Page 83 of Love is Grand
• November •
Cal
“Happy Thanksgiving,” I said to Adam over FaceTime.
“Would be nice to be together, but glad we’re not,” he joked.
He and Rylan were celebrating Thanksgiving in Michigan with my mom. Their baby was due in a couple of weeks, and they’d decided their baby was going to be born in the States.
Shell and I planned on the opposite. I’d flown to the Caymans a week ago and would be here through all the holidays, including the New Year. Shell was a few days away from her due date, and I wasn’t going to lie ... panic had set in for me.
“Call us as soon as Shell goes into labor,” Rylan hollered in the background. “Don’t wait.”
“Do what you want,” Adam said, chuckling. “Have your baby and let us know when you want.”
My brother knew I was turning into a bit of a basket case. It wasn’t that I didn’t want it all—Shell, Weezie, the new baby, marriage. It was my lack of self-confidence that I would be good at any of it.
“Let us know right away,” my mom called out, chiming in.
“I’ll let you all know when I can. Marva’s going to come and stay with Weezie if Shell goes into labor in the middle of the night, but she made us promise to take them both to the waiting room if it happens during the day.”
“That’s my kind of girl. Knows what she wants,” my mom said.
Mom was here last month after Shell and I told her we were engaged. Of course, my mom and Marva became fast friends, plotting a trip to New York after Shell and I moved there.
But Weezie was my mom’s new BFF. Those two sat for hours playing dolls and games, talking and laughing. Weezie really brought out the best in her.
“Oh. Hi, Adam.” Shell appeared next to me, speaking into the iPad. “I spoke with that manufacturer, and it seems like it’s going to work out.”
Adam had found Shell a facility in New Jersey to produce her syrups stateside, so she didn’t have to deal with exporting them to the US from Grand Cayman.
“Good. Now, worry about having yourself a baby and then getting married.”
“First, I need to make an American Thanksgiving,” Shell joked.
“Cal isn’t making you cook, is he? I know that ...” Adam trailed off as Marva and Sam walked into the rental house, calling out, “Hello!”
“Abuela!” Weezie came running out in a swimsuit, her newest doll in tow. “Mom said I could swim when you got here.”
“She did?”
“Cal’s on the phone, and I’m too big to jump in after her,” Shell said.
“Darling, I’ll do it,” I told Shell. I was getting better at swimming patrol.
“Sit,” Marva said, and followed Weezie outside.
We’d moved into the rental house for the next few months, and put Shell’s place up for sale. We agreed that whatever she received for it, we’d put into a college fund for Weezie.
As people strolled in and out of the house during the call, Adam took all the FaceTime interruptions in stride.
“We ordered dinner from the Grand,” I told Adam, knowing everyone at his house were all listening. “They’re coming soon to deliver and serve it.”
Defending me, Rylan said, “Of course you did. Are they sending over the desserts to sample for the wedding reception too?” When Shell nodded into the camera, Rylan said, “I need you to tell me your thoughts.”
Those two started talking pastries with my mom, and I told Adam, “Love ya, bro. I’m going outside.”
“See you next year,” he said.