"What do you think of this one?"

Ellie waited while her son came over from across the aisle. It was just a couple weeks before Hailey's due date, and they needed to finish decorating the nursery. They had redecorated one of the upstairs bedrooms—which Ellie had used for storage, now that she and Alan had taken their adult lives and homes and combined them into one house—and they had everything they needed except the furniture.

Ethan came over to look at the crib Ellie had found. He inspected it carefully. If she weren't so proud of him, she might have laughed, seeing her twenty-year-old son being so meticulous about baby furniture.

"Do you think these legs are sturdy enough? I was thinking it would be better with the like two side panels that go all the way to the ground," he said.

Ellie understood where he was coming from, but she wasn't too worried. "We had one like this for you and Charlie. Neither of you ever climbed out or fell or anything," she told him. "But it's whatever you're comfortable with, sweetie."

Ethan looked at her and blushed slightly. "Yeah, but you're paying for it."

She was glad he was thinking about things like that. Glad he didn't take the generosity she and Alan were showing for granted. Alan just gave his credit card and wrote checks without question. Ellie, too, had no qualms about paying for whatever was needed. Ethan needed things for the baby, and that was that. Ellie knew how lucky they were and how incredibly privileged they were to not have to worry about being able to afford it all. She herself made a very good salary, and her books and articles had made her pretty good money. And Alan lived an extremely simple life and had amassed quite a fortune for them to live on extremely comfortably. Ethan didn't take their picking up the tab for granted, and Ellie certainly didn't take their ability to do so for granted either.

In the end, Ethan did like the crib Ellie had picked out. They talked to the store clerk who send them home with the box and Ethan carried it out to the car.

"You and Alan can put that together later," Ellie advised. "You could probably do it yourself, but he's actually really good at this sort of thing. And you know he likes to be useful."

"Yeah, I like doing things with Alan," Ethan replied.

Ellie smiled at that. "I'm so glad, sweetie. I knew you guys click."

"We have. He's great, Mom, really. And apparently he's gonna be Grandpa Alan?"

She could hear that teasing tone in Ethan's voice, so she answered warily, "Is that okay?"

"No, it's perfect. Grandpa Alan and Grandpa Mark. Or maybe Papa for Dad. Since apparently Papa Alan is the name of a seventies pimp?" Ethan barely controlled his laughter.

"Well, doesn't that sound weird to you?" Ellie defended but laughing anyway.

"Alan told me what you said, and honestly, if you hadn't said anything, I would've been fine with Papa Alan, but now I can't think of anything else. Are you sure you don't want to be Grandma?"

She grimaced. She didn't want to be vain about it but…she kind of was. It was a weird thing for a woman, becoming a grandmother. Ellie didn't really have any qualms about getting older for the most part. She'd been coloring her hair since she was twenty-five, and okay, she went to a fancy salon now instead of doing it herself from a box, but she didn't get Botox like most women her age. She didn't really bother with diets or too much makeup or whatever else. She liked to look nice. It was a benefit to working at a university as a lecturer and less in the field than she used to. Less sun damage, more opportunity to buy clothes whose number one function wasn't durability.

And the fact that Ethan was going to be a father wasn't really bothering her. It wasn't. She was excited for him, and she was looking forward to meeting her granddaughter. It was just that the timing of it all couldn't have been worse. Well, the timing for something like this was never going to be good, but couldn't he have knocked up his girlfriend after Ellie and Alan had gotten married?

That was really the crux of it. She was supposed to be a bride. She was supposed to be excited about marrying the love of her life. Her wedding to Mark had been great, but his mother did most of the planning and Ellie hadn't been too fussed about things. So it had been a beautiful wedding but not really what Ellie wanted, if she'd actually given much thought to what she wanted. With Alan, it was a second chance. It was their second chance at a life together. She wanted it to be about them. She wanted to have the wedding of her dreams with the man of her dreams. And Alan was a saint about it all—something she'd thought of to describe him more often than not—and he wasn't pressuring anything at all. But he wanted to get married, and Ellie wanted to marry him. And they both wanted to do it right. They just couldn't until things were more settled with their new family dynamic. Probably another year or so. And it just wasn't fair.

After a moment's pause while those thoughts raced through Ellie's head, she answered, "I'd rather be Nana Ellie, if that's okay with you. I know I'm going to be a grandmother, and that's a fact, but the word 'Grandma' makes me think of my grandma, and she was this tiny, plump, silver-haired thing. She baked pies and pinched my cheeks when I was little. And that's not me. Or at least it's not gonna be me for a while."

Ethan shrugged. "Whatever you want is fine with me."

"Thanks, sweetie," she said giving him a loving smile. "And are you gonna be Dad or Daddy or Dada?"

"Daddy is super creepy, so definitely not that. I guess Dada when she's a baby and Dad after that?"

Ellie repeated his words to him. "Whatever you want." She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should ask the question that had been on her mind for weeks. And in typical Ellie Sattler fashion, she just blurted it out. "Do you have any idea what you're gonna name her?"

"I think so," Ethan answered.

That surprised Ellie. "Really?"

"Yeah, I've got a couple ideas. I want to meet her first and see what fits her. But I think I know," he said cryptically.

That frustrated Ellie to no end. "Well, do I get a hint?"

Ethan grinned. "I'm gonna name her after someone I care about. That's all I'm gonna say."

Deep in her heart, Ellie hoped that Ethan wasn't going to name his daughter Hailey. If Hailey didn't want anything to do with the baby, which she assured them all she didn't, it would only hurt Ethan to have his daughter remind him of her every minute of every day. As it was, Hailey had been distant from Ethan, choosing instead to spend her time alone or else in the kitchen with Ellie helping make meals when she could. The writing was on the wall, but nothing had happened yet. Ellie hoped Ethan understood the choice he was making: he would get to be a father to his child, but Hailey was going to be out of both their lives forever.

Thankfully, Ethan didn't seem to notice the way his mother went quiet as she drove them home. Ethan just moved on to discussing the nursery. "So we've got everything now, I think. Crib we'll put together today. Changing table and rocking chair and dresser already in there. We got toys and a mobile and diapers and baby formula and blankets and bath stuff. And a high chair for when she's bigger. And the car seat to take her home from the hospital. Is there anything else we're missing?" he asked.

"No, I think that's pretty much it. Though it might be a good idea after you finish the crib to start moving your stuff to the upstairs bedroom. Because I'm not gonna have your baby down the hall from me and Alan when you're sleeping comfortably downstairs," Ellie warned.

Ethan nodded. "Makes sense. Downstairs can stay the guest room and upstairs will be all our bedrooms. For a year or so, until I can figure out the next steps."

Ellie parked the car in front of the house and cut the engine. She turned and took Ethan's hand. "You and your baby girl are gonna stay here as long as you need, okay? No rush to move on. It's all gonna work out, okay?"

He squeezed her hand. "Thanks, Mom."