“Oh.” Cordy clutched the bag to her chest. She hadn’t realized there was a wholethingsurrounding the meal train. “I’ll praise everyone’s meals then. Actually, will I get a list of everyone who signed up? I’ll want to send thank you notes, but I think things might be a little crazy after the baby comes.” She smiled crookedly. “I’m not sure, though, because I’ve never done this before.”
Liberty handed over the sourdough. “Yeah, me neither. But you know who can help you?” She nodded to the Parents’ Corner.
There was the sign from the universe: Cordy had to take her place among the other moms. Or at least try to.
Chelsea Tyler was sitting there, along with Helena Hansen, with several toddlers and babies surrounding them.
“Cordy!” Chelsea sounded genuinely happy. “How are you?” She scooted over on the couch and patted the space next to her. “We’ll tell you all about the meal train. Is there anything else you need?”
Cordy sat down, trying to look relaxed despite her heart going a mile a minute. She was doing it—she was sitting down in the Parents’ Corner.
“I don’t need anything,” she said. “I think we’re set.”
“Are you sure?” Helena asked. “I added stuff to my registry until the last minute, and even then, there were things I forgot.”
Oh, the dreaded registry. Cordy learned her lesson about admitting she didn’t have one with Jaycee. “Nope, we’re good. Chance assembled the crib the other day, so the nursery is all set up.”
Two pairs of eyebrows shot up.
“Chance Kessalbuilt your crib?” Chelsea made it sound like he didn’t have opposable thumbs or something.
Helena shook her head. “I never thought I would see the day.”
“No one in this town did,” Chelsea said. She leaned forward. “How did you do it?”
“We’re just friends.” Cordy prayed her expression wasn’t betraying her because what they’d done last night had been a lot more thanfriendly.“Chance is a great guy.”
Chelsea snorted. “We all heard what happened at Third Thursday,” Chelsea said. “Dakota told me all about it.”
At the mention of Dakota, Cordy’s interest pricked up. “Um, she did? She talked to Chance for a while.”
She tried to encourage Chelsea to go on but didn’t want to sound like she was prying. Even though she wanted to pry very badly.
“Oh, Dakota is a whole other can of worms.” Helena waved her hand. “But we’re talking aboutyourcan of worms right now. I heard Chance the fireman carried you out after he told off your terrible mother-in-law.”
Chelsea raised an eyebrow. “Is this what you heard or what you wishyourhusband would do?” She busted up laughingwhen Cordy’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously, how are you doing? How many weeks do you have left?”
Cordy forced herself to inhale as she cradled her bump. “I’m doing fine. A little more tired but more… restless, too. And I’ve got six days.”
“Days?” Helena threw up her hands. “I could barely get out of bed when I had two weeks to go.”
“I got the restless thing,” Chelsea said. “I was deep cleaning the dishwasher for the second time in a week when I went into labor.”
“How was it?” Cordy asked in a hushed whisper. “Like, really? Because some people say it will be fine, and others have horror stories, and I’m not sure… I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
As that came out in a rush, Cordy realized she wished she could have said all that to her mother.What was my birth like? Will I be okay? Can you be here with me?
But Mom was somewhere in Mongolia, and Dad hadn’t even been at Cordy’s birth.
Helena looked Cordy dead in the eye and said, “I pushed four hours with this one.” She held up the baby between them.
Cordy’s mouth went dry. That was a big baby. And four hours sounded… well, it didn’t sound survivable, to be honest.
“Every birth is different.” Chelsea shot a warning glance at Helena. “We can tell you what ours were like?—”
“And we will,” Helena cut in, “because we love telling our war stories.”
“—but that doesn’t mean your labor will be anything like ours,” Chelsea finished.
