The devil is in the details, and, of course, the devil is here, too. Demetri, my mother, and Emma have stationed themselves outside of a castle bounce house I rented. They’re the self-appointed watchmen for all the innocents under five. Not that anyone can possibly remain innocent if left in Demetri’s presence for too long. Case in point, Gage Oliver.
Laken and I eat pasta salad and cheeseburger sliders to our content as we sit next to one another under the big white tent. Plastic garden chairs abound, and the buzz of voices and laughter fill the warm summer air.
“So, are you and Coop excited about the baby?” I say as Melissa generously takes my empty plate from me—and then it hits me. “Oh, my goodness, pregnant brain. I meant Wes. Please don’t be offended. I’ve spent the last few weeks calling LoganGage. Thankfully, not at the wrong time. I swear, I’m going to sew my lips shut until I have this baby.”
Laken bubbles with a laugh. “That’s perfectly okay.” Her features darken as she looks toward the basketball court filled with shouts and jeers from male voices. “Yes, Coop and I are happy about the baby. And Wes and I are, too.” Her lips purse. “It’s funny. It’s almost as if I’m with both of them. I mean, not sexually.” She huffs at the thought. “Sexually, I’m abhorrent. I don’t know why Wes wants anything to do with me in that department, but boy am I glad. I’ve never been so needy.”
“Ha!” I pat my belly and the baby gives a hearty kick. My God, how I love to feel her. “Logan would probably say I’m greedy. I’ve made that boy service me at all hours just to try to get this itch scratched. And it does seem impossible. I wasn’t nearly this insatiable with the boys. But then, Logan has always had an addictive quality about him.” A moment of silence bounces between us. “When are you going to realize that Wes is Dr. Evil?”
Laken gives a long blink. “Skyla, a good friend doesn’t say that. We have a child together.”
“That’s debatable,” I say it under my breath. “Anyway, I wish a good friend would have warned me about my own Dr. Evil before he crapped all over my heart. Rest assured, Wes is doing the same to you as we speak. This is me being a good friend. You’re too smart not to have the scales fall off.”
Laken sighs. “The only lens I see Wes through is the lens of love.”
“Have it your way, but don’t forget—every Edinger on the planet has a way of turningloveinto a four-letter word. And by the way, when he starts bottling that love potion he slips you, tell him I want in.”
Chloe waddles by, and judging by that look on her face, she’s contemplating sitting with us, but wisely decides against it.
“I don’t think Chloe’s getting any.” I don’t bother to whisper it, and sure enough the Wicked Witch of West shoots me an eviscerating look.
Laken strums out a dark laugh. “Yes, well, you have met her.”
Ezrina comes over and settles herself between us. “Time has come, hasn’t it?” She eyes both my burgeoning belly and Laken’s. “I want to thank you both for donating to the cause.”
My eyes widen at Laken. “You’re giving Ezrina your afterbirth? You do realize she’ll be using it for me.”
She lifts her chin. “I’d hate for it to go to waste. Besides, if you and Gage keep playing chicken with the government, I figure soon enough we’ll have to work together to hide the markers anyway. The two of you are endangering us all.”
Laken has no idea exactly how right she is. In fact, the time is quickly coming for me to pare down my list of whom I wish to implicate to the government once we’re able to hide the markers. And for a time, I had even entertained her. Wes would do anything for his Laken.Cooperwould do anything for his Laken. My dear friend is far too valuable, far too dangerous for her own good. But ultimately, I decided against it. Laken is valuable to me. She is my sister, even if we do disagree on some major talking points.
“Wow. Thank you. Or more to the point, I probably have Coop to thank.”
Laken laughs at the thought. “And you would be right. Don’t tell Wes. He thinks I came up with the idea to donate on my own.” She sags a minute as she looks my way. “And Skyla, just to be clear, yes, Wesley is the love of my life.” Her lips press white.
“You don’t have to say it, Laken. I’ll say it for you. Cooper Flanders is, too.”
A seam of tears lines her eyes, and she does her best to blink them away.
The baby shower gets underway. And my mother has the guests play a nominal amount of ridiculous games. The very first game began once the guests arrived. Each guest was handed a plastic cup filled with frozen water and a tiny plastic baby encased inside. The first to have their “water break” wins a prize.
However, the first group game we play is smell the dirty baby diaper. Mia and Melissa melted three different chocolate bars and smeared them over a diaper. Each guest has to sniff each diaper and try to decipher which candy bars they are.
Mia holds out a card as she stands in front of our respective guests. “And the winner is…Carly Foster!”
Chloe grunts, “That was predictable.” She smears a greasy smile to her friend. “You are a world-class ass sniffer.”
“It takes one to know one,” I quip.
Next up, my mother tries to convince Gage, Logan, and Wes to kneel before us while we feed them a bottle full of milk. The first lucky daddy to suck it all down wins the prize. But Laken, Chloe, and I vetoed that idea much to our counterpart’s relief. The men are back to playing basketball, as they should be. An estrogen-dominant event such as this should have as few male witnesses as possible.
The next round of humiliation Lizbeth Landon suggests is called guess the mother’s weight. It’s another no-go from the three of us. The last game of the day is called cry like a baby. And after listening to each guest do her best impression of an infant in duress, neither Laken nor I are sure we want an infant of our own anymore. Chloe never did, so I don’t count her in on that equation. And coincidentally enough, my mother declares everyone a winner of that game as Mia and Melissa pass out the goodie bags we put together this morning.
The three of us get to the task of opening gifts. Each pile is about the same size, and we each open a gift at the very same time in an effort to spare our poor guests the thought of growing old with us. And once we’re loaded to the hilt in designer diaper bags—thank you, Brielle, and baby caskets, complete with a stand and sans a lid—also Brielle, the crowd takes a breather.
But it’s not any of those big boxes filled with strollers and car seats, or even the new technology-based toys that have my heart aching to hold my baby—technically, Laken, Chloe, and I have all of these things already, but I suppose our friends wanted to shower us with love, hence the name of this special day. But it’s the tiny pink outfits I’ve amassed this afternoon that make me hungry to hold my sweet little girl. Both Laken and Chloe were gifted a handful of outfits in mint green, gray, white, and yellow, but Brielle got the word out to every human on the planet that Logan and I are about to welcome a baby girl and I couldn’t be happier.
How I miss my sweet angel. My mother—Candace—gave Logan and me a preview of our baby girl not long ago. We got to hold her and bond with her, and then being the monster my mother can be, she yanked her right out from under us.
