Chapter 41
JULY
ALLIE
Life is one wild ride. If you’d told me at any point in my childhood that I’d wind up with Noah Riley, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Noah, the boy, didn’t give me the time of day.
He was never mean or anything, but he sure never saw me as dating material.
Noah, the man, is a completely different animal.
He’s caring, attentive, fun, and full of big ideas. I seriously can’t get enough of him.
Noah and I have spent the last eight and a half months nearly inseparable. In addition to teaching at the same school, and co-coaching our basketball teams, our weekends are full of day trips, long walks, and yes, even bowling. All in all, it’s been a blissful time.
My parents have taken wonderful care of Margie, and she’s thrived under their loving guidance.
With the help of a recommendation letter from Teddy, along with high test scores, Margie has been offered a theater scholarship to Northwestern.
With her tuition covered, her parents have offered to pay her room and board, so long as she minors in something they decree to be practical.
After Margie decided to let me adopt the baby, Jordan really buckled down and focussed on his basketball season.
He won MVP on the varsity team and even drew the attention of some scouts.
He was offered a scholarship at the University of Indiana.
He and Margie never got back together, but they did manage to maintain a decent friendship, which I give them both a lot of credit for.
The Crappies went from being eight hundredth and something in the state to ending the season in four hundredth place.
Noah figures at this rate, he might take them all the way to first in five years.
With that goal in mind, he’s started running a year-round basketball program for middle school and high school players.
I started taking classes online so my teaching credentials will be up to par.
I have accepted the full-time position as English teacher at Elk Lake High.
They’re going to look for someone else to take over the girls’ basketball team because I’m going to have a baby to go home to during next year’s season.
My parents have shifted all their extra-curricular interest in photographic pursuits into becoming grandparents.
They even paid my down payment on a house which just so happens to be a block from theirs.
They say that’s so I can walk over after school to pick the baby up.
That’s right—they’ve also declared their grandchild will not be attending daycare so long as they’re alive.
My relationship with my mom has blossomed beyond belief.
I no longer feel judged by her now that I know that all along her motivation was about my happiness and not capitulation to her agenda.
We shop for the baby together, often taking Margie so that she feels part of everything.
We’ve decorated the nursery together, a soft blush/pink with a white bunny border—all that talk about Margie having a girl was right on the money—and we talk, a lot.
Finley’s and my friendship has grown nicely. She’s offered free professional pictures of the baby every six months until she’s five. She also asked me to help her find a boyfriend. She’s come to realize that life in Elk Lake is not full of eligible men. I have some ideas.
My phone rings, jarring me out of my thoughts. Picking it up, I hear my mom shout, “It’s time! It’s time! We’re having a baby!”
Chills shoot through me like bolts of lightning. “Breathe, Mom. It’s going to be okay. I already have Margie’s bag in my trunk. I’ll be right over to pick her up and take her to the hospital.”
“Hurry!” she says. “Your dad looks just like he did before you were born. I think he might faint.”
“I’m coming, Mom. Why don’t you call Margie and Jordan’s parents and let them know what’s happening.”
“Okay, I can do that.” She hangs up without saying anything else.
I look around my little house for the last time of it just being mine.
When I come home, I’m going to have a baby with me.
Margie is going to stay here with us until she leaves for school.
This way, she can nurse the baby and have some nice bonding time with her.
After all, she will be an important part of our daughter’s life.
After getting into the car, I attach my phone to Bluetooth and call Noah. He’s at the gym with one of his camps. When he doesn’t answer, I leave a message. It’s nearly impossible to hear a phone ring with all those balls bouncing.
I pull up to my parents’ house in less than a minute and Margie is already waiting at the curb with my parents. My dad helps her into the passenger side, and my mom tells her, “We’ll be right behind you, honey! You’re going to do great!”
Once my dad closes her door, I ask, “You ready?”
“Oh, yeah. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks and I’m sick of peeing every thirty minutes. Let’s get this baby out of me already!” She groans loudly, so I know she’s been hit with a contraction.
I put the pedal to the metal and get us to the hospital in two minutes flat. Pulling up to the front door, I find a wheelchair for Margie and push her inside to register. Jordan is already there, waiting for her.
He kneels down next to her and asks, “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m good,” she tells him with more stoicism than any eighteen-year-old girl should have to possess.
