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him?”
    “Mom!”
    “Shell, leave it be ,”
Candace said sternly.
    “Come
on, Mom. This can’t be good on top of all the crap that was on the news last
night about J.D.”
    “I
said, leave it, Shell. Where’s Melanie?” Candace tried to change the subject.
She adored her daughter but Michelle was testing her patience.
    Michelle
huffed. “She went to the store to get some more beer. She thought maybe Jonah
could use a couple later.”
    “Safe
bet,” Candace replied as she returned to her task at the stove.
    “Did
you actually fire Gollum?” Michelle
asked.
    “Yep.”
    “Wow. An eventful couple of days,” Michelle
commented. Candace turned and glared. “What? What did I say?” Michelle asked.
Candace shook her head. “Mom?”
    “I’m
sorry, Shell. I guess I am feeling a little raw.”
    “I
can’t imagine why. First, some idiot claims your wife is a druggie and then your
baby comes home and tells you he knocked up some girl you’ve never heard of.
You could have your own soap opera—if they still had those,” Michelle mused.
    Candace
rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help but laugh at Michelle. “Do me a favor?” she
asked her daughter.
    “What?”
    “Go
easy on your brother for now, okay?” Candace requested.
    “I
get it. Doing the protective thing.”
    “Shell….”
    “Okay!
Okay! I promise I won’t tease him….At least, not this weekend.”
    Candace
rolled her eyes again. “Thank God, you are so compassionate, Shell,” she
chuckled.
    “What
are you going to do about Gollum?” Michelle changed the subject.
    “Funny
you should ask,” Candace said. “Why don’t you pour us some wine?”
    ***
    “I
get that it’s New York State. With that much wood, we could melt the polar ice
caps.” Jameson commented to Jonah.
    Jonah
let the ax in his hand fall into a stump
and smiled. “Needed some air,” he explained.
    “Mm.
And some exercise,” Jameson said.
    “Yeah,”
he replied. “How’s Mom?” he asked sheepishly.
    Jameson
pointed to the nearby woodpile and gestured for Jonah to sit. She pulled up a
log and sat on it to face him. “She’s worried about you,” Jameson told him.
    “I
know. I really messed up royally,” he said.
    Jameson
shrugged. “Is that really how you feel?” she asked him.
    “What?”
    “About
your girlfriend having your baby. Does that make you feel like you screwed up?”
Jameson wondered.
    Jonah
thought for a moment. “No. I know that it’s not what people expect of me. I
didn’t want it to happen.”
    “Okay,
but it has. So, what other people think isn’t really important. How do you
feel?”
    “Truthfully?”
    “Yeah, truthfully .”
    “Freaked
out,” Jonah confessed.
    “Maybe
that’s why you expect everyone else to freak out,” Jameson offered.
    Jonah
shrugged. “I didn’t plan on it. Wouldn’t you be freaked
out ?”
    Jameson
laughed. “Well, there isn’t much danger in that for me,” she pointed out. “So,
I never really thought about it. I guess that would depend .”
    “On
what?” he asked.
    “I
don’t know. If it was your mom, I guess I would be happy, even if I were scared shitless.”
    “Really?”
    “Why
does that surprise you?” Jameson asked. “Don’t get your hopes up there,” she
chuckled. “Your mom is past that point and I don’t have the skills required
anyway.”
    Jonah
laughed. “Sometimes, I think it’s just a dream, you know? I’ll wake up and it
won’t be real,” he said. “But, sometimes…”
    “Sometimes?”
    “Like
before I left,” Jonah began to explain. “Laura spent the night and I found
myself touching her stomach, wondering about who was in there,” he said. His
cheeks blushed a deeper red in the cold.
    Jameson
nodded. “Sounds normal to me.”
    “It’s
going to cause Mom problems,” he said.
    “Nothing your mom can’t handle,” Jameson assured him.
    “I
hate disappointing her,” he admitted.
    “I
know what you mean,” Jameson said.
    “You?
You could never disappoint