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Chapter 20
RACHEL
I’mlate.Iknow I’m late, but there’s nothing to be done about it. I throw open the door and kick off my shoes, dumping my bag near the coat rack before running upstairs to my bedroom.
“I’m home!” I shout, feeling terrible for not getting home twenty minutes earlier like I’d intended.
I had to speak to the professor of my French class, Dr. Jane Carlson, and the discussion went longer than I thought it would. I need to make up missed credits over the summer and we were discussing what I should know. Dr. Carlson is in contact with a really great tutor who can even come to the house if I pay for their commute. I haven’t really figured that out yet—if I can afford a tutor and paying for their commute—but it was really kind of her to try to help me out.
“Us mamas have to stick together,” I remember Dr. Carlson saying as we left her class. “I remember when I was trying to get my doctorate and I had to take maternity leave. It was hard, but I got back into it, and you can too.”
Dr. Carlson is so kind. I’m definitely not going for my doctorate. I don’t think I ever will, but it’s nice that she believes in me, and that she’s trying to help me graduate. In high school I was always told once someone has a kid, they can kiss their education goodbye. Well, I refuse to allow that to happen. I’m going to finish school and get my diploma.
I pause in front of my bedroom door, taking several deep breaths to calm down so I don’t wake Maria. She should be waking up right now, but sometimes it takes her a while. Every day is different. There are some days when all she wants to do is stay up and she will scream and cry if we leave her in the crib, then there are other days where she wants to be left alone—where she wants to sleep all day.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” I say softly while slowly opening the door, finding Seth lying on the bed, holding a giggling Maria in his hands.
“You’re flying,” he says sweetly before making airplane noises and swaying her from side to side.
Maria laughs. She’s dressed in her frog pajamas. Seth must have just woken up. He pulls her close to his chest and he sits up, his smile widening on me.
“Classes are done already?” he asks while looking at the clock hanging on my wall in the corner.
“Yeah, they ended a bit ago. I’m actually twenty minutes late. I had to speak with my professor about graduating.”
I pad toward him, reaching for Maria. “I can take her off your hands.”
Seth pulls her away from me, his bottom lip poking out. “Can I spend a bit more with her? I feel like I barely get to see her.”
He isn’t lying. Sure, his shifts have lessened and he’s coming home around eight rather than after eleven, but he still spends a lot of his time at work.
“Okay, twenty more minutes,” I say with a smile, “but then I have to feed her.”
Seth nods and I watch him get off the bed. He strides toward the dresser where we’ve been keeping her clothes. My smile widens as I hear him say, “All right, what should we wear now? The pink frilly dress? Or the doggie costume?”
My attention is pulled away from them when I hear my phone buzzing in my back pocket. My eyes widen when I see the caller ID reading: Mom. Really, she’s calling now? It’s been two weeks since I mailed out the RSVP. She should have gotten it last week at the very latest, and now she decides to call me?
Well, she probably received a lot of late RSVPs, I tell myself. She probably only saw mine two minutes ago and is calling to either yell at me for bringing my own family or to discuss details of the event. I should probably pick up.
“Mom?” I answer, taking the call outside my room so as not to bother Seth and Maria. I don’t want Maria to see me yelling if it comes to it.
“Rachey!” Mom shouts.
Okay. So she’s definitely excited.
“I just got your RSVP. I’m so excited that all of you are coming.”
That’s good news, right?
“For a minute, I was worried you wouldn’t. I’m so glad you decided to come.”
I would be well within my rights to decline.
“And I’m happy you’re happy,” I force out. Are we going to completely forget what she said to me at the hospital? And how she got kicked out by the bros?
“I don’t know if you’ve looked at the FAQ on my wedding website. Have you?”
Nope. “I didn’t know there was one,” I say as sweetly as I can muster. “I can have a look tonight if you—”
