Chapter 41

"That is a lot of strikes," Woody confirmed with a nod. "But don't you think some if not most of that blame is mine? After all she is my mother and I could have told her all of this sooner than I did."

"She will find a way to blame it all on me, Woody! Mother-in-laws are famous for hating the women that marry their precious little boys!"

"Jordan, I am very sure any of that will fade in the face of her first grandchild. She will be so overcome with love and devotion for him that everything else will be fine."

"Then god help me if she ever finds out the baby isn't yours!" she cried, flopping down on the couch and burying her head in her hands.

He sat down next to her on the couch and puller her into his arms. "Jordan, she will never hear it from me. As far as I am concerned this is our baby, okay?!"

Looking up at him with tears on her cheeks she gave one last hiccupping sob and nodded. "I think I'll go to bed now if you could get one thing done for me?"

"Sure! What do you need Jordie?"

"I know how you feel about me getting up on chairs right now, so could you dust the top of the refrigerator for me? It was the only thing I didn't get done in the kitchen."

Rolling his eyes he agreed to do it as he took the dust rag from her hand. He was surprised when she kissed his cheek before thanking him and leaving the room.

The morning of the ninth Woody had taken off of work to go to the airport and pick up his mother. As he was leaving the house he tried once again to persuade Jordan to go with him. She was dressed and ready to go to work. "I am sure Garret wouldn't mind if you took a couple of hours off so you could come with me!"

"I'll meet her tonight after she's had a chance to settle in and get caught up with you," she assured him.

"Jordan there isn't anything to fear! You've talked to her on the phone!"

"I know, but she might be totally different in real life!" she protested.

Woody sighed, they'd had several versions of this conversation over the last few days and he guessed it was time to give up. "Okay then, we will see you tonight when you get home from work."

"Okay!" Jordan eagerly agreed and headed out the door.

Evelyn Hoyt's eyes were like saucers as she took in the size of the Logan International Airport. She barely kept up with her son as she trailed along behind him to the baggage claim area. Her head was turning from one side to the other as if she were at a tennis match, trying to take in everything. It wasn't until they had stopped at the carousels where the luggage would appear that she actually spoke other than a 'hello' and to ask, "Where is your dear Jordan?"

Woody had started to explain that she had gone in to work when he realized that he had lost her attention to the wonders of the large airport.

Now, however, they were finally standing still and even though her eyes were still not on him, but rather on all of the people from weird to sublime in the crowd, it seemed she was finally ready to focus to some degree on conversation with her son, "So you are allowing your wife to work this late in her pregnancy Woodrow? If you two need money that badly, why didn't you let me know?! I have the life insurance money of your father's saved away just in case you children were ever to need it!"

"Mom!" he protested, "We don't need the money! That is not why Jordan is working!" Woody didn't of course, want to tell his mother that in part the reason Jordan was at work today was that she was afraid of meeting her mother-in-law. "She only gets six weeks of maternity leave and she wants to take it all after the baby is born. And before you start fussing that she's doing too much this late in her pregnancy, I want you to know that the people she works with care about her a great deal. They are making sure that her work load is light and that she isn't overdoing it. Her biggest complaint lately has been about all the paperwork her boss has been giving her to do. He has been keeping her off her feet as much as possible."

To be continued…