One to Save (One to Hold 6)

“Come on, little man, I’ll put on your show.” Scooping him up, I deposit him in the pack and play in my bedroom, pulling up his show on the Internet television. “Be sweet while Mommy showers!”

My shower is fast, and I listen for any changes in the bedroom as I step into jeans and pull on a loose, charcoal tee. I tie my hair in a low, side ponytail, and drop a few necklaces over my head as I step into black ankle boots.

Running down the hall, I stop at Dex’s room and grab his little jeans, long-sleeved polo, and an extra diaper. He can still wear the cowboy boots we bought him for Elaine’s Christmas wedding in Montana. He wasn’t walking yet, and we intentionally bought them a few sizes too big. He’s adorable in them.

When I return to the room, he’s engrossed in his favorite train show, and just like a little man, he doesn’t even look at me when I enter. “Okay, mister. Time to get dressed.”

“May, tank,” he says, twisting and pointing over my shoulder as I scoop him up and carry him to the living room.

“Yes!” I nod. “A blue tank.”

Flipping on the flat screen, I’m about to sit when I hear banging on my back door. “Guess who it is, Dexy? It’s Aunt Elaine and Laney!”

That sends him wiggling again, and I let him down, following him to where they’re smiling and waving at the back glass. Shouts and squeals fill the kitchen as the boys greet each other and my best friend and I hug.

“I tell you,” Elaine says, stripping off her coat and dropping it on the back of a kitchen chair, “After how cute they were in my wedding, I can’t even imagine how they’ll look surrounded by the guys in their dress whites.”

“Blues,” I correct. “Derek told me in spring it’s blues.”

“Are you sure about that?” Elaine has a sour straw hanging out of her mouth. “I think you have it backwards.”

“Hell, you’re probably right. I’ll have to double-check. Properly addressing the invitations was enough to drive me crazy.”

She follows me into the living room where Lane is sitting in front of the television making engine noises as he moves his ever-present truck back and forth across the rug.

Dex is parked in his tiny leather armchair with matching ottoman—identical to his daddy’s right behind it. Love spills through my veins as I pause to study his baby profile. He looks so much like Derek.

“So? How was the weekend getaway?” Elaine drops onto the couch.

“It started out amazing, but then...” I’m trying to figure out how to end that sentence when she cuts in.

“Stop! Don’t say you had a fight. I’ll lose all my faith in happily ever after!”

“You’re so freaking dramatic.” I flop on the couch beside her. “Give me a sour straw.”

“Am I the worst mother or what?” She digs in her purse and pulls out two—one for me, and another for her. “Lane loves these things, and I’m completely addicted.”

That makes me laugh. “I’m sure you only give him one a day.”

“It’s true! But only because I’ve eaten all the rest!” She falls back on the couch, a fresh straw hanging from the side of her mouth. “I’m going to get a cavity, I can feel it.”

“What does Kenny think?” Lane’s birth mother, a young artist Patrick was involved with briefly before he met Elaine, keeps their two-year old one weekend a month.

After a rocky beginning, she and my bestie bonded last fall over a situation involving Kenny’s boyfriend Slayde. Kenny is also how Stuart met Mariska—in a crazy twist of love and fate.

“She’s the one who started it! He came back from Bayville demanding sour straws and Coke floats.”

“Oh, wow. Coke floats.” I try to remember the last time I had that creamy, bubbly deliciousness. “So old-school, and so good.”

A sharp kick to my thigh makes me yelp. “I’m trying not to gain a hundred pounds! I’m convinced Kenny has a worm. It’s impossible she can stay that skinny with all the crap she eats.”

“She’s a fitness instructor,” I snort laughing. “A worm. You sound like my grandma!”

“I’m not lying. She eats the

worst shit!”

Lane’s towhead pops up at once. “Mommy, bad word!”