I squeezed hers right back. “There’s no one else I would rather have gone through all that shit with than you, you baby whale. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Van said.
We were all wrapped up in each other when something nudged my shoulder, and when I glanced up, my face feeling puffy and wet for the second time that day, I found Aiden standing right by me with that not-so-little baby in his arms.
“Here,” this massive, mountain of a man whispered.
Using my shoulders, I wiped at my cheeks as much as I could, and cried more as he set the baby—Sammy—in my arms. It had been a long five years since I’d held Louie for the first time. And as I took in that little alien face, my heart swelled and swelled and swelled. “I love him,” I told his parents, meaning each syllable. “You chubby, little chunky monkey, I love you already.” Leaning in a little closer to take in those wrinkled, pink features, I couldn’t help but glance up at Van and puff out my cheeks. I tilted my arms so she could see him again. “You made this. Can I have him?”
“I know.” She sniffled. “And no.”
“You too, Aiden,” I added absently, letting my request go and glancing back at the face inches from mine. Then I glanced back at Van. “This was in your vagina—”
“Diana,” she hissed without the usual amount of zing in her voice.
Looking back at Sammy, I nodded, smiling. “You aren’t the first thing I’ve touched that was in your mommy’s body—”
Vanessa made a choking sound, and I thought her husband might have, too.
She remembered. She remembered that one thing she’d made me hold in my hand that one time when we were twelve.
“But you sure are the best,” I finished whispering to him. I propped him up so she could see him and shook my head. “He would have ripped your ass wide open, Vanny. Look at this head. He has your head.”
She groaned, and I’d swore on my life The Hulk made a sound that was pretty much considered the closest thing to a laugh I’d ever heard from him.
I felt pretty pleased with myself and winked at her. “I really can’t believe you did it. He’s amazing.”
“Whoever thought, huh, Di?”
“I sure as hell didn’t,” I agreed, tearing up again, glancing at my best friend looking like shit on the bed. “Remember how after we watchedThe Princess Bride, we used to say we were never going to have boyfriends or get married and have kids unless it was with the actor who played Westley?”
Leaning against the bed, I could see Van glance at her husband, smiling. “I’ll never forget.”
“We were going to take turns being his wife,” I reminded her, taking in her child some more. He was such a miracle.
“You were going to get him ten months out of the year and I could have him two,” she informed me. “My mom broke up our fight when we started pulling on each other’s hair, screaming. I remember.”
“Well yeah, I was going to give youhalfthe winter with him. That sounded fair.”
“Cheater.”
I sniffled. “Cheater? You snooze, you lose. I found him first.”
* * *
It was exactlyfive days later that I found myself in bed with Vanessa. She was on one side, I was on the other, and Baby Sammy was passed out in the middle. We were watching television; at least that was what we had planned on doing. After spending three days in the hospital following her C-section, she’d been released. I’d taken Van’s car back to their house every night, and her husband had stayed at the hospital with her.
Now that she was home, I was helping her with everything possible, trying to enjoy spending time with her and the baby before I had to fly home. I wasn’t sure when the next time we’d get to see each other would be, but I’d bet it would be months. A lot of months.
“Enough about me, how’s everything with you?” Van whispered from her spot a couple of feet away.
I crossed one ankle over the other and kept my gaze on the rerun we were watching ofThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. “Good. Busy. The usual.”
“You’re a liar,” she muttered, rolling her head to the side to look at me since she couldn’t roll on to her hip to do it.
“No I’m not.”
“You’re rubbing your hand on your leg. You know I know you’re full of shit when you do that.”
