“Don’t you want a beer?” I said.

“No, but you go ahead.” Cally took the baby off the table and handed the menus to the waitress.

I ordered two Leinies, and the waitress asked for my ID. She held it to the light and stared at it with a dumb look on her face.

“It’s not fake,” I said. “I’m twenty-three.”

“No, I know.” She laughed. “I was looking at your name. Dennis Wilkins.”

“Yeah.”

“This is weird, but are you related to Deena Wilkins?”

“That’s my sister, why?” I looked at Cally.

“I just got a puppy from her last summer,” said the waitress, big smile. “A Siberian husky!”

“I didn’t know Deena was breeding dogs,” said Cally.

“Neither did I.”

“Oh, it’s not a purebred,” said the waitress. “She’s a mix, but still so cute. Hi, I’m Bailey, by the way.”

“That’s cool, but can I get those beers?”

“Oh, sure, sorry,” said Bailey, and off she went.

I knew Cally was gonna ask me a bunch of questions. About sled dogs, because she worked with all breeds and thought she knew so much. Or questions about Deena, whether she knew we’d broken up. Yes. Did she know about the surrogacy? No.

The waitress returned with two beers. “Here ya go,” she said. “Be right back with your food.”

“Two beers?” said Cally.

“Yeah,” I said, sliding one over to her. “We’re celebrating.”

“What are we celebrating?” she said, using that voice again. “Are you gonna propose?”

“Ha-ha. You know that’s never gonna happen.” I took a drink.

“Believe me, I know. So then what is it?”

“I dunno. I thought you were happy about being with the kid for a couple of days. Being up here. Getting the stupid car seat and all that.”

“Yeah, of course,” she said, and she lifted the mug and smelled the beer.

“Cheers,” I said, lifting mine and drinking.

“Cheers,” she said. But she faked.

When the food came, we didn’t talk much. Just ate and Cally paid and we left. She fed the baby on the way.

When we got back to the cabin, it was dark, and we unloaded the truck in the moonlight. If we dropped something in the snow, it was gone.

Cally spread out all the stuff and started to unwrap things, pull tags off, and tear off cardboard. We kept a pile of trash in the corner. To get the car seat out of the box, I had to turn it upside down. It slid out with a whoosh sound that Cally said reminded her of the birth.

“Gross. Don’t tell me that,” I said. The thing was navy blue and wrapped in plastic. There were a few parts that had to be snapped together, and lots of warnings and steps to follow, strap the kid in, rear-facing or front-facing. I put the instructions in the trash with the plastic wrap.