Chapter Twenty-Seven

I glare at Daniel who is sitting across from me. His hand is clutching the paper that has his top ten names written down. My own paper is neatly placed in front of me. "How could you shoot down Nathan?" I shrug, "Just like you shot down Matthew." He grumbles something incoherent. "Excuse me?" He shakes his head, "Nothing."

"What are you doing? Linds the shower is in like twenty minutes." Taylor comes over and tries to pull me to my feet. I shake my head, "No, your brother is a very bad name picker." I say, giving him another disproving look. He rolls his eyes, "Like you are any better." "I am." I stick out my tongue at him.

"Gosh, I hate to interrupt your important game of Name Wars, but it's time for the shower." Taylor says, grabbing both our papers. "T, give that back." She shakes her head at me, "No, I've watched you guys play this game for over a month now. I know the baby is due soon, but, please, shower now, baby later."

"Taylor-" Daniel grumbles. "I know; we'll play at the shower?" She suggests. We both shake our heads, "No, we don't want other people picking our kid's name." Daniel was the first to speak. Taylor smirks, "Well, then you better stop playing, because if everyone can't play, then no one can." She grabs my hand and this time I let her pull me away.

"This isn't over." I say over my shoulder. "It definitely isn't." Daniel declares. Taylor steers me away from Daniel as quickly as she can. We cross the street over to my house and suddenly I wish she'd leave me with Daniel.

"You look great." She says just before she opens the door. I don't even have time to wonder if she's sarcastic or not. Streamers and glitter paper falls over me. I try not to show my irritation, who's going to clean this up?

I am wrapped in a group hug and I try to figure out who was there. They pull back and I see Abby, Anina, Catharina, Amanda and Taylor are all smiling at me. Then suddenly they were all talking at once and I had no idea what they were saying. I try nodding when appropriate but I couldn't make out a word they were saying. They were all talking over each other, but it seems they know what they are saying.

After drinking tea and having small sandwiches Abby cried out, "Time for a game!" I give Taylor a look and she just shrugs. Amanda and Catharina seem excited. Anina sends me a smile and I wish it was only her, Taylor and I.

Abby places a diaper bag on the coffee table and hands out small note pads and pens to everyone. "Now, without looking, you feel inside the bag and guess as many items as you can in two minutes. There are ten items." She hands the bag to Taylor, "You can go first."

Taylor feels around for a while and writes down something every now and then. "Time's up." Abby calls and takes the bag from Taylor. She hands it over to Catherina, who repeats Taylor's actions until Abby declares her time up as well. This continues until we all had a try. She checked our lists and declared Amanda as the winner. She then bestowed the bag and its contents as a gift to me.

Amanda jumps up and grabs a paper from behind the couch, it's neatly rolled into a cylinder. She unrolls it and I see it's a picture she took a few weeks back. I am standing in the garden, sideways so you can see my pregnant belly clearly. One hand is resting atop the belly and the other cradling it, my head slightly tilted down to the bump. It is a very nice picture, now that I see it. I was very irritated with her that day. Now I know why I had to stand for ten of those.

She sticks the poster-sized picture on the wall and turns around, "It's like pin the tail to the donkey. Accept, now it's a baby and you need to place it on Lollipop's belly." She hands a piece of paper, which I assume is the baby, to Abby. She then blindfolds her and spins her around.

Abby walked, more like stumbled, to the wall and on her first try, she stuck the baby to my belly. Of course, she will get it right on her first try. I try not to roll my eyes. Next was Anina and so we went through the motions until it was my turn.

After Amanda turned me around a few times I felt sick, but I swallowed it down and started heading for the wall. I pin the thing and rip off the blindfold. The baby is pinned slightly to the right of my belly. Everyone lets out cries saying how close it was.

As I turn to face them I catch sight of the picture of my mother and father. My heart aches and I am suddenly overcome with sadness. Even though I know she wouldn't have approved, I wish she was here. She wouldn't have let Abby take over the party. She would have made sure Amanda didn't get sucked into this game playing idea of Abby's.

