Chapter 4
Sipping on some post-dinner decaf coffee, Callie finally let herself relax.
Sasha was there, she was mostly settled, and Dot seemed to be very content—which was all Callie could ask for.
The dinner had gone smoothly as well. The food was great, and David had spent most of the time entertaining Sasha with fun anecdotes from his travels.
Callie was happy to let them do most of the talking, but when she returned to the dining room table with a refill of coffee, David and Sasha were having a conversation she couldn’t stay out of.
“Oh—we met when we were teenagers,” David said. “But we were just friends for a few years before getting married.”
Sasha smiled at Callie, who was sitting down again. “I was just asking David to tell me more about your love story.”
“Love story?” Callie laughed softly. “You make it sound so cinematic.”
“Well, you’ve been together for so long,” Sasha said. “That’s romantic. Seems like something out of a movie.”
Callie and David shared a look.
“We work well together,” Callie said eventually. “We always have. And we were a great team when it came to parenting. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to help me raise the kids.”
David smirked. “She says that now, but back in the day, she used to blame me for everything that went wrong.”
Callie shook her head. “That’s not true. Don’t listen to him.”
“It’s true! You used to think I went too easy on Mallory and that’s why she… well, you know…” He paused, and Callie knew he’d accidentally stumbled into a topic he wasn’t comfortable discussing. David had a soft spot for Mallory, and it was always difficult for him to talk about her troubles.
“What happened?” Sasha asked, her eyes darting between them. When neither Callie nor David answered, her face fell. “Sorry. That was kinda rude...”
“No, it’s okay,” Callie said. At that moment, the baby who’d fallen asleep in her playpen, made a little cooing noise but then quieted again.
“It’s nothing bad. Mallory has just had a hard time finding purpose in life.
When she was a teenager, she was almost kicked out of school.
She wasn’t a bad kid... she just never did her homework.
She didn’t see the point in studying for exams and writing essays when she could be sitting outside and watching the frogs swim in the pond instead. ”
David snickered. “I can’t say I disagree. I wish I could spend more time doing things outside rather than sitting at a computer all day.”
“Yeah, well, now you see the source of the tension,” Callie said. “He and I were always at odds when it came to figuring out what to do with Mallory. David wanted to foster Mallory’s natural curiosity and independence, while I was a little more concerned with making sure she graduated.”
“Did she?” Sasha asked. “Graduate?”
Callie nodded. “Yes, through blood, sweat, and tears—mostly mine—she graduated. We sent her off to college, and it’ll probably come as no surprise that her journey with higher education was also bumpy.”
“But she’s doing great now,” David added with a grin. “She’s got a steady job and I think she’s happy with where her life ended up.” He shrugged. “Sometimes you have to try out different paths in life before you find the right one, that’s all.”
“I agree,” Callie said. “Or at least, I’m trying to. It’s not my fault that I want things to work out for our daughter… And David, even you have to admit that Mallory tends to make life harder than it needs to be.”
David swirled the last sip of wine around in his glass. “Yeah, I suppose there’s some truth in that. But I think she’s stable now. Last I heard, she likes her work and made some friends in her new town.”
“That’s good,” Sasha said, smiling.
Callie smiled back, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Though she’d held her tongue in front of Sasha, she had a feeling Mallory wasn’t doing as well as David had said. Her youngest hadn’t called in weeks, and Mallory tended to isolate when she was struggling.
“Do your kids visit often?” Sasha asked after a short silence. “Will I meet them?”
“Probably at Thanksgiving,” David answered. “But we’ll see. They’re all so busy, it’s hard to get everyone together under one roof these days.”
Callie leaned back in her seat and let the two of them carry on a conversation about their favorite Thanksgiving dishes.
She glanced down at the baby asleep in the playpen next to her and a faint smile formed on her expression before it faded.
Although she’d felt content five minutes ago, she couldn’t help but worry about Mallory.
However, she drew in a deep breath and tried to block her anxieties from her mind.
Suddenly, her phone rang.
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the device and prepared to silence it, not wanting to appear rude by answering a call during dinner. But when her son Taylor’s photo popped up on the screen, she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to talk to him. She hadn’t heard from him in a while.
