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The doctor chuckled. “So that’s what happened?”

“Mother Nature thought it would be good to send a blizzard, then my Jeep decided to swerve into a ditch, then Olivia decided it would be a fabulous time to make an appearance. It was an absolute miracle that Adam showed up.”

The doctor had me in the ever wonderful stirrups in no time. “Can you scootch down so that your bottom is resting almost on the edge?” she asked.

I scootched and winced.

“I know it’s uncomfortable. I’ll make this as quick as possible, I promise.”

And she did. Her examination was better than my normal OB/GYN. Hell, if I were to ever get knocked up again, I was hiring her.

Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.

“There’s no tearing. That’s good. The birth canal looks excellent, all things considered. I’d say this was textbook.”

She helped me push back and get my feet back in a normal position so I could lie down.

A knock came at the door. The doctor looked at me and I nodded.

A nurse came in holding Olivia.

"Seven pounds, two ounces," the nurse reported, with what sounded like genuine respect. "For four weeks early, that's excellent."

"She's an overachiever," I said. "She gets it from her mother."

I reached out my hands and made grabby fingers. She handed over Olivia who was now wrapped in a little blanket with the cutest little pink cap.

“Hey, Darling, did you hear, that? You’re excellent.”

The nurse and the doctor talked, but I tuned them out. I just stared at Olivia and let the last hours wash over me. The snowstorm. The deer. The ditch. The long, impossible dark of the cab, Adam’s calm and soothing presence, James's voice piping over the headrest, Olivia's furious arrival into the cold night air. Adam's hands, steady and certain. The road flares. The apple juice I never drank. A forehead kiss in the gray of a February morning.

You were brave and strong, a four-year-old had told me, with absolute conviction.

I was going to hold onto that for a while.

I looked down at Olivia again. She looked perfect in my arms. Like she’d been doing it her whole life, which, technically, she had. I looked at her face, Chloe's face. Especially the nose. Well, my face, since Chloe and I were identical twins.

I let myself feel the bittersweet weight of what was coming next. The handoff that had always been the plan. The thing I'd said yes to with my whole heart and would say yes to again without hesitation.

Chloe was going to lose her mind.

I was already composing the version of last night I could tell without breaking her. Hey, so, funny story⁠—

My phone was still broken. I know that Nash had gotten ahold of everybody by now. He was a good sheriff that way. The Avery Avalanche was probably ten minutes away. Only the fact that roads were slick with ice was keeping them from being here already.

Then I heard them.

So many voices, but I could tell Chloe’s, because she was a part of me. I heard running.

“Hey,” somebody yelled. “You can’t be back here.”

Dr. Keller whipped around toward the door. As soon as it flung open, she blocked it.

“Where’s my daughter? Where’s my sister?” Chloe demanded to know.

Dr. Keller looked confused. But God bless her, I could see understanding slowly dawn on her face. She turned back to me. “You’re twins?”

“Yep.”