“Why is no one saying anything?” Elizabeth asked. “I can’t be the only one who thinks this entire plan is lunacy. This is worse than when you two decided to free the trapped flies.”
“Well, Mom,” Amelia said, “it couldn’t possibly be worse thanthat.”
It couldn’t be. There were flies everywhere that entire summer, like a plague had come down.
Elizabeth pointed to Mom. “Well,saysomething, for God’s sake, Olivia.”
Mom shrugged. “Well, it isn’t ideal. But it makes me feel slightly better that it won’t be some stranger carrying my grandchild. It will be Amelia. That’s something.”
Elizabeth crossed her arms. “Oh no, you’re right. Perfect. Just let her sacrifice herself foryourson. Who cares about her future, right?”
Now Mom was getting huffy. Lord help us all. Elizabeth and Mom had been best friends since birth, but that made them more like sisters than friends. So they fought like nothing you had ever seen—and about the stupidest things. Like the summer they chose to back different candidates for president of Garden Club, and they fought for months and almost drove Amelia, me, and our dads crazy.
Mom said, “No,Elizabeth. I’m not saying I don’t care about Amelia. You know Amelia is the daughter I never had,” she snapped. “I’m just saying that if Parker is dead set on this ridiculous scheme, then it makes me feel better to know that Amelia will be involved.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Elizabeth asked, turning her fury back to Amelia. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to carry a baby and then give it up? Do you have any idea how attached you are going to be to that baby, and how much it is going to break your heart to give it away?”
“But it isn’tmine—” Amelia started.
But Elizabeth interrupted. “It doesn’t matter, Amelia. It absolutely does not matter. Once they live inside of you, they areyours. It will kill you.”
“I am totally amenable to your raising it with me,” I interjected, smiling.
Amelia smirked at me. “That is not in the contract, my friend. If you’ll recall, I have no interest in raising babies.”
I had always thought she had no interest in babies because she knew she couldn’t have them. Evidently, I had been wrong. Well, there went that idea. Back to interviewing nannies.
Elizabeth and Mom were glaring at each other. Dad and Mr. Saxton looked embarrassed, and Amelia looked on the verge of tears. This was my moment. I had to appeal to their emotions; this was my one shot, and it had to be good.
“You guys, look. I understand that it’s unconventional. But I lost the love of my life. I have the opportunity to have a piece of her back, to make good on our promises to each other, even though she’s gone. And Amelia coming alongside me in that journey is the greatest act of love I have ever seen from one friend to another.” I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Tears sprang to my eyes. “My life has been impossible without Greer. I have to find joy again. And I think this is how I can.”
Mom and Elizabeth looked at me blankly. Dad said, “This is the craziest damn thing I’ve ever heard. When your life is ruined, don’t come crying to me.” Then he stood up and said, “Charles, shall we?” Mr. Saxton looked at Amelia and said, “Did you even consider what this would do to Robby’s poll numbers?”
I’ll admit, I had to stifle a laugh at that one as they retired to Dad’s study, as usual. Mason grabbed his plate so quickly I was surprised the food didn’t fall off, said, “Bro, you’re on your own with this one,” and ran off behind them. I’d figured this would be a lot for them—the two most hands-off fathers of all time and a man in his late thirties who still let his mom cook all his meals—to take in. But I didn’t need their approval.
“Amelia, please,” Elizabeth pleaded again.
She just shook her head. “Mom, look. I have spent my entire life thinking that I would never feel a baby growing inside of me. And now, here I am, single, alone, jobless, and, frankly, needing to find my place in the universe. I can’t explain how I know I’m supposed to do this. I just do. I’m thirty-five years old, and this is a decision I’m allowed to make.”
Mom and Elizabeth shared a look that wordlessly said we were both ill-behaved children.
This wasn’t over. Far from it, in fact. I knew that. But we had done it. We had told the truth. I had taken a stand for my wife today. I had fought the good fight. And now it occurred to me that I had forgotten one major piece of this puzzle: I had told my family. Now I had to tell Greer’s.
GreerJUNE 11, 2012
TODAY WAS, DEFINITIVELY, THE BESTday of my life. I had told Parker over and over again that I didn’t want an elaborate proposal, just something simple and easy and us. And what I love most is that he knew me well enough to ignore me.
I was in New York to help him pack, and, while my father was thrilled that I had been there so much over the past fourteen months while Parker and I had been dating, he was already grumbling.Now that Parker’s moving to Palm Beach, you’ll never want to come here anymoreandWho’s going to take over all your New York accounts?
But I was so happy to have my love with me all the time that I couldn’t even be upset by his grumbling. He looked down at his watch and said, “Well, I guess we aren’t getting any work done today anyway. May as well not starve to death, too.”
I smiled sweetly at him and said, “Why, yes, Daddy, I would love to go to lunch with you.”
When we pulled up to Michael’s, it hit me how long it had been since I had eaten there. Maybe even that lunch where my editor and I were talking about my first book deal. That lunch where I met Parker. I smiled just remembering it.
Dad said, “Hop on out, sugar. I need to talk to the driver for a minute.”
As I stepped out of the car, Parker stepped out of a cab right beside me. He grinned at me, and I swear my heart stopped beating. The abs under that shirt were the only other thing that could do that to me. “Hey, babe,” he said casually, taking my hand. He motioned with his head for me to climb back in the cab with him. The back seat was lined in twinkle lights, the part where there was usually a partition had been removed, and a little shelf had been added and was lined with flowers. That was when I noticed there was no driver. And it smelled remarkably un-cab-like, thank goodness. “Is thisthecab?” I whispered.
