Sloane (33 page)

She clapped her hands together. “Thank you, thank
you.”

He grinned at her.

She took the glass, closed her eyes, and stuck her
nose inside. “It smells amazing.”

“Thattagirl,” he said. “She’s totally drinking it the
right way. You guys take note.”

Christa took a sip. “Mmm… it’s so good. Thank you for
making this beer for me, baby.”

“You are welcome,” he said. “And congratulations on
graduating from college.” He turned to us. “Who’s next? Leigh?”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “No, that’s okay.”

Silas furrowed his brow. “Are you turning down my
beer? Seriously? I think I might be offended.”

Leigh looked up at Griffin. “Um…” She looked back at
us. “Well, we were going to wait to tell, but since I don’t want to
be offensive, um…” She grinned. “I’m pregnant.”

There was an eruption of happy squealing from Christa
and her mom, who both started hugging Leigh.

“Oh my God, I’m going to be an aunt.” Christa hugged
Griffin. “This is crazy.”

But I just looked at both of them, feeling
worried.

Leigh let go of Beverly and turned to see my
expression.

“Um,” I said. “Is it okay? Are you okay?”

Leigh took a deep breath. “Well, we weren’t going to
get into that yet, either. It’s kind of a long story, and I don’t
want to step on Christa’s graduation celebration.”

“Are you kidding?” said Christa. “Talk. I love long
stories.”

“Well,” said Leigh, “I guess some of you guys know
that we’d been trying to get a surrogate.”

“You were?” I said. I hadn’t known any of this. We
really hadn’t been keeping in touch.

Leigh nodded. “Yeah, it was a nightmare.” She looked
at Griffin.

“At first, no place would let us even get the egg
extraction done from Leigh if we couldn’t prove that she was
infertile, or that there was some reason that she couldn’t carry
the baby medically,” said Griffin.

“Yeah, they were assholes about it.” Leigh made a
face. “And so, I went to a therapist, and I got diagnosed with
acute tokophobia—which is a fear of pregnancy. And I was deemed a
pregnancy risk, because I’d already terminated one pregnancy. So,
we thought that would work, and with that, they’d let us go ahead
with the procedure.”

“But they wouldn’t,” said Griffin. “Because then it
was a mental health issue, and they made it seem like Leigh was
mentally unstable and shouldn’t have children, and all this crap.
It was just…”

“We were tearing out hair out,” said Leigh. “The
annoying thing was that we’d talked to surrogates who were willing
to help us out, but we couldn’t get anyone to actually do the
medical procedure that would put our fertilized embryo into a
surrogate. So, it was really demoralizing.”

“And we started looking into adoption,” said Griffin,
“but since we have so much buried crap because of Op Wraith and our
pasts, that was getting really hard because we were going to have
to forge documents and stuff. Because, you know, both of us are
legally dead because of the way we were given the serum to save our
lives.”

“So,” said Leigh, “it was just becoming ridiculous.
And I remembered that the therapist that I went to see to get the
tokophobia diagnosis had told me that with treatment, a lot of
women actually who have tokophobia can get through their
pregnancies and have the baby. And at this point, it was just…”

“We were both so frustrated,” said Griffin.

“Right,” said Leigh. “Well, it seemed like we were
putting so much effort into having the baby in some other way that
I wondered if I just applied that much effort to trying to combat
my phobia if I couldn’t… you know, just have a freaking baby.” She
laughed. “So… that’s what we’re doing.”

“Wow,” I said. “And it’s okay. You’re really okay
with it?”

She considered. “I’m not saying it’s sunshine and
roses every day. It’s only been about… two months, right?” She
looked at Griffin.

He nodded.

“At first I didn’t want to tell anyone,” she said.
“Because in the back of my head, I kept thinking that I might just
go and get an abortion and stop the whole thing.”

“Seriously?” said Griffin.

She laughed. “Oh, I didn’t tell you that?”

He looked worried.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s not like that anymore. I
see the therapist a lot. She said we could use SSRIs, but I was
really iffy about the effect on the baby. I mean, the only one that
people are sure is safe is Prozac, but it’s got weird side effects,
and… anyway, so I just go see her every day.” She shrugged. “And,
um, it’s kind of like sometimes I get really scared, and then other
times, I’m really excited. I just try to focus on the baby part and
not my body, so much. But the good thing is that I know deep down
that it’s… it’s a phobia, you know? It’s irrational. So, it’s okay
that I’m facing it. It’s going to make me stronger.” She touched
Silas on the arm. “It’s like Silas here. He’s the king of handling
scary stuff by just barreling in there and dealing with it.”

“Me?” said Silas.

“Yeah,” she said. “You’re the one who told me to say,
‘So what if that happens?’ You remember that?”

He grinned. “I guess so.”

“And that’s what I do,” she said. “I think about how
I’m going to get really fat and gross and stretched out and look
like a monster. And I get scared. And then I think, ‘So what if I
do?’ And, for some reason, it helps.”

I hugged her. “I’m glad. I’m glad you’re able to do
this.”

She held me close, and when we broke away, her eyes
were shining. “Oh my God, ever since I got pregnant, I just cry all
the time.”

I grinned.

She looked at all of us. “You know, before I met
Griffin, I really didn’t have a family. And now I can’t imagine my
life without any of you guys. I know that we’ve been a little
estranged the past few years, but I think we all realize we were
being stupid. Right?”

Everyone was nodding. Even Axel. He put his arm
around me, and I leaned close.

“So,” she said, “Griffin and I were talking, and we
want to make sure that our baby knows all of you. Really, really
well. So…”

“We want to start a tradition of seeing each other
more often,” said Griffin. “All of us together. At least four or
five times a year. Do you guys think that’s doable?”

“Definitely,” said Christa.

“Yeah,” said Axel.

I just smiled at Silas, and he smiled back at me.

“All right, then,” said Silas. “Let’s seal this
agreement for a new tradition with
beer
. Come on, everybody,
pour yourself some.”

I looked up at Axel. “See?” I whispered. “It
is
better this time.”

And he kissed me.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this
journey through the lives of Griffin, Leigh, Silas, Christa,
Sloane, and Axel!

I appreciate all of the support I get from readers
more than I can say. Thank you, thank you. So much.

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