Everything in Between (27 page)

“Finding out I’m sexually active was a surprise,” Dawn interrupted. “A shock would be finding out that Eve and Cory have been bumping uglies even longer than me and Sionne.”

Cory, who was sitting on the sofa with Eve, slowly stood. In the next instant, he, too, was out the front door, leaving the door swinging.

“Mama, you always taught us to use our heads, and we do,” Eve said. “Sionne and Cory are wonderful. We love them. And they love us. It’s only natural that our relationships would evolve. But Dawn and I have plans for our lives, and they don’t involve babies right now. Please don’t be disappointed in us.”

“I’m not,” Zae said quietly. “I can’t fault you girls for growing up. Not when you’ve handled yourselves more responsibly than I have.”

“That’s what I was going to say,” Dawn said.

“Dawn,” Chip chastised, “that’s not fair.”

Dawn cast a guilty glance at her shoes.

“I’m tickled to death about all this,” Gian said. “I think it’s awesome that our babies will grow up together.” He rose from the mat to Zae’s chair, and gave Zae a kiss and a hug. He clasped hands with Chip and hugged him, too, thumping him on the back.

“Call your menfolk,” Zae said. “Tell them it’s safe to come back. I won’t kill them.”

Eve didn’t look too sure. “Mama, you promise?”

“Cross my heart.”

Dawn and Eve left the room to get their cell phones. Chip stood beside Zae’s chair, holding her hand. “I’m proud of you,” he said. “That couldn’t have been easy.”

“It’s not.” Zae bit the inside of her lower lip. “It’s not often you find out you’re having a baby and that your babies aren’t babies anymore.”

“It’s like starting over,” Cinder said. “It’s so joyful.”

“Starting over,” Zae echoed softly. “Halfway through life…”

“What’s that, professor?” Chip asked.

“Nothing.” She smiled through teary eyes. “Nothing at all. Why don’t we get some dessert before Sionne gets back?”

With the approach of Christmas, Gian turned Sheng Li into a collection center for Toys for Tots, an organization created by the Marines to collect holiday gifts for underprivileged children. Zae policed the donation bin, calling out anyone who dared donate a toy she deemed unsafe (lawn darts with sharp points), cheap (a collection of plastic dolls from a local dollar store), uncertain (miniature cars manufactured in Mexico, a country known for excessive amounts of lead in toys), or boring (a book of word puzzles published in 1980.)

Having bullied her students and colleagues into donating, Zae was easily responsible for half the nearly three hundred toys Sheng Li collected for Toys for Tots.

Cinder and Gian played host to their families and their extended Sheng Li family for Christmas dinner. Zae’s pregnancy went unmentioned—until Eve and Dawn surprised her and Cinder with a Christmas Day baby shower. Chip unveiled his gift later that night, when he and Zae were alone at her house. The handmade crib reduced Zae to tears that she attributed to elevated hormones.

The New Year’s party at Sheng Li, celebrated with students, business associates and a catered Chinese banquet, kicked out the old year and welcomed the new one with noise, color and style. Zae, as part of her resolution to be more tolerant of her daughters’ choices, reacted with only a serene smile when at midnight, Sionne presented Dawn with a promise ring, the precursor to an engagement ring.

Chip spent every free moment he could working on his house, which he wanted to have ready before the birth of his child. Between teaching at Sheng Li, studying and home repairs, his lack of sleep caught up with him. He was using a rubber mallet to pound flooring into place and accidentally smashed his left hand, breaking two bones near his wrist. Upon seeing his black fiberglass cast, Zae had threatened to break more of his bones if he wasn’t more careful.

Valentine’s Day began like any other day, with Zae driving CJ to school. She conducted a half day of classes, then drove herself to the obstetrician for a prenatal visit. Chip was already waiting for her in the lobby. Hand in hand, they had entered the doctor’s office and signed in, waiting for their turn to see Dr. Maya Jefferson.

Dr. Jefferson had delivered Eve, Dawn and CJ, and she’d been quite surprised to see Zae for a fourth pregnancy.

“There can be complications with pregnancy when the mother is of advanced age,” Dr. Jefferson explained once she sat down with Chip and Zae.

