“I know,” she said quietly. “I understand what we’re doing.” She paused thoughtfully. “I think it might help her, Liz. And if it can, then I think we have to try.”

“Do you want to tell her?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I think it should come from her mother.”

I’d been afraid of that.

Olivia looked delighted, which kind of annoyed me. “You could act less thrilled that my life is about to come tumbling down,” I told her.

“Oh, Elizabeth, you are so dramatic. It’s going to be fine.”

But I knew, once I told the truth, nothing would ever be fine again.

Amelia A BRIDGE

I HAD SEEN MR. THAYSDEN’S boat pull out of the dock. I had dealt with the fact that I had said things I couldn’t take back, that I had been angry, but, if I was honest, I wasn’t surprised. I had tried to take his assertion that he didn’t want children at face value, but, deep down, I knew better than that.

I was very clear on one thing in that moment: I didn’t want to lose him. That, at least, was something. But was keeping him fair, when he so obviously wanted things that I couldn’t give him? Weren’t you supposed to sacrifice for love? Or was a child way too big a thing to ask a person to give up? I sighed deeply to no one in particular as I made my way down the dock. I sat down at the end, my feet trailing in the water, the stars so bright it almost seemed like day.

I guess a part of me wanted Parker to come up behind me, to kiss me, to tell me it was okay. But was it true? Could it ever be okay now? I had known true love with him. And now he was gone. Maybe it was stupid to rely on a journal entry from when I was fourteen, but if a man didn’t love me the way I was, if he couldn’t accept that I couldn’t have children, then how could he really love me?

But, then again, when I was fourteen, there hadn’t been an obvious way for me to have children. Now there was. Maybe I should quit being so stubborn. Should I give him what he wanted? Maybe that was the answer. But having a child wasn’t like switching sides of the bed. It wasn’t like drinking Dunkin’ when you really wanted Starbucks. It was forever, the single most life-altering thing a person could do. But, then again, we could try. And it might not work… No. I snapped myself out of it. If I decided to go through with it, I had to be all in. That was the only way.

I turned to see my mom walking down the dock in her starched blouse and fitted leopard pants. She was so cute. And agile, I thought, as she jumped from the regular dock to the floating dock, sat down, crossed her legs, and said, “So, not exactly the celebratory dinner you imagined?”