“I’ll be right here if you need me,” he says. Poor Jordan knows he really dropped the ball with Margie, but I’m proud of him that he didn’t desert her during this pregnancy like we all thought he was going to at the beginning.
The nurse calls Margie’s name right away. “You ready to have a baby?” she asks Margie.
“I really am.” Another contraction hits which makes me wonder if she isn’t farther into her labor than I thought.
Looking at me, the nurse asks, “Are you Margie’s sister?”
Margie reaches back and puts her hand on mine. “She’s the baby’s mother.”
Tears immediately spring to my eyes. I’m about to become a mom. My biggest dream in life is about to come true. It’s more emotion than I can contain and I let out a loud sob of joy.
“Okay, moms,” the nurse says. “Let’s go take you to have a baby.”
By the time Margie is settled in her room and has been examined, it’s already time for her to start pushing.
No one else is allowed into the room, although every time the door opens for medical staff to come and go, I can hear my mom.
The first time, she yelled, “But I’m the grandmother! Of course I should be in there!”
As time progressed, she settled down a bit and would call out, “I love you, girls! You’ve got this!”
Ninety-two minutes after we arrived, Margie gave birth to our daughter. Hope Faith Rogers. Hope as a reminder to never give up hope. Faith, for my old boss at Rosemary’s, and because no matter what, you should never lose faith.
After cleaning up Hope, the nurse brings her back. She looks between me and Margie, uncertain who to hand her to. I reach out for her and once I have her, I hand her to Margie. “Are you sure?” she asks, sounding uncertain.
“Margie,” I tell her, “we’ve already decided that you’re more than Hope’s birth mother. You are her family, and you will always have a place in her life.”
Margie takes our daughter in her arms like she’s delicate porcelain. “She’s so pretty.” Studying her, she adds, “She has Jordan’s chin. Stubborn.”
Sitting down on the mattress next to her, I tell her, “Yes, but she has your eyes and lips. She’s perfect.”
We stare at our miracle for long minutes, when another nurse comes in and declares, “There are three women out there who claim to be the baby’s grandmother. Who do you want me to send in?”
Margie and I share a meaningful look, and I tell the nurse, “Let them all come.”
The room is full for the next hour with Jordan, assorted grandparents, along with Decan and Leah. Everyone who sees Hope falls in immediate love with her. So much so that both Margie and Jordan’s parents ask if they will be allowed to get to know the baby.
I assure them they are all our family, and as such, they are all welcome in Hope’s life. This baby has worked magic by bringing all of these people together, and her reward will be having a veritable village who loves her.
Margie starts to get very tired, so the nurse takes the baby to the nursery. I tell our assorted guests, “Okay, family, let’s give Margie a chance to get some sleep.”
I’ve barely scooted them all out of the room when Noah shows up. He’s sweaty and looks like he’s run here all the way from the gym. In a panic, he asks, “Did I miss it?”
I nod my head. “Hope Faith Rogers is in the house. She’s amazing.”
Noah leans in and gives me the sweetest kiss before saying, “I think you should change her name.”
“What? No!” I push out of his arms and declare, “Her name is perfect!”
“It’s almost perfect,” he says.
“Oh, really? What would make it perfect in your eyes?” I mean, really, how dare he not think my baby’s name is amazing.
That’s when Noah reaches into his coat pocket. He proceeds to drop to one knee right there in the maternity ward hallway and says, “I think Hope Faith Riley has a better ring to it, don’t you?”
My head starts to spin to the point where I take a step back and lean against the wall to keep my balance. “Are you proposing to me?”
“I am,” he says with a world of love in his eyes. “I love you, Allie. I love you with my whole heart. And even though we’ve only been dating for nine months, I’ve known you most of your life. I know you, and you would be doing me the greatest honor by agreeing to become my family.”
“I love you, too,” I tell him. “But are you sure you’re ready for a whole family?”
He winks and says, “Oh, I’m ready. So much so that my parents are on the way to meet their granddaughter. Lorelai and Luke will be here later tonight.”
Hope now has four sets of grandparents, and aunts and uncles galore. Not only that, but she now has a daddy. “I would love to marry you, Noah. My answer is yes!”
Noah takes two steps and scoops me right up into his arms. After he gives me another toe-curling kiss, he says, “Take me to our baby. I can’t wait to meet her.”
And just like that, the life I’ve dreamed of for so long is finally mine.