looks across the table, and Tammy caught it. Claire looked uncomfortable for a minute, but she had passed the three-month mark, and had just had a sonogram that morning, and was told everything was fine.
She then did exactly what her mother had asked her not to do. She looked straight at Amanda and smiled at her.
“Well, there’s a reason for it,” she said happily. “I’m having a baby.” There was total silence at the table for a minute as all of the young people stared at Claire in amazement.
“Are you serious?” Amanda asked her, looking panicked. “Are you getting married before we are?” She looked as though she was going to cry if Anthony’s sister stole their thunder.
“I’m not getting married at all. We don’t need to. We’re happy just as we are, and now we’ll have a baby.” Claire acted as though they’d been married for years, and this had been a long awaited event, instead of a shocker in a now five-month-old relationship.
“Wow,” Anthony said, not sure what else to say, as he watched his mother’s face turn to stone, and Tammy exchanged a look with her grandmother.
“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about it tonight,” Kate said to her youngest daughter, who pretended not to hear her.
“Are you okay with that, the baby, I mean, if they’re not married?” Amanda asked her future mother-in-law. Anthony kicked her under the table, and she looked at him in surprise. “What? I can’t talk about it? Claire brought it up,” she said, defending herself as Anthony groaned. He could see a tornado heading toward them, and he hated confrontation, especially among his female relatives. It never turned out well.
“No, Mom’s not happy about it,” Claire answered for Kate. “She’s furious with me in fact. She thinks it’s shocking.”
“My parents would too,” Amanda said innocently, as Anthony closed his eyes. “My father would kill me. And my mother would probably cry for a year.”
“Reed and I don’t think marriage is necessary,” Claire said pointedly with an edge to her voice.
“Is he willing to marry you?” Amanda continued to pursue it despite scowls of warning from her fiancé. “If he is, I’d marry him if I were you. Why expose yourself to all the nasty things people will say?” Amanda suggested. No one else said a word.
“He’s willing, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to get married because we ‘have’ to, and we don’t care what people will say.” Kate was looking sick by then, and pushed her dinner away, as Tammy watched her and felt sorry for her. It was easy to see how upset she was and what a blow it was to her. She was furious with her sister for bringing it up tonight at their mother’s birthday. It also explained why Kate had seemed so stressed recently. Tammy had wondered why.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Tammy said softly, and Kate looked at her with tears in her eyes.
“Thank you. I never realized how liberal your sister is, and how modern,” she said quietly. And rebellious, she didn’t add, but she thought it. “The news will be out pretty soon when it starts to show. I haven’t told anyone yet.”
“We’ve told a few friends, and we’ll start telling everyone in the next few weeks when we know what sex it is,” Claire said blithely.
“Do they care at your law firm?” Tammy asked her, mature, and practical, and always careful about her job. “A lot of companies wouldn’t like it.”
“I haven’t told them yet. But Reed is one of their biggest clients. How mad could they get?” She was cocky with her response, and sensing that her news wasn’t being entirely well received, even by her siblings, Claire had adopted the same aggressive tone she had been using recently with her mother.
“I’m not sure if I should congratulate you, or sympathize with Mom,” Tammy said quietly.
“I don’t see why you don’t marry him,” Anthony said, looking stunned by the whole thing. “What are you trying to prove by not getting married? How cool you are? Who cares? Why don’t you just go down to city hall and get married?” He wished he and Amanda could do that, instead of being a part of the circus Amanda and her parents were planning. “Is Reed as opposed to marriage as you are?”
“He’s fine either way,” she said, looking annoyed at her brother.
“I think he’d actually prefer to get married,” Kate chimed in. “He asked her to,