Page 94 of No Judgements

But how was that possible? I didn’t even know this person.

And yet it felt as if I’d known her my entire life. Maybe because I had: I was half her, after all.

“Iamhappy,” I said, squeezing her hand, not caring if she noticed my tears or shaking fingers. “Thank you. Thank you for what you did for me. I’m really, really happy.”

She smiled—a much less timid smile this time, more likemine when I was genuinely pleased about something—and said, “That makes me glad. And no need to thank me. I was financially compensated by your parents for my time, and I used that compensation to help defer the costs of my education. There was an element of selfishness to the act, too, I suppose. I knew I was never going to have children of my own, because I’m not a maternal sort of person. But it’s a basic human instinct to want to see your DNA passed on. So helping a couple seeking a child of their own seemed the most logical way to go about it.”

Well, okay. Maybe we didn’t havethatmuch in common.

At least until Gary, thoroughly disgusted that no one was petting him, reached up and swiped at both our hands with a velvet paw, and let out a dissatisfied meow. Dr. Svenson looked down at him and laughed.

“And I like your cat very much,” she said, stroking an ecstatic-looking Gary behind his ear.

“Thanks,” I said, laughing as well. “I rescued him from the local animal shelter. Can you believe he’d been there for years and no one wanted him?”

“Their loss is your gain. I notice he has no teeth. Stomatitis?”

“Yes!” I couldn’t believe she recognized the illness. But then again, she was a vet. “The surgery cost me twelve hundred dollars, but he’s been so much happier ever since.”

“Yes, it’s amazing how well feline stomatitis patients do after tooth extraction.”

“And you’ll never guess what Dr. Svenson’s done, Sabrina,” my mom cried, clapping her hands to get our attention. Sheclearly felt she was losing her audience, and for my mom, that was never a good thing. “Because she’s an animal nutritionist and part of this big veterinary organization, or whatever it is, she has the numbers to the heads of all the pet food companies. So she got all of them to donate food to the Hurricane Marilyn recovery fund! We brought giant bags of dog food, cat food, rabbit food, cat litter—you name it!”

“That is so great,” I said, smiling at my two moms. “We’re so grateful. You can’t even believe how much we need that donation. We were basically down to one bag of cat food, and we were giving it to dogs.”

It was thewethat finally got my mom to notice Drew, standing behind my chair. Maybe she’d have eventually noticed him without it, but it was thewethat got her, and possibly the fact that he was standing so close, with one hand still hovering protectively on my shoulder.

“Oh,” she said, giving him an appraising look. I watched her take in his long, darkly tanned limbs—bare, of course, because he was wearing his usual low-slung cargo shorts—and flat, lightly-haired stomach, since his linen shirt was, as usual, barely buttoned due to the heat. “And you are?”

“Mom, this is my, er, friend Drew Hartwell.” I had recovered myself sufficiently to rise from the puffy chair and make introductions. “Drew, this is my mother, Judge Justine Beckham.”

“How do you do?” Drew leaned forward to shake the hand of my tiny, flight-suited mother.

“How do you do?” Mom’s blue-eyed gaze took in everypart of Drew that she’d missed while examining him from farther away. “Are you a special friend of my daughter’s?”

“Mom.” How could my mother still have the ability to mortify me after all these years?

But Drew took her, as he seemed to do everything else in life, in stride.

“Why, yes, I am.” Grinning in that infuriating, adorably wry way he had, he laid an arm around my shoulders, then steered me around so that I was facing both of my mothers. “I’m very happy to meet both of you ladies, because you seem very special to Bree, and recently, Bree’s become very special to me.”

I raised my eyes to the ceiling. Oh my God. Please make it stop.

Dr. Svenson nodded calmly at Drew while still petting Gary. “So nice to meet you.”

My mother, however, could barely contain herself. “Well, that’s just lovely, Drew. You know, Sabrina hasn’t had a special friend in a while, and honestly, we’ve been a bit worried about her, haven’t we, Steen? Steen!”

Steen looked up from his satellite phone, on which he’d been texting. “What?”

“This is Steen Frederickson,myspecial friend,” Mom said, reaching a hand toward Steen, who obediently crossed the room to take it, though he didn’t really look up from the screen of his phone. “You don’t mind, do you, Sabrina? I’ve been so lonely without Daddy, and Steen’s always been so good to us.”

I smiled. I was surprised it had taken my mom this long to find a “special friend.” She’d never been the kind of person who liked being alone with her own thoughts. I was just glad the person she’d chosen was someone as steady and sensible as Steen.

“No,” I said, reaching out to take her hand. “I’m glad for you both.”

“Well!” Mrs. Hartwell, who’d been standing in the corner watching my little family drama unfold before her like it was a reality show, clapped her hands in delight. “Isn’t this wonderful? I’d say it calls for a celebration!”

Drew squeezed my shoulders. “It sure does! How about some tequila?”