“I'm glad you came,” he said to me, then concentrated on Maria. “Push hard now.”
“ Empuje! ” I told her, and she squeezed my hand harder as I held one knee and her husband held the other. Maria bore down, grunting and filling the air with Spanish curse words.
A moment later, Cortland pulled a bright pink baby from under the sheet, turned it over and tapped it three times on the bottom, causing it to wail. “It's a girl!” Gently, he handed off the baby to its mother.
Judith had prepared a makeshift crib out of a box, and another Lifer handed him more hot towels and a suture kit.
Cortland handed me a pair of scissors and nodded toward the umbilical cord. “You want to do the honors?”
“Me? What about the father?” The baby's father shook his head, and I took the scissors. Two snips and the baby was free of its mother.
An hour later, we sat around the kitchen, drinking coffee while the potatoes sat on the counter unpeeled. “Well, it's a little anti-climactic to peel them after what we've been through,” I said, putting my feet up on an empty seat.
“Pretty handy to have a doctor around,” Judith said proudly, rubbing Cortland's shoulders. “You just never know what life will throw you.”
He seemed tired but happy. His chill had worn off.
Judith grabbed her old coat that she always volunteered in and wrapped a red scarf around her neck. “I'm beat. Only so much excitement an old lady can take in one night.” She winked. She only joked about being old because she didn't look old at all.
I'd nearly forgotten my purpose for coming there. “Mom G., I wanted to ask you about something.”
She swung her purse over her shoulder. “What is it, darling? Is it the boys? I can sit tomorrow if you like.”
“No, I'll have Zoe, so she'll want to play with the boys. It's not that. It's about Monica.”
Judith rolled her eyes and blew a puff of air. “I have nothing to say about that woman.”
Cortland looked at us back and forth, before it seemed to register which Monica we were talking about. I didn't care if he heard. I'd waited long enough.
“I know you don't like her, but I need to know how Joel took the break-up.”
Judith jaw fell slack, as if I'd just slapped her. “How do you think he took it? Joel had his entire life planned out. He loved her and she betrayed him.”
“But did he forgive her?”
“You mean did he stop loving her?”
“Maybe.”
“He loved you, Ramona. With all his heart. That's all that mattered.”
“But it was different, wasn't it? Just tell me.”
Judith's face softened. “Yes, it was different. But honestly, she's not what hurt him the most. He missed Jonathon most of all. Friends since they were three. His mother is still one of my best friends, but she knows not to discuss her daughter-in-law with me.”
“You never told me that.”
“Why would I? What does it have to do with you?”
“I'm just trying to piece things together. I'm sorry if it upsets you.”
Judith stepped forward and lifted my chin with her index finger. “It's you I worry about. Why don't you bring all three kids by tomorrow and they can play, and you can go out and have some fun.”
She never mentioned da Vinci by name. I knew she disapproved. She wore it on her skin as obviously as her coat. Her code for him was “fun.” He was a fling to her. I hoped she didn't find out about his moving in.
“I guess I'll see you at Thanksgiving dinner, Cortland,” Judith said as she turned to leave.
“Oh, I don't think I'm coming.”
“Of course you are. Don't be ridiculous. Your mother said she'd send you over for some pie.”
“Pie. I guess a man needs his pie.”
“Ramona makes a delicious pecan pie.”
“She does, does she?” He tilted his head my way. “I can't resist her pie, I suppose.”
“'Night, Mother.”
Judith turned off the main kitchen light, leaving Cortland and me sitting in the near dark, the full moon beaming through the cracked kitchen window. “I guess I should shove off unless you need me.”
Cortland stared at me and even when I looked away, I could feel his gaze on my face like a hot blast to my cheek. “I do need you, Ramona.”
“You know I meant with the baby.”
“I know what you meant. And you know what I mean.”
“I've told you-”
“I was going to break up with her tomorrow.”
Relief washed over me. “Still.”
“Da Vinci.”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you love him, I'll get out of the way. But if there's a chance.”
“A chance.”
“Possibility, probability, likelihood.”
“I know the synonyms, thankyouverymuch.”
“I put my house on the market. Will you help me look for a smaller one tomorrow? I don't trust realtors. They just tell you what you want to hear.”
“Kind of like men.”
“You don't believe that.”
“I have the kids tomorrow.”
“Nice try. Judith offered to watch the kids so you could have fun.”
“And house hunting with you would be fun?”
“Well, if delivering a baby in the middle of a shelter can be fun, then yes, house hunting can be fun.”
“I couldn't even pick out a bed, much less a house.”
“That's just it. I need your critical eye. Otherwise, I might just buy the first house I see.”
“I'm cleaning out my garage. I'm trying to purge the clutter before the new year.”
“A pre-new year's resolution?”
“Something like that.”
“I'll tell you what. You look for houses with me in the morning, and I'll help you clean your garage in the afternoon.”
“You don't take no for an answer, do you?”
“Not where you're concerned.”
“It's complicated.”
“Maybe. But worth it.”
I stood to leave, and Cortland held my pinkie. “You just never know what life's gonna throw you.”
“Take a chance?”
“On me.”
“On you.” My heart sped up. I could hear the baby crying in the other room. The kitchen felt smaller and smaller, until it was only two feet of space between us. Arm's length, yet I could still feel him in my heart. He moved his hand up my arm, his touch sending electrical vibrations throughout my body. Rachel would be gone, history. She was nothing to him, I knew. But it didn't mean she wouldn't hate me for it. It may not register on the Richter scale of betrayal like Jonathon and Joel, but she could see it as betrayal all the same. She was my sister, far from perfect, the most egotistical woman I knew, but she was family.
And what of da Vinci? If I gave Cortland a chance and we didn't work out, I'd lose da Vinci forever.
Chapter 20
ANH HANDED ME THE Flirtini-a martini made of vodka, champagne, and pineapple juice-and tossed her flip-flops off her feet. She wore them all year around, even in the dead of winter. She said Vietnamese were hot-blooded, but I told her in her case, it was more likely her hot-headed nature. She didn't argue.
It was Girls' Night In, something we were used to since I couldn't afford Girls' Night Out anymore. The last of Joel's life insurance money had been used for that bed and some Christmas gifts for the boys I knew their father would want them to have. I would be on my own financially, yet for the first time I knew I could make it.
Anh had become quite a cocktail waitress from our GNI evenings. “She's unbelievable,” Anh said, taking a sip of the concoction she'd mixed and rolling her eyes. “This is why a woman should not get in a relationship with a divorced man: you don't just date them, you date their exes. It's a threesome, without the pleasure.”
I joined her on the couch, still high from my own unbelievable Saturday, only for a very different reason. My garage was pristine, every inch litter-free, as organized as an After on a home improvement show. And the house hunting with Cortland hadn't been bad, either. That is, until he spotted the house across the street and two doors down that was for sale, a cottage-looking home with a wraparound front porch, blue shutters and immaculate landscaping. Mrs. Thompson had died six months prior, and her three grown boys were selling it and splitting the profits. I'd watched enough HGTV to know the reason her house wasn't selling wasn't because it wasn't cute, but because it was cutesy cute. Mrs. Thompson had collected ducks. She had duck borders and duck towels and duck rugs and ducks painted on the walls.