32 weeks.

"James, what's going on?" Jessica asks him.

"Nothing, why?"

"You've been really happy."

"So? I am happy!" He laughs.

"For what?"

"Schools going well.. things are good around here.. the baby's on his way.. life is good." He smiles.

"I don't believe you.  Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No!" He laughs.

"Yes he does!" Michael says.

Jessica smiles as her jaw drops, "James! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because I don't!  And how do you know?!" He turns to Michael.

"Grandma Jane told me."

"How does she know?!"

"Grandma Jane knows everything."

"That's true." Jessica nods.

"James Alaxander, why did you lie to me? If you have a girlfriend, I wanna meet her." She smiles.

"Uh I don't know."

"Why?"

"I don't want you guys to be weird and scare her off."

"Ah! James!" Jessica looks at him with a shocked expression.

"What would be do?" Michael asks.

"I don't know.  I just thought I'd be weird.. I don't know, I've never had a girl over."

"Well let's not have her over to the house.  I'm not That great of a cook!  Plus, I'm just too lazy!

We can go to Grazia!" She smiles big.

"The baby would love Grazia!"

"Heh, alright, I'll ask her if she'd like to joining us for dinner."

"Yay!  Wait!  Oh shit!"

"What?"

"None of my fancier clothes fit me!"

"A tshirt and jeans will be fine." James says.

"Nuh uh!  If I'm gonna meet my sons girlfriend, I'm gonna look nice!  She needs to see how the number one one woman in your life has herself together."

"You're a dork, mom." Michael says.

"Michael!"

James laughs and Sam walks downstairs, "I don't like any of you right now!  Sam, you wanna come with me to find something for tonight?"

"No and what's tonight?"

"We're meeting James' girlfriend!" She smiles.

"And why don't you wanna go with me?!" She pouts.

"I hate shopping!  Plus being asked fifty times, Do I look fat in this?  Do I look fat in this?" His voice goes high. 

"I think I'll stay."

"Samuel!  You're hurting my feelings!"

"Ugh fine!  I'll go.."

"Yay thanks!" Jessica snaps out of her sadness.

***

"Thank you for coming with me, Sam.  I hate being alone.."

"No problem, ma.."

"I used to love shopping by myself.. but lately I despise it..."

"It's okay.. I'm glad I came."

"Me too!" She smiles and grabs his hand, then lays her head on his arm.

As they walk, one of those annoying people in the middle of the mall says, "Sir, you need to buy this for your beautiful girl!"

Jessica laughs it off and keeps walking.

"What did he just.. EW!"

"Sam, it's not a big deal, he was just desperate to sell us something."

"It's gross!"

"And not true!  Shut up!" She pulls away from him and makes a face.

***

"How does this look?"

"Good."

"Do I look too fat?"

"Nope." Sam says clearly irritated.

"Sam, just go!" Jessica rolls her eyes.

"No, I'm fine. 

Now go try on five more dresses, so that you can come out and I can tell you that you Do Not Look Fat!!"

Jessica stares at him for a while before her lips quiver, and her eyes fill with tears.

"Mom.."

"I'm sorry that I'm too annoying to deal with!  I just didn't want to be alone!" She cries.

"No mom, I'm sorry!  I.. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, if that's how you feel, then I'm sorry!"

Sam walks over and wraps his arm around her.

"Mom.. I'm sorry.  I do like spending time with you.. I just hate shopping."

She looks at him with watery eyes and chuckles.

"Why don't you but a few of those dresses on me." He smiles.

"Sam, maternity clothes is too expensive, I don't want you spending money on me."

"Oh come on, how many can a few dresses be?" He reaches over and looks at the tag.

His eyes widen at the price.

"Ha..ha!  How bout two?"

"That sounds good!" She laughs.

"Thank, son." She smiles, and hugs him before she rest her head on him.

Sam rubs her back and an older woman walks up to them.

"Aww!  Comforting the mother of your child!  What a sweet sweet man!"

*Jessica laughs*

"I AM NOT HER HUSBAND!!" He yells making Jessica jump and the old woman run off.

"SHE'S MY MOOOOM!!!!  THAT'S NOT MY BABY!!"

"It's okay, honey.. I can't help it if I look as young as a teenager!" She giggles.

"Please let go of me." He closes his eyes and lifts his hands in the air.

"Oh Sam!  Look!  Just one more store!" Jessica points to a baby store.

"Alright." He walks inside, then sits on a bench with Jessica's shopping bags.

"Look at this!  Oh Grayson, you're gonna look so cute in this!" She lays a cute little onesie on her stomach.

"Awe, Sam would have loved this!" She gets a sad look in her eyes when she sees a onesie that says, Daddy's basketball buddy.

"Your daddy loved basketball, little guy." She says in a low voice.

***

A man a few years older than Sam, sits beside him and and sighs.

Sam looks over to him and the guy asks, "Who are you here with?"

Sam points to Jessica who was standing a few feet in front of them.

"Oh man!  She's hot!"

"Ew that's my mom!"

"Oh sorry!  

But Damn!" He smiles at Jessica.

"Ah you sicko!  Don't look at her like that!"

"Sorry man.."

"Why don't you go shop with your wife?!"

"She doesn't look like that!" The man smirks at Jessica.

"Fuck you!" Sam stands up and walks over to Jessica.

"Mom, we have to go before one more person ships us."

"What?" She looks at him with a confused look on her face.

"Ships us."

"What the fuck is that?"

"Never mind.  Let's just go."

"Okay, let me just check out."

"Alright."

Sam looks over to the line and sighs at how long it is.

***

"Sam honey, it's not a big deal!" Jessica laughs as they walk in the house.

