Detours (27 page)

“You sound like your mind’s made up.”

“It is. When I emailed Anika and Nicolas to wish them happy Thanksgiving, I told them I was thankful that they were back in my life, and I told them about you and Natalie—the whole truth about us—and how much the two of you mean to me. I even used the line from my mom’s letter.”

“What line?”

“That a real family isn’t determined by bloodlines, but by love and shared experiences. It’s true for them and me, and it’s really true for you and me.”

Mary wrapped Ellis in a hug. “All right. We’ll talk to my family.” Her voice dropped an octave. “But first, show me again how you’ve perfected your invasion strategies.”

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Despite how poorly the auto market was doing, in her first week as a sales trainee, Ellis sold two cars. That was a good sign. In the course of the same week, she and Mary survived their obligatory, cursory, staring-daggers-through-them conversations with Mary’s mother and Naomi to confirm their suspicions about the relationship between Mary and Ellis. No one had ruptured a blood vessel or summoned the National Guard. Another good sign.

It was Friday night, so the showroom stayed open late. Ellis stopped for a burger and a milkshake on the drive home. By the time she got there, the only light in the house shone through the master bedroom window. Ellis slipped out of her Moss Motors blazer as she entered the room. “Hi, love. What are you reading?”

Mary, sitting on their bed, tucked the book against her, her finger marking her page. “It’s Nat’s baby book. I found it when I was sorting through some of the last boxes from the move.”

Ellis kicked off her loafers and undid her belt. “Mind if I join you?” She draped her dress slacks over a chair.

Mary slid over to make room. “You’d better.”

Ellis took the book from Mary. “Can we start over from the beginning?”

“I already have. Twice. I’d forgotten just how beautiful she was.” Mary pointed to the photo of Natalie wearing her pink knit beanie in the hospital bassinet. “Amazing. The most gorgeous child in all of creation, and I gave birth to her.”

“Not a surprise to me. Take a look in the mirror.” Ellis edged in for the kiss she’d been craving.

Mary stared at the picture a moment, then closed the book and set it aside. “I need to ask you something really, really important, Ellis. And I don’t want you to tell me what you think I want to hear. You have to tell me the truth.”

“I always do.” Ellis raised her hand as though taking an oath. “I swear.”

Mary hitched herself up on her knees and straddled Ellis’s legs. “Lately, I’ve been thinking—”

“That it’s time Natalie stopped being an only child.”

Mary’s eyes about popped out of her head. “How did you know?”

“How could I not?” Ellis cupped Mary’s chin in her hands. “I’ve seen you with little Erin, watched you puddle up over the baby shampoo commercials on TV, and heard all your remarks about how Natalie has grown so fast and isn’t your baby anymore.”

Mary bounced up and down on the mattress. “What do you think?”

“Ask me a year from now when I’m changing yet another dirty baby diaper.”

“You mean it? We can try?”

If it meant she could bask in Mary’s radiance for even one more moment, Ellis would have promised her anything. She was reminded of how her neighbor at the apartment in Tucker had said all the difficulties of being pregnant were worth it just to see her husband’s joy every time he told someone that their baby was on the way. “Sure. You have to do the hard part, though. I draw the line at morning sickness.”

“Oh, Ellis. You’re the best. The absolute best.” Mary jumped from the bed and danced around the room. “I hope I’m not too old.”

Ellis opened her arms, inviting Mary back to bed. “Don’t be silly. A bigger question is who you’ll get to be the sperm donor.”

Mary claimed her spot next to Ellis. “I’ve thought about that. Let’s make it simple. If we use the sperm that Nathan and I froze when we thought he might have cancer, the baby will be Nat’s full brother or sister.”

Ellis pursed her lips. “Do you think they’re still good? Well, active, I mean?”

“They should be, and I’ve thought about something else, too.”

“Sounds like you’ve done a lot of thinking, missy.” Ellis stroked Mary’s thigh. “Tell me what else.”

“If we try with Nathan’s sperm and it doesn’t work, then that will be the end of it.”

