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“It’s still weird sometimes,” she said. “Like, Willow will wake up in the middle of the night, and for a second, I forget where I am andwhoI am. It takes me a minute to remember I have a kid now.”
“You forget about me too?” Jason quipped, towing Gem in closer to him.
“I could never,” she said saccharine sweet. “You snore too loud to ignore.”
Jason jostled her, whispering something in her ear that made her cheeks flame as she smiled. She elbowed him away to scoop Willow from her breast and onto her shoulder.
Laney finished Sam’s hair with a clap and leaped up. “Bobby snores too, but no matter what, I can never wake him up to stop.”
Sam lifted her hands above her head, stretching. “That’s why I enjoy sleeping alone.”
Laney grabbed her phone, always one to document everything, a social media queen. “Jason, if you please?”
He accepted her phone, while Laney, Sam, and I all found seats on either side and in front of Gem and Willow.
“On three,” Jason said, positioning the phone up.
“Happy birthday, Bronte,” Sam said from her seat on the floor.
“One.”
“Hope it’s a good year for you.” Laney tugged on my ponytail from the other side of Gem.
“Two.”
“And all your wishes come true,” Gem added.
“Three.”
Jason snapped a few pictures then handed Laney her phone back in exchange for Willow from Gem. “I’ll leave you ladies to it.” He kissed Gem’s forehead. “I’ll take the midnight feeding, okay? You’ve got enough milk stored.”
It was only eight o’clock, but I suspected he planned on staying upstairs the rest of the night with the baby so Gem could have the last few hours with us.
“It was nice finally meeting you in person, and I’m really glad you guys could come for the weekend,” he said to the group. “Our guest rooms are open whenever you want them.”
A chorus of gratitude rang out and barely audible sighs of appreciation when he pivoted around with Willow in his arms, his long, confident strides on display as he walked away. After a few moments of silence, Laney, Sam, and I all turned our attention to Gem, who blushed with a laugh. “I know, right? He’s perfect.”
“Like a dream!” Laney crowed.
Sam grabbed the remote once again. “A literal real-life Ken doll.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said, holding Gem’s hand. We’d come a long way since meeting on our college campus the first day as roommates. I had been a mess, crying and homesick, while Gem was excited to be out of her home state and away from her mother’s “douchebag boyfriend.” A few days later, we’d met Sam and Laney in a humanities class, but it wasn’t until two weeks after that we had solidified our friendship at a party when some scum of the earth slipped something into Gem’s drink. The three of us immediately swooped in to help her, and the rest was history. Best friends for life.
Gem glowed, her eyes watering, as she squeezed my hand in return, bringing me back to the present. “Life is good.”
My eyes watered too because I was physically incapable of not crying when someone else cried. “I can tell.”
“Are you happy?”
I coasted my gaze around Gem and Jason’s living room, the walls a bold but soothing orange with pops of gray and green in the furniture and plants everywhere, and my friends scattered about but close enough to touch. Laney with her foot resting against Gem’s thigh and her head on the arm of the sofa, next to Sam, both of them laughing about something on Laney’s phone. This was the first time we’d been able to be together in person in over a year, and it was well worth the wait.
“Yeah,” I said in answer. I may have been envious of Gem and what she had in this house, but these three girls were as close to me as my own family. This weekend was the happiest I’d been in a long time. “I’m happy.”
“Well,” Laney started, lifting the wine toward Gem. “Since Jason’s called dibs on the midnight feeding, that means you can have a drink, right?”
“You’re damn right.” She wiggled her fingers, and Laney passed her the wine. She drank right from the bottle—like the lady she was—and we all giggled, telling stories until after two when Gem finally had to go upstairs to pump. Instead of separating into different bedrooms, Laney, Sam, and I piled into one bed, where we slept crammed together until exactly six o’clock in the morning.
That’s when Willow’s howl roused us. Time for breakfast. Like clockwork, that tiny one was. A girl after my own heart.
