Yule Tidings (11 page)

             
“She was invited to the wedding shower, Jason,” Alex said, tears streaming down her face.  “Kelly is really sorry, and Rose is too, but there’s nothing they can do.”

             
“What?” Jason asked, this time the depth of the situation dawning on him.

             
“I was planning on inviting your Mom to the shower, but then she was so mean and horrible that I decided not to.  Kelly was supposed to take the invitation out of the pile, but she forgot, and when Michael took the pile of invitations to the post office to mail them he didn’t notice.  He mailed all the invitations, including your mother’s.” Alex started crying with renewed vigor as she leaned against Jason’s hard chest.

             
The true horror of the situation finally settled in on Jason as he held his weeping fiancée.  His mother was sent an invitation.  Now she would think he’d rescinded his decision to distance himself from her.  She’d think he was groveling, admitting he was wrong.  Jason was irate.  He would not subject Alex to his mother, especially not without him present.  The men were all supposed to go hunting while the women stayed at the house for the shower.  Jason wasn’t supposed to be there.  Alex wept against his chest, mumbling, “I don’t think I can do it, I can’t handle it, Jason.”

             
“Alex, it’s okay.  Calm down, everything will be fine.  We’ll figure this out.  I’ll take care of it.  Shhh, Lexi.  It’s okay.  Don’t worry about it anymore,” Jason said, rubbing her back gently.  “Relax, sweetheart,” Jason told her, calming her down by degrees.  He stayed with her, rubbing her back and stroking her hair until she fell asleep, a broken sob here and a hiccup there interrupting her slumber. 

             
Jason wasn’t entirely sure what to do.  Alex had been so distraught and upset he could barely understand a word she said.  He eased her onto the bed and covered her up.  He’d just have to call Kelly to find out what had happened.  He couldn’t think of anything else to do.

             
The answering machine picked up.  “Kelly, it’s Jason.  Give me a call back when you get this,” he said, and hung up.  He’d have to try Rose.  To his surprise, Rose actually answered her phone.  “Hey, Rose, it’s Jason.”

             
“Hi Jason, how is Alex?”

             
“Asleep.  What happened?”  He asked, more than a little irritated that his sister would have let Alex cry, alone. He knew the kids were a handful, but she could have at least stayed on the phone with Alex until he got home, or even called him at work and told him how upset Alex was.  He didn’t expect her to drop everything and drag the kids over to his place to comfort Alex, but some kind of consideration would have been nice.

             
“Well, Kelly accidentally sent Mom an invitation to the wedding shower.”

             
“Why?  I don’t understand how she even got invited after what happened last weekend,” Jason said, letting the frustration seep into his voice.  With Alex he had been careful, unwilling to upset her more, but Rose could handle his anger at the moment.  He couldn’t fathom why his mother would have even been on the guest list, all things considered.

             
“Jason, we prepared the invitations before Alex ever met Mom.  Alex wrote them out and addressed them with Kelly two weeks ago, the day you guys told us about the baby.  She wanted us to invite Mom.  Then she met Mom, and it was obvious that we weren’t going to invite her.  Kelly meant to pull the invitation from the pile, but with the kids and everything else going on, somehow she forgot.  Michael didn’t catch it when he took them to the post office, so they all got mailed out.  Mom probably got the invitation today, otherwise I’d offer to go slip it out of her mailbox tomorrow.”

             
“Okay.  So, can’t you guys just uninvite her?” Jason asked, slowly.  It made sense to him.  The mistake was Kelly’s.  She could just call his mother and tell her that there was a mistake with the invitations and she wasn’t actually invited because Alex and Jason didn’t want her there.  It sounded simple enough.  His mother would be angry; irate even, but at least she wouldn’t show up unexpectedly.

