“I’ve already told everyone. It’s settled.”
I thought Levi was going to argue.
Instead, he walked to the dessert table, removed the enormous banner celebrating his mother, and began taking down the photographs she’d displayed.
When Diane demanded to know what he was doing, he answered,
“I’m giving my wife her baby shower back.”
And that was when the entire room fell silent.
But the trouble had started weeks earlier.
My name is Melissa, although most people call me Mel. I was expecting our first baby, a little boy, and I had been trying to enjoy every moment of the pregnancy. But alongside the excitement came an ache I hadn’t anticipated.
My mother had died several years before.
There were days when I missed her so intensely that even ordinary errands became difficult. I’d be shopping for groceries and suddenly want to call her about a pregnancy symptom or ask whether she’d experienced the same thing while expecting me.
