“Zack and his wife don’t have any children?” Lauren asks.
“I asked, and he said, ‘not yet.’”
“So he wants them,” Annie says.
“That’s how I took it.”
“What’s the story on his wife?” Lauren asks.
“Her name is Jessica, she’s a regional controller for a big hotel chain, and she just got a promotion to Seattle. I don’t know much more than that.”
Annie picks up her phone, punches a bunch of buttons, and scrolls the screen. “Found her!” She turns the screen toward us and flashes a photo of a beautiful brunette. Everyone leans in to look.
“Ooh, she’s gorgeous,” Lauren says. She takes the phone and scrolls down through her bio. “Apparently she’s pretty brilliant, too.”
“Sounds like Brooke,” I say.
“And you,” says Annie.
“This guy mates with very classy women,” Lauren says.
Everyone laughs, but I squirm a little. “I didn’t mate with him. Neither did Brooke!”
“One of your eggs sure did,” Lauren says.
Annie turns to me. “If Zack is moving across the country in a few weeks, I don’t think you have much to worry about. Distance will make it hard for him to interfere too much.”
“He’s already said he wants to meet Lily,” I say.
“Uh-oh,” Lauren mutters.
“Oh, wow,” Annie murmurs.
“What did you tell him?” Sarah asks.
“That the last thing Lily needs right now is more confusion or drama.”
Sarah leans forward. “How did he respond?”
“He said we don’t need to tell her that he’s her father. He just wants to meet her.”
“That’s kind of scary,” Lauren said.
I nod. “I don’t want him anywhere near her.”
“On the other hand, you need to think about what’s best for Lily in the long run,” Sarah says. “She might resent it when she’s a teenager if she learns you kept her from knowing her father.”
My stomach tanks. “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that!” There’s so much about this parenting business that I don’t know. I not only need to think about what’s in Lily’s best interests right now; I have to consider how every decision I make might impact her in the future. I’ve bought a bunch of parenting books since Brooke’s death, but not every situation is covered.
“Maybe Zack can have some kind of limited role in her life,” Sarah suggests. “He could be introduced as your friend and maybe become a distant uncle-like figure. That way Lily will grow up having a connection to him without it being anything official.”
“What if he wants to make things official?” My fingers tighten around my glass of mineral water.
“Most things in life don’t turn out to be as bad as we fear.” Sarah’s tone is calm, her eyes reassuring. “Maybe Lily can meet him, and the three of you can do a few things together before he moves to Seattle. Afterward, he could send birthday cards and Christmas cards to you and Lily—and include the baby, too, once it arrives. That wouldn’t be so awful, right? Then, when Lily and your baby are older, you can tell them the truth—that their father has cared about them from the moment he first learned of their existence, but stayed in the background to honor the terms of the contract.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” says Lauren.
Annie nods. “Actually, it sounds like a really good plan.”