             
“Jason, you’re asking us to get involved in your fight with Mom.  We don’t like what she did, but jumping in the middle will really put us in an awkward position.  It’s bad enough I can’t invite Mom out for Thanksgiving.  I already invited you and Alex, and I don’t want to put Alex under any more stress.  I mean, I can cover by inviting Dad and Donna, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be angry with me,” Rose reasoned.  She fully understood Jason’s irritation.  She was mad about the mix-up herself, but there really wasn’t much she could do without making things worse.  “Jason, think about it.  If Kelly or I call Mom and tell her she can’t come Mom will hate Alex even more because she’s taking
us
away from Mom as well as you.”  Rose and Kelly spent a long time on the phone after they talked to Alex, and they both agreed that if one of them were to get involved it would just inspire even more hatred and jealousy.

             
Jason didn’t want to admit it, but Rose had a valid point.  His mother wasn’t one to take things as they were.  He couldn’t be mad at his mother because she’d behaved badly, it was because Alex had said something; Rose and Kelly wouldn’t be uninviting her because they didn’t want her to come and complicate things, but because Alex didn’t want her there.  Jason sighed; it would be something else he would have to deal with.  He hadn’t planned on talking to his mother anytime soon, maybe not until he called to tell her the baby had been born, but apparently those plans were about to change.  “Call Kelly, tell her she can answer her phone now.  I’m not angry with her, I guess.  But why did you and Kelly let Alex get so hysterical?  Why wouldn’t you have talked with her instead of letting her cry her eyes out until I got home?” he asked.

             
“Jason, she wasn’t hysterical.  She was upset, but she wasn’t hysterical or crying.  Kelly called her and told her about the mistake, and she wanted to talk to me. So, Kelly called me and we had one of those conference calls for about thirty minutes.  She was fine when we hung up with her an hour or two ago.  She was uptight, but we thought we could fix it, figure out some way to prevent Mom from coming.  Kelly offered to call and tell you, even, but Alex told her not to worry about it.  That she would tell you when you got home from work.”  Rose said, surprised.  Poor Alex!  If they had known she was bawling her eyes out one of them would have dropped everything to go over there and sit with her. “Jason, if we’d known, one of us would have stopped by.  You know that.”

             
“Yeah.  Well, she’s asleep now.  She was crying nonstop when I got home.  I could hardly understand a word she said.  Anyway, tell Kelly I won’t yell at her,” Jason said, resignation in his voice.  “I don’t know what to do.  My first inclination is to call Mom and tell her not to come.  She doesn’t want me to be with Alex, and I refuse to allow her to run my life or influence my decisions like that.”

             
“If that’s what you feel you need to do, Jason.  I don’t want to tell you to yell at Mom, but if you honestly don’t want her to be involved, you need to tell her.  She’s obnoxious unless you put her in her place.  That doesn’t even help all the time.”

             
“I know, Rose.  I’ll give it a few days.  See how I feel on Saturday.  But I should get going.  I’ll talk to you later.”   Jason didn’t want to talk to his sister anymore.  He just wanted to sit back and think about what he was going to do.  He didn’t want to hurt his mother, but he couldn’t let her walk all over Alex, either.

             
“Okay, talk to you later.  Good luck.” Rose said, hanging up.

             
Jason hung up the phone.  He was sitting on the couch, looking into the bedroom at Alex, sleeping on the bed.  He didn’t know what to do.  He knew Alex wouldn’t force him to choose between her or his mother.  She’d take whatever Mom could dish out if she thought it would make him happy.  His mom, on the other hand, would want Jason to split up with Alex.  She wouldn’t be happy unless they broke off the wedding and went separate ways.  She didn’t even seem to think about the fact that her grandchild would be put in the middle.  She hadn’t even congratulated him on becoming a father.  She actually seemed to abhor the idea. 

             
It galled him to think of how differently his mother was behaving.  He knew she wouldn’t approve of his marriage, but the baby, he hadn’t expected her to be so cruel about the child.  When Kelly had Micah, his mother had been ecstatic: the first grandchild.  Micah was spoiled rotten; at least until Robyn was born, two years later.  Then there was a boy and a girl and the entire family was excited.  Then the twins came six months later, Hannah and Haven, and finally baby Bishop, who was only nine months old now.  Each baby was considered a blessing.  His Mom was crazy about the grandchildren.  When Kelly and Rose were pregnant, she refused to let anyone upset them.  She stopped in to help them clean, she cooked meals for them occasionally, and she sent them care packages to make them feel special.  It was like the divorce had never happened. 

