Emily thought of her dad, living with his second wife in New Mexico. A woman who was nice enough but who Emily could never think of as a stepmom or any other version of a mom. He’d be happy. Send a gift. Fly east to meet the baby. He came about once a year to see Ari’s kids, Hunter and Tyler, and Ari flew their family to Santa Fe once a year to see him. The sisters often talked about the fact that their mother would never have been a twice-a-year grandmother, but he seemed fine being a twice-a-year grandfather. She’d call him later. She’d tell Ari first.

After dinner, as Ezra was dialing his parents, who Emily was pretty sure would drive in from New Jersey tomorrow just to take them out for dinner to celebrate, she pulled out her own phone and sent a text to her sister. She used the exact same words she’d sent last time: Can you talk? I’m pregnant.

vii

Your dad and I were so careful.

We were always so careful.

Until one day we weren’t.

10

The next week, Emily was walking down Broadway to get a sandwich for lunch from Crust, which called itself a Brooklyn deli, even though it was located in Manhattan. Ari had been so exhausted the first few months of both of her pregnancies that she’d fall asleep no more than twenty-five minutes into any movie that Emily brought up to Connecticut to watch with her, but Emily didn’t feel that way—not now, and not the other time either. She felt, somehow, powerful. Though also more likely to cry at a credit card commercial or TV movie or a story Ezra told her about one of his patients. It was all she could do these last few days to make sure she didn’t cry at her own patients’ stories—the happy ones and the sad ones.

As Emily turned the corner, she saw Tessa, wearing her backpack, carrying a diaper bag in one arm and a whimpering baby in the other.

“Hey,” Emily said, hurrying over to her. “Can I help you carry something? Where are you headed?”

Tessa looked at her with tears threatening to overflow her eyes. “My babysitter canceled. And Chris couldn’t stay home from work. And now I’m late for class and I have to bring Zoe and she’s been fussy all morning and . . .”