A Missed Opportunity

66

❃𝙺𝚒𝚊𝚛𝚊❃

I wasn't expecting to be accepted. By anyone, really. I figured I'd have to pay choices I made years ago, and not being accepted would be one of them. And I thought I was okay with that.

I didn't think my son's dad and I would be anything more than civil co-parents. I thought his family would be nothing more than civil too, maybe secretly pissed at me for keeping their extra family member from them. I thought I'd lose out on a good chunk on my savings on making sure I still had my son around me majority of the time.

But none of that really happened. Some of it, but not all. Instead, I'm more than civil with my son's dad—more than friendly, even. I lay in his arms every night and am actively carrying another one of his children. It wasn't all smooth sailing with his family at first, but it went better than I expected it to, and now it's at a nice and friendly space. And all of that money I thought I'd have to spend on heartbreaking legal shit? Didn't touch a dime of it. Didn't even really have to consider it because he killed that idea quick.

It's really not what I expected though. I didn't think I'd be invited anywhere along with them at their family trips, but here I am—Getting sat down on the couch with a lemonade being slipped into my hand by a sweet woman who's pretty much welcomed me from the beginning.

She has her reservations, sure, but it's all things she seems to have found it in her heart to forgive me for. She's never said anything about how I didn't give Noah the chance to be in our son's life from the beginning, but I'm sure she wasn't exactly thrilled about that. Plus, Noah mentioned something about her also not being thrilled our son was born out of wedlock in the first place.

She can't be too happy that we're about to have another still without being married, but she insists on giving me the most comfortable seat on the couch even though I'm not exactly that far along for all those good swelling and back issues and things. She treats Cameron the same way she treats her other great grandkids, and she treats me the same way she treats her children and grandchildren.

Pretty much everyone I've spoken to has accepted it by now. I haven't talked to everyone, and Noah has admitted that we will always be this little family those gossiping family members in the bedrooms mention here and there along with the other gossip, but for the most part, we're left alone.

For the most part. Just want to say it again so it gets across properly. For the most part...we are left alone.

His family have bounced to the same page my mom has settled on. I've spoken to her and got her to treat Noah better, but now that she's realized we're together and will more than likely stay that way, she has decided that we now need to get married. She doesn't care that we're not at that level in our relationship yet, just that I am not married to my son's dad.

Quite the one-eighty she did, I know. She now has something to chat about with Noah's family though, so there's that, right?

Noah doesn't seem to mind everyone's insistence that we go ahead and get married now. He teases me often about it because of how hilarious he finds it. Personally, I don't see why that's funny. It's actually terrifying. Even more so now that Cameron's catching onto the joke. They both just encourage each other.

They giggle with each other the entire time Molly and Angela hint obviously at me about a pretty wedding dress that'll hide my growing belly perfectly. I smile dryly and nod along.

"Or you could get it done before your stomach gets too big." Anegla is quick to suggest. My silence and polite smile seem to make them believe I'm considering it. I'm not. "That way you could wear a dress that shows your figure better. Not like those poofy dresses that make you look like a child's doll. Gosh—I told Aaliyah the same thing for her wedding, but guess what kind of dress she wore?"