“Is that who you disappeared with?”
I nodded. “We spent the rest of the weekend together.”
“Oh. Ohhhhh.”
Glancing at her, I asked, “What?”
“It’s all becoming clearer,” she mused. “You’re torn because of Gemma’s baby.”
“Who told you?”
“Ana. When I called to give her my flight information, she told me everything—about the sperm bank, the girlfriend showing up at his house and dropping the baby off . . . That was crazy.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered.
“Were you there?”
“Yep.”
“Does Paityn know about you and Asa?”
I sighed heavily. “She figured it out that day, actually.”
“Hmph.”
“What does that mean, Mom?”
“Have you told anyone else?”
The person behind me blew their horn, startling me. I switched lanes. “No.”
“Not even Zara?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t even tell Paityn. She saw us together.”
My mother gaped. “Having sex?”
Giggling, I told her no. “He was having a moment. I was there for him, holding his hand, yada, yada.”
“As long as thatyadadidn’t involve your best friend catching her brother blowing your back out.”
“Mom!” I barked out a much-needed laugh. “You’re too much.”
“Actually, I thinkyou’rethe ‘much’ today, babe.”
Amused at Mom’s propensity to keep up with current slang just like all my other “mothers,” I asked, “Why do you say that?”
“Because you could’ve led with that. But you decided to lead me around the mulberry bush before you spilled the tea, honey.”
“I didn’t know what to say.”
“You said it all.”
“I like him,” I confessed. “A lot. But this whole Gemma thing . . . I can’t understand how he could father a baby, but notfatherthe baby.”
“Would you have this same question for a surrogate?”
The question gave me pause, because no. I knew women who’d agreed to carry another couple’s child. After I found out I couldn’t have kids, I’d even interviewed a few. It didn’t last long, because I filed for divorce.
