14.

When I leave the bathroom my stomach sinks.

I can hear multiple voices down stairs and I stall at the top. Someone, presumably Ben's mother, chides him on needing a haircut, which I giggle to myself about.

An older voice is talking about her flower bed and I smile at the enthusiasm she has in telling Ben all about it.

I take a few steadying breaths and then I make my way down the stairs, my palms already sweating.

What if she wants to shake my hand?

I panickedly wipe my hands on the end of my dress and turn the corner to walk into the living room.

"Mom, this is Hayden." Ben stands from the couch when I walk in. He looks at me, and he stumbles over his words a little. "The...Elizabeth's aunt."

I look at the two women sitting on the couch.

His mother is thin, long tanned arms and legs. She has wild curly brunette hair pinned back into a clip and striking large brown eyes.

She must have had Ben young because, damn, for a grandmother, she's kinda a babe.

"Hi." I give a small wave. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

"All lies I'm sure." She winks up at Ben. "It's nice to meet you as well, Hayden."

"And this is my Granny, Ellie." Ben inclines his head to the elderly woman beside his mother.

She doesn't even look up. Her narrow eyes trained on the baby in her arms. Her skin is thin and sags, showing her age, but her smile is bright and warm.

She looks at Elizabeth with such awe that it brings tears to my eyes.

"Ben says you've been helping him so much." His mother tells me. "He said you did a lot of research on helping with her condition."

I nod. "I can't take all the credit." I admit. "Ben has been amazing with her, really. And my friends back home are the ones who sent over all of the information for me to read through."

His mom smiles at me.

Ben got his dimples from her.

"Would you mind sharing some of that with me?" She asks politely. "I'm Heidi, by the way."

"Right, sorry." Ben says. "I forget she has a name other than Mom sometimes."

Heidi reaches out to swat at Ben's leg and I grin as he reaches over and messes up her hair.

"It is so hard to imagine my child having a child." She shakes her head, fixing her hair. Then she looks back to me, expectantly.

She pats a spot on the couch and I go over to sit beside her and dive headlong into spewing out all of the information I'd studied on NAS and caring for babies who suffer from it.

I go on and on about it, hitting all of the main points that stuck out to me, especially where it applied to Elizabeth.

By the time I'm done, I'm completely out of breath and Heidi's eyes are wide as she nods to me.

"You really know your stuff." She says. "Elizabeth is really lucky to have an aunt who cares so much about her and helping her father understand her."

I shrug off the compliment. "My friends and I were so overwhelmed." I admit. "We wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing. I'm the lucky one to have them on my corner the way they are."

His mom furrows her brows while his grandmother coos over Elizabeth.

"Your friends sure are dedicated to helping you." She says.

"Well, we live together, my two best friends and me." I nod. "So they really wanted to make sure we knew how to handle what was coming."

"So, wait," Heidi tilts her head. "Were you trying to get custody of Elizabeth? Or still are?"

I glance to Ben where he sits on the floor in front of us, then back to his mom. "I mean, I was." I say.

"You were?" Ben's brows go up on his forehead.

"Well," I say. "I mean, when they called me, they didn't even know about a father yet. My sister had only told them to contact me, so they did. That's why I came here. But when I got to the hospital they told me she was already gone because they'd located Ben."

"Oh wow." His mom says quietly.

I glance nervously between everyone again. "Like I said, that was before Ben." I say quickly. "Of course I was considering taking her in before she was placed with him, but now..."

"But now?" Heidi prompts.

"I mean, have you seen how he is with her?" I laugh nervously. "He's going to be a great father and I know she's in good hands now. I'm not really sure how I would have been able to make it work before. I was mad at first because I didn't know him or anything about him, but now that I do, I'm comfortable. I just want to be a part of Elizabeth's life."

"How much though?" She asks. "Are you going to move to Texas to be closer to her? Or are you just going to try to make a few visits a year?"

Again, I glance at Ben.

His eyes lock on mine and I know he's seeing my discomfort.

