Prologue
Lisa
As a ballerina who’d worked her butt off to become a part of the New York City Ballet company, the very last thing I should have been doing was thinking about what it would be like to have a baby of my own. I was nowhere ready to start a family. Not when my career was finally taking off.
All my years of training at the School of American Ballet had resulted in being one of only nine dancers who had been selected for a year-long apprenticeship with NYCB. And after twelve long months, my dream finally came true—I was officially in the corps de ballet as of four months ago. It was the worst possible time for me to catch a case of baby fever. But crawling around the floor with two adorable kids had me yearning for something I shouldn’t want at the moment.
And it was just my rotten luck that my best friend knew me well enough to spot the thoughts I hadn’t said out loud and go in for the kill. “C’mon, Lisa, admit it. You want one of those for yourself.”
I looked up from her son and scanned the room, pretending as though I was trying to figure out what Nancy was talking about. “One of what?”
She jerked her chin toward Kenneth, who had rolled away from me when he heard his mommy’s voice. “A baby.”
“Just because you and I were ready to become moms doesn’t mean Lisa is,” Juliette chided. “She’s just starting to spread her wings as a dancer.”
I didn’t know Juliette as well as Nancy did since their husbands were best friends. Even though we were technically part of the same dance company, we’d only done one show together before she left for four months to do a European tour. Then she came back pregnant, and we hadn’t had the chance to work together until after she’d recovered from giving birth…which was right around the time I left to do the first season of a reality dancing show.
“Don’t bother. She’s as stubborn as they come when she gets something in her mind.” I shook my head and sighed. Nancy was three years older than me, but we had been thrown together a lot growing up because we’d lived next door to each other. She knew me better than anyone other than my parents, same as I did her. “Let her get to whatever roundabout point she was planning to make. Because she darn well knows I’m not in a place to have a baby when I don’t even have a guy in my life.”
“Exactly.” Nancy rubbed her hands together. “And it’s about time we do something about that.”
Dang, I’d flung that door wide open for her to walk right through.
Getting to my feet, I narrowed my eyes at my best friend. “Do I need to remind you of what happened the last time you tried to set me up?”
“C’mon, it wasn’t that bad,” Nancy denied as she bent down to unstack a toy Kevin was playing with so he could put it back together again.
“You arranged a blind date for me with her husband.” I pointed at Juliette. “While she was carrying his baby.”
“Hey, that's not fair,” Nancy cried, shaking her head. “They weren't married yet, and I had no idea that they even knew each other, let alone that Declan had gotten Juliette pregnant. All I was trying to do was set you up with a gorgeous, nice, successful doctor. Forgive me for being a good friend.”
Juliette laughed and shook her head. “I mean, I can't exactly argue with her logic. My husband is awesome. And in all fairness, he didn’t even know that he was on a blind date. Or even that I was carrying Cassie until we talked that night.”
I’d been embarrassed by the misunderstanding, but I’d quickly gotten over it when I saw Declan and Juliette together. There was no missing how in love they were. “Which just goes to show how awful she is at setting me up.”
Nancy stuck her tongue out at me. “Not nearly as bad as you are when it comes to dating.”
“Ooh, I feel as though there's a really good story there. Tell me more,” Juliette urged.
I groaned and buried my face in my hands while I muttered, “How about we don't?”
Of course, my best friend didn't take any pity on me. Tapping her finger against her chin, Nancy murmured, “Let's see, there was a myriad of disasters when she tried online dating. The absolute worst had to be the guy who literally showed up with his mom—whose basement he lived in—so she could give Lisa her stamp of approval…on their first date. Which she did not give because she didn’t think Lisa’s hips were wide enough for childbirth. All of which she said at the table before pointing out that the server would be a much better choice.”