The Brightest Stars ✨

Chapter 32

"Now why are you taking her side? Whose parent are you, mine or hers?"

His mother put her arm around Natalia and pulled her close with surprising strength. Natalia hugged her back with equal fervour.

She grinned at Gabe in triumph as his mother patted her on the cheek. It was a natural move, like she had always done so. Like they had always been that close.

"She's giving me a grandchild," his mother said. "What have you ever given me?"

"As if I had nothing to do with..."

"Really, Gabriel I'm sure I brought you up with better manners than to discuss that at the dinner table."

Natalia laughed and his mother's lips twitched in response.

Gabe sighed but a smile was pulling at his face too. He considered the scene before him, it was new but it felt old. Old like a family album of photos, covered in dust and filled to the brim with nostalgia but full of photos he'd never seen before.

They were all around his mother's dining table, eating a delicious spread that his mother had cooked. Natalia had agreed to a casual birthday dinner as long as no one mentioned it was her birthday, a strange request but definitely doable.

After the meal, they were driving back home or so Natalia thought.

Gabe had taken a detour and she still hadn't noticed. She was scrolling through her phone and absentmindedly singing along with the radio. It was playing a Country song and the fact that she knew every single word for someone that claimed to hate the genre, amused him to no end.

As he neared the exit off the highway, Gabe noticed that she was sniffing back tears.

"Nat...?" he hedged. Tears had been plentiful in the last couple of weeks but the reasons had not. Gabe wondered if he should park the car or if it was just false alarm.

"Did you know when babies are born they have muscle pain and trauma from the birth canal. The poor things are in pain and they can't let anyone know...." She shoved her phone in his face and he peered briefly down to see the TikTok app running a video with a baby being massaged.

"Is that why you're crying?"

"Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard?" she said sniffing, her nose was red and puffy.

"Oh, you're so infuriatingly cute," Gabe said at the pitiful expression on her face. "Come here." He used his free arm to draw her into his body. "Do you want to see the birthday surprise I have for you?"

"Oh, god yes!" She brightened up immediately, the speed of her change in mood made her drop her cell phone somewhere near her feet. She wisely chose not to bother picking it up because it would have been impossible with her belly in the way.

"I thought you didn't like surprises?" Gabe teased taking in her shiny, excited eyes.

"I like them now."

"Of course you do. Do you recognise where we are?"

"No?"

Gabe smothered a laugh. She was terrible with directions. She still used a GPS to make her way around their city. He didn't know why he expected her to recognise a part of town she'd only been to once.

"We're not going camping again are we, because I..."

"Close but no cigar."

"Now I remember why I hate surprises," she muttered looking around as Gabe drove on arriving at a country sideroad. "Where are we going? This isn't the drive into town." Natalia peered around the passenger windows, flopping in her seat in frustration when her expanded midriff prevented her from looking around properly.