Paul's mother had been there for only a few days and she was already driving them a little crazy. And it wasn't just her presence that irritated them, it was the fact that she always wanted to be in their business, and usually it was about 'business' that never actually happened.
"Paul, do you need the Mercedes today?" Stephanie popped into the bathroom as Paul was in the shower, "I'm gonna go drop off Madison and your mom at Laurie's, and then Rebecca asked me to go over to her house, maybe we'll send Shawn over here for you."
"Take it, I don't care. Its not like I have a choice or anything." He rinsed shampoo out of his eye.
"But you do have a choice, considering I have no idea where the keys are. You choose whether to tell me where they are or not. But, if you don't tell me where they are, you're mom will probably come in here to get them herself."
"The jeans I was wearing yesterday, they're in one of the pockets I think." He poked his head out, "if they aren't in my pants, you'll have to wait until I get out."
"I'll check first then. Where would they be if not in your pocket?" She walked out of the bathroom, leaving the door wide open, "these jeans right here?" She held a pair of dark jeans up, but the shower had turned off, "they aren't in these."
"I'm gonna get out right now, give me a minute to dry off." He grabbed his towel and wiped his body with it. He wrapped the towel around his waist and got out, "what are you going to do at Rebecca's house anyway?"
She put her head down a little, "well, I ran into her at the store the other day, and well, Shawn told her everything."
"What?" He closed his eyes, "are you serious? Why?"
"She told me that they were having trust issues, he's been lying about everything lately, and they got into a fight, which resulted in her threatening to leave, and he just started spitting everything out, including the truth about us." She bit her lip, "she just wants to talk to me, because she feels like she only knows me through Shawn, who thinks I'm Satan, and she wants us to be friends."
"Oh," he nodded opened his closet door, "I put my keys in here, with some other stuff." He opened the second drawer to his dresser and pulled the keys out of his clothes, "do you know where my sister lives?"
"Your mom does." She took the keys and smiled, "I'll call you later, okay?"
"Yeah, my mom knows how to get to Laurie's house, how are you gonna get to Rebecca's house?"
"I got it Paul, I have all the directions in my purse, I got it all on your computer. Don't worry about me." She closed his bedroom door behind her and walked down the hallway, alright, I got the keys, are you ready Leona?"
"We sure are, aren't we Madison?" She handed the carseat to Stephanie, "I just put a bunch of everything in her diaper bag. Is there anything that needs to be in there?"
"I'm sure you got everything, diapers, at least one change of clothes, formula, did you get her pacifier?" Stephanie carried Madison out to the garage and opened the door, "I have a question about this whole breastfeeding thing, I think I'm about to get my period again, my chest is just so sore all of a sudden, its weird, I know Paul is like, 40 now, but when you had your first, when did you get your period again?"
"Well, with my first, I breastfed for a couple months, but when I stopped, everything just went all back normal. Same with my second and third." She sat in the front seat and waited for Stephanie.
"Wait, you had three? I didn't know that, I only know of Paul and Laurie." Stephanie buckled Madison's seatbelt, "who's the third?"
"Paul doesn't like to talk about him so it doesn't surprise me that he never told you. After Laurie, we had another son named Cameron, he was quite a few years younger than Paul and Laurie. You know about Paul's car accident right? That's why he has the 'special' bed and takes Ambien and is on pain medication, I'm sure he's told you. Well when Cameron turned 21, he went out to a party, and we knew he was gonna drink so we sent Paul to go pick him up so Cameron didn't drive home drunk, but it was too late. Paul was almost to the party when a car swerved in front of him and hit him head on, and in the car, it was Cameron, driving drunk."
"Oh my God," Stephanie covered her mouth, "what happened to Cameron? I mean, Paul's told me about a car accident but he just said he was in an accident that messed his back up bad." She could see tears filling up Leona's eyes, "we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"No, it's fine, it been over ten years, I should be able to talk about it," Leona closed her eyes for a second, "it's probably why Paul got all the hotel rooms when you guys got married, he didn't want anyone driving home." She wiped her face, "Cameron passed away."
The story played in Stephanie's mind as she backed out of the garage, "is that why Paul doesn't drink? I mean, him and I drank on our wedding, and before that, he's done like a shot of whiskey in the kitchen after a stressful day. But our wedding night was the only time he's ever gotten drunk, and I didn't even know it because we both were. He's not a fan of night driving either."
"Yeah, I know." Leona smiled, "anyway, back to your questions, you haven't gotten your period back yet? How often do you feel Madison? Because if you've fed her any less than every four hours in the day, and every six hours at night. If you've been feeding her any less, you should be about to get it."
