The Truth About Ever After (Three Girls)

by Rachel Schurig

  Jen buried her face in her hands, and Annie leaned down to wrap her arms around her, holding her tight. Next to her, Ginny dumped the baby unceremoniously in Josh’s lap and jumped up from her chair, grabbing Annie and Jen and squeezing them tightly. The entire table broke into applause, and I could see Jen’s mom wiping at her eyes. I felt that same twinge again, the one I sometimes got when I was reminded of how close these three were. It was a little bit like jealousy, but not quite. Maybe loneliness was a better word.

  After that, the waiters started to bring out the food, and the table filled with noise as the guests began to eat. I was sitting next to Matt and Eric’s parents, my in-laws, and we settled into comfortable conversation. I loved my mother- and father-in-law. They were about as different from my parents as you could get, but they were such good people, so clearly crazy about their sons. At first, I think they were a little bit unsure about my relationship with Eric. They were probably kind of freaked out about the whole money thing, a reaction I was very used to. But I think I won them over, eventually.

  “This is such a nice wedding,” Eric’s mother, Stella, said to me over her wine glass. It was only her second glass, but already her cheeks had gotten slightly flushed. She wasn’t much of a drinker—I would bet that the last glass of wine she had was probably at my own wedding. “When Matt told me they wanted to get married at the beach, I was worried. But this is much nicer than I thought.” She patted my leg under the table. “You did a great job, dear.”

  I smiled at her. Somehow the praise carried more weight coming from her. Stella Thompson was a no-nonsense kind of woman. She had worked night shifts when Matt and Eric were in school, making up the gap between Matt’s hockey scholarship and the expensive tuition at the private high school where I had met him. Sometimes she seemed a little hard to me, not quite cold but not overly warm either. Compliments didn’t come from her all that often.

  “Matt and Jen seem happy,” I said, cutting into my salmon.

  “She’s such a good girl,” Stella said, looking across the table at them. Wow, she must really be enjoying her wine, I thought. Two compliments in less than a minute?

  “She is,” I agreed.

  “She’ll make a great mom, I think,” Stella went on. “She told me that they want to start a family right away.”

  I felt a little dip in my stomach. Jen hadn’t mentioned that to me. Stella leaned closer to me. “And what about you, dear? Any plans for you and Eric?”

  I practically choked on my fish. This was the most personal Eric’s mom had ever gotten with me. “I’d love to start a family,” I told her, wiping my mouth with my napkin. “I just need to convince Eric it’s time.”

  Stella actually clapped her hands. “Really?” she cried. “Oh, Kiki, that makes me so happy!”

  I caught sight of Eric across the table, raising his eyebrows at me. I smiled at him, feeling awkward. I hoped he couldn’t hear her over the din of voices and music. I wasn’t so sure how he would feel about me having this conversation with his mother before I even broached it with him.

  “John and I have been looking for an excuse to redecorate the boys’ old room,” she said, dabbing at her eyes now. Wow, either this woman needed to be cut off, or she had been holding in all this grand-baby talk for a very long time. “It still has their old bunk beds, you know, and all of their sports trophies. John keeps telling me we need to clean it out, turn it into a library or something, but I just can’t bear it. A nursery, though! A nursery would be wonderful!”

  I looked at Eric again, feeling a little bit of panic now, but he was talking to Matt. Stella was babbling loudly about the color scheme she would use, about whether or not she would need two cribs, just in case Jen and I had babies at the same time. I had no idea my simple statement about wanting a baby would morph the usually reserved woman into some kind of baby-crazed Grandma-to-be.

  “It’s probably too early to really decide anything,” I told her, trying to rein her in. “I mean, neither of us is actually pregnant. I haven’t even talked to Eric yet.”

  “But you will, dear,” she said happily, patting my leg once more. “I know you. You can convince that boy to do just about anything.” I felt a little twinge at her words. Did she think I controlled Eric? It wasn’t an idea that I was very comfortable with. “Oh, this is going to be such a wonderful year, I can tell already.”

