She was the one constant beacon in the storm Emma had been able to count on her entire life for love, support, and strength.
Grammy’s face lit up like a Fourth of July sparkler. “There’s my beautiful baby!” she exclaimed, drawing Emma into her strong embrace. Squeezing her tight, she said, “I’ve missed you so much, darlin’.”
“I missed you, too, Grammy.”
She pulled away and smiled. “You’re going to have to start coming up here more than twice a month. Your granddaddy and I get mighty lonesome for you.”
Emma giggled. “We talk every other day. Do I really need to come up that much more?”
“Yes, you do. Especially when the baby gets here.” She reached out to gently touch Emma’s swollen belly. “Look how big you’ve gotten!”
“Tell me about it. None of my clothes fit.”
“Well, consider yourself lucky you didn’t start showing right off the bat. Your mama had to have maternity clothes the second month she was pregnant with you!”
Emma smiled at the memory of her mother laughing about how she practically showed from conception.
“So how are you feeling?” Grammy asked, her brow creasing with worry.
“Better. Thank God the morning sickness stopped now that I’m out of the first trimester. I’ll get to find out what I’m having next week. I’m doing the early gender sonogram.”
Grammy’s beaming face grew even brighter. “Wonderful. Of course, I still say you’re carrying it like a boy.”
Emma glanced over at Aidan and grinned. “That would make Aidan’s father happy to hear you say that. He’s sworn since the moment I met him, it’s a boy.”
Grammy turned her intense green eyes on Aidan. “So this incredibly handsome and dashing man you’ve brought with you must be Mr. Fitzgerald?”
Heat rose in Emma’s cheeks both at her grandmother’s compliments and how she was to make the introduction. “Yes, this is Aidan. He’s…”
“The sperm donor?” Grammy questioned.
Aidan chuckled. “Yes, but in more ways than one.”
Grammy clutched her stomach and doubled over with laughter. When she recovered, she held out her arms for Aidan. “Well, come here and give me a hug, Mr. Sperm Donor.”
Emma watched in amazement as Aidan willingly hugged Grammy. She couldn’t believe how effortlessly he already seemed to be interacting with her family, considering how he had freaked out so much when she met his nephews and Patrick.
Patting Aidan’s back, Grammy said, “We’re so very happy to have you here with us for the weekend. I hope you’ll enjoy yourself.”
He gave her a dazzling smile. “Thank you, ma’am. It’s a pleasure to be here.”
Grammy wagged a finger at him. “As for fathering Em’s baby, there’s something I need to say about that.”
Emma chewed her bottom lip and threw a worried glance between her grandmother and Aidan. Her chest tightened in apprehension at what Grammy might say to him. If it was anything like the early phone calls and first visit she had with her grandparents about her unmarried pregnancy, Aidan was in for a severe tongue-lashing.
“Yes, ma’am?” Aidan asked pleasantly, but Emma couldn’t help noticing how he flicked Beau’s leash back and forth with nervous energy.
“Having a child on her own is certainly not what my husband or I wanted for Emma. We’d rather she had found a husband and then had children.” She shook her head sadly. “At one time, she had that. But then life hasn’t exactly been fair to Em. She deserves all the happiness in the world, and I know that nothing will make her happier than finally having her dream of motherhood come true.”
Tears filled Emma’s eyes at the overwhelming love and truth in her grandmother’s words. When she dared to look over at Aidan, he was smiling. “I couldn’t agree with you more, Mrs. Anderson. I’m just very grateful I got to help make Emma’s dreams come true.”
Grammy cupped Emma’s chin and smiled. “You’re positively glowing, sweetheart. I don’t think I’ve seen that look in your eyes since before your mother passed away.”
“Oh, thank you,” Emma replied, wiping away a tear.
Grammy patted Aidan’s arm. “So after all of that, I just want to thank you for making Emma so happy and in turn, her family as well.”
“You’re more than welcome, Mrs. Anderson.”
“Please call me Virginia.” She then made a tsking noise at the sight of some women carrying pans of food to the barn. “Oh dear, you’re gone for one minute, and people take it upon themselves to do everything. I better go make sure dinner isn’t a total disaster!”
Once she was out of earshot, Aidan exhaled noisily. “Well, that was certainly unexpected.”
“The warm welcome?”
Shaking his head, he slipped an arm around Emma’s waist. “No, I didn’t realize I’d be such a hero for knocking you up. Don’t they usually get the shotguns after you in these parts?”
Emma giggled. “Let’s just say it would be a whole lot different if we were teenagers.” She titled her head to gaze up at him. “Of course, I highly doubt the teenage Aidan would have given me the time of day.”
“You never know. I would have been very interested in corrupting you and stealing your virtue.”
Emma nudged him playfully. “Then Granddaddy and my uncles would have shot your most prized possession off.”
Aidan chuckled. “That would have been a tragedy.”
“Oh yes, you wouldn’t have been able to get me pregnant later on,” she mused.
He pressed his lips against her ear, causing her to shiver. “Or give you mind blowing multiple orgasms.”
“Aidan!” she squealed, shoving him away.
He laughed at her outrage. “You know I’m right though.”
A booming voice interrupted them. “Emmie Lou, get on over here and give me a hug!”
She rolled her eyes but smiled in spite of herself. “While Grammy might have been a piece of cake, Granddaddy is probably going to be a real pain in the ass about all this,” she said to Aidan. She felt him tense a little as he followed her over to where a silver headed man stood in faded jeans. “Granddaddy, when are you going to learn I’m a little too old for that nickname?”
He grinned. “Nonsense. You’ll always be my baby girl and my little Emmie Lou!”
Emma hugged him tight, closing her eyes in contentment as his familiar scent of peppermint and Old Spice filled her nose. “I’ve missed you.”
He pushed her shoulders back and cocked a bushy, silver eyebrow at her. “It’s been two whole weeks, Baby Girl! I’s about to send the boys down to the city to check up on you.”
“I’m sorry, but things have been a little crazy lately.” She noticed her grandfather’s gaze was no longer focused on her. Instead, he stared quizzically at Aidan. “Oh, Granddaddy, I want you to meet someone.” Grabbing Aidan’s hand, she pulled him forward. At the sight of their fingers intertwined, the congenial expression on Granddaddy’s face evaporated, much to her dismay, and was replaced by one of veiled anger. Emma couldn’t help noticing that Aidan’s forehead had broken out in beads of sweat not from the heat, but from Granddaddy’s intense glare. “This is Aidan Fitzgerald. He’s my baby’s father.” She smiled at Aidan. “And this is my grandfather, Earl.”
“Nice to meet you, sir,” Aidan said, his voice cracking slightly.
Earl shifted his chaw of tobacco and eyed Aidan’s hand. He reluctantly pumped it up and down. “Nice meetin’ ya.”
“Emma!” someone called. When she threw a glance over her shoulder, her cousin Dave waved.
“One second. I’ll be right back.”