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“What’s up? You know, apart from the baby cooking in your body?”
I laugh in delight. There’s something so relieving about hearing my little brother talk about the baby like that—like they’re real. I mean, of course, they are, but to have somebody else acknowledge it is so neat. Apart from Chrissy, that is. “That’s one way to phrase it. Are you okay with it?”
“You say you’re happy in the texts. He seems happy. Logan, I mean.”
“Oh, Eric. You really shouldn’t have snooped like that.”
“I won’t do it again,” he says. “I promise.”
“Onanybody’sphone.”
“I promise. I swear.” He looks genuinely guilty. “The last text before that mentionedthe baby… I was like, what the hell? That’s why I started scrolling, but I know it was wrong.”
“I’m sort of weirdly happy you did look,” I sigh heavily. “It’s been so hard keeping it to myself. I’ve been a chicken every step of the way.”
“You’ll get there,” Eric says. “It’s going to be awesome. I’ll be an uncle. Wait, that’s right, right? Or will I be a nephew?”
“An uncle,” I reply, laughing. “You’ll be the best uncle any kid could ever have.”
He beams, then frowns. “Why did you sayhmm?”
“Huh?”
“When I said about Dad’s work meeting. You saidhmm.”
“Nothing gets past you.”
“Is it about those guys?” Eric asks quietly.
“What guys?”
“Come on. You know, the ones when me and Jack were skating the box. That pickup truck. That hairy guy with tattoos. The one with the cowboy hat. Remember?”
I nod. “I was thinking the same thing. I thought you bought Dad’s thing about them being work friends.”
Eric scoffs. “Listen, Dad needs me to be happy, so he’s happy sometimes, okay? He works hard. I don’t want to stress him out, but I saw how scared he was. We both did.”
“Yeah, it was bad. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Iknow what’s going on,” Eric says, shooting to his feet and dancing across the room.
It’s like when we were really little, Eric toddling around, always making me laugh. “What are you doing?” I giggle.
Eric pretends to dance with somebody, ballroom dancing, spinning around the room. “What does it look like, huh? I’m celebrating. You’re going to be a mom! That’s ace, Emma. That’s awesome. I know you’ve always wanted it.”
I beam. “Come on, Eric.”
“Nah-uh.Youhave to get your boogie on, too.”
“Get your boogie on? Are you an old man at a wedding?”
“I am now.” He grins, spinning around the room. “Three cheers for my pregnant sister! Hip, hip, hoo…”
Eric suddenly stops. His hands drop to his sides. He stares at the door. I turn. How the heck didn’t I hear her? I was too caught up in Eric’s smile, silliness, andpridethat I’m going to bring a baby into this world. It was a better reaction than I ever could’ve hoped for.
Mom stands in the open doorway. She’s got a pie in her hands. It’s almost comical how she drops it in slow motion. The pie falls to the floor while her mouth falls open. She doesn’t even attempt to clean up the mess, which is unusual for her.
There’s no way we can pretend we were talking about something else. With all that pregnancy talk, Eric might as well have shown her the pregnancy test.
