By three, the mechanic had called to say they couldn’t get her car up to check out what was draining the battery until the morning. By three fifteen, Leroy called to say he would bust the floor on Monday . . . afternoon. Sarcasm and disapproval laced his message. By three thirty Mary was standing outside her building waiting for her Uber ride to show up and texting Dakota. I’m coming over and I’m bringing wine.

Dakota was quick on the reply. That bad?

The Uber driver pulled up and she jumped in the back. He repeated the address she’d already put in the system and she confirmed it before returning her attention to her phone. You have no idea.

Mary heard the friendly “come in” from the back of Dakota’s place after her knock. “I’m back here.”

Leo crying told her where Dakota was in the condo.

“Look who is awake.” Mary smiled at the two of them. Dakota was in the process of changing a diaper, and Leo was in the process of waking the dead.

“He doesn’t like his butt cold.” Dakota smiled down at her baby. “And when Mommy changes your diaper, it’s cold . . . isn’t it?” Her voice raised an octave as most adults’ did when talking to infants.

Mary peeked over Dakota’s shoulder and smiled for the first time that day. “He’s growing so fast.”

Dakota taped down the edges of the diaper and tugged on his tiny pants. All of this she did with one hand while leaning against a crutch.

“Where’s Walt?”

“I sent him to the store.” Dakota backed away. “Why don’t you hold him while I wash my hands.”

Mary stilled and found her palms itchy. Why was she hesitating?

Dakota found her other crutch and made her way into the kitchen.

Mary squeezed her fists and approached her nephew. Careful with his head. He fussed as he kicked but settled almost immediately when she lifted him. He weighed next to nothing. She settled him into the crook of her arm. “How you doing, big boy?”

Leo blinked and stared as he quieted his cries.

Mary’s crazy day floated away with a blink of a tiny baby’s eyes. When Leo let out a peep, she found her body moving side to side, and the motion made him smile. “Not bad for a newbie, eh?” she whispered.

“It’s about time,” Dakota said from the other side of the room.

Mary glanced up to see her BFF staring at them. “What?”

“You do realize this is the first time you’ve held him.”

Leo watched her with trust. “Actually, I think this is the first time I’ve ever held a baby.” She knew it was. “Maybe I should sit down.”

“You’d never drop him,” Dakota told her.

Mary slowly let her butt reach the sofa.

Dakota slumped a little less gracefully in the chair beside them. “You’ve really never held a baby?”

“When would I have had the opportunity? I don’t have siblings. I didn’t go with you when your sister had her last one. I was raised by nuns . . . and they don’t have babies . . . so Leo is my first.”

“Leo is almost three weeks old, Mary. I was starting to worry.”

Mary released the tractor beams of Leo’s eyes and looked at her friend. “I was afraid I wouldn’t like it.”

“What’s not to like? Except when he’s puking on you, he’s kinda cute.”

Leo gripped her fingers with his whole hand. “He’s still cute when he’s puking on you.”

Dakota snorted, but Mary knew she was kidding.

“It’s not hard to figure out, Dakota. My parents abandoned me. I can’t help but wonder if they just didn’t want kids. Maybe they didn’t have a nurturing gene. Maybe they passed that on to me.”

“That’s stupid.”

“Not necessarily. Some studies show—”

“I’m calling bullshit.”

“Hey, language,” she teased.

Dakota waved a hand in the air. “He’s too young to understand. You’re full of crap.”

Mary denied Dakota’s observation.

“Oh, I’m sorry . . . what was it you did for a living again?” Dakota asked.

“Helping people sort out their problems is not the same as caring for a child.”

“No, it’s not. But you care by nature. You can’t help but care. You just told me to watch my language because you care. You’re one of the most nurturing people I know, so if you think for one minute you will be anything but the doting aunt Leo needs, then you have your brain in the sand.”

Mary swung her head and let her hair dangle in Leo’s face. He closed his eyes and let out a tiny gurgle. “I don’t think my brain is in the sand. Do you think I have a sandy brain, Leo?”

Dakota sat back in her chair and put her blue leg up on the coffee table. “I should probably text Walt and let him know he can come home.”

It took Mary a moment to catch Dakota’s words. “I don’t get it.”

“When you said you were coming over I asked Walt to leave and not come back until I called.”

“What, why?”

“Because you haven’t held our son and I knew you’d bugger out of it if Walt was here to help me.”

Mary narrowed her eyes. “That’s one sneaky mom you have there, Leo. You’re going to have to watch out for her.”

Hours later, after a couple of glasses of wine and a lot of baby talk and girl talk, Mary meandered across the street to her taped-up living room and garage without a car. She went straight up to her bathroom and turned on the water in the tub.