“Dirty Dancing?” Button asked. “What kind of a movie is that?”
Mary felt as though she had just admitted to Button that she watched hard-core porn, and so she shut her mouth and focused on her bingo cards.
Ken was in the other room getting his mother a gin and tonic. He walked in and looked around the bingo tables to see where they were sitting. Mary and Button waved their hands at him together. Ken saw Mary and smiled and then started walking over.
“Oh,” Button said, “He saw you first. I guess you’re his number one girl now.”
For a moment, Mary thought she had heard wrong. And then for another she was just too creeped out to answer. Final y she said, “I’m wearing a pretty bright color. It was probably just easier to see me.”
Ken’s siblings didn’t cater to Button the way that he did. They were perfectly nice to her, of course. They just didn’t watch her every move to make sure she was okay at al times.
“Maybe it’s because he’s the oldest,” Isabel a said to her on the phone. Mary had driven into town and cal ed Isabel a from a pay phone. She had no cel service in Cable and she needed to talk to someone before she lost her mind.
“Maybe,” Mary said.
Every year, Ken’s family took a picture in front of the lake. This year, Mary volunteered to take it and Ken said, “No, you should be in it.” Button straightened her shoulders and Mary said, “How about I take one of just you guys and then one with me?” Button smiled at her.
On the plane ride home, Mary counted the mosquito bites on her legs. “Twenty-three!” she announced to Ken. “No, wait—twenty-four!”
Ken laughed. “I told you that you shouldn’t have gone running without bug spray on. You didn’t believe me.”
“I just thought I would be faster than the bugs,” Mary said.
“I’m glad you got to see the lake,” Ken said, and Mary smiled.
“Do you think we’l be able to go next year, with the honeymoon and everything?” Mary asked. “I’m not sure I have enough vacation time.”
“We’l work it out. Even if you can’t make it, I’l have to sneak away for a few days to get up there.”
“It’s a long trip for just a few days,” Mary said. Ken patted her knee.
When they got married, Button cried. Mary was pretty sure that they were sad tears and not happy tears. “You’re crazy,” Ken said. “My mother adores you.”
Ken danced with his mother and it was the happiest she looked al night. Mary stood near her for a little while at the reception, and when a waiter passed with a tray of shrimp, Button said, “You know that Ken can’t eat shrimp, right? He breaks out in hives.”
“Yes,” Mary said. “I know.”
“Oh, okay.” Button seemed relieved. “I just wanted to make sure. I just didn’t know why you would ever serve shrimp at your wedding if you knew your husband could break out in hives.”
Mary went to the bathroom and locked herself in the handicapped stal . She stood in her dress and breathed deep breaths until she heard Isabel a walk in.
“Mary?” Isabel a cal ed. “Are you in here?”
Mary unlocked the stal and stood there. “Button,” she said.
Isabel a nodded. “Harrison’s mother told me last weekend that she thought polka dots were out of style.”
“So?” Mary asked.
“I was wearing my pink-and-white polka dot dress,” Isabel a said.
“Okay,” Mary said. “Okay.” She and Isabel a walked back out to the reception.
When Mary found out she was pregnant, Ken cal ed his mother right away. “She’s crying,” he mouthed to Mary. Mary smiled.
They al went out to dinner to celebrate. “We should know the sex of the baby soon,” Mary said.
“Oh no! You’re going to find out?” Button looked horrified.
“Yeah, we thought it would be nice to prepare.”
“But it’s the greatest surprise of your life. Why would you ruin that?”
Mary didn’t know what to say.
“You’l have to move out of that neighborhood,” Button said. “You can’t have a baby there. It’s rather sketchy.” The neighborhood they lived in hadn’t been sketchy since the seventies. Now it was stuffed ful of Starbucks and Baby Gap and no one in their right mind would cal it sketchy.
“Maybe,” Ken said. “We’l think about it.”
“Have you thought of any names?” Button asked. Mary knew she was trying to be nice.
“We thought maybe Parker if it was a boy. And if it’s a girl, we like Lola.”
“Lola? You can’t cal a baby Lola! It sounds like a prostitute.”
“Mom,” Ken said, laughing. “It doesn’t sound like a prostitute.” Mary stayed silent.
“What about Brittany or Tiffany?” Button offered, looking at Mary. “Or Mandy or Christina?”
“Maybe,” Mary said. “We’ve got some time to decide.”
Button nodded. “Wel , if you name her Lola, then maybe I’l cal her something else.” She looked pleased, like this solved the problem. Mary tried to catch Ken’s eye, but he was looking at his cheeseburger.
“She wants her grandchild to be a teenybopper!” Mary said. “Brittany and Tiffany? What kind of names are those? Those are pretend names that you gave your pretend children in second grade!”
“Real y?” Isabel a asked. “I always went with Brandy at that age.”
“Isabel a.”
“Sorry, okay. So she has bad taste in names.”
“Bad taste? She wants her granddaughter to be a teenage singer who wears leather pants and vows to stay a virgin before getting pregnant at seventeen.”
Mary started to cry and Isabel a patted her back. “Maybe it wil be a boy,” she offered.
The baby was born with al of his fingers and toes, which made Mary happy. She hadn’t been that worried, but there’d been one night before she knew she was pregnant when she and Isabel a had drunk enough wine for a smal country. And so, when she was able to count everything for herself, she was relieved.
He was a chunky little baby and they named him Henry, after Ken’s dad. Mary knew it made Ken happy and also she liked the name Henry. Mary liked to hold his feet and put them in her mouth.
He had light blond hair and blue eyes, like Ken. Sometimes when he was concentrating on going to the bathroom, it looked just like Ken when he was working on a case he thought he was going to lose.
“He’s the cutest baby you’ve ever seen, right?” she asked Ken.
“Yes,” he said. “I think he is.”
Button came over the day they got back from the hospital. “I just can’t wait to see him!” she said to Mary when she walked in.
“You could have come to visit in the hospital,” Mary said.
Button shook her head. “No,” she said. “I remember how it is. You need some time alone to get it together. My mother-in-law stormed into the hospital right after I had Ken, and it was just too much! People didn’t do that in those days.” She leaned down to whisper to Mary. “Between you, me, and the lamppost, my mother-in-law was a little bit of a terror.” She winked at Mary.
Henry waved his hands and feet in the air. “Oh!” Button cried. “Look at those feet! Don’t you just want to eat them?”
“Al the time,” Mary said. She leaned over and smiled at Henry. “Look who it is,” she cooed at him. “Look who came to see you! Grandma Button is here.”
“I think he needs to be changed,” Button said. “It’s the kind of thing you should do right away.”
Mary picked up the baby and brought him to the changing table. She started to wipe him, but Button came over and edged her out.
“No,” Button said, grabbing the wipe from Mary’s hand. “You want to do it like this. Here, let me show you. Go like this.”