"Yes it is!  It's gross!"

"What happened?" James asks.

"People think I'm with mom!  They thought I was my brother's father!" He sits down and buries his face in his hands.

"What?" Michael laughs.

"A bunch of people thought we were together." Jessica says.

"Ew!" James scrunched his nose.

"Yeah!  She's only fifteen years older than me, and it doesn't help that I look older than my age and mom looks way younger!"

"Thanks!" Jessica smiles.

"Ugh this one woman... I.. I'M NOT THE FATHER!" He yells and hits his chest.

"We know that, stop saying it!" James says.

"And then this guy after I told him that she's my mom, he said that she was hot!"

"Awe!  Really?" Jessica smiles.

"Yeah..  he was a little older than me."

"Well I guess I've still got it." Jessica wiggles her hips.

"Mom, I beg you to stop that." Sam closes his eyes.

"Haha!  Alright, now that I've grossed everyone out, I'm gonna go upstairs and take a shower.  You boys get ready."

"Alright ma."

***

"She's here!  You guys be normal!" James looks at his brothers.

"They will be!"

"And mom, no embarrassing stories!"

"Fine!"

"Or pictures!"

"Ugh!" She rolls her eyes.

James stands up and greets his girlfriend.

"Hi Caroline!"

"Hi!"

Jessica holds her hand up and shakes it while making an irritated face.

Michael grabs her arm and helps her up.

"Caroline, this is my mom, Jessica."

"Oh!" Caroline's eyes widen.

Jessica smiles and says, "It's nice to meet you, sweetie!"

Her eyes widen on her belly and James says, "Oh yeah!  My mom's pregnant!"

"You didn't tell her?" Jessica asks.

"I guess it just never came up in conversation." He chuckles.

"Haha, that's okay!  It just caught me by surprise, so sorry for staring!" She chuckles.

"It's okay!  So.. shall we sit?" Jessica says awkwardly.

"Sure!"

"So, how far along are you?"

"Thirty two weeks." Jessica smiles.

"Aw! 

Mrs. Shepard.. I um, I just wanted to say how sorry I am for the loss of your husband."

"Thank you.." She says with a soft smile.

"So.. how long have you two been dating?"

"Two months." They both say holding hands and smiling as they stare into each other's eyes.

"Wow.. and you knew about this and didn't tell me?"

"Yep!  It's this new thing I'm trying out.. being nice." Sam smiles.

"And you were clueless?" She turns to Michael.

"Hey, I was busy with school and my own women."

"What women?" James laughs.

"Shut up!"

Caroline laughs and says, "I just don't get why James didn't tell me he had a sibling on the way!  I think that's so cool.. you know, since..."

Jessica smiles and says, "Yeah.. he's helping mama with the healing process." Jessica rubs her stomach.

"Oh it's a boy?!" Caroline smiles.

"Mhm!  His names Grayson!"

"Awe, that's cute!  James, that's gonna be so cool having a younger brother at an age you can actually help raise."

"Yeah, I'm excited for the little dude." He smiles.

Caroline turns to Jessica and says, "Mrs. Shepard, I'm sorry for saying this, but I didn't expect someone so young and beautiful!"

"Awe!  Sweetie, you're too sweet!

I was a young mother, so.." Jessica giggles and blushes.

***

"Well it was lovely meeting you, Caroline.  You're a sweet young girl!" Jessica smiles.

"Thank you!  I had a great time!  Thank you so much for inviting me!  Hopefully we can do this again, soon!"

"Definitely!  You take care, hun."

"Thanks, you too!" Caroline hugs her.

"Aw, you're so sweet!" Jessica smiles and rubs her back.

Jessica gets in the car and pouts.

"What?  You don't like her?" James asks.

"No, I love her!  She's really sweet!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"You're ashamed of your brother!"

"Mom, you know that's not true!"

"Are you embarrassed that I'm pregnant?"

"Of course not!  You know that I love that you're pregnant!"

"Then why didn't you say anything to her?  You've known her for two months!"

"Mom, I-"

"I can see the teen mom thing, but why not this?  It just bothers me."

"I'm sorry, mom.  I really didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's fine."

Jessica drove home and stayed quiet.

She felt like James was embarrassed or ashamed, and it hurt her feelings.

When they got home Jessica went upstairs and James followed her.

"I don't talk about family because it hurts too much."

"What?" Jessica turns to him.

"It's too hard. 

I try really hard to always be happy.. I don't want to be sad anymore, but it just seems like life keeps hitting us, and hitting us, over and over again!

When I met Caroline.. she was this little ray of sunshine in a dark dark time. 

I wanted to talk about us.. not about home."

"I told her about dad, and that's about it...

It's not that I'm ashamed of you or the baby.  I could never be ashamed of that!  I just have to get away sometimes, and Caroline is my escape.

Seeing you guys together, and seeing how sweet she was to you, makes me want tell her about everything.  Sad or not, I'm gonna do it.

And I want her to know how extremely important my mama is to me." He smiles.

Jessica's eyes tear up and she smiles.

"I understand now.. I love you, sweetie." 

"I love you too, mom." He smiles and they walk closer for a hug.

The baby kicks hard and Jessica laughs.

"That's Grayson's way of saying he loves you too! 

... Or to stop squeezing him!"

James laughs and continues hugging her.

"I'm serious, stop squeezing him, I'm gonna pee!" She pulls away.

"Oh sorry!" He lets go of her.

"It's fine." She smiles.

"So you really liked her?" James asks with a big goofy smile.

"I did!  She's a very sweet girl!  Just be careful and don't be stupid!! *Points finger*

Your father and I were... well.. just be careful!"

"Hah!  I promise, ma." James smiles.