My Number One Fan

In the car, Jeff drove us to the grocery store. He started to get out of the car, but I sat with my head laying on the headrest of my seat.
“Are you okay honey?” Jeff asked, getting back in the car.
“Tell me how stupid of an idea this is and I’ll cancel everything,” I sighed, staring at the ceiling. I felt Jeff’s hand grab mine and his lips on my knuckles. I turned to look at him as he rubbed his hand over my stomach.
“It’s not stupid Riley, it’s sweet.” he said. “You want your family together for our son or daughter, and you’re taking steps they don’t want to take or are probably too afraid to take to make that happen.” I smiled at him as I felt something in my stomach move. Jeff froze as he stared at his hand, his eyes the size of half-dollar coins.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Was that what I think it was?” he asked, looking up at me, his eyes still wide. “I just felt her,” he said smiling. “I just felt the baby move.”
“Really?” I asked, as the baby rolled again. Jeff’s hand twitched, telling me he felt it again.
“Oh my God that’s my baby moving,” he said, bringing his other hand to his mouth and biting his knuckles. I laughed and grabbed his hand before he could draw blood.
“Let’s go get this stuff so we can get back.” I said, letting go of his hands and getting out of the car. He walked around in a daze. I had to decide what to get for the cookout.
“Do you want anything special Jeff?” I asked as we walked down the snack aisle. He snapped out of his trance and stared at me.
“Huh?” he asked, looking confused.
“I asked if you wanted anything special,” I said, smiling as I rolled my eyes.
“Uh, I don’t know,” he muttered, looking at the shelves. I looked with him, and saw a package of chocolate chip cookies. I grabbed two packs, tossing them into the cart.
“One of those is mine,” I pointed out. “If I see anyone so much as glance at my cookies, I’ll bite their hand off.”
“Okay Prego,” Jeff replied.
“Leggo my cookies!” I said, pointing at him. He backed away slowly with his hands in the air.
“Note to self, don’t touch the food belonging to the pregnant lady,” he muttered, looking around the shelves again. He picked out snack cakes and we went to the registers. After paying for everything, we left the store and went back home. There was no one there by the time we got there, so we decided to wait on starting to cook everything.
“So, now that we’re alone,” I said, sitting on the couch and leaning against Jeff. “What are we going to do since you left?”
“I have no idea, I’m thinking I might just open a training facility in town.”
“You could do that,” Jeff grabbed my hand as we talked. “I don’t think there’s a lot of people around here who wants to go into wrestling though.”
“Whoever wants to train can come and train. Like I pointed out Riley, we’re still getting an income from The Hardy Show, even if it is just a web show. We make DVDs of it and sell them, that gets us a pretty good amount of money.”
“I hate having to worry about this,” I muttered, sitting up and rubbing my hands over my face. The phone rang just then, making us wonder who it was.
“Hello?” I answered, the confusion more than apparent in my voice.
“Riley, this is Vince McMahon, who are you doing?”
“Oh, hi, I’m good,” I lifted my eyebrows to Jeff, who just looked even more confused. “How have you been?”
“Never better. So, obviously you heard Jeff quit.” I rolled my eyes to Jeff.
“Yeah, he told me this morning.”
“Is he there? There’s something I want to discuss with him.” Vince said.
“It’s Vince,” I said, handing him the phone.
“Vince, hey, how’s it going?” Jeff said into the phone. I decided to start getting to work on things for the cookout later, so I went into the kitchen and started cutting things up. I was working on a tomato when I felt arms wrap around my waist. I leaned back against him as I continued cutting the tomato.
“So, he never officially put in my resignation,” he started. “So I’m still employed with him, and he just offered to give me a job behind the scenes where I can just work from home.” I paused as I turned to face him, my eyes narrowed with disbelief.
“What’s his angle?” I asked, setting the knife down and turning to face him more fully. “Why’s he being so, giving?”
“I have no idea, maybe he’s had a new outlook on life or something, I don’t know.”
“It’s just weird,” I sighed, turning back to finished up the tomato. Jeff unwrapped his arms from me and opened the refrigerator, grabbing out a beer.
“Can you get me a water?” I asked him as I slid the knife down the last little bit of useable tomato.
“Damn it, mother fucker,” I muttered, dropping the knife and grabbing my other hand. Jeff set the bottles on the counter and rushed to me, looking at the blood dripping from my finger.
“Shit,” He muttered, grabbing a paper towel. He wrapped it around my finger and squeezed, working on stopping the flow of the blood.
“You okay?” he asked, looking up at my face. I nodded, taking my hand back and checking the cut on my finger. It wasn’t that deep. All I needed was a bandage on it.
“All I need is to clean it and wrap it in a bandage,” I told him, walking to the bathroom. He followed me and grabbed out the antiseptic cream and a band-aid. He put the cream on the band-aid as I grabbed the peroxide. After pouring some on my finger, he dried it and put the band-aid on my finger, kissing it and smiling at me.
“Thank you,” I said, leaning forward to kiss him again. A barking came from the upstairs.
“Midgie,” I said, walking out of the bathroom.
“Go finish up what you were doing, I’ll get her,” Jeff said, kissing my cheek.
“So what was that job McMahon offered you?” I called out as he ran up the stairs. I walked into the kitchen and started cleaning up my mess, including my blood trail.
“I don’t know, he didn’t come right out and tell me that,” Jeff answered as he walked into the kitchen. He grabbed the discarded beer and drank from the bottle. “He just said I’ll be able to put my talents and knowledge of the business into good use, and it’s a job I can do from home.”
