Page 128 of Love Lessons

Those words caught Finley’s attention. “Is there something in there for me?”

“You think we’d come back from Mexico without something for you, sweetheart?” Sarah pulled out a small paper bag and handed it to her. “Why don’t you see what’s in there?”

Finley withdrew a package of Mexican gummy candy from the sack, her eyes widening in approval. She reached into the sack again, this time pulling out a tiny ukulele magnet. “That’s a real, working ukulele,” Owen said, taking a wedge of parmesan from their fridge.

“Just what she needs,” Mason said, taking a seat on one of the barstools at the island as Finley plucked away at the tiny instrument.

I touched her shoulder. “What do you tell them, Finley?” For half a second, I worried I’d stepped on Mason’s toes—was it really my place to remind her about her manners? He glanced at me with a close-lipped smile, like maybe he was relieved to have someone else jump in. It was such a small thing, a moment that must have seemed so insignificant to Owen and Sarah, but it made me feel the slightest bit more confident that I could—one day—be Mason’s partner in this whole parenting thing.

That wasn’t such a scary thought anymore, either.

“Thank you,” Finley said, dropping the ukulele back in the sack so she could rip open the bag of candy. Mason warned her not to eat too many since we were about to have dinner. I sat in the barstool next to him at the island, where Sarah removed a leather handcrafted sketchbook from her sack and slid it toward Mason.

“We went to this street market where there were all these local artisans selling handmade goods,” Sarah said, “and a man named Ernesto made that.”

“Good job, Ernesto,” Mason said, running a finger along the sugar skull design embossed into the leather. “Thank you guys. This is so cool that I almost don’t want to draw in it.”

“Aw, I hope you do,” Sarah said. And then she reached into the sack one last time, pulling out a giant bottle of tequila.

“Good heavens,” I said, taking the heavy bottle in my hands with a chuckle. “Thank you. I bet this really weighed down your luggage.”

“Not as much as all the shoes she packed,” Owen joked.

“You hush up over there,” Sarah snapped, smiling in his direction. “Grate your cheese.”

“Well, should we crack this thing open?” I asked. “Get out your margarita maker, girl.”

Sarah laughed, pointing out how weird it seemed to have margaritas with Italian food. “This feels illegal,” she said a couple of minutes later, pouring the blended mixture of tequila, ice, and juice into a margarita glass for me.

She offered Mason a glass, too, but he held one hand up in refusal. “Tequila’s not my jam.”

I noticed Sarah didn’t make a drink for herself, which was odd, considering she loved tequila almost as much as me. “You’re not drinking?” I asked, taking a sip.

“Uh, no. Not tonight. Tequila and pasta—it’ll make my stomach hurt.”

Sarah wasn’t a very good liar. She couldn’t look me in the eye as she cleaned up the margarita mess, rinsing the pitcher from the blender in the sink. Then she sidled up beside Owen at the stove and whispered, “I’m going to tell them, okay?”

He looked up at her and nodded. “That’s up to you.”

Sarah turned back around, shooting a quick glance at Finley, who was playing with Leia nearby. And then she faced me. “We’ve decided to begin IVF in a few weeks.”

Until she uttered those words, I hadn’t realized I had been anticipating her to announce she was pregnant. This was a total surprise, though—I never knew they were struggling to get pregnant in the first place. “Oh,” I said, tucking my hair behind my ear. “IVF? Wow, that’s huge.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said, glancing at Owen, who took a break from making the fettuccine alfredo to put his arm around her. “That’s why I’m not drinking. We’ve been reading up on it, and it’s probably better for my reproductive health if I avoid alcohol for a while.”

“That makes sense.”

“It’s just a precaution,” Owen explained. “She’s cutting down on her coffee intake, too, which has been—”

“A nightmare,” Sarah interrupted with a laugh. “Anyway, this is all pretty new to us. I was actually looking into having my eggs frozen so we could both focus on our careers and do some traveling before having a baby, but as it turns out, I have an abnormally low egg count for my age. So… change of plans.”

“Life can be funny that way,” Mason said.

“Very true,” Sarah said. “It’s been really eye-opening for both of us, I think. We weren’t really sure this was what we wanted until we were told how difficult it might be to get it.”

I observed the way Owen looked down into Sarah’s eyes, and somehow I knew these two were going to get through this. And even if it didn’t work out, at least they’d have each other.

“Well, I’ll be here whether you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to celebrate with,” I said.

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