And I don't mean Joe and his reaction to the baby. I expected him to sprout breasts back there.
Alex was a tall wall of hockey-playing surgeon. Sure, he could be soft and cuddly when it came to delivering babies, but he also had a backbone of steel and an adult's understanding of the world, even if he wasn't much older than us.
Which made me feel... immature.
“How's it going?” he asked as I drove, following the GPS on Joe's phone to get back to the house. I hoped we weren't staying long enough for me to memorize the route, and I'd stupidly let my phone go dead.
“Fine,” Joe and I said in tight, similar voices, which only made Alex burst out laughing.
“Sure. Got it.” For some reason, way back in the day, Alex took an extreme dislike to Joe. I still didn't understand the origins of it, but it seemed to have faded.
Joe rode in the back anyhow.
“Nothing really bad has happened. It's just got Darla in this super-weird state,” Joe said, surprising me and Alex, if the look on his face was judged rightly.
“Yeah?” Alex said, clearly being vague on purpose. He kept his eyes forward, like a trainer working hard not to spook a horse.
“She's overwhelmed,” I added.
“Anyone would be.”
“What about Josie? It has to be hard to come here and see the baby.”
Alex's face lost all expression.
Oops.
Line crossed.
“She's fine.”
Right. Fine. We were alllllllll fine, weren't we?
I persisted, though.
“Darla's told us about you guys and all the miscarriages.”
He just grunted.
Joe shot me a look in the rearview mirror that said, Shut Your Piehole Dickwad.
So I did.
“Darla must have a lot of feelings about becoming a sister at such an old age,” Alex replied, master of deflection.
“She does. Most of them are about wishing she could move back home and be part of little Cal's life.”
“I'll bet. I'd feel torn, too.”
“You would?” Joe asked.
“Absolutely. That's her only sibling. Josie and I are only children. You are, too,” he said, giving Joe a look.
“In some ways, me too,” I admitted, feeling like a jerk for saying it. “I mean, I have a brother, but he only lived with me until I was eight. And he can't converse. I love him, and of course, he is my brother, but we weren't raised together after he was put in a group home.”
Joe's eyebrows went up as I looked in the rearview mirror.
Maybe I blamed too much of the emoting this trip on the estrogen. Did holding that baby act as an emotional truth serum? What the hell?
“You can feel both feelings at the same time,” Alex said. “Feel like an only child and feel like you have a sibling. Your situation with Rick is unique. So is mine with my mom and dad.”
“Your dad?”
“I do have one, you know. Basic biology,” Alex cracked.
“I know how it all works,” I shot back with a grin. “I just... I know you have a dad, but never heard anything about him.”
“He's not part of my life. By choice.”
“You have a really nice mom,” Joe piped up. “Met her a few times. She's smart.”
“She is. And our extended family is huge, so I always had cousins to play with. But it's not the same.” He twisted in his seat to look at Joe. “Right?”
“Right.”
“Darla won't be raised with little Cal, though. She'll be more like a mom to him. She could be his mom.”
“That complicates things,” Alex agreed.
“Who had 'Darla gets a baby brother' on their Bingo card of events for this year?” Joe muttered.
We all laughed, but it was a sad, strange sound.
“Babies are a cause for celebration no matter what,” Alex said, the platitude true, but making me feel weird.
“I can't imagine being a father,” I confessed. “To me, a father is my dad. Someone older. With their shit together.”
“Lots of people have kids without having their shit together,” Joe argued. “Anyone who can come inside a woman at the right time gets to be a father.”
Alex winced.
“I, er, I mean, almost anyone. I didn't, I – I'll shut up now,” Joe said, contrite.
“It's fine. You're right. Just – sore spot.”
“Of course.”
Awkward silence ensued. I looked at Joe's GPS.
Two minutes to destination.
It was an awkward, silent two minutes.
We pulled into the driveway, put the car in park, and Alex hopped out, looking at the long ranch.
“Thanks,” he said as Josie and Darla pulled up behind us. “This'll be easier than staying at the hotel.”
“Way easier than staying at Marlene's place,” I guessed out loud.
He was a nice guy. The kind who never talked smack about another person. But even Alex had his limits.
“I would stay there if Josie insisted, but...” A quick shake of the head and a frown told me all I needed to know.
Trotting over to his car, he tapped neatly on the trunk and Josie popped it, the two of them working together wordlessly to grab their luggage. Both traveled light, like us, but as we walked to the front door, I heard Darla say to Josie, “You brought something nice? Mama's planning the christening in the next day or two.”
Josie nodded. “I wondered, so we brought business casual outfits.”
“What does that actually mean?” Darla challenged. “I hate that term.”
“Nice slacks, nice shirt, heels. For Alex, everything but a tie. Nice pants, nice shirt, shiny shoes.”
“That's probably overdressed. Can you imagine Uncle Mike in shiny shoes?”
“Only if you count bacon grease from his double bacon cheeseburgers dripping on his leather Nikes.”
They laughed. I didn't. Some jokes are better left to insiders.
“Hey! This is Old Doc Oglethorpe's house!” Josie shouted. “ALEX!! Don't bang any stray shoes you find in closets!”
He was halfway down the hall, Joe in the lead, when he came to an abrupt halt, big shoulders tensing.
“Excuse me?”
“I'll explain later.”
“Josie,” he said, turning slowly. “That's not the kind of comment you just toss off and leave hanging out there.”
Darla folded in half, laughing hard.
Josie pushed past us to get to him, just as Joe took us to the spare room. Cheap wood paneling covered the walls, and the room smelled like mothballs, menthol, and cotton candy pipe tobacco, but the bed was neatly made and the place was cheap.
Alex plopped on the bed. It made a series of hellacious squeaking sounds.
“Are those actual springs in the mattress?” Josie shouted, jumping on the bed, her tiny little body like a gymnast's, bouncing like a frog.
Squeak-er. Squeak-er.
Alex groaned, a sound I totally understood, because women won't bang you on a loud bed.
Which meant he either wasn't getting any, or it was nothing but floor sex.
Josie grinned at him and announced, “We'll have to make alternate arrangements.”
Darla puffed, the force of her breath pushing her hair off her forehead. “You just declared you two are having sex in here at some point. So what if we hear the springs jacking off?”