Page 107 of After We Fall

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.” Her face threatens to crumble. “It’s so scary.”

“It can be scary. But tonight it also gets to be—”

“Fun.” She smiles. It wobbles, but it’s there.

“Fun.” I stand, and she rises with me. “I’ll arrange for you to be seen by a doctor. Then he will tell us the next step. But tonight—”

“Tonight is the fun part,” she says.

Harlan leads Meredith around the floor in what looks like a dance between a giraffe and a rhinoceros. The disc jockey told Hank Williams Jr. to sing “Texas Women,” Harlan’s charming homage to his wife. Couples dance around them, oblivious to the scene unfolding between the newlyweds.

“I forgot what a terrible dancer Holcombe is,” Luke says, standing by me near the edge of the parquet dance floor. “This is almost too painful to watch.”

Without shifting my focus, I nod. “He refused to take lessons.”

“I hope Meredith took out extra insurance.”

“She thinks it’s endearing.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think . . .”

Meredith pulls Harlan to the far corner of the dance floor. Couples continue to sway as they pass by.

“You think?” Luke moves to block my view of the floor. “Baby, are you okay? Do you have a headache coming on?”

I step around him. Astonishingly, no. I don’t have a headache under this stress. But that’s not what’s important in this moment. Wringing my hands, I keep my eyes glued on the couple.

Harlan cups Meredith’s face in his hands, her lips moving.

Luke doesn’t block my view of the floor again but angles his body toward mine. “Penelope?”

“Just wait.” The trembling words fall out of my mouth as tears sting my eyes.

Meredith stops talking. Harlan rests his forehead against hers, speaking. She nods. Anguished joy. It’s the only way to describe them. They whisper, he wipes a tear off her cheek, they kiss, she wipes a tear off his face. And then they embrace, grasping each other for dear life. Truly. For dear life.

Luke stands perpendicular to me and places his warm hand on the small of my back, his intense stare never leaving my face. “What’s happening, Penelope?”

A tear streams down my cheek, and I swipe it away. “She’s pregnant,” I whisper.

“Shouldn’t that be a good—”

“It’s life-threatening.” I almost choke on the words.

Luke slowly turns his head, shifting his gaze to the newlyweds. He puts his hand on my waist and pulls me to him. I rest my head on his shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay,” he murmurs into my hair.

He can’t know that for sure, but it has to be. It just has to be.

Luke’s body tenses. He releases me and pulls his phone out of his pocket. He reads something on the screen and frowns. “I’m sorry, Penelope. I’ve got to go make a call.”

“Everything all right?”

“No. Everything’s not fine. I came here for the sole purpose of dancing with my girlfriend, and we have yet to touch the dance floor. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He stalks toward the exit, lifting the phone to his ear.