“How long have you been married?”
“Three years in June.”
“It doesn’t take that long to make a baby. You must be doing somethin’ wrong.”
The woman behind us in line chortles. Quinn’s face grows pink.
“My friend Alicia jus’ got a little sister,” Lily continues, “an’ her mother said it took nine months for the baby to grow in her stomach. An’ there are twelve months in a year, so you should have one by now.”
“Well, aren’t you smart!” I say.
“My goodness, yes!” says the woman behind us. She’s wearing a colorful flowered dress and has glasses hanging on a chain around her neck. She leans down to address Lily. “How old are you, honey?”
“Three. Nearly four.”
“Goodness gracious! I’m amazed you can remember numbers, much less figure out months and years at your age.”
“I can count all the way to a hun’red,” Lily volunteers.
The woman straightens and smiles at Quinn and me. “That’s a very bright little girl you’ve got there.”
My heart swells with an intense sense of pride. I’m about to say, “Thank you,” then catch myself.
“Yes, she is,” Quinn says, patting Lily’s back. “We’re all very proud of her.”
We move down the counter to wait for our ice cream.
Lily looks at me. “Are your baby-making parts broken? That happened to my mommy. Her baby-making parts were about to break. That’s why I have a donor instead of a daddy.”
So she knows about the donor situation. “It’s, umm, something like that,” I say. “My wife...” Hell. I don’t want to throw Jessica under the bus in front of Quinn. I start again. “My wife and I are seeing doctors to try to help us.”
Thankfully, our ice cream arrives. Quinn gathers up napkins and a spoon, and we head toward an empty bistro table by the window.
Lily’s feet dangle from the chair as she sits down. “Could you please fix my cone?” she asks Quinn.
Quinn presses the cone into the scoop of ice cream. “Presto change-o.” She covers the ice cream and cone with a napkin, then flips it over. “Ta-da! Your magic cone, my princess.”
Lily laughs. “That’s not really magic.”
“How do you know it’s not?” I ask.
“Because I know how she did it.” She watches Quinn use the plastic spoon to scoop the remnant sprinkles from the bottom of the cup onto the top of the ice cream. Quinn hands it to her, and she takes an eager bite.
“How is it?” I ask.
“Yummy! My mommy would love this.”
Quinn nods. Her eyes are sad.
Lily licks some sprinkles off the top. Her eyelashes brush her eyebrows as she peers up at me. “Did you know my mommy?”
“No. I’ve heard about her, but I never got to meet her.”
“She was beautiful. Like Auntie Quinn.” Lily’s tongue flicks around the edges of her ice cream.
“Why, thank you, Lily.” Quinn smiles.
“Welcome.” She nibbles at the edge of the cone. “People think they’re sisters.”
