Chapter 35: -03- Making Nabe

~~** Watanabe Chigusa’s Point of View **~~

I was downstairs watching some television when I heard footfalls on the staircase.  Turning around to see if it was my darling Shota, instead I found my mother descending alone.  However she did look a bit… happier?

When she made it down to the first floor, she immediately rushed into the kitchen and threw on her cute yellow apron.  Afterwards, I got to see the full force of my mother, the happy housewife, in action again for the first time in a very long time.

Of course it had me curious, so I went to join her.

“Don’t you look like the mouse who stole the cheese right now!” I said, as she had a grin plastered ear to ear on her face.

“Ufufufu~”

I could also see her hair was in a little disarray, her skin was sweaty and her cheeks were rosy.  She was also positively glowing.

“Did something good happen?” I dared to ask.

“Ara?  Is it that obvious?”

“Yes, quite obvious.”

“Maa~”  she began to explain, “Shota-kun came home and just gave me a hug.  Kanna-chan was here drinking with me when it happened.  He said he was aware that he hadn’t been treating me right when Kanna-chan asked him and went upstairs to be alone.  Since it was the first thing he's said in a few days to me, I struck while the iron was hot.  And it was hot.”

“Tch!”  I clicked my tongue.  I could listen between the lines.  I get what happened upstairs. “So, he’s back to normal now?”

Mom only shook her head.

“No.  But it’s a step in the right direction I believe.  I think he’s really lost on what to do about your pregnancy, so he’s going to talk to that family friend of his.”

I see, so perhaps my hug this morning did some good?

“Also, he requested that we have nabe tonight.  Would you like to give me a hand in preparing it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Mom and I toiled in the kitchen preparing the nabe, and about a half-hour into it, Shota came down to join us.  He didn’t say anything, only sitting at the kitchen table, but he was there with us and didn’t look as distant as before.

“Shota, wanna help me stuff the cabbage bombs?”  I turned around to ask him.

“…okay…”

It was a lackluster reply, but a reply nonetheless.  I grabbed the head of cabbage and the bowl with the spicy mixture which went inside and sat down next to him, demonstrating how to add the mixture into the cabbage leaf and fold it.

We spent the next few minutes folding them up in silence.

“And… done!”  We had prepared a good amount and I brought the filled plate over to mom who quickly slid them into the boiling pot.  While neither of us were paying attention, Shota came in from behind and got between us, wrapping an arm around both of our waists, pulling us tightly against him.

“I’m sorry.  I uh… I’m… sorry.”

Both mom and I glanced at each other, her nodding at me, and we both returned his hug at the same time.

“I… am going to see Nene-san tomorrow.”  He offered.

“Nene-san?  Is that her name?”  Mom asked him.

“Y-yeah.  Okazaki Nene.  She agreed to meet me at a café nearby…”

“That’s wonderful.  Please have a good long talk with her, we’ll give you all the space you need.”

Shota nodded and just remained where he was, contemplating something.

“Thank you for the hug earlier, Chigusa.”

“Huh?  Yeah, no problem, Shota.  If you want you can go relax in the living room and we’ll call you when dinner is ready.

“…”  Shota was staring at me in the eyes first, and then his gaze went lower.  Was he appraising me?

“Shota?”

“…would it be alright… if I touched you…?”

Why on Earth would he feel the need to ask permission?  His touch is the one thing I crave above all.

“Sure, go right ahead.” I happily gave permission.

His hand came from around my mother’s waist and reached for the top of my stomach where he gently rested only his fingertips.  Was he curious about our child?  Perhaps this is how he will come to terms with our relationship?

Mom wrapped an arm around him this time and grabbed his hand with hers, moving it lower, below my belly button and pushing it flat against the tense part of my lower abdomen.

“It’s here, Shota-kun.  Right now it’s still developing, so she hasn’t begun to balloon out yet.  She’s twenty weeks along, and the doctor pretty much confirmed it was a girl.”

It was a strange feeling.  What should have been a moment between my child’s father, my child, and myself was inextricably tied to my mother, his wife, and I felt for the first time this child wasn’t solely ours.

“You don’t have to think too hard about it right now, dear.  Just know that everyone here loves you… even her.”

I could see from his face which began to pale, how his heart dropped.  He was not comfortable with this at all, but he still went through with what he should have done back on Monday.

“…there’s nothing… wrong with it… developmentally…?”

“Not at all!  The doctor said it had quite a strong heartbeat already!” Mom answered jovially, lightly pounding her chest.  “Us Hanazono women are quite tough!”

Hanazono… mom’s maiden name.  I too should have been a Hanazono, but for some reason mom decided I should have dad’s name instead, Watanabe.

Mom pulled up Shota’s shirt a little, exposing his somewhat flat stomach.  He didn’t have abs, but he wasn’t fat at all.  She then talked about how some close physical skinship would help the baby sense him, and we somehow ended up in a tightly pressed hug with our stomachs pushing against each other.

