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Chapter Thirty Two

"You should see the leaves back home. It's kind of hard to feel spooked down here. The palm trees don't give the same effect."

It was October 30. Everyone was looking forward to Halloween. The whole Richardson clan had arrived earlier that afternoon. They were staying at a hotel nearby but at the moment, Mason and I were sitting cross-legged on the floor of my bedroom.

The past five weeks had gone surprisingly fast. Not that they had been easy. Morning sickness. Trips to the doctor. Endless questions from Ally and Joe.

"So," Mason said. I watched him play with a loose thread on my rug. "How did your last doctor's visit go?"

I reached over to my nightstand and picked up three blurry ultrasound pictures. I handed them to him.

"You can't see much," I explained. "But...it's there."

While Mason studied the pictures, I studied Mason. I still couldn't help but think about his desire to go to med school.

He'd make a great looking doctor.

"You can see a lot," he said. His voice sounded funny. It was almost a cross between terrified and excited. "There's the head and the stubby little arms. It looks like a little turtle almost."

Great. Our baby looked like a turtle. He was saying a lot more than I had. I pressed my hand against my stomach and let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

Finally he looked up.

"How do you feel?"

"Now?"

"In general."

"Okay. It's been better the past couple of weeks. Except for gaining weight."

The corners of his lips curved into a small smile. "I think you look beautiful."

I stretched out my legs and he did the same. Our heels met and pressed together. His eyes darted to my stomach. The 'bump' had appeared a couple days ago. That was when this had all really hit home.

"School will be fun once I can't hide it any longer," I said with a sigh. Mason's toes wiggled against mine.

"I wish you could just come live with me," he said. I smirked.

"Mom and dad would love that."

"Well, we're going to have to figure out something."

"Only if we decide to keep it."

Mason went back to pulling at the thread on the rug.

"I don't know that I can just give it away. It doesn't seem right. Like I'd always be thinking about it," Mason explained.

He had echoed my thoughts.

"I know. But mom and dad won't let me quit school. And you're in Kentucky. And there's already five of us kids living here."

"But if you moved, Addy could watch the baby while we went to school. I'd keep my job at the diner. Or, even better, grandpa left his house to me in his will. We could move in there."

Mason was starting to drive me nuts. He was talking to me but he was looking at that thread. I nudged his foot and he finally looked up.

"You think our parents would actually let us move into a house? Together? We're juniors in high school!"

I was due on Memorial Day. Two weeks before the end of school. I still hadn't figured out the logistics of that.

"We'd be seniors. But, if that didn't work you could still live with us."

That was a warm fuzzy thought. Not.

"What about college?" I prodded.

"I can take some classes online. And I could drive back and forth to Lexington."

"What about money?"

"It's not like our parents are poor Shel," Mason said softly. "Plus I can keep working at least part time. More this summer. It's not like we'd have a house payment."

I made a face. I didn't want to talk about utilities and trash pickup and all that stuff.

"We've got time to think about it," I finally said.

We let the subject drop. Mom came up and announced that the pizza had arrived and Mason helped me to my feet.

Dinner was an event. Joe and Daniel decided that pudding and pizza were the grossiest combination ever invented and began to play the 'seafood' game. Tristan and Brayden had decided they were horses for the day and went galloping around the table. Ally wasn't even here. She had gone to a friends house for a Halloween party.

"Nick called me this morning. He's having his annual Halloween bash," dad explained.

"Do you go every year? It's been...geesh...nine years since we were down here for it," Kevin said thoughtfully.

"We go every year. It's...tradition."

It was a little hazy, but I remembered the time Kevin was talking about. Dad had dressed as a pirate...Captain Jack Sparrow. I had thought he was the coolest person ever. Mason and I had pooled our candy together and we had agreed it was the biggest pile of candy ever.

All of a sudden I kind of wished I was that small again.

Life was so much easier when the biggest worry in life was who had gotten the most candy.

"We'll have to get Dan a costume."

"No you don't. I've got a couple really cool ones," Joe said. "Bloody masks. And daggers!"

Dan's eyes lit up. "Oooh."

"I think Kayleigh's staying at Nick's to," dad continued. "Baylee's doing this big recital or something for his last semester of college."

"He's almost done?"

"Graduates in December. Brian said they're working on his first album together."

"Wow, time flies."

"It sure does."

Kevin and dad both turned and looked at me. I pretended to be interested in a darkened cheese bubble on my slice of pizza.

After we finished dinner, Joe and Dan ran up to his room. The twins scampered off after them.

The rest of us went into the living room. Once we sat down, Kevin cleared his throat and leaned forward.

"Kristin was going to fly in to be here tonight but she couldn't," Kevin started off. "But we've been doing quite a bit of talking over the last few weeks about what's going on."

I glanced over at Mason. I had completely forgotten to ask him how his mom was taking the news.

"I have been informed," Kevin said. I saw Addy make a face. "That I've handled this situation wrong."

It didn't take a genius to figure out who informed him of that. Of course I felt like we had let Kristin down. She had made us promise to be careful.

We hadn't.

"We've all handled it wrong," AJ said.

"But what's done is done," Kevin continued.

"We were thinking that maybe we could use grandpa's house," Mason said. "I mean, after the baby's born." I looked at him in surprise. He just went right in for the kill. I saw dad frown.

"In Kentucky?"

Mason looked at him. "Yeah."

"Shelby's going to need help," mom said.

"I'll help her," Mason said simply. As if it was obvious...and a done deal.

"You're both going to be in school."

"We'll figure it out. But we have to be together."

"Mason, this isn't like playing house," Kevin said. "This is an actual human life that you'd be responsible for."

Mason's jaw tensed.

"I know."

The parentals looked at each other. I think they were trying their best to prevent any blowups today.

"I think we'll keep that option in mind, but there's still time to figure the logistics of all this out," dad said.

"So does that mean you're keeping the baby?" mom added.

I looked at Mason. All of a sudden I pictured a little version of him and I couldn't see handing that over to someone else.

"I think so," I said quietly.

The conversation lasted for another hour or so until the noise from upstairs bordered on dangerous and dad and Kevin went to break up the boys. By the time Mason left, I was exhausted.

For the first time in my life I wished I could fast forward time a little bit just to make sure that everything was going to be okay.

I think my worst fear was that I was going to be a horrible mom. I mean, I yelled at the twins all the time. And Joe. Even Ally. I wasn't a patient person. I mean I was less than eleven weeks pregnant and I already just wanted it to be over.

Could I love something enough to actually learn to be patient?

That was the big question.

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Shameless plug: I'm writing another story (non-Coaster related) called Only in My Dreams. It's a Brian fic, but Nick's going to play a pretty big role for all you Carter ladies out there. You can view the story here.