~ Mine ~

You Take the Wings off Me

"Shane really guessed it?" Shelby questioned his mother in surprise as he sipped his morning coffee, on the back deck of their Cancun vacation home.

"Sort of," Reba admitted shyly, as she nursed a mug, in the shape of a cowgirl boot, of warm tea.

"He saw me get sick and it all kind of poured out." She continued to divulge, as her son peered on, awaiting a further explanation.

"Poured out?" Shelby chastised her poor choice of words with a snort.

"Hush you." She reprimanded with an animated eye-roll, which in return caused him to laugh.

"Morning early birds." Shane Tarleton chirped, catching their attention as he happily entered the deck.

"About time!" Shelby teased as he lifted up his coffee mug in salute.

"Hey, you weren't up all night here with Miss McSecrets." He defended as he went to sit down on the deck couch next to Reba.

"Sorry about that..." She mumbled guiltily before quickly taking another sip of her tea. After keeping the pregnancy from Shane almost the entire trip, she'd finally told him that she was pregnant when she woke him in the dead of the night with her morning sickness.

"You know, I think as payment you should name him Shane." Shane taunted, nudging Reba a little with his shoulder.

"Why does everyone think that SHE is a boy?" Reba challenged with a small laugh.

"We don't, we're just hoping." Shelby intervened with a cheeky smile.

"Which reminds me Cornelius would make a pretty cool boy name." Shelby continued on with an encouraging grin and nod of the head.

"Then have a kid and name him Cornelius."

"Because I'm popping this one out before she can grow a you know what..." She stated matter-of-factly.

"Anyway." She said suddenly before either of the men had a chance to respond.

"It's time to leave paradise, the plane leaves at eleven." She finished, moving from her crisscrossed position and rising to her feet.

~~~~~

"So the baby hates planes huh?" Shelby questioned softly as soon as his mother had returned from the airport bathroom, still slightly gripping her upset stomach. Glaring at him through the embarrassment of getting sick in public, she ignored his question and stood there in silence, waiting for the baggage claim to begin shuffling out bags.

"I'm sorry ma." He added sincerely, running his hand along her back and calming her down a bit. He could tell that it wasn't really him she was upset with.

"Do want to skip that late lunch and just head back to the house?" He asked a moment later, once she had visibly relaxed a bit, the bags finally starting to descend onto the carousel.

"No, you're heading back home tonight and I want to make sure you eat." She replied as she spotted Shane's bag, who had gone off to use the men's restroom himself. Cutting him off and pointing to the bag, she motioned for Shelby to quickly retrieve it before it went around the carousel once again.

"He sure doesn't understand the meaning of packing light." Shelby huffed as he quickly set the large black bag down in front of her with a thud.

"Some people have more essentials than others." Reba defended softly, her good mood from earlier slowly starting to return.

"About lunch, I'm grown man, who can take care of himself; it's really okay if we just head back to the house." Shelby ensured as Reba's attention resumed to the carousel.

"Grown men, who can take care of themselves have to eat too." She mocked back, crossing her arms.

"Besides can't you just accept that I want to have a meal with my boy?"

"Even if I'm not going to eat..." She added wearily, referring to her unpredictable stomach. Even if she couldn't eat with him she still wanted to treat him to a nice meal before he headed back home to North Carolina. It would be a while before she saw him and she knew that like her, one of his favorite things to do was eat.

"I guess I can accept that." He said with a defeated smile. He couldn't deny the fact that he was hungry and he wasn't about to turn down food.