“How advanced is advanced?” asked Zae.

“Over thirty-five,” Dr. Jefferson said. She sat back in her desk chair, her fingers laced over her ample belly. “You have the physical appearance of a much younger woman, Zae, but we can’t ignore the fact that your body is forty-three. Fortunately, you’re in excellent health. There’s no reason to suspect that you won’t have a perfectly healthy, normal baby.”

Chip proudly squeezed Zae’s right knee.

“I’d like to schedule you for a triple-screen. That’s a blood serum test that allows us to calculate your risk of having a baby with Down’s Syndrome.”

“I don’t want it,” Zae said as Chip asked, “Do we want that?”

“If there’s something wrong with your baby, you’ll be better able to prepare for it,” Dr. Jefferson said. “You’d also have the option to terminate the pregnancy if—”

“I’m having this baby,” Zae stated.

“What if there’s something wrong with it?” Dr. Jefferson asked.

“It better be really wrong so we can do the talk show circuit,” Zae replied. “I’m keeping this baby. I don’t care if it’s born with a tail and an arm growing out of its forehead.” She curled her fingers around Chip’s.

“And you, Mr. Kish? What are your feelings regarding prenatal testing?”

“I agree with Zae. I want this baby. No matter what.”

Dr. Jefferson smiled. “I guess that’s settled, then. Would the two of like to see if we can find a heartbeat today?”

A nurse directed them to an exam room. Chip helped Zae onto the table. He stood on her left while Dr. Jefferson stepped up to her right side with a fetal Doppler. The nurse rolled Zae’s sweater up to her breasts and lowered the waistband of her black pants. She tucked a paper drape over her chest and her hips to protect her clothing from the transmission gel. The gel had been warmed, but Zae’s tummy jumped when it touched her skin.

“Are you okay?” Chip asked, clasping her hand in both of his.

Zae nodded. “Just a little nervous.”

“Everything will be fine,” Chip assured her, even as his palms grew moist around her hand.

Dr. Jefferson moved the transducer over Zae’s abdomen. Zae stared at the ceiling. Squishy, underwater sounds came from the Doppler, and the longer it took to find a heartbeat, the more her concern grew. But then, there it was. The tell-tale gallop of young horses, the sound of her baby’s heartbeat. Zae clapped her free hand to her mouth. Chip bent to kiss her.

“It’s good and strong,” Dr. Jefferson said. “We’ve got 140 beats per minute. That’s perfectly normal for a twelve-week fetus.”

“That’s our baby’s heartbeat,” Chip said. “There’s really a baby in there.”

“This is usually the first moment it seems most real,” Dr. Jefferson told him. “Congratulations, Mr. Kish.”

“Thank you.” He bowed his head to Zae’s to keep the doctor and nurse from spotting his tears.

Zae placed her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him in for a kiss while the nurse used a warm white towel to clean the gel from her belly.

“Keep taking your prenatal vitamins and schedule an appointment for next month at the desk on your way out,” Dr. Jefferson said. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Kish.”

Dr. Jefferson and the nurse left the room. Chip helped Zae right her clothing and sit up. “I should have called my mother so she could hear the baby’s heartbeat,” Chip said. “She’s over the moon about this baby. She’s planning to come for a long visit when the baby is born.”

“Why?”

Chip blinked. “To help out.”

Zae hopped off the table and started putting on her coat. She shrugged out of his reach when Chip tried to help her. “This is my fourth baby. I don’t need any help. And if I did, Eve and Dawn will be around. They’re old enough to be this baby’s mothers.”

“Zae, my mother just wants to meet her first grandchild. You want me to tell her that she isn’t welcome?”

“Yes, because she’s not.”

Chip stared after Zae, who left the exam room. She moved through the labyrinth of corridors, bypassing the appointment desk on her way to the exit. Chip followed after her, catching her only when she stopped at the elevator.

“You’re supposed to make an appointment for next month,” he reminded her.

“I’ll call when I get home.”

“Why do you get so damn mean every time I bring up my mother?”

“What have you told her about me?” Zae demanded.

“Everything.”

“She knows I’m a lot older than you?”

“She knows you’re older. And that you’re a professor at Missouri University, and that you’re beautiful. She’s seen your picture.”

