She realized there was only one thing you could do when you were in this much turmoil: Call the girls.
Emma walked from the elevator toward the lobby of the main floor of the Danvers building. She was relieved to be meeting her friends for lunch but depressed that Brant hadn’t returned before she left. Suzy, ever punctual, was the first to arrive. She embraced her, glad to have a moment alone with her before the others arrived. She pulled back, still holding Suzy’s hand while she asked, “How are you? I wanted to call and see how everything went for you with your . . . procedure, but I didn’t want to pry. So, yeah, now I’m obviously prying.”
Suzy gave a small laugh, squeezing her hand. “Things went just fine. Gray was proud to have thousands of swimmers who had the speed of Olympic champions.”
Emma could only imagine that the very suave and handsome Grayson Merimon would have been absolutely appalled to have his sperm count discussed in the lobby of their workplace. Luckily for him, though, they were in a deserted corner with no one in sight.
Emma grinned. “Hey, I wouldn’t have expected less. I don’t think there could be anything to do with his body that isn’t perfect.” Emma wanted to groan as she realized what she had just said. Her friend probably didn’t need to know that she had checked out her husband so thoroughly. “Er . . . I mean, he seems to stay in shape.”
With a wink, Suzy said, “I gotcha and you are quite right.”
Curious, Emma asked, “So when will you know if it worked?”
Suzy looked down, fidgeting with the strap on her purse. “I’m not sure, probably soon. You never know about these things.”
Emma was sure that it took only a few weeks to find out if you were pregnant the normal way, but maybe things were different when you went another route. God, she hoped Suzy hadn’t had bad news already. She was acting a little evasive about the whole thing. When Claire walked in the door, Emma was grateful to let the subject drop. Better to let Suzy talk if she wanted to and not because she was being badgered.
Claire pulled them both in for a hug. “I’m so glad to see you! I love my daughter, but it’s great to escape potty training hell for a few hours. Our washing machine has been running around the clock since I started trying to train Chrissy. Jason says we should just buy stock in Pull-Ups and admit defeat.”
As they were laughing, Beth and Ella stepped from the elevator and started waving. They had decided to walk next door to the sandwich shop and avoid having to drive in the Myrtle Beach lunch rush hour. When they settled into their table, Emma noticed Beth pull out an iPad and start watching what appeared to be a video.
“Oh good grief,” Suzy grumbled. “Give me that thing. How can we talk about men, sex and whatever else while you’re over there stalking your nanny.”
Beth held on to the iPad for a moment before grudgingly giving it to her sister. “I can’t help it. I’m not used to leaving him at home all day. Janice is great, really. Nick’s parents know her family and she comes highly recommended, but still . . .”
Claire put her hand over Beth’s in sympathy. “Trust me, honey, I understand. There are times that I’m so ready for a mommy break that I’m standing at the door waiting to hand Chrissy off to the paperboy if it will get me five minutes of peace, but when I do have a sitter other than my mom and Louise, I’m a nervous wreck.”
“So wait a minute,” Emma asked. “You have a nanny cam?”
“Well, it’s not really a nanny cam, since she knows about it. Nick had it installed because we hated to miss so much with Henry while we were gone each day.”
“I think the thought was that you would check in occasionally to see what Hermie was up to, not stalk poor Janice every hour of the day,” Suzy added. Everyone laughed at Suzy’s continued insistence on calling Henry by his nickname of Hermie. Beth and Nick had long ago given up the battle to change it. Emma had even caught Beth calling him that on occasion. Turning to her sister, Beth said, “You just wait until you decide to have one of your own. You will probably terrorize your sitter.”
Emma wanted to cringe for her friend. She knew that Beth would be horrified to learn what a blow a casual comment like that was to her sister right now. The smile that Suzy gave in response to Beth’s comment looked strained, so Emma jumped in, trying to save Suzy from the current line of conversation. “So, something happened while I was in Florida.” Well, shit, maybe some weather comment would have accomplished the same thing. All eyes were on her now as she gave a weak smile of her own.
Suzy squeezed her arm briefly in what she suspected was gratitude before asking, “Does this involve sex? God, I hope so!”
Emma now wished she had just kept her mouth shut. Could she really tell them about her weekend without it being blatantly obvious that she was in love with Brant? Maybe if she distracted them with her airline disaster, they might be too busy laughing to pick up on the rest.
“Well, let me start off by saying I ended up getting a last-minute root canal before I left, had a pretty major reaction to the painkillers and accidentally took my vibrator in my carry-on bag.” As everyone’s eyes bugged out, she continued. “My pain pills spilled out in my bag, stuck to the vibrator, and were detected by a drug-sniffing dog at the Miami International Airport. Brant was almost arrested because he was carrying the bag.” There was nothing but silence at the table for a full minute.
“No fucking way,” Claire whispered. Everyone’s head swiveled to her since it was rare to hear Claire use the F word.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Claire,” Suzy added, while Beth nodded in agreement. “You have got to explain the whole story.”
Emma went back from the beginning and by the time she was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye at the table. Ella laughed so hard that she finally had to excuse herself; she was terrified that her weak pregnancy bladder was going to cause her to pee on herself.
“Oh my God,” Suzy gasped out. “I wonder if we could get a copy of that security footage. I can just picture you on the floor wrestling a dog for your vibrator.”
“And can you just imagine Brant’s face?” Claire laughed. “I’m surprised he survived the experience.”
“The only way this could have possibly been any better was if Brant had ended up on the front page of the paper in cuffs standing next to Fido, the vibrator-sniffing dog!” Beth added.