"Mom," Ben says, lifting his chin. "Hayden is going to be as much a part of Elizabeth's life as she wants to be. Whatever that looks like is something she and I will work out together."

I release the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

Heidi looks over at her son and they share a look before she smiles and looks back to me.

"Of course." She tells me. "So, about your sister..."

"Mom." Ben groans but Heidi goes on.

"I understand she has some problems." She tells me. "Are you close with her?"

I shake my head solemnly. "No." I say, straightening. "She hasn't been in my life for a long time. She does have her struggles and my parents did their best to try to get her on the right path, but it was too much."

"How do you parents feel about this?" Heidi ask. "Will they be trying to be a part of Elizabeth's life as well?"

My face goes stoic. "Since my parents both died when I was a teenager, no, you don't have to worry about them. It's just me. Has been for a long time."

Ben stands from the floor and squeezes in to sit on the other side of me, placing his hand on my knee.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." Heidi says, but her expression doesn't match her words. "How old were you?"

"Mom." Ben says again but I shake my head.

"It's fine." I say to him, then turn back to his mother. "I was nineteen when they died in a car accident while we were on vacation. Alice had been long gone at that point. I was in school at the time but I dropped out a couple semesters afterwards and moved off campus to live with my best friend. I had an aunt out of state but she passed shortly after. So it's just me."

"I see." His mother nods. "And what is it that you do now? You live in Tennessee?"

"I work for a funeral home back home, yes, in Tennessee."

"I don't expect that pays very well."

Ben's hand tightens on my knee and I notice Heidi take note of him and his closeness to me. She purses her lips in disapproval.

"No, it doesn't pay very much." I say, dismissively. "But I am passionate about my job and it's been enough for me and my roommates to live comfortably."

"But not enough for you to live on your own." She doesn't ask, she says it as a statement. "Certainly not enough for you and a newborn."

"I'm not trying to take Elizabeth away from Ben." I snap. "I want her to have a good family around her. I'm happy that she's here and-."

"But you might change your mind." She cuts me off. "People get ideas in their heads and everyone knows how much money the government forks out for single mothers."

"Excuse me?" My eyes go wide and my jaw goes slack. "Are you seriously trying to imply that I'd want to take her away from her family so I can collect a check on her?"

I'm completely baffled at the comment. To think I'd be the type of person to try to use a baby as a leg up in the world.

"Mom," Ben says firmly, standing. "I'd like to have a talk with you in private."

"Honey, don't be dramatic, I'm just pointing out that you need to be wary of the type of people you allow around your daughter. Her sister is mixed up in so much, who is to say that they are really that different? You need to-."

"Stop." Ben snaps at her and I can tell by the shocked look on her face that this is not something he usually would do. "This is my house, and Elizabeth is my daughter. I'm not having anyone disrespect anyone under my roof. Let's go into the other room."

Heidi guffaws, looking up at her son and then narrowing her eyes at me. "Don't get any ideas, Missy." She says to me and we both jump as Ben shouts at her to follow him.

Heidi stands in a huff, stomping into the kitchen to follow Ben.

They're speaking in low voices but I can still pick out certain things.

"-trying to get cozy with you to weasel her way in-."

"-not like that at all I am simply being a good-."

"-know nothing about this girl or what her plans may be with the baby-."

"-family now and I get to pick who is around-."

"-a pretty girl is the last thing you need to be concerning yourself with, we don't even know her or-."

"-you know nothing about the situation, I wouldn't let someone around who might be-."

"-could try to take her away from you- be on her sisters side- playing you for the fool-."

"-you're being so cruel for no reason-."

"-think I don't notice how you look at her- gonna get yourself in more trouble you can't get out-."

"-can take care of myself, mother, I don't need you to-."

"-think about your child and what could happen-."

I stop trying to listen to them arguing when Elizabeth starts to cry.

I turn to Ben's granny and see her looking down at the baby with surprise.

"I can take her." I tell her, holding out my hands. "She's probably ready for a bottle."

"Thank you, dear." She turns her small plump body towards me so that I can scoop Elizabeth from her arms. "She's such a pretty baby." She says, watching me position her in my arms and place the bottle into her mouth. "I made such pretty babies too. You did a good job on this one."

