Page 16 of Curtis & Jae (Mate Match #1)

Sixteen

Curtis

Given how well the meeting went with my family and how overjoyed they were for us, I thought Jae would be more enthusiastic about taking me to see his parents so we could tell them our news.

Avoiding their calls and messages surprised me. I knew he was still having some sickness, though it was lessening now he was done with the first trimester. He eventually told me he wanted to wait until after the scan to tell his family because he feared the stress was going to harm our baby.

His family would not approve of me. I got that.

They wanted another Korean guy in the family.

There was pressure from his grandparents to marry well, and the only way he could do it was if the man was someone like Hwan.

It didn’t matter to them that Jae wanted a partnership.

He had his own goals in life. My man was about to release his first children’s book with illustrations he’d drawn himself.

Something I supported him fully in. One day he would be rich and famous and I’d be the kept husband looking after the kids, I often teased him. I’d be happy to do it.

My dad was still fairly fit and active. He wanted to help with childcare and offered to babysit a couple of days a week, while Jae worked from home to create the sequel and do any other work he had.

Dad would come to our house on the days he took care of the baby so Jae could get some hours in.

I was going to train up a couple of my crew to take on more jobs, helping me cut my hours to forty, max. It was time to prioritize my family.

We didn’t need either of us to work all the time to provide. The house had a tiny mortgage I could probably pay off with my savings, but I was secretly adding to them to start a college fund and maybe pay for a wedding.

Jae was my future. I wanted to make sure he knew it.

“Now,” Erika said with a smile. “Let’s go see your baby, shall we?”

She led us to a room where the sonographer was waiting. I didn’t pay much attention to the sonographer, couldn’t even have pulled them out of a lineup, because I was too distracted by what was about to happen. We were finally going to see our baby!

“Tracy will put the gel on your tummy and you’ll feel pressure as she gets the best picture of your baby,” Erika explained the process.

“Ah, cold!” Jae shied away when the gel was poured on him.

“Sorry,” Tracy said, setting to work.

Quicker than I thought, the flub-flub sound filled the room.

“A very healthy heartbeat,” Erika remarked. She looked at the screen and muttered something to Tracy. “See there, that’s the baby’s head and down here is their spine. They are measuring perfectly for their gestation period. Great job, Jae.”

“Thank you,” he mumbled, with tears in his eyes. “I can’t believe that’s our baby.”

Erika moved out of the way to give me my first proper look at our little wonder.

“Hey, little one! Aren’t you perfect?” I kissed Jae, just a simple press of my lips to his. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being you. This. All of it.” Everything I was feeling was overwhelming.

“Would you like a photo?” Tracy asked.

We left the clinic with a photo each. I couldn’t wait to show my family how well our little bean was doing!

We knew Jennie and Lara were having a girl.

They’d paid for a detailed scan after the anatomy scan.

The pictures were great. Something I’d like to have even if we didn’t find out the sex of the baby. I wondered if Jae wanted to know.

“Do you think you want to find out what the baby is?” I decided just to ask. Jae was always truthful with me. It was one of the things he prided himself on. I loved it about him.

“Um,” Jae was still looking at his picture in wonder. His eyes finally met mine. “I think I’d like it to be a surprise, if that’s okay with you? If you want to find out and not tell me I’d—”

“No. I agree. By the time the little bean comes along, our niece will be born. We’ve already got a nephew, so it doesn’t matter if Bean is a boy or a girl, really.”

“Our? We?” He looked mystified. Poor Jae just didn’t get how special he was to me.

“Jae, sweetheart, they’re your family now. I know you’re scared your family will disown you because I’m black, but I think they love you more than that. Just in case, my family has already adopted you. Even if things go wrong with us—”

“They won’t!” His expression was fierce.

I kissed the top of his head. “No matter what, you’ll always have them. Milo won’t let you take Percy from him. Do you know he’s been bugging his moms for a cat again?”

Jae laughed, then looked at the photo once more. “How about we drop in on my parents? Rip that bandaid off?”

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

“At this rate, I’ll have given birth before I’ve told them I’m pregnant!” His laugh was a little manic. “Let’s just do it, now that we know little bean is fine.”

His family lived in an affluent area of town similar to that of my sister, but more old money style. Their house was a large two story, two car garage home which dominated the street.

“I dunno why they still have such a big house. My brother Jun, an alpha, is married with three kids already. He chose an omega girl my grandparents picked out. They seem happy, though. My sister, Iseul, is a beta. She has one child with her husband. She got with a Japanese man she met at work and my grandparents didn’t speak to her for a year. ”

“Ouch.”

“She said it was peaceful, actually. I know if Mom and Dad end contact with me, Iseul will still call. We aren’t as close as I’d like. She’s five years older than me, so growing up, we had little in common.”

“I think your parents will surprise you.” Call it a gut feeling, but I believed his parents weren’t nearly as bad as his grandparents.

“Really?”

“Okay, I’m going on faith here. I’ve got faith they will.”

We exited the car and walked up to the front door, where Jae rang the bell.

An older woman answered. She was beautiful.

Like Jae, she had tawny skin, though her complexion was as cool as her attitude.

