~ Mine ~

Mary, Did You Know?

"I knew it!"

"So you've known as long as he has?" Reba questioned Kelly anxiously, who sat next to Brandon on the other side of the table.

"Give or take a day or two after you told me..."

"But yeah," Brandon answered in place of Kelly shyly.

"Why didn't you just tell me yourself though?" Kelly curiously questioned. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that it was a tough situation but given her own predicament of currently becoming a mother for the second time and Brandon's welcoming response, she would have thought telling her would have been the least terrifying out of the whole bunch.

"I wasn't sure how everyone would react, I thought maybe you might be angry or something..." Reba mumbled under her breath as she fiddled with the silver Christmas placemats Kelly had laid out on the table, a few days prior.

"Angry?"

"Why?" Kelly asked, genuinely confused. Even if she had been mad, which she wasn't, it wouldn't have been her to place to be.

"Well for starters, it isn't exactly an ideal situation, and all of my children are grown, it's a little weird, to say the least," Reba confessed in a hushed tone. They had sent Seth upstairs to talk with Savannah on FaceTime so that they could have an "adult" conversation, but one never knew when big ears might be snooping around the corner.

"That just means you have built in babysitters." Kelly laughed as she nudged Brandon, causing Reba to give them a weak but small smile.

"That part is a perk."

"It's just been a stressful mess, to be honest with the both of you." She said with a sad sigh. The amount of change that had happened in this one year could suffice for the next five or six.

"Well speaking of stress, don't you think telling dad about it will make things a little easier?" Brandon finally questioned softly. Kelly and his sisters had been urging him to bring the topic up sooner to Reba, but every time Narvel was mentioned in a conversation she would just sull up or change the subject.

"I don't know..."

"But it's getting late." She said quickly, causing Brandon to sigh sadly. Stubborn as a mule.

"You're right," Kelly added softly, as she ran her hand over her growing baby bump. As much as she'd like to help Brandon convince Reba that it was time to talk to Narvel, she knew right now wasn't the time or place. Standing up, Kelly walked over to Reba and engulfed her in a warm hug.

"We are always here for you." She said once more, trying to reassure her mother-in-law that she was indeed serious.

"I love both to pieces."

"I'm lucky to have yall," Reba replied as she moved over so that she could then pull Brandon in for a hug. Giving her back a small rub before they pulled away he nodded a little bit.

"You sure are." He said with a cheeky wink.

"And we love you too." He then added quickly, before turning and leading the way to his and Kelly's front door, leaving Kelly in the kitchen to clean things up before bed.

"Tomorrow Savannah fly's back home but maybe we can get together and talk some more over the next few days?" Brandon urged softly once they were standing in front of her SUV, the cool December night air around them.

"I'd love that." Reba smiled, while Brandon held the driver's side door open, watching as she carefully entered the SUV. Waiting a moment as she got situated, Brandon waved once more, before closing the door, and taking a few steps back towards his house. He sighed again taking in a big deep breath as he slowly watched her pull out of the driveway. He was grateful that his shopping idea with Kelly had worked and had led to her opening up but he was also disappointed in how closed off she was still being. Baby steps he reminded himself.

~~~~~

"How's the new house?"

"Everything unpacked yet?" Shawna questioned her sister as she bit into an ooey-gooey piece of homemade cinnamon bread; one of Reba's favorite holiday traditions. Chassidy had come back to Tennessee for a couple of days to take care of some things in regards to signing off her old house and for the last day had decided to spend it with her mom and sister.

"It's bigger than the one we had here but you wouldn't know that with all the boxes right now." She mumbled as she added a teaspoon of sugar to her newly poured tea and began to thoroughly stir it.

"Bigger isn't always better, that means more to clean," Reba added with a wide-eyed chuckle as she brushed off her sticky hands. She'd just finished icing the bread before Shawna had arrived and apparently still hadn't managed to get all of the goo off of her hands.

"Don't tell Scott that," Chassidy said with a small laugh. Her husband had been anything but excited for their recent move. Even though it had been because of him and his job position, he'd been quite content with their house and their life in Nashville. Cypress was something that sort of just came out of the blue.

"How long do you plan to stay in Texas?" Shawna added curiously. She was sure that her sister's move to Hendersonville would have been her last, with the kids getting older, and Mason starting high school soon.

"We'd like to stick this one out until both Mason and Jadyn graduate high school, but we'll see where it goes I guess," Chassidy said with a shrug. She was quite used to moving and jumping around, so the recent change in pace didn't really bother her at all. Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't still close to family, it was just a different type of family.

"We really will miss you this year at Christmas," Reba said half joking, with her overly dramatic pouty face.

"You mean you'll miss your grandkids." Chassidy corrected with a raised eyebrow as she pointed her hand, which now held a slice of cinnamon bread in it, towards Reba.

"That's a given."

"I had to add you to make you feel better," Reba answered, causing Chassidy to laugh.

"Christmas is going to be weird anyway." She said referring subtly again to her parents' recent divorce.

"But we will definitely try to be here next year." She added, Reba's instant perked reaction causing her to smile even bigger.

"Besides it will be Remington's first Christmas." Shawna and Chassidy said in unison, causing them all to break out into laughter once more. It was no secret how much Chassidy loved babies, in fact, her family had dubbed her as the baby bandit because she was always holding one whenever she got the chance. There was no way she was going to miss her newborn nephew and baby brother or sister's first Christmas.