Amanda
* * *
I slap my hand over my mouth as I try to stifle my laughter.
“I’m telling you. I laughed so hard I was crying,” Rowan says through sputters of her own laughter.
“Please tell me you got pictures?” Corie asks her sister-in-law.
“No, I was too busy laughing.”
“That’s one for the baby book for sure,” I tell her, and she nods her agreement.
“So, tell us again, I was laughing too hard the first time,” Sloane says, wiping tears from her eyes.
“What she said.” Eden nods. “It’s worth repeating.”
Rowan giggles like a schoolgirl and launches into her story for a second time. “Ella had been fussy all day. It was bedtime, and she needed a bath. Landry volunteered, the good daddy that he is, and instead of putting her in her tub, he just got into the shower with her. He’s done that a few times, claiming the skin-to-skin is good for her, and I’ll never tell him he’s right.” She grins.
“Anyway, so he’s in the shower holding her like she’s a little koala, talking to her in that ridiculous baby voice he pretends he doesn’t use. I’m in the bedroom folding laundry, and I can hear him narrating everything. ‘Okay, Princess, we wash the toes. We love the toes. The toes are fabulous.’”
Corie snorts because we all know what’s coming next, and it’s just as funny the second time.
“I should’ve known something was coming when it went quiet,” Rowan continues, grinning. “I hear him shout my name like he’s been mortally wounded. I open the b-bathroom door,” she sputters, “and there he is, soaked, shampoo in his hair, our daughter in his arms, and this look of absolute betrayal on his face. And Ella? She’s smiling. Smiling for the first time all day.”
“Here it comes,” Sloane wheezes.
“Literally,” Eden chimes in.
“Been there,” I say, but I’m still laughing my ass off at this story.
“It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. I thought one of them was hurt, but as I stepped further into the bathroom, I could see it and smell it.” Rowan stops, her body shaking with laughter. “Shit. Everywhere,” she wheezes. “Landry was holding her to his chest, eyes wide, and looking like a lost, injured puppy. He had one hand on the back of her head, and the other cradling her bottom, which was filled with shit,” Rowan finishes, and the room once again erupts in laughter.
Eden bends forward, clutching her stomach. “Stop. I can’t breathe.”
“And he says, completely serious, ‘Rowan, I thought we were bonding.’ He was shocked that his perfect little girl shat all over him.” Rowan wipes her eyes. “I lost it. I laughed so hard I had to sit on the toilet lid for support.”
Corie shakes her head. “That’s what he gets for multitasking.”
“I told him that’s what skin-to-skin really means,” Rowan adds sweetly. “Very organic bonding.”
The laughter starts all over again, echoing through the room as Rowan wipes under her eyes. “I swear,” she says, still grinning, “I’ve never loved that man more.”
“My big brother is a good daddy,” Corie coos.
“They all are,” I speak up. “You’re all lucky to have them.”
“Ethan was a dick,” Sloane says, taking a sip of her drink.
“Yeah, but he wasn’t always,” I tell her.
“He changed,” Bellamy agrees. “He was never overly affectionate, but he was nice at one point in time.”
“He never looked at me the way your husbands look at each of you. We were young, and looking back, it was the idea of the life we would build. I loved him, but that love faded, and we stayed together far longer than we should have.”
“There’s no shame in fighting for your marriage,” Eden tells me.
“I know,” I say quietly, tracing the rim of my glass. “And I did fight. For a long time. I just think… at some point, you’re not fighting for the marriage anymore. You’re fighting against yourself. I failed.”