“Isn’t that limiting your options?”

“I suppose, but it’s what feels like the right boundaries to put on it. It if takes, it was meant to be, and if it doesn’t, well…”

“If it doesn’t, we listen to Natalie moan about your ineptitude as a mother for the rest of our natural lives.”

“Oh, good. You understand.”

Mary’s kiss triggered an undeniable response from Ellis. “Want to pretend we could make a baby ourselves?”

Mary rocked suggestively against Ellis’s upper leg. “What a great idea. Hurry up, will you? That sound you hear in the background is the last few hopeful minutes ticking off my biological clock.”

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Gloria grabbed the pitcher from the trivet on the table in her living room. “More iced tea, Ellis?” She stood beside Ellis’s chair, pitcher poised.

“No, thanks. This is plenty.”

“Stop playing hostess, Gloria,” Mary said. “The kids will be home from school soon, and Ellis and I really want to talk to you about what we’re planning to do without three nosey girls interrupting us every five seconds.” She bounced baby Erin on her lap. “At least this one is young enough that we won’t have to worry about her blabbing everything she knows to Mother.”

“Or to Naomi.” Gloria set the pitcher down.

“Right. So, what do you think of the idea?” Mary shifted Erin to the floor where she could play in the stack of toys there.

“It’ll probably kill Mother.”

“Don’t hold back, little sister. Come on and tell us how you really feel.”

“You asked what I thought, and quite honestly, I can’t imagine how Mother will survive the horror of it all. She’s barely had time to adjust to the news of you two being a couple.”

“What horror? I just want to have another baby before my eggs are too old to hatch.”

“A baby by artificial insemination. And don’t forget, you’re not married. By Mother’s standards, it will be a freak baby born in sin and destined for eternal hell.”

“But it will be conceived from my husband’s sperm.”

“Your ex-husband. Your deceased ex-husband, to be more precise. And conceived while you’re living with a woman who Mother regards as leading you directly to the devil’s front door.” She glanced at Ellis. “Sorry, no offense meant.”

Ellis watched as the conversation ball was lobbed back and forth between Mary and Gloria. They left her no time to answer.

“Don’t you dare blame Ellis for this. I was a lesbian long before I met her. Besides, you said yourself that I’m happier than you’ve ever seen me.”

“Easy, Mary. I wasn’t blaming Ellis. I was simply reminding you of what you already know. Much as Mother loves playing Gramma, she’s not going to hang banners in the church sanctuary proclaiming the impending birth of her seventh grandchild. Not if it’s procured the way you’re talking about getting it.”

“Procured? We’re not going to Babyland General Hospital and picking a Cabbage Patch Kid off the shelf. We’re going to use a tried-and-true method of making a baby. Well, without the usual inaugural act, but you know what I mean.”

For the next twenty minutes, Mary and Gloria bickered over the imagined consequences of Mary being impregnated with the sperm she and Nathan had put in frozen storage. Ellis might as well have been a picture on the wall for all she contributed to the discussion.

Ellis heard gravel crunching in the driveway. She looked out the window and saw Adam pull up out front after collecting Amber and Ashley from the Christian Academy and Natalie from the elementary school. The children thundered into the house, and Adam honked twice, his usual signal before heading back to the car dealership. Ellis seized the opportunity of the girls’ arrival to excuse herself to the kitchen to make after-school snacks. She’d heard all she needed to of the exchange between Mary and Gloria, anyway. Based on what had been said, when the furor faded—
eventually
faded, that is—Gloria would be supportive, as she’d been all along. No bets on the rest of the Moss family, though.

Half an hour later, she and Mary were on their way back to their house. Natalie stayed behind to play with her cousins. The remaining daylight in the early February sky was already heading toward dusk.

“So, did you and your sister reach any conclusions?” Ellis asked as she pulled onto the road in front of Gloria’s house.

Mary’s tone was derisive. “Yeah, that the world is only meant for heterosexual Baptists, and that the rest of us are taking up valuable space intended for God’s chosen people.”

