Free Maternal Instinct by Janice Kay Johnson Page B

rearrange clothing and limbs before Mom appeared. Nell forced a pleasant tone. "How are you, Colin?"
    The rangy, six-foot boy, currently sporting spiky orange hair, jerked a shrug, his gaze sliding to Kim. "I'm good," he said, something smug in his tone.
    Nell just bet he was. She gritted her teeth and turned to put groceries away.
    "Cool!" Kim said, pulling the scrunchie out of the drugstore bag. "Is this for me?"
    Nell lunged the few feet across the kitchen and snatched up the bag. "This is all mine." She sounded … odd, breathless, eliciting a startled glance from Kim. Nell tried to smile. "The scrunchie is a consolation prize."
    "Oh." Kim blinked . " Jeez , Mom . Did you think I was going to steal your makeup or something?"
    No, my home pregnancy kit.
    "Don't be silly." This time, Nell admired her own light tone. "Would you put those groceries away while I go change out of my uniform? Then I'll get dinner on. Colin, can you stay?"
    "Um … well, I guess." He craned his neck to try to see into the grocery bags. "I mean, I don't know…"
    She interpreted his hemming and hawing correctly. "We're having hamburgers and potato salad."
    His face cleared. "Oh, cool. Yeah! Sure!"
    Safely in her back bedroom with her bag, Nell locked herself in the bathroom. She opened the box and read the instructions. Simple enough. She could do it right now. It didn't take that long.
    Except… She did have to go back to the kitchen, make dinner and pretend everything was fine. Probably everything would be fine. But, just in case, she'd need time alone to deal with the fix she was in. She wouldn't want to face Kim, let alone the boyfriend.
    Later, she decided, and shoved the bag in a vanity drawer underneath a tray of makeup. Relief at having an excuse to procrastinate mingled with a new serving of anxiety.
    The evening seemed excruciatingly long. Colin wolfed his food and gave monosyllabic answers to Nell's questions, leaving the burden of conversation to her and Kim, who looked anxious and defensive whenever Nell tried to elicit any response from him.
    After he'd finally—thank heavens!—left, Kim whirled to face her mother. "You don't have to interrogate Colin every time you see him!"
    Floored, Nell said, "I was making conversation."
    "Oh, sure," her daughter sneered. "'So, you're not working this summer, Colin?'" she mimicked. "'Jobs can be such good experience. Are you looking at colleges yet? Are your parents hoping you'll go to college?'"
    "It's bad to talk about what he hopes to do in the future? You and I talk about it all the time!"
    "That's different! You're my mother! You're not his!"
    "Amazingly, I am aware that I didn't give birth to him," Nell said dryly. "Even if he is around enough for me to start wondering."
    Kim made a furious sound. "You don't get it, do you?"
    "No," Nell said on a sigh. She should; she remembered well enough what it was like to be a teenager. But in this case… "No, I'm afraid I don't."
    "You embarrassed me! Like, is he supposed to give some kind of correct answers before he's acceptable as a boyfriend?"
    "I never said…"
    "You didn't have to!" Kim snapped, big eyes accusing on her mother's face. "I am so humiliated."
    Nell had had enough. Jaw tight, she said, "You know, I'm not crazy about him. It's true. But in this case, I was trying to be nice. I also asked about the paint job Colin's doing on his car, when football practice starts, and whether his parents have started the addition on their house. By the time I asked about college, I was getting desperate for topics. But you hear what you want to hear. So go ahead, be humiliated. But while you're wallowing in it, clean the kitchen, too. I," she concluded acerbically, "am going to bed."
    "Mo- om !" Kim whined. "I already put away the—"
    Nell walked out.
    Ten minutes later, she stared at the tiny strip of paper, turning a rosy, optimistic hue. No. Please, no.
    Her stomach lurched and she dropped the strip, falling to her knees in front of the toilet.