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“She’s gorgeous,” I agreed. “A little wild. Super curious with more energy than any kid should have, but she’s so full of vivacity and she says the most entertaining things, she’s usually the life of the party.”
“She’s perfect,” Bentley decided, squeezing my hand.
“Yeah. She certainly is,” I murmured.
“I’m going to miss her.” Bentley pressed her cheek to my shoulder, and I hugged her tight as we held hands and cried together.
“I am too.”
Bentley and I stayed in my room, talking and sobbing together for about twenty minutes, adding more details to her lost baby until we were satisfied with the vision we’d created.
By the time we joined the other ladies out in the front room, Bentley looked better, less withdrawn or quite so pale, and she smiled more, even joining a couple of conversations here and there. I caught her rubbing Skylar’s pregnant stomach once and laughing when she felt a kick.
A pocket of warmth spread through my chest. I was so glad to be able to be there for her.
But I also couldn’t wait to rub it in Fox’s face that my nosy meddling had actually worked out to his sister’s benefit.
As soon as the last woman left, I shut the door and immediately sought my phone. It was well after midnight, but I texted him anyway.
BELLA: You were right; Bentley had a miscarriage.
I’m sure I’d woken him at this time of night, but he answered within the minute anyway.
FOX: Jesus, Bells. What the hell did you do?
Lifting my nose in extreme irritation, I answered.
BELLA: Turns out, I don’t suck at fishing for information after all. I’m actually really awesome at it. And Bentley told me everything. It was an ectopic pregnancy, just like you guessed. She was about eight weeks along, and she miscarried last week, probably the night you watched Braiden for them.
FOX: Shit. Is she okay?
BELLA: She is now. We talked. I got her to cry, and laugh, and hug it out, mostly by making fun of her husband.
FOX: Well, that’s not hard to do; Beau’s like a walking joke. But good job, babe. I’m glad you were there for her. And what about her, you know, health-wise?
My eyebrows lifted as I read his second and third lines. Were my eyes deceiving me, or had Fox actually complimented me for sticking my nose where he hadn’t thought it belonged? Hmm, interesting. Biting my lip, I had to respond.
BELLA: She said she was healing, but she moved awfully slow and I caught her wincing a few times. I think she’s still pretty sore, but I do believe she is probably getting better and will be okay soon. But let’s rewind a second there. Did you just tell me GOOD JOB? Even after I did exactly what you asked me not to???????
When the dots appeared, telling me he was responding, I let out a sigh and traced my finger over the little warthog animoji I’d given him for a profile picture. Everyone always assigned him the fox animoji because that was his name, which meant I’d had to be different. I’d even changed his handle in my address book to Warthog. Every time he saw his warthog, he rolled his eyes and told me I was weird even as he snagged his arm around my waist and tugged me close to kiss me like crazy.
So I guess he liked my brand of weird.
When the dots disappeared as his response popped up, my heart gave a little added thump of excitement. Not sure why merely texting him gave me such a thrill. But it had been doing that a lot lately.
It was…odd.
FOX: Yes, I’m complimenting you. You made my sister smile after she’d just been through hell. I owe you big-time for that. But don’t get used to it. I’m sure you’ll do something to annoy me again soon enough.
I snorted, knowing he was just teasing to rile me. Rising to the bait, I shot back a single word.
BELLA: Asshole.
FOX: And there it is. Is it too late to retract my compliment?
BELLA: Yep. I have it in writing; you can never take it back now.
FOX: Damn.
