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Josh pressed his lips to my hair, and then he took the seat next to me.
Aunt Ellen was beaming. Sitting down to eat, surrounded by everyone I loved, felt like Christmas dinner. I scanned the small group, shaking my head.
“What?” Josh asked.
“I just … I guess I don’t understand. This just seems impossible.”
“Stop,” Maggie said with a grin. “We all wanted to do it. It’s not like Josh had to organize the mass exodus of three hundred guests from Philly. We rented a car and drove Josh’s parents.”
“That was fun,” Zane grumbled.
Aunt Ellen jabbed her elbow into her son’s ribs, still smiling wide.
“Ow!” he said, rubbing his side.
Maggie lifted a flute of champagne. “To Josh and Avery.”
Everyone else followed her lead, except Zane. Aunt Ellen smacked his hand away when he reached for her glass.
“To Josh and Avery,” our family and friends said in unison.
I glanced at Mary, who lifted her flute and then set it back on the table, pushing it toward Silas. He nonchalantly placed it on his other side.
“Did you see that?” I whispered to Josh.
“She just finished thirty days of sobriety. I think she wants to start over with grandchildren.”
I looked up at him. “Then let’s give her some.”
I paced the floor until my feet ached, nearly biting my nails down to the bone.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Quinn said with a yawn as he rested his head against the doorframe. We’d been working all night during a full moon, and I had barely dragged my tired ass through the door when my cell phone chimed.
“You should come,” she said, trying to subdue the excitement in her voice.
“Really?” I asked, blinking to keep my eyes open.
“Really.”
I hurried to the hospital lab. The elevator was taking too long, so I ran up the stairs two at a time and pushed open the door.
Avery sat in the waiting room wearing her scrubs, her stethoscope still around her neck.
“Have you gone in yet?” I asked.
She shook her head, too excited to talk.
I scanned her face, taking in how beautiful she looked in that moment. “You are absolutely stunning, you know that?”
Her eyes softened, and she opened her mouth to speak, but a phlebotomist opened the door. He looked at the chart twice before calling her name. “Avery Avery?”
Avery smiled and stood, but when I did the same, the phlebotomist pointed at me with his pen. “This will be super quick, so if you could just wait here, that would be fabulous.”
“Uh … sure,” I said, frowning at the sight of Avery disappearing down a short hallway.
I ran my hands through my hair and bobbed my knees up and down while I waited. I played Angry Birds on my phone, shot out a few sarcastic tweets, and then looked at the clock.
“Fuuuuuck,” I hissed under my breath. My eyelids felt like sandpaper as they raked over my bloodshot eyes.
“We’ll call you with the results, Mrs. Avery.”
My beautiful wife stepped into the waiting room, gorgeous in her purple scrubs and a matching tourniquet wrapped around her elbow. I closed the distance between us, gripping her waist as I planted a kiss on her forehead.
“It will be a few days,” she reminded me with an easy smile.
My face fell. “A few days?”
“You act like you haven’t done this before.”
I frowned, unhappy about the reminder. “Not this part.”
I kept my palm on the small of her back as we walked into the hall toward the elevator. Avery looked so happy, grinning at everyone who passed. A heavily pregnant mother waited with us, pressing on her back with her hand.
I leaned over, whispering in Avery’s ear, “It’s happening this time. I can feel it.” I pressed my palm against her stomach as her hand covered mine.
“I don’t want to get my hopes up just yet,” she said.
“I will. They’re up. This is it. I’ll bet my paycheck on it.”
She leaned against me. “Stop,” she said, sounding like a mother already. She lifted her wrist and frowned at her watch. “I have to get to work.”
I nodded even though I didn’t want to let her go. “I’m already looking forward to your maternity leave so I can see you once in a while.”
“You love your job just as much as I love mine,” she said, stepping inside the elevator.
The doors opened, and she walked toward the ER while I headed for the parking lot.
“Love you,” she said, waving good-bye.
I reluctantly let her go, watching as she made her way down the long white corridor. Her bright purple scrubs abruptly disappeared behind the large double doors at the end.
I gripped my keys in my hand, smiling at the idea of a little Avery running around.
“Please, let this happen,” I whispered. I thought I couldn’t want anything more when I had asked Avery to marry me. Now, all I wanted was for her to be pregnant with my child.
I only turned on the red lever and left the blue one alone, but the water still wasn’t hot enough to soothe my aching muscles.
I turned off the shower and reached outside the stall to grab a towel, allowing heat to escape so I could breathe. The mirror immediately fogged, the tiny bathroom filling with thick steam.
Dax was waiting outside the bathroom door, his tail wagging wildly as I stepped out onto the linoleum floor.
“You’re going to have to wait a minute,” I warned. I wasn’t looking forward to dragging my ass down the two flights of stairs to let him go to the bathroom.