At least you got a good picture out of it. I hear mom's voice in my head. I want to smile and cry at the thought of her. I close my eyes and try to imagine her here with me. Helping me. Would she have helped? Or would she have disowned me? Would this baby be welcomed or shunned?

Even if the answer to all of this would have been no, I would still want her here. Even if that sounds foolish. Sometimes you just need your mother.

"Linds? Are you alright?" I open my eyes and see everyone crowding around me. "My dear, don't scare us like that." Catharina says when she sees I've opened my eyes. "What happened, Lollipop?" I look at Amanda for a moment. She is the closest thing to mom I have now. I wrap my arms around her, hugging her as close as I can, "Thank you." I whisper into her hair. A tear rolls over my cheek and I reach up to wipe it away. When I release Amanda I see her wiping away some tears of her own.

No one asked questions, Catharina was the first to get the attention off of me, she smiles at Abby, "Is that it then? The end of the games?" Abby shrugs, "I was hoping Daniel would make an appearance to ask them a few questions." "I can go get my brother." Taylor offers. Abby shrugs, "If you'd like."

With that Taylor hurries out the door. "In the meantime, let's have another cup of tea." Anina and I head to the kitchen and brew another pot of tea. When we arrive back in the living room with a tray full of cups of tea, Daniel is seated on the couch between Amanda and Catharina.

"What's going on, Linds? I thought we didn't want anyone else's input?" He asks, getting to his feet. "Input on what?" Amanda asks. "The baby's name." Taylor mumbles before taking a sip of her tea.

"Oh, you know what would be wonderful, if you named him after your great grandfather Harrison. Or your grandmother Pearl, if it's a girl." Amanda says, sounding excited that she's been brought into this conversion.

"Your baby's due in a month and you haven't decided on a name yet? What have you been doing all those late nights?" I assume the last question was more directed towards Daniel. Abby is really handling all this very well, but her voice cracked and I know she's trying to hide her jealousy. He grumbles something in the line of, "Thanks for letting me walk into that." He turns to explain to Abby that we've been finishing up the nursery and that he's been talking to the baby. Not that I hear him mention that part.

"I thought there was another game to be played." Anina tries to break the tension. Abby says the last few words to Daniel before saying, "Yes, I have a quiz for the parents-to-be to fill out. I need you to retreat to different rooms and answer the questions. There are only then, so hurry up. There are no right or wrong answers." She waves us off and I head up to my room. I wanted to go to the nursery, but I let Daniel have it.

After I filled out the quiz I head back down to the living room. Daniel was already back and chatting to the women. The coffee table is now stacked with a few gifts. "First the gifts then the rest of the game." Taylor grumbles. I sit down next to her and hand the paper to Abby.

Taylor hands me a small gift bag and chimes, "Mine first." "You shouldn't have." She shrugs, "But I did." I reach in and pull out a baby outfit, just a plain white outfit with a bib. "It's hard to shop when you don't know the gender." I roll my eyes, "It's great thanks, T."

She hands me the next packet. "That one's from me." Amanda says. I pull out a pink dress, glitter and flowers dotted all over the pink material. "I'm hoping for a little girl." She confesses. I smile, "We'll just have to wait and see."

Anina and Catharina hand me their gift. I open it up and find another pink dress. This one is much lighter. The dress has two layers; the top is lace. "I see I'm not the only one hoping for a little girl." Catharina laughs, "I can just see, mother and daughter, dancing together."

Abby hands me her gift. I take a deep breath. I open the gift and see a small toy staring back at me. It has multi-coloured buttons. I bite my lip it's the toy I wanted to look at when Daniel and I were at the baby store. I wanted to get it. I wanted to buy it for my baby.

Instead of throwing a tantrum like I would have wanted to, I smile at Abby, "Thank you." She shrugs, "It's from both of us." She looks up at Daniel with a smile. He smiles down at her. I bite my lip and look away, "I guess it's time for the quiz."

Abby jumps up and stands in front of us. "Right, I'm going to read the question and you guys guess what the other answered." She holds up one of the papers and reads the question, "Do you want a girl or a boy?"

