Coda Books 06 - Fear, Hope, and Bread Pudding (MM)

transportation all the time in Europe and New York, but never in Arizona. “Is the bus even safe?”
    She laughed. “Sure. It just takes a bit longer.” She talked about her job at the coffee shop, and if she should eat sushi since the verdict seemed to be out on whether or not it was allowed during pregnancy. She talked a bit about her prenatal care too. “The doctors say everything is progressing perfectly, but I can’t believe I have four more weeks. Look at me! I’m as big as a house!”
    “Honey, you’re beautiful!”
    “I don’t feel beautiful. I feel like a whale, and my back has never hurt so much in my life.”
    Of course by the end of dinner, Cole had sent me on an online search for a used car—and we only settled on “used” after arguing about it for several minutes—and he’d arranged for his massage therapist to see Taylor twice a week, in her own home. Each time I tried to dissuade him, he dismissed my misgivings with a wave of his hand.
    “Jonny worries that you’ll think I’m trying to bribe you, but honey, I swear, it’s not just you. I bribe everybody. You can ask George if you don’t believe me.”
    I was more worried that she’d manage to get a house and a monthly stipend out of him, too, although the truth was, she never asked for anything, and she only agreed to accept the car after a great deal of persuasion. As was always the case with Cole, he only did things if they were his idea.
    “Leave him alone,” my dad whispered to me when we had a minute alone. “He’s doing exactly what you told him to do—being himself.”
    It was hard to argue with that.
    After dinner, we moved to the family room. Unlike the living room, the furniture here was built for comfort. Everything was overstuffed, from the chairs to the bookcases.
    “Are you warm enough?” Cole asked, holding up a silk throw. “I have blankets, or I can start a fire.” He laughed at his own words. “That’s funny, isn’t it? Can you even imagine me stacking wood and rubbing sticks together like some kind of boy scout? It’s a gas fireplace actually, but it’s quite cozy. Shall I turn it on?”
    “No, thank you,” she said, settling her bulk into a chair next to my father. “I can’t even remember what it’s like to be cold. Sometimes I feel like I’m carrying a space heater in here instead of a baby.”
    “Oh, I never thought of that. Jonny, go turn the air conditioner down a bit.”
    “No, don’t do that. It’s fine!”
    It would be far easier to adjust the thermostat than to try to change Cole’s mind. When I came back, they were all sitting. Cole had brought everybody drinks. I took my spot next to him on the couch. He was sitting forward on the edge of the cushion, all of his attention focused on Taylor. He had apparently decided it was time to get to the business at hand. “Honey, I don’t want to embarrass you, but we’d like to know how all this came about.”
    She wasn’t surprised at the question. She’d already interviewed nine couples ahead of us, so it probably wasn’t the first time she’d told the story.
    “I told you about the coffee shop I work at? That’s where I met Craig. He works at a law office down the block. He’s older than me, but he was so nice, always asking how I was and how school was going. And then he asked me out. It’s funny, you know, because I even remember telling my friend Larissa, ‘He’s too good to be true!’” She laughed without much humor. “I had no idea how right I was.”
    “You didn’t know he was married?”
    “Not until after I told him I was pregnant.”
    “What happened then?”
    “He freaked out. He offered to pay for an abortion, but it was pretty clear at that point that he didn’t give a damn about me. I was convenient. And stupid.”
    “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” my father said. He’d barely spoken all night, and Taylor turned to him in surprise. He leaned forward to pat her knee reassuringly. “Believing in something good doesn’t make you stupid. It may feel that way after the fact, but that doesn’t make it true.”
    She smiled at him with obvious gratitude. “I just feel like such a fool.”
    “Nobody here is judging you,” my father assured her. “We’ve all made decisions in our lives that seemed right at the time but came back to bite us in the ass.”
    She laughed. “That makes me feel better.”
    “You obviously turned down the offer of an abortion?”
    She nodded. “I kept debating it,