Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
I knew it was Eve. And I knew everything would be okay.
Gavin
Brystol and I sat in the examination room and held hands as we waited for Dr. Lark.
“Nervous?” I asked with a smile.
She shook her head. “No. Are you?”
“A little.”
It had been a month and a half since Evelyn and Denny’s passing. So much had changed. There had been more heartbreak in Moose Village when Hope Turner lost her battle with cancer. Liam and Hope had told their closest friends right before Christmas that Hope’s last treatment hadn’t helped like they’d hoped; her cancer had spread, and the doctors hadn’t given her very long to live. She passed away a few weeks ago, and Mary, Hope’s younger sister, was in town to help Liam with Winnie. It was hard not to notice Liam slowly withdraw from everyone. It had hit Aurora the hardest, even though she tried to pretend otherwise.
I officially moved in with Brystol and had put my house on the market. I’d already had an offer and accepted it. After talking things over with my parents and Brystol’s, we decided to put the personal items from Evelyn and Denny’s house into storage to give to the baby in the future, and to rent out the house. Everyone agreed it might be nice to let the baby decide someday what they want to do with the house. They might even want to live there. Everything Evelyn and Denny had bought for the baby we took to Brystol’s and stored in the guest bedroom until we decided what to do for the baby’s room. A mural was a must after Brystol saw Evelyn’s note.
“The baby just kicked,” Brystol said, placing my hand over her baby bump. It was now noticeable. Of course, everyone in town knew Brystol was pregnant—and the story behind the pregnancy. The notes of love from people in Moose Village often brought us to tears.
My big hand covered her bump pretty much entirely—and then it happened. I felt the smallest of kicks. I whipped my head around and looked at Brystol, who had tears in her eyes.
“Did you feel it?”
I nodded, unable to find the words to speak.
She placed her hand over mine, and we just stared at one another. For weeks after our friends’ deaths, it was impossible to think of the baby as “ours.” This was Evelyn and Denny’s baby, without question. But as the days passed, and we learned to live without them, we spent countless nights discussing how we’d raise this child. I thought back to a conversation with our parents.
“I don’t know how to feel,” Brystol said as she wiped away a tear. “I tried so hard for the first few months of this pregnancy to remind myself that this baby wasn’t mine, and that I’d be giving them up at the end of this all, and now…I feel guilty that I’m happy! That this child is going to be ours. Evelyn wanted this baby so badly and it doesn’t seem fair we get to have him or her.”
My mother reached for Brystol’s hand. “Life isn’t fair, honey. And I know you’d rather have Evelyn and Denny here to raise this little one, just like everyone else does. I think everything you’re feeling is normal.”
“I agree with Rachel,” Nancy, Brystol’s mom, said. “It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for you both. No one would blame you for feeling confused, sweetheart. But we know that Evelyn and Denny trusted the two of you to raise this child if anything happened to them. And you’ll both love him or her as if he or she was your very own. We all will.”
Nodding, my father added, “I know a baby wasn’t something either of you planned on this early in your relationship, and things have moved fast with the two of you, but it’s happening, even if it’s not in the way all of us would want or expect. The worst thing you can do is feel guilty for being happy. There’s nothing wrong with being sad over the loss of your two best friends, and there’s nothing wrong with feeling joy over the gift of a child.
“This baby is yours now. Yes, it’s your responsibility to tell him or her about their biological parents. And I truly believe in my heart of hearts that you and Gavin will be wonderful, loving, thoughtful parents. You’ll figure out how to bring Evelyn and Denny into the baby’s life, even as you love and care for them as your own. I know you will.”
Nick Quinn was the greatest man to ever live; at least, that’s what I thought about my father. Hearing him help comfort Brystol made me realize how much I wanted to be exactly like him. But if I could be half the father he was, I’d be blessed.