  “You need rescuing?” a familiar voice said, close to my ear. I looked up to see my husband, kneeling beside me. “Mom looks like she’s getting a little sloshed there.” He grinned at me. “You doing okay?”

  “I’m fine.” I smiled at him. “She’s got grand-babies on the brain, apparently.”

  Eric rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he said, grabbing my hand. “You done with your food? Let’s go get some drinks and mingle.”

  I felt a flash of relief. Eric’s mom was freaking me out a little bit, to be honest.

  “Hey, Dad,” Eric called, pulling me up to my feet. “Maybe you need to cut your wife off, you know?”

  Stella tittered most uncharacteristically, and her husband grinned at us. “It’s a party,” he said, winking. “I like to see my wife get a little tipsy. Might come in handy for me later.” He winked again, and Eric groaned.

  “So not the visual I need,” he muttered, putting his arm around me and steering me toward the bar.

  I giggled. “I think they’re cute,” I said. “I hope we’re still that in love when we’re their age.”

  “You can count on it, babe,” he whispered in my ear, his hand drifting down to smack my butt lightly.

  “Watch it, mister,” I said, elbowing his ribs. “I’m kind of on the clock here, you know.”

  At the bar we met Annie and Nate, both drinking Coronas from the bottle. “This is great, Kiki,” Annie said, looking around the patio. “Seriously, you did a wonderful job. I know Jen is so happy.”

  “Thanks,” I said, grinning. “And thanks for the toast.”

  “What are you drinking?” Nate asked, gesturing for the bartender. Eric and I both ordered a beer and the four of us moved away from the bar, where a line was starting to form. Nate led us over to the railing of the patio. Darkness had fallen now, the tiki torches out in the sand providing the only light on the beach. I could barely make out the ocean, but the sounds of the waves demonstrated its close proximity.

  “This is heaven,” Nate said, looking out over the beach. “Why don’t we live near the ocean?”

  “Because we’re Detroiters,” Annie said. “We may bitch and moan about the city and the weather, but we wouldn’t actually change it for anything.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Nate said. “I’m an East Coast boy, remember? Nothing compares with being within driving distance of the ocean.”

  “You’re talking to the wrong people here, buddy,” Eric said. “You won’t find many people more devoted to Detroit than these two.”

  “Cheers,” Annie said, clinking her bottle against mine.

  “What about you?” I asked Eric. “You’re a pretty big Detroit cheerleader yourself. I mean, look at all the work you’re doing for Daddy’s company. That’s all about revitalizing the city.”

  Eric just shrugged. I wondered if he was stressing out about work again. After finishing his graduate degree in architecture, he had worked in some crappy entry-level position at a big firm downtown. Last year he had finally taken my dad up on his offer of a job in the development sector of his business. Daddy owned a bunch of properties in and around Detroit—restaurants, hotels, clubs, office buildings. He specialized in taking buildings that had been abandoned or neglected, and revitalizing them. He made a ton of money in the process, don’t get me wrong, but I knew he wouldn’t have been happy doing it any other way. Helping improve the city was a major passion of his. I was excited for Eric to take the job—it had to be more fulfilling to work at a company with a purpose than to just be at some entry-level position in your average firm. Eric seemed to enjoy the work, but I knew he felt pressur
e to prove himself as more than just the boss’s son-in-law.

  “So, are the newly-weds sticking around?” Nate asked. “It seems like they have a built-in honeymoon right here.”

  “No, they’re headed to one of the other islands in the morning,” Annie told him. “More privacy.”

  “I don’t blame them,” Josh said, joining us. He was holding Maggie on his hip, and she seemed very determined to get down and join her brother, who was now running around the exterior of the patio with another kid, probably a guest at the hotel. “It can’t be very relaxing for any of you guys here with my crazy kids.”

  “You could always take them to another hotel and leave Ginny here to enjoy her friends,” Annie said, smiling sweetly at him. Annie and Josh had a bit of a history of not liking each other, something to do with an old break-up between him and Ginny. It had mellowed out into good-natured ribbing now—for the most part.