“Hm, sounds fishy if you ask me,” I said, washing the knife and putting it back in the storage block.
“Well, with it coming from McMahon, it will sound fishy.” He pointed out.
“True,” I muttered. “Are you going to take it?”
“No idea, depends on what it is I guess.” he shrugged and looked at the clock. “What time are people coming over?” I glanced at the clock to see it was four in the afternoon.
“They’ll probably start showing up soon,” I answered just as Midge started barking again.
“Whoa, what’s with the rat?” Matt’s voice asked as he walked into the kitchen. Amanda and Jason was behind him, Amanda carrying a bowl.
“You didn’t have to bring anything,” I said to her as she put the bowl on the counter.
“Actually I did, Matt wanted dirt cake with those gummy worms so I had no choice but to make it. I made enough for everyone though.”
“Hopefully,” Jeff said, smirking as Matt smacked Jeff’s arm.
“Go get the grill warmed up,” Matt told his brother. I couldn’t help but shake my head at how similar they acted to when we were kids.
“Riley, what happened to your hand?” Mandy asked suddenly, grabbing my cut finger.
“Cut my finger while slicing a tomato.” I answered. “It’s nothing to bad.”
“I hope not,” she said, letting go of my hand.
“Oh, Jeff felt the baby move,” I informed my future sister-in-law.
“Really?” she placed her hand on my stomach, but nothing happened. “I don’t feel anything.
“She’s not moving right now,” I informed her. “My next appointment is coming up, we’ll get to see if it’s a boy or a girl.”
“Anything particular you want?” Amanda asked as she grabbed a can on baked beans and opened them.
“Not really,” I shrugged, putting a pot of water on the stove to boil. “As long as it’s a healthy baby, I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“That’s the true words of the mother right there,” a voice behind us said. We turned to see it was Sara. Dad, Gunner and Chasey could be heard in the backyard.
“I wasn’t told to much, but this is going to be an eventful night isn’t it?” Sara asked. Mandy looked up at me with the same wonder in her eyes.
“Yes, it is.” I admitted. “The Calaways despise the Mitchells for them giving me up, they feel it’s their fault I had the life that I have, but I’m not holding anything against the Mitchells because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I owe them so much.”
“But our family doesn’t like them because they all but abandoned you.” Sara cleared up. I nodded my head and reached into the freezer for a bag of French fries.
“Exactly, and they’re not willing to give them a chance to defend themselves either.” I explained. There was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” I said, wiping my hands and rushing to the front door. I could hear voices and recognized Grandpa Frank’s booming voice. It was the Calaways.
“Hi,” I said, opening the door. “Everyone’s out back already.”
“Even the Mitchells?” Grandma Cathy asked stiffly.
“Not yet,” I answered. “Dad, Jeff, Matt, Jason, Gunner and Chasey are back there.”
“Paul and Marylyn not here yet?” Uncle Mike asked.
“Right behind ya!” Paul’s voice called. “We stopped off to pick up Jeff and Matt’s dad.” he explained. The family walked in, but Mary, Paul and Gib stopped by me.
“Ready for this?” Marylyn asked. “A few more cars was pulling in behind us.”
“It must be the others then,” I said as the cars pulled up. Sure enough, my mother’s family got out of the cars.
“Riley!” my great uncle Martin called out. I smiled and rushed outside to hug him, along with my cousins, my aunts and uncles, and my grandparents. When I got to Grandpa Wally, he held me out at arms length, taking in my new and ever expanding figure.
“You look so beautiful,” he said, smiling at me gently. I smiled back at him and hugged him harder.
“How are you feeling?” I asked him, pulling away.
“Excellent thanks to you,” he replied. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for your bravery.”
“I love you Grandpa, I always have.” I laughed at the look of disbelief on his face.
“Hello all,” Jeff said, coming up behind me.
“Jeff, so nice to see you again. I hope you’re taking proper care of our granddaughter and great-grandchild.” Grandma Alex said, hugging Jeff.
“I’m doing my best,” he replied honestly.
“Hello, you must be the Mitchells,” Marylyn’s voice startled me.
“Yes, I’m Alexandria,” my grandmother said.
“Mary, Paul, this is Alexandria, Rebecca, Walter, Martin, Tyler, Jackson, James, Nelly, Danielle and Jessica, and I don’t think I’ve ever got your name,” I said, looking toward Jackson’s wife.
“Marissa,” she replied.
“Marissa. Everyone, this is my Aunt Marylyn and my Uncle Paul. They’re the ones who raised me since I came down here.” I said.
“It’s nice to meet you,” my grandfather held out his hand, which my uncle took.
“I thought you said they’ll be hostile,” Walter said, looking down at me.
“Oh, they won’t,” I said. “I told you that they wouldn’t be, but the other ones, watch out for.”
“They have their hearts in the right places, they’re just the types to believe that you should clean up your own mess, not leave it for someone else.” Marylyn added.
“Basically,” I nodded, looking back toward them. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Ready to go meet the other ones?” They nodded and I led the way into the house to the backyard. Before going back outside though, I made sure Sara and Mandy met my family. They were gracious toward them, but I wasn’t worried about them. Dad came in while they were talking, and Alexandria hugged him as if it was nothing.
“Backyard is this way,” he said, escorting the Mitchells out back. I was the last one out, and right away I could see there was going to be a lot of tension.