Chapter 3: Surprise! It's a Girl! (Part 1)

Angela stood on the train platform at Grand Central Station scanning the crowd until she finally saw who she was looking for briskly walking towards her.

"Katie, sweetheart," Angela said reaching out to give her daughter a quick hug. Even after 28 years, it sometimes still amazed Angela that this beautiful young woman with the auburn hair (definitely inherited from Mona) dark chocolate eyes, olive skin and sweet face, that Tony and just about everyone said was almost identical to her own, was her's and Tony's child.

"Hi Mom," Katie said with a soft smile. "Sorry, I'm a little late. I just got so immersed in the background files for this case I'm working on. Once I have my bearings a little bit more, we'll have to discuss. I definitely want your thoughts."

Angela beamed not only because her daughter still valued hearing her mother's opinion but also because she was just so proud of how well Katie was doing in her career. Having pretty much grown up inside The Bower Agency, Angela had been sure that Katie would choose a career in advertising. So, it came as a shock to both her and Tony, when in her junior year of college at Carnegie Mellon, she had announced that she wanted to go to law school and study Communications Law. Looking back now, it made perfect sense, with her smarts and her gift for gab (definitely inherited from her father) and with her inside knowledge of the advertising world, it turned out to be the perfect career choice. She was now a promising young attorney at an up-and-coming law firm that specialized in the ins and outs of digital communications and the law.

"I can't wait to hear more about it," Angela said smiling as they settled into their seats on the train.

"If you don't mind, Mom, I'm going to pop in my Airpods and finish this podcast that deals with some background issues for the case," Katie said with a quick grin.

"No problem. I'm a little tired, so I may close my eyes for a bit," Angela responded as she rested her head against the window and looked out as the scenery whizzed by.

But instead of taking a quick nap, Angela's thoughts flew back to when she had first realized that there was going to be a Katie. It was such a painful yet ultimately gratifying time in her life.

She couldn't think back to that time without her thoughts going to the last painful night in Branford, Iowa. She was so proud of Tony and all he had accomplished in his year there as a history professor and as the baseball coach. She was also proud of herself for sticking it out even though she wasn't sure she was going to make it towards the end; she missed Jonathan, her mother and Sam as well as her work so much. So, it had been a gut punch when Dr. Graham had offered Tony a new three-year contract the night the baseball team won the championship. The conversation between her and Tony that followed had been one of the most painful of her life.

Going back to his apartment for the team party was pretty much a blur as she and Tony avoided each other as much as possible until the party was over. Her mother, always with a heightened awareness when it came to anything with her and Tony, sensed something was off and quickly ushered herself and the kids out of the apartment and back to their hotel once everything from the party had been relatively cleaned up.

That left her and Tony alone and at a loss for words. Finally, she sat down on the couch, he followed, and they just looked into each other's eyes until she finally got up the courage to speak. While exactly what was said between them was a bit foggy all these years later, she did remember that they agreed that what made this so painful is that they both wanted to stay together, knew they belonged together, but understood that their current circumstances wouldn't allow for that to happen. They also agreed that they'd always be connected through Samantha and Jonathan, but beyond that, it was time to let their own intense connection go.

Then Tony had reached up and tenderly wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb, cupped her face with both hands, and kissed her. The kiss was intense and soon turned into much more as they realized that this was the last time for everything.

Silently, Tony picked her up, carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. They kissed passionately as Tony removed her clothes and she removed his. He marveled at her peaches and cream skin and cherished her breasts as he kissed them reverently. She let her hands wander all over his arms, chest and stomach as if memorizing a map of his chiseled body. Wordlessly, they came together with the intensity of lovers whose passion would never burn out but who knew that they couldn't continue to stoke the fire.

Afterward, they just held each other through the night knowing that sleep wouldn't come. The next morning, their eyes, as they had so many times in the past, spoke for them as Angela packed up the meager belongings she had brought to Iowa with her. Mona and the kids had been booked on an early morning flight, so Angela would catch up with them once they all arrived back in Fairfield. Then, as she and Tony had agreed, she would tell them what had happened while still making sure that Jonathan and Sam knew how important they both were and would continue to be to both of them.

How sad and ironic Angela had thought, after giving Tony one final hug, that the very reason he didn't want to take this job in the first place was in order to not "mess up what they had" and instead it had done just that.

The overhead PA system on the train jolted Angela back to the present where she quickly glanced over at Katie who was listening intently to her podcast while typing some notes on her iPad.

Angela closed her eyes again and transported herself back to that painful time after Iowa but her thoughts immediately went to a day about two months later when her world got turned upside down again…