Page 119 of The Wedding Confession

Tillie starts blubbering behind me. “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.”

Drew and I are released as Lila wraps her arms around the baby. Tillie snaps shots with her phone, her face blotchy with tears.

My face is wet, too. Lila brings the baby up to her neck, eyes closed. She looks ethereal, as if she’s won a great battle and the calm has come.

The doctor steps around us, placing his stethoscope on the baby’s back while she lies on Lila.

Drew moves to my side of the bed, almost taking my hand before remembering the nurse thinks he’s Dad. I’m so proud of him for going along with it. He cares about all of us.

“Baby looks good,” Dr.Hendrix says. “We’re going to give you a few minutes together, then we’ll take her for her assessment.”

Lila nods. The room quiets as people leave. Drew turns his back while the nurse cleans Lila up. I can’t help but smile as I watch him. All up in the sisters’ business. It’s part of the deal.

When it’s just family in the room again, Drew draws me against him, and Tillie sits on the edge of the bed. “Did you finally decide on her name?” I ask. “You wanted to wait until you saw her.”

Lila nods. “Rosalina James. Rosie.”

“It’s lovely,” Tillie says. “You feeling okay?”

“I think I’m high or something,” Lila says. “I feel weirdly great.”

“The pain is gone,” Drew says. “I see it in every species.”

We fold up the bed into a sofa again. It might be the middle of the night, but we’re done sleeping. Drew and I sit close together while Tillie keeps taking photos of the baby to send to Garrett and presumably ourdad. It’s his first grandchild. Maybe seeing his daughter as a mother will jar him out of his twenty-year funk. It’s probably the only thing left that could.

“What’s your position on kids?” I ask Drew. “Was this too scary?”

“Not at all,” he says. “But I have a long way to go before I’m father material. You, though. You’ll be a natural.”

He’s right. I will be. I mothered my younger sisters for their whole lives. And even if times were hard, we stuck together. So I totally believe in my ability to bring little humans into the world.

And I’m also going to be the world’s best aunt.

I sit close to Drew, enjoying the strength of him beside me, even as the neonatal nurse arrives with the rolling cart, puts the identifying bracelet on the baby, and takes her away.

Lila almost immediately falls asleep, and Tillie carefully leaves her side. “I’m going to go take pictures,” she says, tiptoeing out.

Then it’s just us, and I rest my head on his shoulder.

“I have one more confession,” he says, his lips against my hair.

“Really? We haven’t had one of those in a while.”

“I know.” His voice has gone husky.

“Well, spit it out.”

He clears his throat. “Remember that time you were watching me in the window, and you fell and broke the lamp?”

My cheeks flush hot. “You remember that?”

“I do.”

“That’s embarrassing.”

He squeezes my arm. “Don’t be embarrassed.”

“Why not?”

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