Tally went to pick up Tallulah when she saw her creeping closer to Adrienne, and my sister’s words stopped her.
“Don’t worry about trying to keep Tallulah away from Adrienne. She’s been exposed to the stomach bug all week thanks to her entire freakin’ day care dropping like flies with it,” Alexandria murmured, breaking into our sister’s drunken musings.
“That was the same thing that happened at mine, although Tallulah was one of the first ones to get it,” she sighed. “And one of the lasts. I’m so tired of cleaning up puke.”
I agreed.
Though, Tallulah hadn’t thrown up since I’d given her a dose of anti-nausea meds over eight hours before.
“Girl, don’t I know it,” she grinned. “So my brother here tells me that you’re going to school to become a nurse?”
Tally nodded.
“Almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Alexandria grinned, “I’m going for my bachelors of nursing right now. I started out as an LVN twelve years ago, and then went on to get my associates in nursing. Now I’m back at it for my BSN,” she sighed. “I should’ve just done it this way in the first place.”
“That was definitely one of the thoughts I had when deciding what college to go to,” Tally nodded her head in commiseration. “I first thought I’d go ahead and get my associates, but I’d already gotten my associates in art by the time I’d graduated high school thanks to dual credit classes. It made more sense for me to get my BSN.”
She nodded, and the two of them started babbling about how hard it was to pursue their degrees with kids.
My mom chose to use Tally’s distraction with my sister to bombard me.
“You have a girlfriend?” my mother hissed at me. “When were you going to tell me this?”
I sighed and looked over at my mother.
My mom was one of those mothers who always had to have her nose stuck into each of her kids’ business.
Ellen hadn’t been able to have a boyfriend when she was younger who my mother hadn’t been able to run off.
The only reason that my other sister, Alexandria, was even sane at this point was because my mom had me and Ellen to focus on.
Luckily, Alex had found her husband, Axton, early on in life. They’d met in high school, and both had gone to school before marrying right out of college. Now they were on their fourth child, and everyone was happy as damn clams.
However, Ellen and I were the primary focus of our mother’s matchmaking efforts, and I was happy to finally have someone to introduce to the family that I knew my mother wouldn’t try to run away.
See, my mother had a soft spot.
She was a nurse and had been for thirty years now. She was also a NICU nurse and had spent the majority of her career taking care of sick little babies.
And the moment that my mother saw a still sick and tired Tallulah, she was a goner.
She’d forever be in my mother’s heart, even if the unthinkable happened and Tally were to leave my life. I’d literally have to see Tally at every single Thanksgiving, Christmas, family birthday, and holiday.
My mother would never let her or Tallulah go.
I knew that the moment I saw my mother take a pitiful looking Tallulah out of my arms and snuggle her into her own.
She was still holding her, four hours into the birthday party.
“Your father thinks you’ve had this lovely girl for a long time, and that you’ve just kept her a secret from me. Is that why you refused to go out with that girl I tried to hook you up with last weekend?”
“Yes, yes it was,” I told her honestly. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that from now on.”
My mom’s blue eyes, so much like my own, sparkled with mirth.
“I won’t,” she promised. “As long as you keep bringing these two around.”
I rolled my eyes and turned back to the conversation I’d been having with my dad when my sister had interrupted.
“What were you saying about my motorcycle?” I asked him.
Dad looked over at me, and then back to my project bike.
“I was saying that you need to take that to your new house.”
I nodded.
“I do,” I confirmed. “Just not sure how to get it there.”
Dad sighed. “Would it kill you to ask your old man for help?”
“No,” I snorted. “Dad, would you mind taking my project bike to my new house?”
Dad chuckled.
“You’re a shithead,” he said. “But yes, since you asked so nicely, I sure will take your bike over there. Do you want me to bring the big trailer and take anything else out of my garage?”
I took the hint and nodded my head.
“I was going to come get it eventually,” I murmured.
“It’s been cluttering up my garage for two years now. I think that if you actually planned on coming to get it, you’d have come over here when you moved into the rental.”
“What’s that?”
I turned to find Tally standing at my side, pointing at my project bike.
“Something I started fiddling on when I was sixteen.” I cleared my throat. “Dad managed to get it out of the old house before…you know.”
Tally nodded in understanding. “I think it’s time for me to feed Tallulah. Is there anything you want me to grab you from the house?”
“You don’t have to go inside,” I murmured. “They’ll be all right with you doing that out here.”
She studied my sincerity, and then nodded. “Okay.”
Then she went over to my mother and disentangled Tallulah from her arms before settling back into her lawn chair next to my sister, resumed her conversation and adeptly started feeding Tallulah without a single nipple slip.
“She’s cute,” my father chimed in.
I punched him in the shoulder. “Stop staring at her or you’re going to make her feel embarrassed.”
“Feeding your child is nothing to be embarrassed about,” he murmured. “Drives me insane that society treats mothers that way.”
I groaned.
My mother and father were advocates for anything that came to children.
See, my mother was a NICU nurse, but my father was a pediatrician.
Where my specialty was in emergency medicine, my father’s was in children’s medicine.
He freakin’ loved kids, so with my mother already halfway in love with Tally, my father would soon follow.
Even though I could tell that he already liked her since his earlier words had been ‘she’s hot and too young for you, Son’.
Clapping my father on the back, I moved until I resumed my chair in between Ellen and Tally, being sure to pick up a new can of beer on the way.
“How many is that for you?” Ellen asked, eyes slightly glazed.
“Number three,” Sean piped in. “You’re on number eight, though.”
My sister glared at him.
“I didn’t invite you to keep tabs on my beverage intake, Mr. Tattletale Seanshine.”
Sean lifted his brows at her.
“You didn’t?” he drawled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Ellen stuck her tongue out at him and I saw Sean’s eyes flare.
“Why don’t you two get a room?” I suggested.
Ellen’s back straightened. “I don’t need a room. I have no desire to do anything in a bedroom with that man.”
“Why not?” Alex asked, clearly reading my sister’s discomfort.
“Because he’s vile, and I don’t like him.”