Page 47 of Wish For Me

“Isn’t everyone afraid?”

“I guess that’s true.”

She shifts in my lap so she’s facing me. “I want us to be happy about this, Wyatt. I don’t want to hold my breath for the next seven and a half months. We deserve to have this experience, to look forward to this amazing thing, you know?”

I kiss her forehead. “You’re right. And you know what I think? You shouldn’t wait to tell Everly.”

“Really?”

“You should tell her at the wedding. She won’t give a shit about taking away her attention. You know how happy this is going to make her? What better wedding present can you give her?”

Alex laughs, eyes growing wet. “I think you’re right.”

When we finally leave the exam room twenty minutes later, we’re holding hands. I tried to convince Alex to let me carry her—I kind of feel like I should be carrying her everywhere right now—but she just laughed and called me an idiot.

I stop short when we get to the reception desk and see Levi waiting in one of the uncomfortable chairs. I kind of forgot he was even here, what with the life changing news we just got.

“Dad?” Alex asks, her voice uncertain. I can see why. Levi is a mess. His eyes are red-rimmed, his hair sticking up at weird angles. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days, not just a few hours.

He heard her, I realize. I’d been too caught up in Alex to notice if he followed me into the exam room, but looking at him right now, I can tell that he knows.

He walks straight to Alex and pulls her into a hug. “You heard?” she asks into his chest.

“I’m so unbelievably happy for you, Allie.”

Then he shocks the hell out of me by pulling me into a hug next. “Congratulations,” he mumbles, and I’m not quite sure how to read his tone.

“Uh, thanks,” I say, giving him a half-hearted pat on the back.

“Think you can keep this to yourself until after the wedding?” Alex asks, wiping at her eyes.

He grins, even though it still looks shaky. “I’ll try, but you know what your mother is like. It’s impossible to keep something from her.”

She smiles over at me. “Maybe we’ll tell her tomorrow, too.”

I don’t point out that once Everly knows, everyone is probably going to find out. Not because she can’t keep a secret, but because she’ll be screaming so loud the entire mountain will hear.

Alex insists that I sit in the front on the way back. “Your legs are too long for the backseat,” she says. “You don’t need to be all scrunched up just to hold my hand. I’ll be fine.”

I’m not exactly thrilled at the idea of sitting next to her dad in the front, but she says this way she can spread out more in the back, which I can’t really argue with. She falls asleep about five minutes after we pull out of the parking lot, leaving me and Levi alone to enjoy what I’m sure will be the most awkward silence in the history of time.

But Levi, apparently, has other ideas.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” he asks.

“Tell you what?”

His fingers clench on the steering wheel. “I’m not exactly sure. But from what I heard tonight, I’m getting the feeling the two of you haven’t had the easiest time.”

I sigh, figuring it’s pointless to keep it from him now. “She had a miscarriage a year and a half ago. It was really early—a chemical pregnancy, they called it. We found out when she went to the doctor for the first time to confirm the home test she’d taken.” I realize my hands have formed into fists in my lap, just thinking about that day. How was it possible to go from so excited to so broken in such a short amount of time?

“I think she was trying to tell herself it wasn’t a big deal. The doctor said if she hadn’t taken the home test so early, we probably never would have even known she was pregnant in the first place.” But we’d been so excited, tracking her cycle, so eager to get that plus sign.

“A few months later, the same thing happened.” I swallow. “At that point, it felt like it was easier to try and be numb. To not think about it, not talk about it. And then we didn’t get pregnant again.” Watching her carry around that dread every month. Knowing I couldn’t make it better. I can’t fight the shudder that ripples through me. “Then Will and Eva got pregnant again…It was hard. Talking about it made it seem harder.”

“Her mother and I would have been supportive. Your parents would have been supportive.”

“I know.” I clear my throat. “For what it’s worth, I encouraged her to tell you guys. But I let it be her call.”