I lightened up, too. “She’s growing, literally bursting out of her newborn clothes.”

Nina started laughing. “She sounds fat like her brother. Rick told me you are breastfeeding?”

“Yes. And he told me you were breastfeeding little man.”

“I am.”

Before I knew it, we were talking about sore nipples, breastfeeding, and how good breast milk was for our babies. A mother’s weakness was her babies, and it wasn’t strange to see how us talking about our babies brought us together for a moment. The energy was positive, and the conversation was filled with some laughter, but I couldn’t just allow that lump in my throat to stay there. I had to say something. Something I had been dreading.

“Nina, I love Rick and I know you love Rick, too,” I blurted.

There was silence once again.

“I do. I do love him,” she finally said.

“This I know, but from the looks of it, he loves us both and there’s not a damn thing neither one of us can do to change that.”

As bad as I hated admitting that, I knew it was the truth. Rick was in love with two women, and I couldn’t blame him. I had to keep reminding myself of that. He was in love with me before I fell off the face of the earth, and he never stopped loving me, even when he started loving another woman. Was I pissed? Hell yeah! But could I blame him? Unfortunately not.

“So, what are you saying?” Nina asked.

“I’m saying why keep this back and forth going? Rick loves me and he loves you. He’s never going to stop fuckin’ me and he’s not going to stop fuckin’ you. He’s never going to leave either one of us alone so why keep going at each other’s throats when Rick clearly doesn’t give a fuck about our bickering. He’s still going to do him, regardless of how we feel about it.”

I had said a fuckin’ mouthful and I couldn’t believe how I was coming, but a bitch was tired. Tired of all the drama. Tired of all the negativity. As you get older, all that extra shit is for the birds. All I wanted to do was continue to grow and glow and be happy.

“I feel everything you’re saying, but this hurts, Kyra. This really hurts,” she said.