anyway before we found out about the baby. At least he’s happy about it, even if you’re not.” Claire managed to look both angry and disappointed. She expected her mother to be supportive and thrilled. But how could she with the way Claire was going about it? Kate wouldn’t have been happy if Claire was getting married this quickly, but a baby and not married was too much for her to swallow all at once, and to expect her to be delighted on top of it was completely unreasonable.
“I need time to digest this,” Kate said in a grim voice and stood up too. “You’re expecting a lot if you want me to be happy about this the way you want to do it.”
“Marriage is an archaic tradition, Mom. No one sensible does it anymore.”
“Well, some do, I’m just sorry you don’t want to be one of them. It may be archaic, but it’s the right thing to do.”
“In your opinion, not mine.” Claire started to walk to the door, as Kate followed her. She tried to put her arms around Claire to hug her, but she pushed her away. “Don’t bother. I know what you think of me. I’m the family disgrace now. You love all of us as long as we do exactly what you want, get a great education, find a terrific job, work our asses off, and do everything ‘properly,’ your way. You may be able to con Anthony into that, but not me. I know what I’m doing is right for me. I’m sorry you don’t think so.”
“I’m not banishing you. You’re not being fair. This is a hell of a shock for me,” Kate said quietly.
“This isn’t about you,” Claire said coldly. “It’s about me and Reed and our baby. And if you can’t get on board, and don’t want to be part of it, that’s up to you.” She was being incredibly nasty and immature about it, and every word she said cut through Kate like a sword. It was the first serious problem she had ever had with one of her children, and it was a big one. Kate wondered if the wounds between them would ever heal. She couldn’t even think about the baby, she was so hurt and shocked by her own daughter.
“I love you. I’m sorry this is hard for both of us,” Kate said in a sad voice. She felt as though she had just lost her youngest child, but she couldn’t be dishonest with her. Claire had spoken her truth, and Kate had a right to speak hers, but apparently Claire didn’t think so. She wanted her mother to tell her it was great news and go along with everything Claire was doing, and she couldn’t. She had to at least speak up and try to reason with her. And even if Kate was angry, even furious, she loved Claire and wanted to make that clear to her.
“It’s not hard for me,” she said as she opened the front door. “I have Reed. I don’t need you if you don’t want to be part of it.”
“I didn’t say that. What I said is that I think you should get married and do this respectably.”
“By your standards.”
“And I didn’t say I didn’t want to be part of it. This is a hell of a shock you’ve just dished out while Reed was putting gas in the car. I need to sit with this for a while and think about it.”
Claire started to walk out and turned back to her mother then. “Oh yeah, and Reed says he wants to meet you.”
“I want to meet him too,” Kate said quietly. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready.” Claire was being a brat about a very adult situation, and Kate didn’t feel ready to meet Reed yet. She was deeply hurt by everything Claire had said and the way she had handled it.
“I’ll call you,” Claire said, and slammed the door behind her. Kate stood staring at it, and burst into tears.
* * *
—
She cried for an hour and was awake all night. She called Claire on her cell to tell her she loved her, but Claire didn’t pick up. She texted her the message and got no response. There had been skirmishes with her children while they were growing up, over parties they couldn’t go to, or minor restrictions for homework they hadn’t done, but there had never been anything like this, with Claire rejecting their