“I can’t believe you put me on display for your mother!” Zae angrily poked the
down
button.

Chip grabbed her arm and pulled her to the padded bench seat opposite the elevator. “What the hell is going on with you? You’re determined to pick a fight over nothing.”

“What your mother thinks of me is not nothing!” Zae wanted to punch him for no reason other than she had no place else to spend her anger and frustration.

“My mother loves you just because I do.”

“That’s what you say now, then, as soon as she meets me, she’s going to wedge herself between us. The last person she’ll want to see her son with is an old black widow!”

“Well, yes, if you put it that way.” His attempt at levity failed.

“I’m at the very tail end of my childbearing years, and you’re just starting yours. We’re not in the same place, Chip.”

“Yes, we are,” he softly disagreed, taking her hand.

“Where’s that?”

“In love.” His blue eyes delved into the depths of her dark eyes. “That’s where we are. We built this, and we make our own rules, and if anyone else doesn’t like it, they can kiss my pretty pink rump.”

Chip cupped her face. He was accustomed to her contrary, sometimes combative nature, but he’d never seen it in combination with the genuine hurt muting the devilish sparkle in her eyes. She was the last person who cared what others thought of her, and he’d assumed she’d feel the same way about his mother. That she cared what his mother thought of her showed how much she cared for him.

“I told you that my mother was a busybody, but she’s a good, decent person,” Chip said. “What I didn’t tell you is that you’re a lot like her.”

Zae burst into tears.

Hugging her, Chip explained. “She’s strong and opinionated, but she’s very loving. She would never try to come between us any more than you’ve tried to come between Dawn and Sionne or Eve and Cory. She has always respected my choices. She’s smart, Zae. She’s the only woman I know who’s as smart as you are. Who do you think I got my love of reading and writing from? She made me. And she must have done a good job, because the things you love about me are things she instilled in me.”

“Colin’s mother hated me,” Zae admitted, her face buried in Chip’s shoulder. “She didn’t think I was good enough for her son because my family didn’t have money, and my mother was a single parent.”

“My mother is a single parent, and we never had much money. My mother won’t judge you. She already knows everything about you she needs to.”

“Does she know I already have grown children?”

“She’s seen their photos, so yes.”

“And she’s okay with that?”

“Yes. Not that I care.
I’m
okay with it. My opinion is the only one that matters. I like to think that I helped raise your children, I’ve known them for so long. I’ve been reading a book called
Raising Princes to Be Kings: A Single Black Mother’s Guide to Raising Her Black Son,
to help prepare me for our little one. It’s an excellent parenting guide, whether your kids are boys or girls. The advice is practical and it makes sense.”

“So you think you’re ready to be a single black mother?”

“If you can do it, so can I. I don’t take any job without planning to do it the best I can.”

“I suppose your mother can come when the baby is born,” Zae sniffled. “But at the first sign of trouble, you better get her gone.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Chip agreed.

“I mean it. I’ve got my life just about the way I want it, and I don’t want some mother coming in to upset my applecart.”

“No mother-in-laws from hell, I got it.”

Zae abruptly sat up. “Mother-in-law?”

“Since we’re spilling secrets here, I have to tell you…I’m a little put off by the way you introduce me to people lately. I’m not sure I’d have gone to church with you and on Christmas Eve if I’d known you’d introduce me as your ‘baby daddy’ to Father Patrick.”

A blush the color of brick dust tinted Zae’s cheeks. “Well…”

Chip dropped to one knee on the burnt yellow carpeting of the medical building. “I hadn’t planned to do this here,” he began. “To tell the truth, I didn’t plan it all, past choosing the ring.” He took a velvet ring box from the breast pocket of his leather jacket, and he opened it. Her eyes on the big, glittering diamond on its bed of silvery-gray satin, Zae gasped. “Zae, will you marry me?” He plucked the ring from its fancy resting place and took her left hand. “I love you. Those words seem so inadequate for what I feel for you. You make me smile even when I want to choke you. Especially when I want to choke you. You excite me and surprise me every single day. I think I’ve loved you from the moment I first set eyes on you, only I didn’t know it because it never occurred to me that a woman like you could ever love a man like me.”