All's Fair In Love & War

Chapter 38

"Mom." I said with tearful eyes.

"Hi Autumn." she smiled warmly. "Can I have a hug?" she laughed walking towards me with open arms.

I threw myself into her, holding her so tight I was sure she couldn't breathe.  She rubbed my back and kissed my cheek much like I would do with Maddie now.

"I missed you." I cried into her shoulder, barely being able to get out the words.

"I know. I missed you too." My mother was strong and hardly ever cried, but I could hear the hurt in her voice. She held me at arms-length and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Hey, baby sis." Winter half-smiled.

"Hey" I said hugging her as well. I was surprised she was sober. Since Jamai died my sister couldn't stop drinking. She was drunk at funeral and almost threw herself in the ground with him. The last time we talked was over the phone, she was drunk of course, and she was crying about how much she missed Jamai and how much she hated me for "killing him." She tried to reach out to me the next day when she was sober to apologize but I couldn't forgive her then. Now, all I felt was sorry for her.

"How are you?" I asked finally letting her go.

"I'm okay." She nodded. "You look, wow, really pregnant."

"Yeah." I laughed rubbing my stomach. "Two more months" I sighed.

"Well, it'll be nice to have a kid in the family again."

"We already do. Winter this is Maddie. Maddie this is my sister, Winter. Maddie is Avery's niece but we've adopted her."

"Hi!" Maddie grinned hugging her hips. Winter stared at Maddie blankly before a giant smile crept across her face. She crouched down to be eye level with her.

"Are you my auntie too?" Maddie asked.

"Yes and it's very nice to meet you. How old are you Maddie?"

"Six."

"Wow, such a big girl. Are you hungry?"

"Yes!"

"Let's get you something to eat then." Winter picked Maddie up in her arms. My mother smiled at them and followed behind leaving Avery and I by ourselves.

"You don't even know how much this means to me. Thank you baby." I said hugging and kissing him.

"I do, you did the same for me with Nathan and I'll always appreciate that." He smiled kissing me again.

"Hey, love birds! You going to eat some actual food or just keep sucking each other's face off?" Winter yelled from the Burger King line.

"Oh my god!" I whispered trying to act like she wasn't talking to us to dodge the embarrassment of the stares around us.

"Come on." Avery laughed with his arm still wrapped around me. I sat beside Maddie feeding her while Avery ordered food for me. My mother watched us adoringly making me blush. She moved so she was sitting beside me and placed her hand on my stomach.

"Do they kick a lot?"

"Kind of. They kick more when Avery is around or if he talks to them."

"That's because they love their daddy and they can feel how much their mommy loves their daddy right?" she said in a baby voice to my belly. "Can you kick for nana?" She waited for nothing for a while and just when she was taking her hand off I felt a kick and a hard one. I quickly grabbed her hand placed it on the other side of my stomach. She gleamed as if she hadn't carried children of her own and never experienced the feel of a kick but I was happy that she was happy.