“Why not, Dear?” Donna asked.
I sighed. “Because. I just don’t want to be proposed to because I’m having a baby. A ring coming while I’m pregnant is not my idea of romance, or good timing. Right now, I’d rather just not. And Keegan, come one. You say that like you don’t know me. I’ve told you this before. I know you want me to marry him, but we’ve talked about this.”
Keegan’s face dropped and she looked at me with sad eyes. “I’m sorry. Yes, I know how you feel. I just assumed maybe it would change a little or maybe you’d be thinking about it now that you two have a house together. Things have been going so well.”
“Yes, they are going amazingly, but I’ll allow myself to think about it when I don’t have a basketball under my shirt. Not many pregnant brides out there that make a wedding dress look good.”
“You’d be beautiful if you wore a paper sack,” Donna complimented.
She was being sweet, even if I knew she wanted me to be with her son. Keegan sniffled. Both of us turned to give her attention.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Camden.”
Donna’s face etched with concern. “What’s wrong with Camden?”
“We were talking last night. I told him that I wanted to start thinking about having a baby as well. I know we just got married and all, and I’m not saying let’s do it tomorrow. I just wanted to have some sort of time line so we could make plans, you know?”
“Nothing wrong with that, honey. So why the tears?”
“He doesn’t want to make plans. He likes life as it is. He is content with me and the dog. He thinks that I’m only putting the pressure on him because of Macie being pregnant, which that’s not really it.” She folded her napkin over and over. “I mean maybe it’s part of it. It’s only natural for me to be thinking of what our next step would be, right? I just don’t like that he doesn’t seem to want to discuss it. I don’t want him thinking that it’s always going to be like this, and I’m going to be okay with that.”
Donna got up and moved to Keegan’s side of the table and took her hand in hers. “Listen to me. Camden isn’t shutting the idea out. Want to know how I know?”
Keegan nodded her head.
Donna dipped her head to look her in the eyes. “Because that boy is head over heels in love with you. His dad and I knew what you meant to him the moment we met you and he was still being stubborn about it. You have to remember, Cam is the one that we always thought would be a bachelor forever. Look how long it took for you to talk him in to getting a puppy.”
She laughed, wiping her eyes. “He still never gave me permission to get one. I just had to go get one and bring it home.”
“Permission,” I barked. “It’d be a cold day in hell when Dodger thinks he needs to give me permission for anything.”
Both women smiled knowingly.
“He’s going to come around. I promise when he lays eyes on his new nephew, he’s going to go soft. I know my son.” She patted her hand and let it go. “There’s not going to take much convincing.”
Keegan nodded. I sat back and watched my best friend. It was kind of a hard pill to swallow seeing her saddened by just how much she wanted to keep moving forward with her life. She did everything right. She followed protocol from life’s book. She met someone, got engaged, got married, got a pet, so naturally the next step was a baby. And here I was, scrambling the order of things and she had been nothing but happy for me. I felt like an asshole.
A waitress came past our table and put the ticket down. I snagged it before both women could grab it. They grumbled at me that it was their treat, blah, blah, blah.
“Maybe next time. You’re throwing a baby shower for me, so for now, let’s just call it even.”
“The baby shower of the century.” Keegan grinned at me devilishly, knowing they were making it so much more than I wanted.
“Yeah, yeah, just make sure there’s cake and I’ll show up.”
Donna snorted. “There will be cake, cookies, candy, and who knows what else.”
“Are the guys coming to this?” Keegan asked.
“No, I don’t think they’d have very much fun,” Donna replied at the same time that I said, “Absolutely!”
We looked at each other. I could give a flying crap about tradition and that men typically didn’t attend baby showers. But times were changing, and I felt it only appropriate that Dodger come with me. I mean, he was the one that put me in this predicament in the first place. Well, mostly.
Donna stood up from the table and put on a light cardigan. Winter was already past and Georgia weather was in the stage where it was attempting to warm up but it rained just about every day, making it cooler than I personally liked.
Keegan looked back and forth between us. “Okay, well, I’ll bring Camden if you want to drag Dodger along. We can include in the invitations that men are welcome and maybe I can come up with some fun things that are just for them. I have seen some men’s baby shower games on Pinterest.” She stopped and thought about it. “Yes, actually, I can work with this. It’ll be a ton of fun, plus Dodger can help you with the presents if he wants.”
I made a sour face. “Don’t include me in any shower games. So not my cup of tea.”
“Oh come on,” Donna implored.
“Hey, sticking my nose in a diaper that y’all melted a candy bar in to try and guess what the shit stain smells like will probably make me throw up.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Cake, Keegan. I’m coming for the cake.”
As all of us headed out the door, we hugged and said if something came up they’d call and ask me. As we pulled away from the restaurant, I had nothing else on the brain except cake and candy.