  “Or you could do your auntie duty and take them away so your best friend could have some alone time with her husband,” he shot back, smiling just as sweetly.

  “Fat chance,” Annie said, laughing. But she did hold out her arms for the baby. “Gimme,” she said. “Go get yourself a beer or something.”

  As Josh headed over to the bar, I looked out over the crowd of people. Mostly everyone seemed to have finished their meals by now, and most of the guests were mingling on the patio, enjoying drinks and the music of the steel drum band. I looked down at my watch.

  “We should probably do the cake,” I said. “Then we can get the dancing started.”

  “I want to dance!” Danny cried, running up to us, his new friend behind him. “Momma said I could stay up late for the party.”

  “Awesome,” Annie said, looking down at him. “But you better be good, little man. No running into people, okay?”

  “Got it,” Danny said, taking off again.

  Annie sighed. “That kid is a handful. I don’t know how Ginny does it with a ten-month-old, too.” She looked down at Maggie, who grinned up at her. “Guess it helps that you’re so stinkin’ cute,” she said, kissing the baby’s forehead. Maggie reached up to grab at Annie’s earrings, laughing.

  Watching her, I felt warmth growing in my chest. I knew Annie had a point, that babies were a lot of hard work. She would totally know, since she and Jen had helped to raise Danny before Josh was on the scene. But I could do it, I knew I could. Wouldn’t all the hard work be worth it if I had a little face like that to look at every day?

  “You’ve been listening to my mother, haven’t you?” Eric asked. I looked up to see that he was watching me closely. “I can see it on your face. Having babies on the brain is contagious, isn’t it?”

  I smiled at him. “I was just thinking that we would have really cute kids.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Let’s get through the wedding, okay? Didn’t you say something about the cake?”

  “Crap,” I said, setting my beer down on the patio railing. “I almost forgot.”

  As I rushed over to the headwaiter to let him know we were ready for the cake, I tried to keep my mind focused on the evening. I’d been looking forward to this party for months, not to mention the fact that I still had work to do. Getting distracted by thoughts of babies was silly.

  My resolve didn’t last very long. No sooner had the cake been cut than Ginny asked if I could hold Maggie for a few minutes so she could go to the restroom.

  “Of course!” I said, taking Maggie from her arms. “I can watch her for a while. Why don’t you eat some cake and relax with Josh?”

  She looked at me uncertainly. “You’ve been working all day, Kiki. I think you’re the one that needs to relax.”

  “Don’t be silly,” I said. “I love Maggie and I don’t get to see her nearly enough. Go on, have fun. I’ll find you later.”

  She still looked unsure, but finally grinned at me. “If you’re sure,” she said, leaning over to kiss Maggie’s cheek. “Thanks, Kiki!”

  After Ginny had gone, I walked with Maggie over to the patio wall. Sitting down on the ledge, I settled her on my lap and looked down at her. Maggie was looking at me intently, a curious expression on her face.

  “Hey, Maggie girl,” I cooed. I smoothed out her pale blue cotton dress. What a perfect little flower girl she had made. The white bow in her wispy brown hair was starting to slip, so I readjusted it. “There you go,” I said. “Now you’re a pretty girl, aren’t you?”

  I had the unmistakable feeling that someone was watching me. Looking up, I saw Eric’s mom across the patio. She was watching me with the baby, a knowing look on her face. She winked at me before turning back to Eric’s dad.

  “Is my hubby right?” I asked Maggie. “Am I gonna turn all baby-crazy on him?”

  Maggie stared at me, wide-eyed. She looked so serious it made me giggle. “That’s quite an expression for a little pumpkin like you,” I told her. “Can I get a smile?”

  She continued to stare at me solemnly. “Please?” I asked, my voice taking on a singsong quality. What was it about babies that made people automatically talk like this? “Please smile for me, Maggie girl!” I made a face at her, opening my eyes wide and sticking out my tongue. For a minute I thought maybe I had scared her, but then her face broke out into a huge grin, a wide toothless smile that made me feel all warm and gooey inside.