"Yeah, I've been feeding her more often than that though, or so I thought. Well actually, when Paul feeds her, its usually formula, or milk I got with the pump." She kept thinking of the other day when she threw up, but didn't bring it up.
"Why are you so worried about getting your period anyway? If your breastfeeding on a timely schedule, its like a natural contraception, so, you can't be pregnant or anything. Although if you were, I would be totally happy." Leona noticed Stephanie's pale face at her comment, "I'm sorry, I don't want to rush you guys, you've only been married a little over a month, I know, I just wish Paul wouldn't have waited so long. And you're a beautiful woman, you and him would have such cute children."
Stephanie blushed, "thank you Leona. I think Paul and I would rather wait until Madison is a little bit older. You know, when she is able to entertain herself with toys." She couldn't believe what she was saying.
"That makes perfect sense. Paul and Laurie are actually six years apart. And Cameron was eleven years younger than Paul. Its nice when your oldest is able to do stuff for you. That was really nice."
She pulled into Laurie's driveway and turned the car off, "I'll come in side for a couple minutes and say hi." She got Madison out and followed Leona towards the front door, "she has such a nice house."
"Yeah, the outside is nice, but the inside is another story, four kids, the only one who is in control of all their stuff is Samantha." Leona knocked and smiled as Sam opened the door, "hi honey, is your mom here?"
"No, she took Lily to her doctor's appointment. But she knows you were coming so she left me in charge until you got here." She smiled, "hi aunty Stephanie."
"Hi Sam, how are you?" Stephanie went inside and handed the carseat to Leona, thinking of how weird it was to be called an aunt, her half brothers were younger than her, and it didn't look like kids would be in their future, "well, I'd better get going, I have to find my way to Rebecca and Shawn's house." She smiled, "you call me if you need anything, okay?"
"Okay, I will, I'm still not sure when I'm gonna need a ride but I'll be sure to call you." Leona smiled and waited for her to close the door.
Stephanie got back in the car and drove off, "he had another brother? Wait, if Paul was eleven years older than his brother, and Cameron died when he was 21, Paul would have been 32. That was only eight years ago, Paul was working for me when that happened." She thought aloud to herself, "why do I not remember that?" She contemplated calling him, just to casually talk, then ask, but knew he wouldn't tell her anything. She hated that they never talked to each other, they did at work, but after they got married, they were just quiet all the time.
She got to Rebecca's house and knocked on the door, a little redheaded girl opened it, "mommy, someone's here." She smiled, "you're uncle Paul's friend huh?"
"Well yeah, I'm his wife, and you're Cheyanne, right?" Steph patted her head, "where's your mom at? She's here right?"
"Of course she's here, where else would she be? Daddy's at work though, he's always at work." Cheyanne closed the front door and grabbed Stephanie's hand, "I'll show you where my mom is. Mom!" She yelled out, "Stephanie's here."
"Oh, well thank you Cheyanne for letting her inside," Rebecca patted her daughter's head, "now go play with your brother, wherever he is," she watched her run off.
"So, Shawn's at work?" Stephanie asked, confused as to why Shawn would be working right now, yes, it was a Wednesday afternoon, but it was also October, nowhere near a busy time in the tax office. She had made Shawn the new manager, but something wasn't right.
"Yeah, he's at work, he says things have been really busy, so he's been there a lot. The kids are kinda upset that he's been gone more."
Steph kept her mouth shut for a second, "well if he can get out early, I told Paul that maybe we could send Shawn over there to hang out with him. Paul's at the house all by himself, I dropped Leona and Madison off at his sister's on my way here."
"Well then I'll call him and tell him to go over there then." Rebecca picked up the phone and dialed her husband's phone number, "oh, is that the engagement ring Paul got you? Let me see it." She wedged the phone between her shoulder and her ear so she could see the ring, "wow, he got you a real diamond ring?"
"What? No, he didn't say that. I didn't expect that from him." She looked at it, "how do you know?"
"Hi honey, how are you? Oh, nothing, Stephanie's here and she told me Paul's home by himself so she said to tell you to go over there if you get off work at a decent time today. Okay, I'll see you when you get home, I love you, bye." She put the phone back on the receiver and looked at Stephanie's ring again, "that's what I do for a living, I work at a jewelry store, and from what it looks like, its real, I'll bet I could be totally sure if I had a magnifying glass."
Inside, Stephanie was confused, she always overanalyzed things, but now, it seemed like she had to, for the past few days, Paul's been nice, and now she finds this out? Paul always complained when he had to do stuff for her, now he was just getting her things like this, a diamond ring in her favorite cut, her favorite flowers on her birthday, he even remembered her birthday in the first place, it was all too weird to be coming from him.