A small eye roll and Teeny raises her glass in the air, joining us.
“Cheers to…the married life,” I say, smiling fondly between Mina and Josh.
Josh clinks his glass to mine. “And to old friends.”
“To old friends.” I tilt my glass back, keeping my eyes on Teeny as she takes a grimacing gulp. “You good?” I ask with a laugh.
She nods, though the sour contortion on her face says otherwise. She throws her hand in my direction, her thumb and pointer finger making a little circle with an a-okay sign. “Superb.”
More people start to enter the space, the rest of the wedding party and friends and family members. James enters with his wife and Sadie following close behind, a baby attached to her hip. They join us, James ordering two glasses of wine for him and his wife. Sadie reaches Teeny’s side where she takes the baby from her with absolute glee.
“This is Sophia,” she tells me, running the back of her index finger on the baby’s bulbous cheek. She places a soft kiss at the side of Sophia’s head, and my heart flip flops at the sight of Teeny with the baby. Her motherly instincts adjusting the adorably small yellow dress while smoothing the fine strands of her hair away from her face.
“Hi,” I say sweetly, waving a hand in front of her. Sophia reaches for my thumb, firmly gripping it in her fist, and she starts to bring it to her mouth.
“Oh!” Teeny exclaims happily, prying Sophia’s death grip away from my hand. “You want to hold her?”
I hesitate. “I don’t think I’ve ever held a baby before.”
“It’s okay,” Teeny encourages. “I’ll make sure you won’t drop her.”
“Jesus, I was worried she’ll start crying. Now I gotta worry I might drop her?”
She giggles just as Sophia extends her hands toward me, her chubby fingers pointed in my direction. “There’s no going back now.”
I take baby Sophia, letting her bottom rest firmly on the crook of my arm. She plays with the lapel of my suit jacket, her focus on the hemmed edges like she’s examining it for defects, and without any warning, she rests her head on my shoulder, patting a hand at my chest. Teeny watches me, placing her hand on Sophia’s back with wonder at how easily I slipped into the role as an expert baby carrier. “See? Total natural.”
Teeny looks at me, and I know we’re thinking the same thing. How this could’ve been us at one point. With a little girl of our own. One who would’ve had her eyes and smile, and hopefully something of mine. Like my attachment to her mother.
“We should take our seats,” she whispers, her head dipped low, watching baby Sophia slowly doze off in my arms.
Teeny walks to the tables, and I follow, moving about carefully while balancing the baby in my arms. James and his wife have already found seats, Sadie staying close by, and Teeny finds her own seat at the same time.
“It looks like Sophia found a new friend,” James’s wife comments, the two watching as I sway side to side to avoid waking Sophia up. “Do you need me to take her?” she offers.
“I’m good.”
A cool breeze picks up, and she reaches for a blanket, walking toward me and draping it over Sophia’s shoulders. She shifts, almost waking while I hold the blanket against her so it doesn’t blow away.
“I’m Kendall, by the way,” she says quietly as to not wake the baby. “You must be Everett.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Let me know if you get tired,” she adds. “She might be small, but twenty pounds can get heavy really fast.”
“I will,” I say with a chuckle. “Thank you.”
Kendall looks at James with a small slump of relief and a satisfied smile, but James doesn’t reciprocate. Instead, he looks at me, a wary look of uncertainty and mistrust on his face. I don’t know how to say sorry to him without saying sorry. For hurting someone he cares about while taking the entire brunt of the situation I put Teeny in. He saw every detail unraveling in real time. Every tear, every cry I didn’t answer.
Dinner moves along. Sophia wakes up and cries for her mom, and my hands are free. I sit around a table that consists mainly of the wedding party. Teeny sits across from me, Sadie close by her side as she makes periodic attempts to gain Sophia’s attention perched on Kendall’s lap.
“In case I haven’t said it yet,” Josh announces to the table over slices of strawberry cheesecake and chocolate lava cake distributed among the crowd. “Everett put this whole dinner together. So we should all thank him.”
He’s actually said this multiple times, attributing the success of tonight’s dinner to my connections to the hotel, and it makes me rather timorous with all of the attention on me.
“Please,” I protest, shaking my head with a grateful smile. “It’s really not a big deal.”
Josh stands, clinking his spoon against the glass tumbler in his hand to get everyone else’s attention. The low rumble of chatter stops, every pair of eyes on the groom.
