Then it waggled its eyebrows at her, and she felt a wave of nausea splash her from the top of her braids to the soles of her Kenneth Coles. The wax lion, still held in Aaron's hand, smirked at her and shook its little wax ruff. She screwed her eyes shut for a long moment, and then opened them very slowly. Mahandra froze the voice was almost familiar. So until they invent an Aquanet that makes your hair broadcast your secret thoughts, you're gonna have to help me out here." "I know enough to tell that something's wrong, but not enough to, you know, actually do anything about it. She was reassured by the appropriately guilty look on his face and relaxed enough to take a deep breath, leaning her forehead against Aaron's chest before sighing it out. I mean, you have four of them already and don't you think I don't know about that little shrine you have in the tool shed, because it is one thing to sneak, it is another thing to lie, and if you lie to me? So help you God." "Honey, can I see you a moment? In the hall?" What did Jaye think she was playing at? She plucked at Aaron's sleeve and smiled at him, all teeth. Mahandra knew bad juju when she saw it, and she knew good and well that little wax lion was no kind of good luck charm.
Eric sat down on the bed beside her and kissed her long dark hair, gently, and she looked up at Aaron and chirped, positively chirped: "You know what? Keep it." Jaye went very still, her eyebrows tipping up, her little pearly teeth grinding into her lower lip.Įveryone in the room knew her well enough to hold their breath in awkward expectation.īut after a few moments, Jaye relaxed, and stroked the back of her finger down her baby's cheek. "In between the screams," he added helpfully. "You asked for this, when you called before." He held it out to her. "See, now they're just bragging," Mahandra whispered, and Aaron threw her a puzzled look before slapping at his jacket, reaching into his coat pocket and producing a small orange wax lion with a smooshed-up face. They were the most adorable couple she had ever even heard of, probably the most adorable couple that had ever existed and if they hadn't happened to have been two of her best friends in the whole goddamned world, or at least the tri-state area, she would have doused them both in gasoline. Jaye gazed up at him from under her lashes and gave him a slim, secretive little smile, and he beamed at her so hard that tears stood in his eyes. "Hey, Mahandra," he said, giving her a quick little one armed hug before turning to Jaye to offer her the balloons, almost shyly, with his arm fully extended. T called genially, "This is family togetherness, the very best kind we could wish for, and I for one would like to congratulate my youngest daughter on the birth of her-"Įric appeared, towing a bouquet of balloons so extravagant that he was having trouble getting in the door.
"Could we have, oh, five minutes of family togetherness before you have to-" Yvette set a soft hand on Sharon's back and Sharon let it go, flashing Yvette a slightly guilty smile. I think we'll be lucky to call it even if baby's first words aren't Dicksmack or Fu-" Let's take a moment to remember that I've been lugging this thing around in utero for months and months, and not drinking. "As a new mother, must you really inundate the little one with such coarse-" I'm still totally within the boundaries of our gentleman's agreement. "It is merely the flush of exertion that comes from expelling an eight pound infant through a very small space. Jaye brushed her lips against the baby's forehead and grinned meanly. His hands were warm on her shoulders and she missed them when he let her go in order to edge around her and lean down to kiss his sister's rosy cheek. "Because Jaye is a full-fledged responsible adult now. T shaking a likely hoodlum/insemination candidate by the scruff of the neck? How could any of this have happened without so much as a single pair of shoplifted baby booties? What, no police had been called? Why wasn't Mr.
T was dabbing at his eyes, Sharon looked tender, Yvette wasn't offering anyone freshly baked French-Canadian pastries in hopes lulling the family into a sugar-induced stupor in order to take the heat off of anyone, and Jaye was smiling. This was really nothing like she'd pictured it, in any case: Mrs. Maybe there had been times, back in high school, that had involved Mahandra imagining being admitted to Jaye's hospital room to find her sitting up in a smock with a baby in her arms, but those had been inspired mostly by overexposure to after-school specials and in part by watching Jaye leave pool parties to sneak into the cabana with Francis Holyoke. "Why can't I have nice things?" - Jaye, "Caged Bird"