Uncharted

"I'm going to drop your child if you don't give me my hand back," I pointed out, lifting my eyes to glare at Sara.

Ever since I had walked into the delivery room, she hadn't let me left hand go. It was now decorated with an engagement ring and Sara couldn't take her eyes off of it. I had Avery in one arm while the other was being held by my best friend.

"In a minute," she hissed, turning my hand around in hers. "Is it real?"

"You really think he would give me a fake diamond ring? Seriously Sara?"

She shrugged her shoulders before running her finger over the stone. "You can take it off my finger if you want," I said, turning my attention back to the baby I still had in one arm. "And I came here to see your child, not have you drool over my ring."

Finally, Sara let go of my hand so I could support her child a little bit more in my arms. "So he just asked you to marry him?" Sara questions. Since I had arrived at the hospital nearly thirty minutes ago, she had asked this question a dozen times. She didn't even wait for my answer. "You just had to go and trump the news of my baby with an engagement. Spotlight stealer..."

"You know that's not the case. Plus, you're the only one who knows," I pointed out. "Other than Patrick."

I heard her huff, which caused me to laugh. "Give me my child," she finally said.

I got up and handed her Avery before retaking my seat next to her bed. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. She was admiring her gorgeous child, while my eyes had yet to lift from the ring on my finger. In the middle of our silence, my phone began to buzz in my purse. Pulling it out, I felt my jaw drop. "Shiiiit...."

"What?" Sara asked, looking in my direction. "And no cussing around the child."

"She's a day old and has no idea what I'm saying," I pointed out, sitting back in my chair and sighing. My fingers raced over the keys of my phone. "And guess who's coming to town tomorrow morning."

I glanced up in time to see Sara's eyebrow raise before I sighed. "My mother."

"Oh...shit..."

-x-

"Your..mother?"

I sighed and nodded my head before filling my mouth with a huge bite of pizza. The last thing I wanted to subject Jonathan to was meeting my mother, but it seemed as though he would in less than twenty-four hours.

"Should I be worried?"

Chewing the rest of my pizza, I swallowed hard and nodded again.

"What does that mean?" Jonny questioned. He had yet to even touch his food while I was quickly wolfing mine down to avoid this conversation.

Talking about my mother was something that I never enjoyed. Actually, talking about my family in general was something I avoided with most people. I hadn't realized until now that Jonathan knew absolutely nothing about my family, and it was about time I filled him in.

"Nothing in the world is good enough for my Mom," I began, pushing my plate away. This conversation had quickly killed my appetite. "I'm not good enough, you won't be good enough...nothing in the world will ever be good enough for my mother."

His eyes were fixed on me and I knew he wanted me to continue. Sighing, I pulled my legs up to my chest. If he wanted the full story, he was about to get it.

"You know that I grew up with two older brothers. When my Mom finally got a girl, she was more than excited about it. She could finally do all the things she wanted. By the age of three, I had dance and gymnastic classes five days a week. Beauty pageants started at the age of four and quickly took over. I was supposed to be the little princess my Mother had always wanted." I rolled my eyes at the thought. "Sadly for her, I never wanted to be a princess."

I turned my gaze from Jonny to my legs. I was drawing designs over my legs before I continued my story. "I would rather go with my dad to hockey games. We lived sort of close to where the Wild played and went to games a lot. When hockey began interfering with pageants, Mom got pissed. Her and Dad started arguing and by the time I was eight, they were divorced."

"Bailey..."

I lifted my hand to cut him off. "Oh, it get worse," I chuckled, rubbing my nose. "Jack and Kevin were old enough to make their own decision about who they wanted to live with. I wasn't so lucky.... Every weekend was pageants, ever week was dance and class. I lost interest in pageants around eleven. I tried telling her that I was done, but she wouldn't hear it. So I decided to just start not trying instead. Every time I lost, I got an earful about if I were prettier, that wouldn't have happened. Or, if I had tried harder, I could have gotten a bigger crown. It sort of kills your self-esteem to hear those things from you own mom."

Instead of getting said, talking about my mother just made me mad. She was the reason for so much of my insecurities and I resented her for it.

"My grades were never good enough, even when I had straight A's. When I danced, my feet weren't pointed enough, or I missed a turn. If I wasn't first, I was nothing in her eyes." My hands clenched into fists, but I quickly let them go. I couldn't have her piss me off before she even arrived.

I had been so focused on my eyes that I didn't notice Jonny had appeared at my side. "Bailey, I'm so sorry," he whispered, rubbing my back slightly.

Laughing slightly, I shook my head. "I'll be fine. I'm always fine. She usually comes around once a year and then disappears for a while. It's you I'm worried about."

He chuckled slightly. "And why's that?"

"Because if her own daughter isn't good enough, what do you think she's going to think of my fiance?"