“I’m honestly not sure how to feel about this. It’s very surprising behavior from him. I need to speak to Everly.” She looked past me, like she was momentarily lost in thought, before coming back to herself. “And your keys are on the counter in the motion capture lab. You set them down when you came in after lunch.”
How did she remember that? “Thanks.”
“Of course.”
Her eyes lingered on mine, but suddenly all I could hear was Shepherd Calloway saying we had a friends-with-benefits arrangement. That must have been what she’d told her friends. Which meant that was how she saw us.
I still didn’t know why that was bothering me so much. It was true.
“I should get going.”
“Okay. Tell Molly I said hello and I hope she’s adjusting well to motherhood.”
“I will.”
I left her standing there and went to the motion capture lab down the hall. She’d been right, my keys were on the counter. She really had remembered. Of course, noticing where someone set their keys was probably normal. I was the weird one who could easily memorize complex data sets, or the storyline of every comic book series I’d ever read, but couldn’t remember where I’d set something as important as my wallet or car keys.
She wasn’t in the interview room when I came out. I didn’t know where she’d gone. Which was fine; I didn’t have time to talk to her anyway.
And what did I want to say? I wasn’t mad that her friend’s husband had threatened me. It actually made me feel good to know she had people in her life who cared about her that much.
Regardless, I needed to pick up dinner. I left campus and stopped for takeout at a Mexican restaurant I knew Molly liked.
When I got to her house, Martin answered the door. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, but he smiled. “Hey. Thanks for bringing dinner.”
“No problem.” I walked in and he shut the door behind me.
“Fair warning. Your parents are here.”
I stopped. How had I not noticed their car? This felt like walking into a final exam I hadn’t studied for. “Oh, okay. Have they eaten? Because I don’t think I brought enough food.”
“I don’t know. They just kind of showed up. You know, grandparents. They’re excited.”
I didn’t miss the hint of tension in Martin’s voice. He seemed to get along fine with my parents—and they certainly loved him—but he was probably exhausted.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll run out and get more if I need to. Go sit down. You look tired.”
He ran a hand over his face. “Yeah. I haven’t slept much since she was born.”
I took the food into the kitchen and spread out the to-go containers on the counter. My mom’s voice carried from the other room. I hadn’t seen my parents in a while. Not since just after I’d moved back to Seattle. I didn’t avoid them, exactly, but it was easier if I didn’t see them too often.
Steeling myself for whatever was about to happen—it was hard to know with them—I went into the living room.
Molly was in a recliner with a blanket spread out over her lap. Like her husband, she looked happy but tired. Martin sat in a chair beside her. The coffee table was littered with baby stuff. Tiny diapers, a container of wipes, little cloths, and a pile of what looked like wadded up baby clothes.
My parents sat next to each other on the couch, baby Kate cradled in my mom’s arms. They were both babbling at the baby, and didn’t look up at me.
“Hey twinkie,” Molly said with a smile.
“How are you feeling?”
She shrugged. “Tired, sore, and like my guts have all been rearranged.”
“Gross.”
“Giving birth is disgusting. But worth it.”
I glanced at my parents, but they still hadn’t looked up. “So I brought takeout from that Mexican place you like, but maybe not enough for everyone. Do you need me to go back out?”
“Thank you so much. Mom, have you guys eaten yet?”
“You are the most perfect baby in the world, aren’t you?” Mom said. “What’s that?”
“Hey Mom,” I said. “Have you had dinner?”
Her eyes flicked to me for a second, then she turned back to the baby. “Of course we have. We wouldn’t come over here expecting your mommy to feed us, now would we?”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I was just wondering if we needed more food.”
“We already ate,” Dad said.
Molly met my eyes and shrugged again.
Jerking my thumb over my shoulder, I gestured to the kitchen. “I’ll go fix you a plate.”
“Thanks.”
I dished up two plates—one for Molly and one for Martin. I’d eat later. For some reason I’d lost my appetite. I brought their dinner, then stood off to the side, feeling awkward. I wasn’t sure what I should do now. I wanted to hold my niece, but my mom didn’t show any signs of putting her down. And they were taking up most of the space on the couch, leaving no other places to sit.
“All right, Grandma, my turn,” my dad said. He slipped his hands around Kate before my mom could reply. “There’s my little girl.”
Mom pressed a palm to her chest. “Oh Molly, I’m just so happy. I wasn’t sure if we’d ever be grandparents.”
“Why not?” Molly asked around a bite of her enchilada. “Of course you were.”
“Well, you’re not exactly getting younger. And I gave up on your brother a long time ago.”
I didn’t react to her comment, even though I hated it when she talked about me like I wasn’t here. It wasn’t the first time she’d said that.
“Jeez, Mom. We’re thirty-three, not fifty.”
“You can’t have babies forever, you know. So I certainly hope you don’t wait too long before having another one.”
“I literally just gave birth and you’re already pressuring me to have more kids?”
Mom lifted her hands. “No pressure. I’d just love to have more than one grandbaby, that’s all.”
“And look at that, you have two kids to fulfill your grandparent dreams.” Molly gestured toward me.
Dad glanced up, his expression doubtful, and Mom clicked her tongue. “I think we can all stop pretending that Corban will have a family. Some people just aren’t made for it.”
“Mom, come on,” Molly said.
“Corban’s special. We all know that.” She looked at me with a sympathetic smile, although she kept talking like I wasn’t here. “He’s very smart, but there isn’t room in that brain of his for everything else. We tried to balance him out, but he is who he is.”
Molly started to say something, but Kate squirmed in my dad’s arms and let out a squeak.
“She probably needs to be changed. Or fed. Or both.” Molly held out her arms. “Pass her back to me. I’ll finish my dinner later.”
Dad stood and put Kate in Molly’s arms. Martin got up and took their dinner plates to the kitchen.
“We should get going,” Dad said. “Come on, Kathy, the new parents need their rest.”
Mom sighed, but stood. “I know, I know.”