Page 74 of Just One Look

“If you set a timer for, say, a half hour to start, and see how it goes, why not?”

“What if I forget the baby? You can’t imagine how many things I can forget when I paint.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Yes, I can. And I don’t think you’ll forget your baby. Besides, your mother’s here for a few weeks, you said. Marko, too, for a while longer?”

“Yes,” Nyree said glumly. “He says he can join the boys in Aussie in a week if I’m going on all right, but he’s not leaving before then. So it’ll be dueling loved ones for a while yet.”

“Theyaren’t going to forget the baby,” Elizabeth said. “So go ahead and paint. How could that make you a bad mother? How wouldn’t it make you a better mother if you’re not frustrated and impatient?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Nyree said. “Maybe that my mum keeps saying, ‘Don’t you just want to hold her and watch her all day long? Itoldyou, darling, that once you had a baby, everything else would fade away, and she’d be all you care about.’”

“Ugh,” Elizabeth said, and Nyree laughed. “How boring would that be? You have to think aboutsomethingelse sometimes, at least I would. And as for sex …” She hesitated. “Is it OK to be frank? People can be so odd about sex. In my surgical consults, when they stop talking, and you can tell they have more to say, but they’re not sure how to start? Half the time, that’s about death. The other half, it’s some question about sex. Especially if it’s a man. Lord have mercy, does he not want to ask a woman that question.”

Nyree did some more laughing and stitch-holding. “Tell me. Assume I’m open to, uh … alternative ideas.”

“All right. You’re fragile, obviously, as long as you’re bleeding. Orgasm can be painful, too. All your abdominal muscles have been severed and are beginning to knit now, and so is your uterus, remember. Those orgasmic contractions probably wouldn’t feel good right now. I’m sure your OB told you to wait until after your six-week checkup for vaginal intercourse, but there are other options.”

“I can’t wait to hear what comes next,” Nyree said. “In a horrified sort of way.”

This time, Elizabeth was the one laughing. “No. Not what you’re thinking. Ouch. But your husband can touch you, still, and touch brings pleasure. The skin is the largest organ in the body, and every square inch of it contains over a thousand nerve endings. The penis has four thousand. The clitoris haseightthousand. But think of all those millions of nerve endings wedon’ttouch. Do you know what widowed people miss most? Being touched. It’s one of our greatest pleasures, and one of our greatest needs, too. It’s intimacy, and it’s more than that. It’s fundamental. You can feel it when you touch your baby, and when you feel her skin against yours.”

“Crikey,” Nyree said. “I wasn’t expectingthislecture.”

Elizabeth laughed again. “I know, right? That’s what you get when you ask a doctor. I’m great at knowing what otherpeople should do. Not so good at running my own life. But since I’m on a roll here, how about this? You can touch him, too. You can take a shower together, put lotion on each other, give each other that pleasure and comfort, and let him see you, too, the way you look now. Maybe slow it down, make it something new, something different. Something special, because you aren’t so focused on the goal. That could help you ease back into sex, eventually, because, again, hormones can be tricky, and brains can be trickier. And if you find you want to go further with it, if you want to keep kissing him … why not? As long as it’s fully your choice every time, and he understands that, why not?”

“I’ll be turfed out of the mum’s yoga group pretty smartly,” Nyree said, “if I give my husband a blow job two weeks after the baby.”

“Really?” Elizabeth asked. “Is he going to tell them?”

“No.” Nyree was smiling. “No, he is not.”

“Doctors make recommendations for the average patient,” Elizabeth said. “Nobody’s an average patient. And after another week or two, if you want to see how an orgasm feels? It should be safe then in terms of the uterine incision, though check with your OB to be sure. If you get the go-ahead, and Marko wants to return the favor? Go for it. Then your mom’s group canreallyhate you.”

She didn’t say anything else, because they were at Nyree’s house again. And Luka’s car was parked out front.