Page 154 of Never Forever

The silencein the truck was thick. Every once in a while, I opened my mouth to break it and Matt would look over at me so expectantly. So hopefully, I got stage fright and shut my mouth again. Then he would say with great authority:

“Okay.”

Only he wouldn’t say anything after that.

Halfway home he said, “Twins.”

I nodded. “Yes. Yep. Twins.”

“Two babies.”

“Yes.”

“Two whole babies.”

“Not just a baby with two heads,” I said and tried to fake laugh. Maybe I wasn’t as good an actress as I thought I was.

Except Matt started to laugh. He laughed so hard he was hunched over the steering wheel.

“Pull over,” I cried. “Before you get in a wreck on the highway and kill all four of us!”

He did as directed and pulled over to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Well, one thing is for sure…”

“I can’t read ultrasounds?”

That made him laugh all over again. There were few things I loved more than making stoic Matt Sullivan laugh. It was its own reward.

“What?” I asked.

He turned to face me. “I’m going with you when you film.”

“Oh,” I said. “Right.”

I had a split reaction. Relief and indignation. Relief because of course I wanted him to come. Indignation because here he was assuming something that was such a giant step. For both of us. For the four of us.

There were going to be four of us.

I fumbled with the door handle and finally got it open, spilling myself out onto the shoulder of the highway. I walked away from the road into the tall grasses.

Oh my God.Oh my God.

Twins.

“Carrie?”

“Twins!” I shrieked. “This is your fault. You and your super sperm!”

“Okay.”

Of course he’d say okay. Of course he’d accept fault.

He approached me like I was a crazy woman and maybe I was. “Can you get in the truck? We should probably make some plans.”

“Yeah, we need to make some plans. Like, we don’t have enough bedrooms. Anywhere. We need to start telling people.”

“I already told my Dad. I’m sorry. But I had to.”

“I told Annie. I had to too.”

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