I feel Daniel's eyes on me, "She wants a girl, no doubt about it." Abby looks over at me, "What does Daniel want?" I shrug, "He wants a little girl." Abby smiles, "Only one of you are correct." I try not to roll my eyes at her dramatic pause. "Daniel, you were right."

Everyone claps hands and I try not to grumble. "Does the couple plan on having more kids? Sorry, I got it off the internet." Abby skips the question to go onto the next one. "Who will be the rule enforcer?" Daniel laughs, "Definitely Linds, she's always been a stickler for the rules." I roll my eyes, "That's true, it's me." Abby smiles, "That's correct for the both of you."

She scans the rest of the questions, "Right, the next one." She takes a breath. There's a knock on the door and she looks up, "Who could that be?" She hurries to the door and opens it. "It's your brothers and Dwayne." She announces.

Will, Levi, Carter and Tyler are here. I struggle to get to my feet but once I'm up I hurry over to them. I give them each a hug; it's been a while since we've all been together. Dwayne is last to enter, "Hello, Lollipop, you look wonderful." He kisses my cheek before hugging me.

"I hope it's alright, mom and I planned a dinner party for after the shower, apparently the boys got the time wrong." Taylor confesses. I smile at her, "It's a lovely surprise, T, thank you." Abby seems a bit disappointed, but quickly puts on a smile and starts chatting to everyone.

I glance over at Daniel, a smile settles on my lips as I watch him goof around with the boys. Taylor shoves me, "You are swooning." I look at her, "What are you talking about?" She shrugs, "I've watched you. I've seen the way you look at my brother when you think no one is watching. I know you love him, Linds, and please don't take this the wrong way, but you need to decide what is best at the moment. I don't believe either of you is ready for this."

"I know. He's with Abby and he's happy. I know what I have to do. He is just my baby's father, your brother and my brother's best friend." Taylor doesn't respond to what I said. She goes over to everyone and starts chatting. Everyone slowly moves into the kitchen and out the back door to the large deck with a table and chairs.

"Are you coming?" I smile at Daniel, "I'll be there in a minute, I just need to take a breath." He frowns and comes over to me, "Are you alright?" He places a hand on my stomach. I place my own over his, "I am fine, I just need to take a step back." He nods, "If you don't come out in two minutes, I'm coming to get you." I nod and push him away slightly, "Go, keep them busy while I collect myself." He chuckles but leaves the room.

I take a few moments to breathe and gather myself. When I finally decided I was ready to leave when I see the papers Abby had us fill out, on the table. I pick them up and look at them, most of the questions were very straight forward and I had no idea why she seemed uncomfortable before the boys came.

I scan over my own answers and decide it has to be something Daniel wrote. I scan the questions and answers before I find the one that could have upset Abby. What did dad do after he found out that mom was expecting? It seems like a pretty normal question. But what Daniel wrote is probably why Abby's face drained of colour.

I couldn't move. After figuring out what she meant I went over to her house. We were fighting. When she disappeared upstairs I couldn't move. I spent the night in front of her bedroom door. I never went in. But I sat there, wondering how I'm going to deal with the other things in my life.

He's such an idiot, he must have known she was going to read this. "other things". Abby is no fool.

"Time's up." I look up at Daniel. "You slept outside my room?" His eyes flash to the paper in my hand. He stuffs his hands into his pockets and looks down at his shoes, "I kept hoping you would come out." I bite my lip; I want to tell him how I hoped he would have come in. But this wasn't the time nor the place. "I see." Even though I know I shouldn't ask any more questions, I do, even though I know the answer may hurt me just as bad as me asking is hurting him, "And if I had come out, would things have been different?" He looks at me and I see the pain in his eyes. I look away from him, "You don't need to say it. I know what you were going to say."

He cups his hand over my cheek and tries to get me to look at him, "I need to say it, I need you to hear it." I struggle not to look at his beautiful blue eyes as the pain and hurt well up in forms of tears, "It would have. If I just went in, or you just came out, I believe things would have been very different right about now."

My own pain and hurt were getting the better of me and a wet streak runs down my cheek, "Daniel, please-" I look up at him, my heart would have been running away if it weren't for my ribs. He leans down and plants a kiss on my cheek, where the tear left a trail. "I'm sorry."