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“Right.” I kiss her forehead. “Go pee. I’ll see you soon.”
She squeezes my hand, then we walk in opposite directions. When I get to the recovery area, the nurse points me to where Rae is, and I wiggle the curtain.
“This is the best version of knocking I can do.”
“It’s fine. You can come in. I’m not naked.” I walk around the curtain and take her in. She looks rough but not quite as bad as the time she had food poisoning and I had to carry her out of the dorm. She scrunches her face. “It actually wouldn’t freak me out if you saw me naked. That’s a Joel thing.”
I chuckle at that as I drop into the chair next to her bed. “I mean, it would be fair. You’ve seen me naked multiple times.”
She laughs. “Yeah, I don’t know aboutfairseeing as your nudity was a choice each of those times.”
“Uh, not the time you dared me to run into the ocean naked in Charleston.”
She shrugs. “You could’ve backed down.”
“From a dare? Never.” I reach over and take her hand. “How are you doing?”
“Okay.” She looks down, suddenly fascinated with a string on Aaron’s sweatshirt. Of course she’s wearing his hoodie.
“You don’t have to be.”
She looks over at me, tears shimmering in her eyes. “I really want to have a baby with him. I know it’s stupid, but now I’m terrified I won’t be able to.”
“I don’t know a ton about this stuff, but I don’t think one miscarriage means you won’t ever be able to have a baby.”
“My mom said the same thing. I’m just scared. And hurting. God, everything hurts.”
“Is there anything you need? Aaron said you two would let us know, but is there anything you can think of tonight?”
“I don’t know. Sarah and Joel are going to get takeout for us, and all I really want is to curl up in bed with Aaron, and—bed. Oh my god.” Her hand flies to her mouth.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“The bed—I bled all over it. It was soaked into the sheets.”
I stand up and lean over, kissing her head. “Mackie and I will take care of that. We’ll go right now.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Shut up. Right now.” I playfully tousle her hair. “What would you do if it were me?”
Her eyes widen. “Anything.”
“Ha, you’re starting to sound like Aaron now.”
“Thank you, Miles.”
“No problem. You focus on healing. We’ve got everything else. I love you, Rae McKinley.”
She laughs. “Excuse me, I’m Rae Cooper now.” She holds up her hand, then laughs again when she realizes she isn’t wearing her rings. “Well, you get the idea.”
“Don’t worry. I know you’re Rae Cooper. I think you always have been.”
“Love you, Miles.”
“You too, kid. Later.”
I squeeze her hand, then head out to the waiting room. Rae’s parents and Aaron’s parents have left—apparently along with my mom they’ll be cooking some meals to take up tomorrow.
