27: THE WEIGHT OF UNSPOKEN WORDS

Emma and Brayden sat lazily on the soft sofa sipping their coffee. It was already noon and they had just crawled out of bed. Yesterday was a very eventful day that had led to a very passionate evening spent between the trio breaking in their new shower. Jackson had already left to go do a few things around the farm. The fence had a few broken places, the barn needed to be set up for Emma’s farm animals that would be arriving tomorrow, and Jackson wanted to assess the farmland that we had acquired with the house. Jackson was a morning person no matter the amount of sleep he had the night before.

Emma yawned and stretched. “Well, I guess I need to finish unpacking the rest of these boxes. They aren’t going to unpack themselves.”

Brayden laughed, “I will help you with that task.” They began opening and sorting the boxes that were left. Brayden had walked upstairs to put away some more bathroom items when the shrill ring of Brayden’s phone shattered the silence. Emma walked over to his phone seeing the word Mom on the screen.

Emma instinctively picked it up and answered it. “Hey, Mrs. Sandy.”

There was silence on the other end until she finally heard her say, “Ugh, Emma? Did I accidently call you instead of Brayden?”

“Yes, mam it’s Emma and no mam you called Brayden’s phone. He is upstairs and should be right back down.” Emma sweetly explained

“I’m sorry Emma, I guess I am a little confused. Is Brayden down south with you and Jackson?” Mrs. Sandy was completely confused about what was going on and that is when Emma realized Brayden had not told his mother about anything. Not about moving, not about buying this house, and she was sure that meant he had not told her about her and Jackson. Emma’s heart sank. She felt hurt and that maybe Brayden was embarrassed by them.

At that moment, Brayden came back downstairs. He heard Emma talking on the phone. “Mrs. Sandy, why don’t you hang on just a minute? Brayden just came back downstairs, and I think he needs to explain a few things to you.” Emma muted the phone and turned towards Brayden. He could tell by the expression on her face and the sadness in her eyes she was upset with him.

Emma softly spoke with heavy emotions in her voice, “Brayden, you haven’t told your mom about us or this house?” Brayden shook his head lowering it in defeat. He knew he had screwed up. “Well, you need to take this call because she is very confused. I need to go outside for a breath of fresh air and to think.” Brayden tried to grab her arm before she left him, but she dodged it walking out to the front, not giving him another glance. The frustration Emma felt threatened to spill out in the form of tears that trimmed her eyes. How could Brayden not have told his mother? He knew all the trouble that she and Jackson had gone through to make this work, including telling their parents and siblings. Was it easy? Hell no, but her love for Brayden outweighed everything else. God, what if she and Jackson had made the worst decision of their lives?

Emma was distracted by her train of thought and didn’t realize that Jackson had walked up from his daily scouting.

He startled her when he spoke, “Emma, is everything okay dear?” That’s when the waterworks started. Emma was sobbing uncontrollably as Jackson scooped her up into his arms holding her body to his comforting her. “Emma, talk to me sweetheart what has happened?”

“I screwed up.” Brayden’s deep voice thick with emotion came from the doorway. Jackson just looked between the two of them in confusion waiting for someone to explain. Brayden sighed, “Mother just called me, and Emma found out that she doesn’t know yet about the house or us, after she answered the phone call.” Brayden hung his head not wanting to look at Jackson’s reaction.

“Wait a minute, so Emma and I have literally picked up our entire lives, moved hours away from our family, took a huge risk by telling our parents and siblings the truth of our relationship, and you haven’t informed your mother about anything?” Jackson’s face was beat red from anger. Emma could feel his breath coming out hard and fast. She knew he was going to blow up on Brayden if he didn’t explain himself quickly.

Brayden looked back up at Jackson and became emotional once he saw how angry he was and how Emma was curled up crying into Jackson’s chest. Tears spilled down Brayden’s cheeks as he tried to explain his story. “Honestly, I have been really scared to tell mother because I was afraid of how she would take it. Our relationship is not an ordinary one. Mother is already in heart failure, so all I could think about was sending her into a heart attack. I know it sounds stupid, but she’s all I have other than the two of you and Brent. I have been so ecstatic about getting both of you here that I just have pushed telling her to the back burner. I promise it has nothing to do with either of you. I love you both and want to spend the rest of my life as a throuple.”

Emma had finally quit crying when she got up, sitting in Jackson’s lap. “Brayden, I just want to make sure you are not embarrassed by Jackson or me and the relationship we have together. We risked everything to make this work, and don’t get me wrong, I know you have spent a lot of money and time to get us this house and land, but if you decided right now that you didn’t want us here anymore it would hurt you less than us.”

Brayden’s tears ran down his face like a waterfall as Emma spoke. He had never wanted to make them feel like they were not important to him. He ran over to Emma getting on his knees in front of her, grabbing her hands and pushing his face into them. “Oh, my sweet Emma, I am so sorry I have made you feel this way. I never thought about any of it like that. I promise I’m going to make it right. I already invited mother over this evening. Brent said he would pick her up and they could come to dinner together. I want to make sure she hears it face to face.” Emma pulled Brayden’s face up, making him stare into her eyes as she kissed his lips.

“We love you too Brayden, but did you just say dinner tonight?” Emma looked at him concerned. “How am I supposed to cook that much food at this short of notice?”

The guys both laughed as Brayden stood and embraced them with an apologetic hug. “Don’t you worry about that. I have a plan.”