Page 109 of No Greater Love
"The baby will be here in about seven months," I said. "And yes, you can absolutely help with everything. We're going to need the best big sister in the world."
"I'm going to be the BEST big sister," Paige declared with the confidence only an eleven-year-old could muster. "I'll teach them everything I know about science and books and how to make friendship bracelets and how to avoid getting in trouble for the friendship bracelet incident."
"What exactly was this friendship bracelet incident?" Tasha pressed.
"It's really not important," Paige said airily. "What's important is that I'M GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!"
She unbuckled her seatbelt and launched herself between our seats to hug us both again, her excitement so pure and infectious that I found myself grinning like an idiot.
"Can we go inside and start planning?" she asked. "I have SO many ideas. And I need to call Grandma Rose, she's going to flip! And Mrs. Swanson! And?—"
"Slow down there, kiddo," I laughed. "We've got plenty of time to tell everyone and make plans."
But as we headed into the house, Paige practically bouncing with excitement, I kept waiting for her to circle back to the Sarah conversation. To ask why her biological mother had changed her mind, or what that meant, or how I felt about it.
She never did.
Over the next hour, as we sat around the kitchen table making lists of potential baby names and discussing nursery themes, Sarah Davis never came up once. Not even in passing. It was as if she had never existed, as if that coffee shop meeting had been a minor inconvenience quickly forgotten.
And maybe, for Paige, that's exactly what it was. She had her family. Her real family. What need did she have for anyone else?
"I think we should name the baby something strong," Paige was saying, her notebook already half-filled with possibilities. "Like Alexander if it's a boy, or Diana if it's a girl. Oh! Or we could do a science name! Like Newton! Or Curie!"
"Curie Crawford?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It has a nice ring to it," Paige said seriously.
Tasha was laughing so hard she could barely speak. "Maybe we should stick to more traditional names for the first name and save the science names for middle names."
"Fine," Paige sighed dramatically. "But I get to help pick the middle name, right?"
"Absolutely," I promised.
As the afternoon wore on, I marveled at how natural this felt. The three of us, planning for our growing family, making decisions together. Paige had already appointed herself Chief Big Sister and was taking the role very seriously, asking practical questions about feeding schedules and diaper changes and whether the baby would need its own night light.
"The baby's going to love having you as a big sister," Tasha told her, and the pride in Paige's face was worth everything we'd been through to get here.
"I'm going to protect them from everything," Paige declared. "Like you protect me, Dad. Nobody's going to hurt our baby."
Our baby. Not "the baby" or "your baby."Ourbaby.
I caught Tasha's eye across the table and saw the same wonder I was feeling reflected in her expression. This was our family. Messy and complicated and absolutely perfect.
And Sarah Davis, who had tried so hard to destroy it, had been dismissed with a single word: "Great."
Sometimes the most devastating victories were the quietest ones.
forty-one
tasha
"So,"I said, settling onto Paige's bed as she organized her collection of friendship bracelets by color, "want to go on a girls' day tomorrow? Just you and me?"
Paige looked up from her rainbow array of embroidery floss, eyes lighting up. "Really? What kind of girls' day?"
"I was thinking we could start shopping for baby stuff. Maybe get lunch somewhere fancy, do some planning." I paused, suddenly nervous. "I mean, if you want to. I know you probably have other things you'd rather?—"
"Are you kidding?" Paige abandoned her bracelet project entirely, bouncing on her knees. "I've been waiting my ENTIRE LIFE to go baby shopping! Can we look at cribs? And those little tiny clothes? Oh! And car seats! Did you know there are like fifty different kinds of car seats and Dad's probably going to research them for six months?"