  I knew, in that moment, I was a goner.

  Chapter Five

  Just like that, I had babies on the brain.

  Eric always tells me that when I decide I want something, I start obsessing. I think he exaggerates, but in this case he would probably be right. Ever since the wedding reception, all I could think about was babies. I wondered what my babies with Eric would look like. Blond, probably, since we’re both blond. Would they have his brown eyes, or my blue ones? Would they grow tall, like Eric and Matt, or would they get my short stature? Would we have boy babies or girl babies? Oh my God, what if we had twins? The idea was so exciting I could barely stand it.

  Of course, I had yet to broach this topic with my husband. Eric always said he wanted kids eventually, but so far I’d been unable to get him to commit to any kind of timeframe. I knew he wanted to be more settled in his job first, and I’d been so busy getting the event-planning firm off the ground. And, of course, we would want to be settled in a real home first, not the condo in Daddy’s building that we were living in now.

  But all those things were doable, right? I mean, finding a house would be easy in this market—and probably lots of fun, too. Eric had been at his job for more than a year now, and my firm was doing better than ever. Why shouldn’t we start trying for a baby now?

  I debated the best way to bring this up to Eric as he and I settled into loungers on the beach with Annie and Nate. Jen and Matt had left for a resort at one of the other islands early that morning to start their honeymoon. Most of the wedding party was staying on at the resort for the rest of the week. I was eagerly looking forward to lots of time in the sun and on the beach.

  “Where’s Ginny?” I asked Annie as I started to slather on sunscreen.

  “Benefits of being a momma,” she said, pointing over her shoulder. “Danny asked them to take him to the pool, so she’s over there with Josh and the baby.”

  I pictured little Maggie splashing around in the pool. Ginny was a girl after my own heart where clothes were concerned—I was sure she would have picked out an absolutely adorable little bathing suit for Maggie’s first trip to the beach. The thought made my heart clench a little bit. Man, I had it bad.

  “So, Kiki, I know you’re dying to plan out activities for the week,” Annie said, pulling me away from my thoughts of little ruffles and polka dots. “What’s on the agenda?”

  I struggled to draw my focus to plans for the week ahead—this was usually my thing. Matt had called me the Activity Director ever since high school. Most of the time I was only happy if I was coordinating fun for the people around me.

  Annie was waiting expectantly. “Well,” I s
aid, starting to get excited. “There’s a lot to do around here. There’s a snorkeling excursion that looks really fun; they take you out to an uninhabited island and let you swim with stingrays. And there’s supposed to be really good shopping in Nassau, and there’s always the pirate museum—oh, and we have to head over to Atlantis! They have this amazing aquarium and a water park right there in the resort! There’s this one slide that takes you through a shark tank!”

  “That sounds like something I’d like to try,” Nate said.

  “I guess you’re gonna keep us pretty busy, Kiks,” Eric said, smiling at me from his lounger.

  I relaxed back against my own chair. “You know what?” I said, slipping my sunglasses on. “There will be plenty of time for all that this week. Let’s just relax today and enjoy the beach.”

  It was a perfect afternoon. The sky was cloudless, a bright sun reflecting off the white sand and ocean, the water that impossible shade of turquoise you only find in the Caribbean. Waiters patrolled the beach, bringing us deceptively innocent-looking fruity concoctions that had me feeling pleasantly buzzy in less than an hour.

  “I should go give Gin a break,” Annie sighed, making no move to stand up. “God knows she could use a bit of lying in the sun-time.”

  “I’ll do it!” I said eagerly, sitting up at once. The beach seemed to sway around me a little, and I braced myself with two hands on the chair. Definitely time to ease up on the cocktails. “I’d be happy to watch the kids for a little while.”

  “You want to spend your vacation babysitting?” Annie looked at me over her sunglasses.

  “I wouldn’t mind,” I said. “Not for a while at least. Those kids are adorable.”