“I’m sorry,” she said, standing up. “I have to take this. It’s Taylor. I’ll be right back.” She went into David’s office to take the call, answering right before he was sent to voicemail. “Hello?”
“Hey, mom,” Taylor said. Was there a bit of a strain in his voice, or was Callie making that up? “How are you?”
“I’m—I’m doing good,” she said. “How are you? It’s been a while since we caught up.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Work’s been crazy.”
She chuckled. “Work is always crazy with you.”
“Yeah, fair enough,” he said. “But things have been even crazier than usual. Erica was out of town visiting her aunt for a bit, and I had to pick up all the slack for nearly two weeks.”
“Is her aunt okay?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “Her health has taken a turn for the worse, which is why Erica wanted to spend as much time with her as she could. She had a tumor removed from her stomach. They think she’ll bounce back from it, but sadly I think she probably has less than a year left...”
Callie inhaled sharply and sat down in David’s desk chair. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help? How’s Erica holding up?”
He paused. “She’s doing okay. She and her aunt were close growing up, but her aunt’s also in her late seventies now and none of this is much of a surprise. She didn’t take very good care of herself throughout her life. Sorry if that sounds judgmental, it’s just the facts...”
Taylor was always about “the facts,” and he often did come off judgmental when he wasn’t careful. Callie knew her son was one of the most loving and sympathetic people on the planet though, so she always gave him the benefit of the doubt—even if it drove his sisters crazy.
“Ah. Well, still, that must be hard for the whole family,” Callie said, her expression furrowed with concern. “Will you let Erica know I’m thinking about her? I’d call, but with her busy schedule, I feel like that might only add to her stress.”
“I’ll let her know…” He laughed under his breath. “And it’s funny you mention the work stress. That’s actually kind of the reason I’m calling.”
“Oh? What’s going on? Is everything okay at work?”
“Yeah, work’s fine,” he replied. “It’s actually booming. But thinking about losing her aunt and seeing her in a hospital bed has made Erica shift her priorities a little. She’s been thinking that maybe both of us should take a step back from the business and focus on other things.”
“Oh, really?” Callie did her best to mute the enthusiasm in her voice. She’d been waiting for years to hear her son talk about prioritizing other aspects of his life over the practice, but she didn’t want to jinx it by seeming too excited.
“She… She wants us to start trying to have a baby.”
At this, Callie was unable to hold it together. She gasped and covered her mouth before her son could hear her begin to cry. “Honey, that’s wonderful,” she said once she’d composed herself enough to speak. “I’m so happy for you two!”
“Yeah, well… It’s not that simple.”
The hope in Callie’s eyes faded. “What—what do you mean?” But she bit her lip when she realized she’d overstepped again. When did she get so good at saying the wrong thing?
Since Taylor and his wife were in their forties now, things weren’t that simple, and poor Erica was probably terrified to be starting this new journey in her life at that age.
“You know,” she said tentatively. “Plenty of women have babies in their forties. Not to mention, they’ve come a long way with fertility treatments. And she’s always been so healthy!”
“It’s not Erica.” He sighed. “She went to the doctor last month and they told her everything looked great. She shouldn’t have much trouble at all getting pregnant, actually.”
“Oh, great. I’m not surprised. But then…”
“It’s me,” he said with shattering finality. “I’m the problem. I’m the reason we aren’t going to be able to have a baby. I–I did some tests as well, and apparently, I’m basically sterile.”
Callie froze in the chair, her body stiffening. “Oh, Taylor. Sweetheart. I’m so sorry. That—that must’ve been difficult to hear. Did they say why they think this might’ve happened?”
“They said I’ve probably always been this way. It wasn’t an issue until Erica and I began thinking about starting a family. We were both so excited, and now I don’t know how to tell her that all our plans need to be tossed out the window.”
Callie shook her head. “No, that’s not true.
There are other ways to have kids. Like surrogates or sperm donors.
.. You could adopt!” He said nothing, so she kept going.
“It’s not the end of all your plans, honey.
You can still have a family. You will still be a dad.
It just might look a little different than you originally imagined, but that’s okay. ”
He sniffled, and Callie clutched her chest, her heart aching for her hurting child. “I just know that Erica’s gonna be really disappointed. She was so happy, but now I need to tell her it’s not going to happen.”