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“Of course I’m happy!” Amara eased herself down into the chair. “I don’t know what things are going to be like going forward, you know? I’m kinda scared. Quint is incredible.”
“Mmmhmm, he is that and then some.”
Amara smiled at her friend’s enthusiasm. “I’ve gotten used to having him around.”
“That’s right. I bet you have,” Kari said, her insinuation obvious.
“Don’t go there. It’s not like that.”
“Why not?”
“Stop it,” Amara said. “He’s really not who I thought he was, you know, back then? He’s been there for me completely through all of this, but I really, really don’t know what I’m going to do now. I don’t know if I’m ready. I don't know if he’s ready.”
Kari scoffed, though the grin was evident in the sound of her voice. “Ready for what, exactly? To admit you want this to end the way it should? That you love this guy? Come on! Think of all you’ve been through together. You told me yesterday what a wonderful father you think he’s going to be. You hung tight during what was the most stressful thing that could have happened to you, so you’ve got the whole ‘better or worse’ part covered.”
Amara sighed softly. “I don’t know. I think I’m falling in love with him, and I think I have been for a while. Before Hampton was born, even. We talked almost every day, Kari. He could make me laugh when I was low, he comforted me when I was being unreasonable and all hormonal. He didn’t even make fun of my pregnancy brain.”
“High praise.”
“I know. And he seemed to care for me, more than because I was bearing his son, though I didn’t recognize it at the time.”
“Aww, of course he did, Amara. I mean, he chose you to be the mother of his child. He had to have done that for more reasons than finding your DNA attractive.”
Amara chuckled. “That’s a point, I guess. Oh, Kari. I think I may have it bad. I think I might actually be in, you know, love-love.”
Kari squealed, and Amara jerked the phone back from her ear.
“I knew it!” Kari cried. “I read the cards last night, and they said loud and clear that you two were going to come together and stay together. Past hardships, but a bright future! Isn’t that right?”
“I guess so — even back to the whole debacle at the conference. I was so pissed off at him. I don’t know that I’d ever been madder, at that time. I think a lot of that anger was because I knew he could be different if he’d think about the bigger picture and get past the profit-at-all-costs hype.”
“That’s happened, now,” Amara continued. “He’s the man I thought he was, and the man I knew he could be. That’s why this is so scary for me. I don’t know if I can keep from getting together with him at this point, you know?”
“Hell, I don’t know why you’d want to keep from it.”
“I keep thinking this was all about the baby to begin with. What if he only wants to be with me to have a family? He was willing to do weird stuff to have a son, maybe he wants a wife now, too. Complete the whole set.” She tried to play it off lightly, like she was kidding, but there was some honest concern at the heart of her joke.
Kari huffed hard. “Don’t pull that on me. I heard that, you know. I know you better than anyone else, and you better not forget it. So you get that thought out of your head. You said yourself that he’s a good man, and that he’s the man you thought he could be. He’d have to be some kind of sociopath to scrape together parts of a family like they’re collectibles or something! Is he a sociopath?”
“No, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not the ridiculous one here,” Kari said. “What you should do is talk to the man. I bet you’ve been putting off any serious conversation since you got bac
k, haven’t you? Certainly sounds like it to me.”
Amara nodded slowly, reflecting — a habit she’d gotten into after being around Kari in person for so long. Even on the phone, it felt like they were in the same room together.
When she realized she hadn’t responded, she cleared her throat softly. “Yeah. I don’t wanna say the wrong thing.”
“He didn’t come to you simply because he wanted to have a baby. I bet he’s still as caught up over you as you are over him. Talk to him.”
Amara turned and took in the lights of the city. “You’re right. Kari. As usual. I need to stop over-thinking this. I’m going to do something.”
“What? When?”
“Talk to him. And soon.”
“Do it tonight, before you lose your nerve.”
