Tears tumble from Natalie’s eyes.
I should get up, take the phone from her, read the results for myself, but I can’t bring myself to.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I take a deep breath and count to ten. Each second passes, more excruciating than the next. My eyes open.
Natalie comes closer, blanket rustling, and holds out the phone until it’s under my nose.
I read the results and find I’m not the only one crying.
Epilogue
“I’m just notsure who's going to eat these cupcakes.” I sigh theatrically, dipping a finger into the chocolate frosting of one cupcake and bringing it to my mouth.
“Me! I will eat them all!” Brayden screeches, his little voice bouncing off the walls of our kitchen.
"Not all of them," I tell him, wiping my finger on a dishtowel and lightly poking the tip of his nose. “Your mother wouldn’t appreciate that.”
Allison will be here in half an hour to pick up Brayden. That's just enough time for me to fill the three-year-old with lots of sugar and then hand him off to his mother.
“Did you have fun with us today?" I ask Brayden as I place a cupcake onto a plate and slide it across the counter to where he sits.
He nods and peels off the wrapper. Chocolate crumbs fall down his front when he takes a bite.
Aidan walks in from the living room, his expression hopeful. “Please tell me they're cool enough to eat now.”
“Yes, yes,” I say, meeting him just as he rounds the kitchen island. “I'll take her.” I reach for the tiny wrapped bundle sleeping in his arms. Juliana is only four weeks old. I'm exhausted, but I've never been happier. She and Aidan fill me with joy on a daily basis.
Aidan grabs a cupcake from the cooling rack and sits down beside Brayden. I stand on the opposite side of the island, watching them. They look so much alike, a stranger would never know they aren’t related.
We’d called Allison that day after she sent the test results. Joy was my first reaction, but I couldn’t truly feel it when Allison was so devastated.
Two months later Aidan told me he felt bad about her situation and wondered how she was handling everything. I encouraged him to reach out, and he did. We learned that Jared, despite his insistence that day in Allison’s apartment, was not actually interested in being a father. He signed away his legal rights to Brayden, and Allison became a single mother.
Unbelievably, Allison and I became friends. Not the ride-or-die kind, but the kind that can have a conversation and walk away feeling better about life. And then later on, when I became pregnant with Juliana, Allison became the person I went to with questions about my changing, aching body. Her son, Brayden, visits us a couple times a month so that Allison can get a break. Today, that break included a second date with Grady.
I ran into him when I was eight months pregnant and waddling down Fifth Avenue. I’ve never thought of myself as a matchmaker, but when I saw him, I immediately thought of her.
For a person who had been so anti-love, Aidan is awfully good at it. He’s tender, caring, and knows exactly how to make me laugh. Diana and Diego have taken to the role of grandparents, and Shawn has too. Their love is still a secret, but I don’t know for how much longer. Diana says the older she gets, the less she cares about keeping it. As for my book, it was published a year after I first met with the editor. It wasn’t a chart-topper, but it sold well. I received an advance for my sophomore effort, and it went to my editor just a few days before Juliana’s arrival.
The knock on the door signals Allison’s arrival. Brayden squeals and hops off his seat.
“Mommy!” he yells when Aidan opens the door.
Allison walks in and gathers the small, dark-haired human bowling ball into her arms. “Hey, buddy.” She glances over at me. “Let’s be quiet. Juliana is sleeping.”
“That’s all she ever does,” Brayden complains. The three of us laugh. Aidan picks up Brayden and swings him into the air. “Want to pack a cupcake to go home with you?” They walk away together.
“How was it?” I ask Allison. She peeks at Juliana and makes that face that I’ve come to expect from people, the one that is filled with reverence.
Allison smiles shyly. “Good. Really good, actually. He wants to meet Brayden. I told him next time.”
I grin. “So there will be a next time?”
She nods, her eyes excited. “Definitely.”
Aidan comes back in the room with a plastic container and hands it to Allison. She gathers Brayden’s jacket and sticks his shoes on his feet. Poking him on the nose, she asks, “Ready to go, little man?”
Brayden leaps up and bounces on an invisible pogo stick to the door.