             
Now, with Alex, she went so far as to question the baby’s paternity?  He didn’t get it.  He knew his mother was a devout Catholic, but could she really turn her back on her own grandchild just because Jason wasn’t married to the baby’s mother?  Rose had lived with Brandon for a while before they were married.  Everyone knew they slept together, so why was it so different with Alex?  Jason shook his head.  It was impossible to know what his mother was thinking.  He’d have to call her and tell her it was a mistake.  He couldn’t put Alex through her nagging and misery.  It’d be one thing if she could just be happy with her life, but she couldn’t.  Hell, even if she couldn’t be happy, at least she could allow that others were happy with their lives, but no, she had to make everybody as miserable as she was.  It was unreasonable and unhealthy.

             
What should he say to her when he called?  ‘Mom, we’ve changed our minds, you’re not invited to the shower,’ just seemed wrong.  ‘Mom, the invitations were sent out before our fight, and, things being what they are, perhaps it’s best if you don’t come.  Alex doesn’t need the strain, and I don’t really want to see you…’ Jason wasn’t sure if that was any better.  She might take it easily or she might go off the deep end and start yelling and screaming at him about how Alex was taking him away or something likewise ridiculous.  He just never knew what to expect.  He knew before ever going to visit her that she wouldn’t take the news well on Halloween, but he would never have guessed just how badly she would react.  After all, a baby was a blessing, no matter what. 

             
He couldn’t believe she’d been so callous about the baby, either.  A new life and she obviously didn’t even care; she actually seemed to disdain the idea.  Jason would be devastated if anything happened to the baby.  She made no sense.  At this precise moment Jason didn’t believe she had any right to be near his baby or Alex.  Clearly they weren’t important to her.  She didn’t deserve to be around them.  She’d lost any privileges she had when she was so mean and cruel to Alex. He’d call her early Saturday morning, while Alex slept, maybe, and tell her how he felt.  It wouldn’t be a fun conversation, but it would be necessary one. 

Chapter Ten

             
Alex woke a few hours later to find Jason was in the kitchen, cooking.  Her eyes burned, and she could tell they were still swollen.  She went into the bathroom, rinsing her face with cool water to ease her stinging, irritated eyes, before walking into the sunny kitchen.  Jason stood at the stove making something in the large frying pan she’d just picked up.  “Hey,” he said, gently, looking at her closely.  He seemed to take in her entire appearance with just a glance, from her wild brown hair and red swollen eyes to her bare toes.

             
“Hey.”  Alex looked at him anxiously.  He was smiling at her, but she could see the shadows of concern around his eyes.  She hated to be the cause of those shadows.  “I’m sorry I was such a mess when you got home.  These hormones…” Alex sat at the small table in the middle of the kitchen floor as she shrugged her shoulders.  It had been a rough day.  She’d managed to hold it together while she talked to Rose and Kelly on the phone, but as soon as they hung up she’d starting crying.  She tried everything she could think of to stop the flow of tears but nothing had worked.  Even her anger wasn’t enough to stem the flow.

             
“Don’t worry about it.  I know it’s not just the hormones, either, so please don’t try to defend my mother by placing blame on something so trivial.”  Jason looked at her hard, willing her to understand that he didn’t blame her a bit.  It had nothing to do with her; truthfully, it had started years before Jason had even met Alex.

             
“But Kelly and Rose,” Alex said, “it was just an accident.”  Alex knew Jason had a temper.  He wasn’t an unreasonable man, by any means, but when he was angry he could be downright difficult.  He’d apologize later, when he calmed down enough to see that he was overreacting, but for a few minutes he could be totally infuriating.  She’d only seen him really angry a few times, usually dealing with mistakes at work, and more recently with Anne’s behavior.  It was never a pretty picture and she hoped to avoid seeing it again.  Even if it wasn’t directed towards her it was still not fun to witness.