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“My best friend Linda’s son is a doctor. He’s very handsome too.” She fills a tea kettle with water before placing it on the stove. Isaac starts to whimper again, and she sighs. “Mind picking him up? Poor thing is probably missing his mum.”
“Sure.” I shrug out of my jacket and drape it over one of the kitchen chairs before carefully easing Isaac out of his cradle.
He settles almost instantly, nestling into the crook of my arm and popping a fist into his mouth.
“He must be hungry,” I comment. “Did Lizzie leave a bottle or anything?”
“I’ll get it. I don’t think it’s just hunger, though. I get the feeling that girl never puts the boy down. She’s going to spoil him, she is.”
“Nah, you can’t spoil newborns,” I say, carefully rocking Isaac back and forth. “Besides, can you blame her? He’s pretty damn cute.”
“You seem very comfortable with babies.”
“Well, I deliver them for a living. I have to be.” I glance up to find Mrs. Loughty watching me very carefully. Her expression is hard to read and makes me uneasy. “Everything all right?”
“What did you say your relationship to Elizabeth was?” she asks.
“Friends.”
“Oh really, is that so?” By her severe raised eyebrow, she doesn’t seem to believe me, or she knows something I don’t.
“Well, we were friends back in high school. There was always more between us, but we never really had a chance to explore it until recently.”
She nods for a few seconds, then she remembers something and looks back up at me. “She said something about not being able to reach her date the day after. She couldn’t read the handwriting on the note he gave her.”
Suddenly, a bunch of things start to make sense, and I can’t help but feel hopeful. “So that’s why she didn’t call?”
Mrs. Loughty chuckles. She puts the tea to boil and sets about warming up Isaac’s bottle. “You doctors do have terrible handwriting.”
All this time, I thought Lizzie had given me the brush off. It turns out she didn’t have a way to contact me. God. She must have been frustrated beyond belief. And then I didn’t catch her in the hotel after she’d waited for hours. She probably even thought I gave her a wrong number on purpose.
Shit.
I need to talk to her even more now.
“Do you know when she’ll be back?” I ask.
“Should be any minute now. She’s been gone for a little while, and I know she doesn’t like to leave Isaac longer than absolutely necessary.”
“Then I’ll wait for her.”
Still cradling Isaac, I take a seat on Mrs. Loughty’s plastic-covered sofa.
“There’s a good lad,” Mrs. Loughty says with a nod of approval. “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see you. Now, how do you like your tea?”
24
LIZZIE
It’s hard leaving Isaac with Mrs. Loughty, but I can’t allow the opportunity to see a studio pass me by. If the slightest chance I can make my dream a reality becomes available, I’m going to take it. There is, however, the matter of the hospital bill to take care of. I check my email for the first time in days, only to find out that my final payment hasn’t gone through. Shoot. I’ll have to get in touch with them when I get back.
The last few days with Isaac have been filled with feedings, changings, and sleeping. Even though I’m not ready to be apart from him for too long, it still feels good to get out of the apartment and breathe some fresh air.
I splurge on an Uber, mostly because Pippa told me to, and I’m only too happy to oblige. Walking is still a chore, considering the whole “I just gave birth” thing.
When the car pulls up outside of the studio building, I love it instantly. I can see large windows overlooking the city, and the street below appears to be taken care of. There’s a cute coffee shop on the ground level, and I can’t help but picture myself grabbing an iced coffee in the mornings before opening my studio for the day. I think I even smell fresh bagels.
“Please be affordable, please be affordable,” I repeat to myself as I head inside.