Some of her facial features were so similar to Jae’s, it was impossible not to realize who this was.

Jae’s mom’s hair was styled in a chignon with a few strands of gray showing.

Her outfit was simple, tailored black slacks with a cream blouse.

She looked effortless and elegant. Intimidating.

“Jae! I was about to send out a search party. You never return my calls. We went to your apartment, but it seems you moved without telling anyone!”

Ouch. Poor start.

“Hey, Mom, could we come in? I’ve got some stuff to tell you.”

“Alright. I’ll call your father.” She moved out of the way and Jae led me into the house, a firm grip on my hand that his mom didn’t miss.

The living room was tense by the time Jae’s mom and dad joined us. Jae had his dad’s eyes and lean build. He was where Jae got his golden hue, though his nose and the shape of his eyes were all his mom.

“Jae! About time! Who have you brought?”

“Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend, Curtis.”

There was a tense moment where I didn’t think they were going to speak to me. We took seats nervously on the overstuffed couch.

“Hello, Curtis, I’m Minjun. My wife is Haneul. You must tell us about yourself and how you met Jae!” Minjun clearly was more receptive to me than his wife.

“Nice to meet you,” I started, politely. “I own a renovations business where I have twelve employees now, though I’m in the process of hiring a few more. Jae and I met through the Mate Match app. I knew it was my best chance for meeting someone with the same outlook on life as me.”

“And what outlook is that?” Haneul asked, frostily. This meeting was not going well when it came to her.

“A family one,” Jae answered. “There’s more to tell you.”

His parents looked at him expectantly until finally Minjun spoke. “What is it, Jae?”

“I’ve moved in with Curtis. We’re pregnant.”

You could have heard a pin drop, the room was just that silent.

“You’re pregnant?” His mom looked stunned.

“Yes. Twelve weeks now. We’ve just had our scan. Would you like to see?”

“Of course!” Her words were softer. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t understand not knowing her well. She was guarded, yet hopeful.

It was when Haneul looked at our little bean I saw her soften fully. “Curtis, what’s your family like?”

I told them both the story about my dad raising me alone after Mom died.

I might have been nearly an adult, still I’d needed my dad more than ever at that time.

They asked me questions about my sister, her family, and if we were close.

My smile widened as I thought about the warm welcome my family offered compared to Jae’s.

I could hardly blame his parents for being stunned.

My family had some warning. We’d sprung this on Haneul and Minjun.

They weren’t rude while they asked, just curious.

The more I spoke, the more I could see the walls come down.

They asked about our first date and how little bean came to be.

Jae helped me answer, his face red with embarrassment.

I even got them to laugh when I told them about training Percy to do jumps.

By the end, I knew they were going to accept me. Didn’t mean there wasn’t a tough road ahead.

“Your grandparents are going to be furious, you understand?” Haneul said softly. I saw her coldness in a new way. She was worried for Jae, just chose to show it in a different way, how she had been taught to.

“Yeah. I’m prepared for whatever. They’ve never really known what to do with me as a male omega. Things would have been easier if I was the beta instead of Iseul.”

Haneul took her son’s hand. “True. I will protect you from them as much as I can.”

“I will, too,” Minjun added. “We live so far from their control now. Why should we let their opinions have any bearing on our lives? Curtis, you seem to be the perfect man for Jae. Haneul, our Jae was never as calm or happy with Hwan, was he?”

She gave a bitter laugh. “No. I wish… I wish so many things. We shouldn’t have let them push him on you. I think you have picked right this time. The baby… I am so excited about the baby.”

“I am, too.” Minjun took his wife’s hand and kissed it. “We can’t wait to get to know you better, Curtis.”

“Thank you.”

We had afternoon tea and then dinner with his family.

I stole away to send pictures of the scan to mine and found myself in Jae’s old bedroom.

I could tell it was his room by the posters on the wall and all the art.

For a long time, I stood there looking at each piece he had drawn.

His style was familiar to me by now. He’d drawn my portrait, which was on my dresser next to a photo of him I loved.

“You’ll make sure he publishes that novel, won’t you? Hwan didn’t see the value in Jae’s art. I think you do.” Haneul approached me slowly, looking around her son’s room with a fond expression.

“He’s so talented, it would be a crime not to encourage him. Not that he needs it. He’s got a publishing date!”

“Oh! That’s wonderful! I wonder why he didn’t say.”

“I think he was just more focused on the baby because of the scan today. The book is nearly done. He’s got an office at our house. My dad wants to help with childcare so Jae can continue to work after. I’m cutting my hours to make sure—”

“That makes me so happy to hear. I would also like to help. With childcare. I want to be a presence in the child’s life. In all your lives. I hate that he was scared to tell us, though I understand why.”

I felt vindicated at her words. While I understood Jae’s concerns, I had an outsider’s perspective. These weren’t bad people, just cautious and trapped by tradition.

“We’ve got time until the baby comes to work it all out. I’d be grateful for your help.”

“So would I,” Jae said from the doorway, a loving smile on his face. “Thanks, Mom. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, about the baby and the book.”

I didn’t hear the words Haneul said to her son when she embraced him. All I knew was the look of relief on Jae’s face was worth it all.