I wanted a hug as it was, but Shota held on to me so tightly, it became hard to breathe.  Mom left us alone and Shota’s grip on me didn’t loosen up one bit.  I could feel my own heart beating loudly in my ear.

Could I hope that he also… wanted it?

You are reading story The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. at novel35.com

I prayed silently to myself that he did.

Reluctantly, I had to tap out of our hug first.  To which Shota must have realized he was hurting me unintentionally, and apologized yet again.

“Why don’t the both of you go rest on the couch.  I’ll have this done in no time.  Shota-kun, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, just enjoy a lap pillow and say hello for now.”

Shota looked over at my mother who gave him a kiss on the forehead, and a swat on the behind.  I had taken the cue here, and Shota’s arm along with it, escorting him over to the couch with no resistance, sitting him down on the couch first, and then dropping my shorts to the floor.

Shota stared at me, and it felt good and warm.  I took my seat and pulled him carefully onto my lap, arranging his head so that his ear was up against my belly button.

“I don’t know if there’ll be any noise, but maybe you can hear or feel something.”

Shota lay unmoving, looking up at me as if I was the only thing in his world right now.  Something I was aware would never happen, but allowed myself to hope for anyway.

My fingers played with his short straight hair, on occasion tracing a bit around his face.  Shota wasn’t a super hottie, but he did have some attractive features.  That was part of his charm to me… that he didn’t look like some scummy playboy who’d only have a bit of fun with me and then throw me away when he was done.

And it’s not like he did that, either.  I never gave him the confidence to chase after me, and now I’m carrying that regret around.  All twenty weeks of it.

“…does it hurt or anything…?” Shota asked me, aloofly.  His concern is cute, and I know he would be a good father for sure.  I can imagine a doting Shota dealing with another crazy woman from our family…

“No.  I actually didn’t even know I was this far along, or even pregnant for that matter until Monday.  I haven’t felt it moving inside me yet, so I had no idea… this is as sudden to you as it is to me, you know?”

“Then… how did you find out?”

“I didn’t.  Mom did.  She’s got some kinda pregnancy sixth-sense or something.  I guess she was gonna take a pregnancy test for herself but she woke me up early and had me join her in doing so just in case, because she noticed I didn’t use any sanitary supplies recently.”

Shota’s face seemed to be processing my words, because the dull look on his face turned sharp for a moment.

“Shouldn’t that have been… something to notice?”

“Normally, yes.  But I’ve got a pretty irregular period as it is.  I’m pretty sure I had one a few days after we did it, but I can’t remember it clearly.  I didn’t have any reason to really think I would be pregnant after that one time…”

Shota just nodded in my lap and relaxed quietly after that.

Mom eventually called us into the kitchen when the nabe was done, and we all enjoyed the first meal we really shared together as a family in the last few days.  Mom was all smiles, while I, a bit happier after my precious few moments together with my Shota, was still worried about his disposition towards my situation.

Because he hadn’t yet said he wanted her, or that he was happy.

With luck, after he talks with his friend, Okazaki Nene-san, perhaps things will change for the better?

Ah, looks like the first cabbage bomb is doing a number on Shota right now.  The question is, was it because of the spiciness, or because he is enjoying something we worked hard to create together?

Mom just watched over us silently.

I had my own battles to deal with now.  Mom said she was done letting me run wild in her marriage trying to seduce Shota for myself, but the thing is, I don’t care if he’s with my mother.

I care that he’s not with me.

~~**  Tachibana Shota’s Point of View **~~

Earlier, before coming downstairs to join everyone for dinner.

“Hello?”

“Nene-san…”

“Shota?”

“Yeah… I was wondering… if we can meet up and talk about something important?”

“…yeah, sure we can.  Is something wrong?”

“…I don’t know if that’s the right way to put it, but there are some complicated things going on in my life and I could use the opinion of someone with more life experience than I have to help me decide some things.”

“More life experience?  Is that a new way of saying I’m an old grandma now?”

“Don’t youkai take hundreds of years to age?”

“Listen to you with that mouth…!  Heh, heh heh heh…  Alright you little punk, I got some free time tomorrow.  How about after your school is over we meet at that popular coffeehouse?”

“The one by the convenience store across from the candy shop?”

“That’s the one.  I’ll see you there at four sharp.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it, Nene-san.”

“Yeah, yeah.  It’ll be your treat, they have a killer coffee cake I want to try.”

“I’ll buy you a big one.”

“I’ll hold you to that.  See-ya!”

Beep!

I sighed.

It’s been a while since I last saw Nene-san.  I wonder if she’s been doing well?

Though she’s a family friend, in truth, she’s much more than that.  Technically, she’s actually my auntie by way of being my deceased mother’s step-sister from my grandparent’s remarriage.  Though to me she’s a bit more than that.

Though there was some trouble between her and my parents over the years when I was younger, when it came to family, she was the only one to step up and help me when I needed it the most after I lost my parents.  

I just hope she can help give me some clarity on what I should do.

You can find story with these keywords: The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother., Read The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother., The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. novel, The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. book, The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. story, The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. full, The MILF I Married is my Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother. Latest Chapter