"Oh," I say. "I'm not her mother, I'm-."

"Do you like flowers?" She cuts me off, looking sort of at me, but also passed me at the same time. Her eyes are watery and she blinks slowly like she's getting ready to fall asleep.

"I love flowers." I nod. "What's your favorite kind?"

The deep wrinkles around her mouth stretch as she pulls her lips into a small smile. "Oh, it's so hard to pick a favorite, but I do love peonies. They're so full and make such beautiful centerpieces."

"I agree." I tell her. "They're one of my favorites as well. But hard to find sometimes."

She nods. "Yes, that's very true." She seems to think on this for a moment and then tilts her head to look at me. "Do you know Jack?"

I shake my head. "I don't." I tell her. "Who is Jack?"

"Only the love of my life, dear." She laughs to herself. "We met on a ship when I was much younger and, well, in better shape." She pats her belly.

"What do you mean?" I smile at her. "You look amazing to me."

"Jack was certainly taken with me." She bemuses. "Oh but my family hated him. Wanted me to marry some other man who came from a better high class family." She says. "But I didn't care about all of that silly stuff. I just loved that man. He was beautiful. I could stare at him for hours. He was an artist, you know?"

"He was?"

She nods enthusiastically. "Yes, yes, very talented. He did portraits. He did one of me once." She leans in closer, looking at me conspiratorially. "He did one of me that was quite scandalous, especially for our time. Would you believe it ended up on the news? Thank goodness it was my old body and not this one. This one would have scared the children."

"Did you marry Jack?"

She frowns a little. "Sadly, no." She tells me. "Our boat sank but he got me to safety. He saved my life, but he lost his own before the other boats were able to find us."

It's at this point that I start to realize this story is oddly familiar sounding.

"What boat was it?" I ask her.

"The titanic." She sighs. "Such a shame what happened. It was a lovely ship."

I hide my smile behind my hand while I nod. "What happened afterwards?"

"Well, I moved on." She says. "I still see him every night in my dreams though. Eventually I found my Harold and we got married and made beautiful babies together."

"Granny." Ben says, leaning against the doorframe from the kitchen. "Are you telling Hayden stories?"

She smiles up at him. "You have such a lovely wife, Benjamin. I'm so proud of you."

Ben comes to sit beside me. "Oh she's not-."

I place my hand on Ben's knee. "It's ok." I whisper to him.

He smiles at me, shaking his head. He leans in closer to me. "Did she tell you the titanic story?" I nod and he laughs in my ear. "She loves that movie. Watches it multiple times a week. But she only likes the first half and then rewinds to the end where they're reunited."

"That's kind of adorable." I whisper back to him.

"I don't think Grandad Harold would love to hear that story." Ben says, pulling away from my ear to look down at Elizabeth.

He touches her tiny hand at my chest and she curls her fingers around his index finger.

We both grin at how sweet it is.

I look over at Ben and find him already gazing at me. "I'm really sorry about my mom."

"She's just trying to protect you." I say, but the twisting in my stomach doesn't go away.

"I know she is, but she doesn't have a right to talk to you however she wants." He tells me quietly. "You have every right to be here and part of our lives."

"Thanks." I say, worrying my bottom lip.

"I mean it." He says, leaning in a little closer. "Don't let what she said get to you. I handled it."

"Don't fight with your mom over me." I say. I only wish I still had my mother here to see her grand baby. I wish I could have the chance to hug her one last time. I hate all of the times I wasted being mad at her.

"I'm not." He tells me. "But you're welcome here, anytime you want. Nothing is changing that."

I nod a little, but then I glance up.

I could feel her watching.

Heidi stands in the doorway, looking at Ben and I.

I know she sees just how comfortable we are around each other. How close we are sitting. How Ben doesn't even notice her at all because he's smiling at me.

The pit in my stomach only tightens.

I know he says now that nothing will change, but I can't help but worry.

I can't help but feel like something is going to go wrong.

And it's going to start with his mother.