will defend them. I bet Mrs. Goulden didn’t tell you that you have six months from the time of your baby’s birth to change your mind, even if you did sign the adoption papers.”
“No!” Leah sat up, eyes wide, her heart soaring.“Is that true?”
“Yes, it is,” the lawyer assured her. “I’m going to file a motion in court on Monday morning using that argument to attempt to force the social worker to relinquish your baby.”
“Oh, Rob!” Leah turned to him, seeing the light in his eyes, and she threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so happy!”
“Well don’t count all the chickens before they hatch.” The lawyer sighed, looking between the two of them. “I’ve filed motions like this before and have had social workers stall, giving the judge reason after reason that baby can’t yet be relinquished. They try to stall past the six month mark, because they know they law.”
Leah sat back in her chair. “Oh…”
The lawyer leaned forward, elbows on the table, looking directly at her. “Leah, this may be a long, hard fight. I want you to be prepared for that. We always prepare for the worst but hope for the best, right? What we want to do is create a case so solid they feel overwhelmed by the evidence against them and simply give up the fight before it comes to blows. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I’m not an unfit mother, Mr. Highbrow.”
“I know you’re not, Leah,” he said softly, glancing toward the door. “Speaking of motherhood… you should know that your own mother misses you very much. I’ve known her a long time, and I can tell you that she truly only wants what’s best for you.”
Leah felt her spine stiffen at the mention of her mother, but the way he spoke about her, the look on his face, his demeanor-it all contained an element of truth she couldn’t deny. She could feel it, his words seeping in past her defenses, melting the ice around her heart.
Could it be true?
Rob stood, taking Leah’s hand, and when he stopped at the front desk to write a check-a retainer so large, it made Leah feel faint, watching him write all those zeros-she found herself face to face again with her mother. Rob gave her the check, turning to say goodbye to the lawyer, who was talking about motions and future depositions and subpoenas, but Leah didn’t pay attention.
She watched the way her mother filed the check, turning away to dab her eyes with a tissue she hid on the other side of her typewriter.
“Mom?”
Leah’s mother looked up, almost reluctantly, like Leah might be ready to hit her with something, and the thought made Leah instantly sad and regretful.
“Erica and I are going wedding dress shopping at Hudson’s tomorrow around noon. Do you want to come?”
Leah’s mother opened her mouth to speak, closed it again, and bit her lip. She glanced over at the lawyer and he smiled, some sort of communication passing between them, and he nodded encouragingly. Leah waited, already regretting it, but she couldn’t take the invitation back now. Maybe it would give them a chance to talk, clear the air. Maybe that would be possible.
“I would love to,” her mother said, her voice almost a whisper. “Tomorrow at noon?”
Leah nodded, letting Rob take her hand. “Erica and I will meet you there.”
On their way out, down the hall, as she and Rob were embracing at the elevator and he was whispering to her how brave she was, how beautiful, how much he loved her, Leah thought she heard her mother burst into tears, but she told herself as they got into the elevator that such a thing was impossible. It had to be her imagination. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen or heard her mother cry.
Chapter Four
After a morning of opening gifts around the tree and eating the cinnamon rolls Solie had made the day before and left them for breakfast, Erica did what she did every Christmas-she took all her new stuff to her room and lined it up on her bed. There was something immensely satisfying about seeing Christmas gifts laid out this way.
Normally, she would call Leah’s house to ask what she got and they would compare notes and talk about what they were going to wear for the Nolan family dinner. Her father had kept up the tradition after Erica’s mother died, inviting Leah and her mother, as well as Father Patrick and Father Michael. Sometimes they would bring guests too, a stray nun or perhaps a generous church benefactor. Erica never knew who was going to show up, but Solie would arrive around two in the afternoon to start putting dinner together. Half of it was already prepped in their refrigerator.
Erica looked at her lineup of presents, finding it far less satisfying in the moment than she had on former Christmases. For some reason, her new clothes, records, jewelry and perfume didn’t make her anywhere near as happy as she’d been in the past. She should have been on the phone with Leah, but instead her best friend had gone up to the loft with her future husband, something Erica couldn’t have imagined happening in her wildest dreams, effectively shutting her out. Things weren’t the same, even with Leah back, and she knew they’d never be the same again, in spite of the way everyone kept pretending they were. It made her sad.
Then she remembered the piece of paper shoved into the pocket of her winter coat.
Erica went down the hall and dug it out-it was a flyer for the midnight mass at Mary Magdalene’s church advertising the “live nativity scene.” There was a picture of the scene on the front. Father Michael had commissioned Robert Nolan to take it for him, and it was a lovely photo of Erica dressed as the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus-only this was really just a doll wrapped in a blanket, its face turned away from the camera so you couldn’t tell. Father Michael didn’t introduce a real baby to the mix until the big night.
The Virgin Mary’s face was turned up to Joseph, played by Clayton Marshall Webber III, who was handsome even in his simple robes and goofy sandals. She’d never noticed the way he was looking at her before, like he worshipped the ground she walked on. He was clearly a good actor. It made for the perfect photo of the scene they were portraying, but after the night she’d spent with Clay, she wondered how much of it was really acting. She turned the flyer over and found the number he’d scribbled there.
He had asked for her number, but Erica had hemmed and hawed. The truth was, she didn’t want him calling her house and having Leah answer. She didn’t want to explain his presence in her life aside from Father Michael’s play. And then she’d gone and snuck out to meet him and then invited him to Christmas dinner, of all things. So much for her original plan.
Erica headed back down the hallway, slipping though the living room, glancing up at the loft where her father-and now Leah-slept. It was quiet. She went down the hall toward the kitchen, stopping at the telephone table and staring at the phone. Erica had never called a boy in her life, except for Bobby, and they’d been going out forever by that time. And even then, she didn’t do it often. Only when she had to. Good girls didn’t call boys. They didn’t ask boys out. They didn’t ask them over for dinner. They certainly didn’t sneak out in the middle of the night to meet them and they definitely didn’t have sex with them. Ever. Let alone on the first date.
She picked up the receiver and began to dial the extension. Her heart thudded in her chest and she told herself she was being silly. But she knew, if his mother answered, she was going to just hang up the phone and run back to her bedroom. It rang and rang, and she wondered if they got up late on Christmas. Was she interrupting their gift opening? She knew she shouldn’t be calling him at all, let alone on Christmas Day. Besides, what was she doing? Clay was nice enough, handsome, clean-cut, and he made her laugh with his sarcastic, sacrilegious sense of humor, but in spite of her actions the night before, she wasn’t in any danger of falling head over heels for him.
Her heart belonged to someone else. He just happened to be someone she could never, ever be with.
Erica was about to replace the receiver back in the cradle when she heard a breathless voice on the other end of the line say, “Hello?”
“Oh…um… hi. Clay?”
“Erica?” His voice warmed immediately. He sounded far more pleased than she liked and she blushed, glad he couldn’t see her as she twisted the phone cord around her finger.
“Yes. Hi.”
“Well hi! I was in the shower. I thought you’d be my dad calling from Washington, so I ran out to get it.”