“I think you’re being too hard on Gloria. She only wants you to be sure you understand the consequences.”

“You’re right. Gloria isn’t the ringleader in the fight against us infidels. My mother is the immovable object.”

“I guess that means you’ve changed your mind about making a trip to Atlanta to visit the sperm bank.”

“Oh hell no, it doesn’t. This is right for you and me and Natalie. I’d be happy to have my family’s support, but if I don’t get it, what difference will it make? I’ve never really had it anyway, so it won’t be much of a change.”

“Not even from Gloria?”

“She’ll do her best to stand in our corner, but Mother still occupies the rest of the house. I can’t expect my little sister to wreck her life by alienating herself and her kids from the family matriarch.”

Ellis waited a minute before posing a familiar question. “I’ll ask this one more time. Would it be any easier if we were to move back to Atlanta where we could be in a more gay-friendly environment?”

“I’ll give you the same answer I gave you every other time you asked me that. Who needs the smog and the crowds and the noise and the traffic? It’s so quiet and pretty up here. Nat loves school. She’s got a pile of friends, and she gets to hang out with her cousins. You’re doing great selling cars at the dealership. I like our house. With the insurance proceeds we got when Nathan died, it’s all but paid for. It surprises me to hear myself say it, but this is home, Ellis. I want to live here with you—with you and our kids.”

Our kids.
Ellis wasn’t sure if the surge she felt was excitement or terror, or both. Thoughts of parenthood crowded her mind.

“Uh, honey?” Mary said.

“What?”

“You just drove right past the turn to our house.”

After Natalie left for school on April first, Mary and Ellis lingered over coffee in the kitchen. Mary pulled a thin, rectangular package wrapped in paper decorated with pink, blue, and yellow baby booties from one of the cabinets and handed it to Ellis.

“What’s this? A Mary Moss April Fool’s joke?” Ellis shook the box.

“Not exactly. In fact, it’s something that should be fairly useful for us in about two-hundred-and-sixty-six days.”

Ellis did a quick calculation. “That’s about nine months.” She tossed the box aside, leaped to her feet, and pulled Mary to her. “Does this mean what I think it does?” Happy tears trickled down her cheeks. She moved back so that she could see Mary’s face.

Mary brushed Ellis’s tears away. “Uh-huh. I’ve peed on a stick every day for the past week, and it looks like Nathan’s boys were still up to the task. I saw the doctor yesterday, and she confirmed it. We’re going to be parents.”

Locked in one another’s arms, they clung together and swayed to the ancient rhythm Mother Earth imparts to women ripe with new life.

“Who else knows,” Ellis asked.

“Only you, me, and Doctor Jenkins.”

“Can you wait until I get home from work tonight to tell Natalie?”

Mary recoiled in mock horror. “Tonight? I wouldn’t dream of telling Nat tonight.”

“Why not?”

“Have you met my daughter? Need I remind you of her ability to pester the life out of absolutely everyone? I want at least a few functioning brain cells when the baby gets here in December. If we tell her now, by the time school’s out, she’ll have made lunatics of us both. By the time I deliver, we’d have to be fitted with drool cups and be tied to our wheelchairs.”

“Point taken. But this feels like news that should be shared.”

“And share we will, but let’s wait a while. My sisters can be almost as annoying as Nat. I’m thinking we’ll break the news in late May or early June.”

Ellis smiled at Mary’s comment. “Right again. Can I tell Anika and Nicolas?”

“Sure. Your siblings, we can trust. And they’ve been so good about writing and calling since you and Anika talked last fall.” Mary retrieved the unopened package from the table. “Don’t you want to see what I got you?”

Ellis undid the paper and opened the box. Inside was a baby book, much like the one Mary had kept for Natalie. “I can’t believe you found one with rainbows on the cover.”

“The Internet is a marvelous tool. I had to send all the way to Washington state for this, though.” Mary turned to the family tree pages. “See? This lets us list both the biological parents and the nurturing parents. Isn’t that a cool way to label us?”