“Oh, so this is my fault?”
“Hold up,” Kyle said, raising his voice above the chatter just as Jack walked in and said, “What is going on?”
Kyle took Emerson’s hand and said, “Would it be all right with you if we maybe discussed this privately?”
“It would save so much time if you would discuss it with all of us,” Caroline said.
“Yeah,” Sloane agreed. “Plus, things always get lost in translation.”
Emerson glared at them and followed Kyle out the door.
Jack repeated, “What is going on?”
“Let’s see,” I said. “Emerson is pregnant, and Kyle is, apparently, the father.” Then I turned to Caroline. “Did you know about this?”
Jack opened the fridge and poured half a bottle of wine into a glass and handed it to me.
“Thank you, love.”
“Well, I mean, I knew yesterday. Yeah.”
“But did you know about the two of them?”
Sloane and Caroline shared a glance. Sometimes it drove me insane how they all seemed to be talking to one another without saying anything, like they had some secret language that they used to decide what poor, crazy Mom was privy to.
“Yes,” they said simultaneously.
“But Ansley, come on,” Jack said. “You can’t be surprised. I mean, the guys at coffee have been talking about how those two belong together since the day Emerson came back to town.”
I rolled my eyes. “Really, Jack? The guys at coffee? I think I know my daughter a little better than the guys at coffee.”
“Well...” Caroline said. “The guys at coffee know it all, Mom. It’s not something against you. No one can compete with their wealth of knowledge.”
“And you,” I said, pointing at Caroline.
“Whoa,” she said, putting her hands up. “Emerson is pregnant and you’re mad at me?”
“Can you explain why every time I ask my car voice control to ‘Call Caroline,’ it responds, ‘Finding nearest fitness center’?” I crossed my arms for emphasis.
Caroline bit her lip to try to hide her smile. “Gosh, Mom. I don’t know. All I can say is that the universe is always sending us signals if we take the time to listen.”
Sloane laughed and scolded, “Caroline! You are the worst.” Then she said, “Mom, how do you feel?”
“She’d feel better if she found the nearest fitness center a little more,” Caroline said under her breath.
I gave her my bestyou’re in troublelook.
I didn’t know how I felt. Overwhelmed. Terrified. Excited. But when I narrowed it down to one overarching emotion, it was one that surprised me. “I feel... relieved.”
“Relieved? Emerson is pregnant, with Coffee Kyle’s baby, out of wedlock,” Sloane said. “I mean, I’m thrilled. But you’re Ansley Murphy, classic Southern, conservative mother. How can you feel relieved?”
“She’s actually Ansley Richards now,” Caroline interjected. “And no one says ‘wedlock’ ever.”
“When you have three daughters, the idea that one of them could get pregnant at any moment is always on your mind. She’s almost twenty-seven. She can support herself and her child. It could be much, much worse. So I’m relieved.”
And now I could only hope that Emerson felt the same way. I looked at Jack, and I realized that we, like my girls, shared a language. And he was almost as excited about seeing this grandchild come into the world as I was.
FORTY
