The Friends We Keep

Chapter Sixteen

Gabby carefully pulled up the zipper of the black Akris pants she’d bought. They were ridiculously expensive—even on sale—but so gorgeous, she’d been unable to resist. They were also a size smaller than she’d been this time last month which made buying them with her shiny gift card even more exciting.

“Yay, me,” she whispered as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She still had a ways to go, but considering everything going on in her life, she was doing great.

Andrew strolled into the walk-in closet. Normally he would have been long at work, but he had a flight out later that morning and had decided to not go into the office first.

With the kids off at camp already, they’d had a rare couple of hours to sip coffee and talk about their upcoming week. Now he looked at her as she turned in front of the mirror.

“Very sexy,” he said.

She grinned. “They’re black pants, honey. That means they can’t be sexy.”

“They are, on you.”

“Sweet man.” She studied her reflection again. “Only four more weeks. I can’t believe it. Four weeks from tomorrow I’ll be walking into my new office. It’s going to be exciting.”

She shimmied out of the pants and carefully hung them back on the hanger, then pulled on her jeans. Andrew watched her. His dark eyes filled with something awfully close to sympathy. Or was it regret?

“What?” she asked.

“I’m sorry.”

“About?”

He put his arms around her. “All you’re giving up. I’m glad you’re excited about work. You need to enjoy it as long as you can. You know if there was another way, we’d find it. Gabby, you can’t know how much I appreciate this and how bad I feel.”

She pulled out of his embrace. Their closet was spacious, with plenty of light and lots of storage space, but right this second, it felt small and stifling. Maybe it was the apprehension tightening her chest.

She moved into the bathroom and faced him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He tilted his head. “Your job.”

“Yes. I start in four weeks.”

“I’m saying I feel badly that you’re so excited about going back to work when you’ll only be there a few months. I appreciate everything you’re giving up for the family and I’ll do my best to make it up to you in any way I can.”

Heat burned through her. She knew she was way too young for her first hot flash, but even as the thought formed, she was suddenly cold. Nothing made sense—certainly not Andrew.

“Why will I only be working a few months?”

His look of genuine confusion matched her own. “Because you’ll be staying home with Makayla’s baby, after it’s born.”

Gabby reached blindly for the counter behind her. Stay home? Stay home? “No, I won’t. Why would you think that? I’m not staying home. Even if I didn’t want to go back to work, which I do, by the way, Makayla is going to give up her baby for adoption.”

Andrew shook his head. “She’s not. She’s keeping the baby. I don’t understand. We’ve talked about this more than once. Even if she and Boyd don’t stay together, she’s going to keep the baby. She’ll need our help.”

“No.” She couldn’t breathe. Panic threatened. A to-the-bone fear that made her tremble. “No, that’s not what we discussed. We talked about her and Boyd being too young. That they were both too young to deal with a baby. You said it and I said it.”

“They are too young. That’s why she needs our help. Gabby, this isn’t hard to grasp. Why are you acting like this?”

“Me? This isn’t about me. I never said I would stay home with her child.”

“You have to. Honey, I don’t get it. We talked about this. We both agreed that we wanted life to get back to normal.”

“Right—after the adoption.”

“No, with the baby. Makayla can’t do it herself. I love my daughter, but we both knew she’s nowhere near prepared to be a mother. She’s only fifteen. She has to have the chance to be a kid. She needs to be going to school, preparing for college and her future.”

“So she gets to have a life, but I’m supposed to give up mine? She gets to have the baby and walk away without any consequences, but I’m supposed to give up everything to take care of it?” Her voice tightened.

“I don’t understand your reaction. We talked about this so many times before we had the twins. That a child needs a parent at home during the first five years of life.”

“A parent. That would be Makayla or Boyd. Not me. I’m not the parent.”

“But she can’t do it. You have to see that.”

No, she didn’t, she thought, wondering how he could sound so calm. As if she were the irrational one. Nothing about this was right. Or fair. Or reasonable.

“So I’m the point of sacrifice,” she said, trying to keep from sounding shrill. “I give up everything while she goes on as if none of this ever happened? How is that right?”