Page 41 of Text Me A Kiss

Chapter Fifteen

Graham

For the first few months after Kady and I had sat down with her parents and put our cards on the table, things at the office had been… well, miserable.

Allen may have given me back my job, but every action and word made it clear he refused to give me his blessing to date his daughter. If I passed him in a hallway or saw him walking out of an elevator and said “hello” or nodded, Allen refused to acknowledge that I existed. In meetings, where he had no choice but to talk to me, his words were clipped, omitting any unnecessary syllables and halting as soon as possible.

Sometimes, Allen’s attitude made me angry. Ignoring me was a great way to make Allen’s company suffer—and, honestly, it was just childish.

Other times, I decided that I deserved this. After all, I’d gone behind his back and dated Kady for months after knowing who she was. I’d lied to him about business trips to New York. I’d gotten his daughter pregnant after only a few months of being with her. What right did I have to be angry at him, however he chose to react to those things?

Coming from a family that had very little money, nothing more than a small, decrepit house and a car that broke down more times a week than it was driven, my parents and I had never been close. In fact, I hadn’t talked to them in years. I actually envied Kady her closeness to her parents, even when they argued with her about me. It meant that they loved her and cared for her in a way mine never had.

Maybe that was why I tried to be on my best behavior around her father, no matter how he acted in return, and why I sat through family dinners that even Kady’s mother’s level headedness couldn’t make less awkward. I didn’t want to hurt her relationship with her parents. For her sake, I wanted them to at least accept me.

It only took a couple months before Anna started to do just that, and maybe even like me a little. It also only took a couple months before I was convinced that Allen hated me and nothing I did would change that.

“He doesn’t hate you,” Kady insisted. She was sitting on the couch, elbow over her eyes as she fought off a bout of morning sickness.

“Fairly sure he does.” I lifted the cutting board and swiped the knife along it to scrape the slices of cheese into the waiting bowl, then brought the offering to Kady. Very quickly, I had discovered that everything people and websites said about pregnancy cravings was quite true.

“No, he doesn’t,” she said again, a little more aggressively. “I’m just… well, his baby girl. He’d probably act like this for any guy I was closely involved with.”

I wasn’t so sure. However, I was sure that arguing with my pregnant girlfriend about whether Allen Nichols did or didn’t hate me wouldn’t help matters for anyone.

So, I just kept going through my daily routine of waking up, making Kady breakfast, going to the office, and trying to survive the awkwardness and enmity that floated in the same air breathed by me and Allen.

Around late October, I noticed a change. Allen would greet me now. He wouldn’t glare daggers at me when we ended up in the same elevator. Family activities weren’t quite so awkward, and Kady even managed to convince Allen and Anna to come to my house for dinner one evening.

The change continued to grow, and I wondered if the approaching holidays were finally softening Allen’s heart— or, maybe, it was the fact that his daughter’s belly was also growing that made him a little more receptive to me.

Either way, I welcomed it. Midwest attracted more clients than ever, and I worked harder than I ever had now that I had someone—two someones—to work for.

Now that Allen and I had somewhat made reparations, I could focus on worrying solely about Kady. She often complained of being tired or cramping, and she woke up often in the night due to one discomfort or another. I knew pregnant women naturally had to go through these things and that I could do nothing but try to make her more comfortable, but I still worried about her.

I indulged all her cravings when I could, told her several times a day that I loved her, in person and over the phone when I felt like it had been too long since I said it last, and picked up anything she or any other source said she might want.

Still, she was just very, very pregnant by early December, and I knew she really wanted this baby to come. Being a little over 8 months pregnant, she was expecting anytime between the next two to six weeks. Her tummy was very round now, and we loved to sit on the couch together, surrounded by piles of pillows and comfort food, each resting a hand on her to feel the baby move.

Despite the warm comfort of home, I knew Kady disliked this forced inactivity. She had quickly settled into her new job as a director at The Chicago Ballet, and she loved to tell me about one little student or another when we were both home in the evenings. However, The first week of December, she had decided that it was time to take her maternity leave. Now, we were both just waiting for this new chapter of our lives to arrive.

At the very least, even if she couldn’t do ballet or work right now, she could still join me for walks in the park near my penthouse.

One evening, the weather was uncharacteristically warm for a night in early December, so I asked Kady to join me on a walk. Even in swathes of winter clothing, Kady’s bump was visible—and she still looked beautiful.

“Oh, one second. Forgot my phone,” I explained as I ducked back into the house for a moment, just as we were about to leave. Jogging through the house, I stopped before the dresser Kady and I shared. I rummaged in the sock drawer until I found the hard little object I was searching for, placed it carefully in my pocket next to the phone I hadn’t forgotten, and hurried back to Kady’s side. “Okay.”

The moon was out, and it shone brightly down upon the city, its light clearly visible even with the streetlamps lighting the way. These were bedecked in green and red lights with silver and blue trim that glittered in long, thick strands throughout the park. A family of wire-light reindeer lowered their decorative muzzles to the grass or looked at us curiously, glowing brightly as if they could see us better with a little more light.

“It’s beautiful tonight,” Kady sighed, taking everything in. “I can’t believe it’s this warm.”

“Well, 35 degrees still isn’t warm, but I think it’s almost historically warm for Chicago,” I agreed, shoving one gloved hand deep into my pocket and taking her left hand in my right. “Let’s go to the other side of the park. Where the tree is.” I knew I didn’t need to specify which tree. Only one tree in the park stood so tall and had so many lights and ornaments.

“I’ve only seen it in the daytime.” Kady’s hand grew heavier in mine for a moment as she held it to step over a root encroaching upon the sidewalk.

“It’s magnificent at night. See?” I pointed ahead to where it was already visible.

“Wow,” Kady murmured. We moved closer, and our faces shifted with hues of the holidays. She let go of my hand, taking a couple steps ahead of me to look at the tree better. Her baby bump was silhouetted by the cheerful lights, and suddenly I knew