“Shhh!! We do not speak his name!” she said.
“Is he like Voldemort?”
“No, Dr. Dork. But I would just prefer to not talk about that specific member of the male species. Ever.”
I gave her a hard look, as she wrapped her hands across her chest.
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Leah and I weren’t as close as Clare and Leah were, but I’d come to be very fond of the crazy blonde walking
next to me. Declan was a good friend of mine, we’d grown up together, but if he’d hurt her, I’d call him on it. I’d add a few other things
to the list as well, like asking where the fuck was he? It was a day before my wedding day and he was nowhere to be seen. My best friend Colin,
his wife and newborn son had all flew in today to be here. My mom, who until recently was estranged, was here. Everyone who mattered to me was
here. Except Declan. He hadn’t spoken to me since the day I told him I had cancer. It’s not like I was going to give it to him…He knew that
right?
Jackass.
“No, he didn’t hurt me. We had a good time. A very, very…very good time.”
“Seriously, don’t need details,” I said, raising my hands up in defense.
“But that’s all it was. I would prefer to go on with my life not ever talking about Declan James again. It was one night, and that’s it. No
use talking about it anymore.”
Her lips were saying one thing, but her body language was saying something entirely different. She looked edgy and pissed. Her arms wrapped
around her chest, and her eyes narrowed in front of her like she was ready to shoot laser beams out of them at a moment’s notice.
“Okaaay.”
Women were weird. Like batshit crazy weird. And I was living with two of them now. My only prayer… and I didn’t pray often…was that if Clare
and I were blessed enough to have more children—for my sanity, please make it a boy.
Clare
“Grandma Cece!” Maddie exclaimed, giggling and running over to meet Logan’s mother, who gladly caught my daughter in her arms, burying her
head in her hair like she’d been counting down the minutes until their reunion.
“I missed you, Sweetheart!” Cece said. “Did you get bigger? You did, didn’t you?”
Maddie laughed, and squirmed when Cece’s fingers started tickling all the right spots, although, to be fair, there really wasn’t a bad spot.
Everywhere on Maddie was fair game when it came to tickling.
“She’s eating like a horse, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s shot up about five feet since we were in New York,” Logan said, coming up
behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed a soft kiss on my bare shoulder.
His mother caught his sweet gesture and I saw the smile in her eyes.
“The other day, I ate all of my chicken nuggets, and I was still hungry. So, Logan gave me all of his and even his mashed potatoes. I love
mashed potatoes. He even let me make a mashed potato snow man before I ate them.”
Hearing my fiancé wasn’t eating tugged at my nerves, but I promised I wouldn’t nag him. He’d sworn he was fine, and things were okay. He’d
said he was just getting used to the medicine and it would take time, but the part of me that had lost someone wanted to put him in a plastic
bubble and force feed him just to make sure he was strong enough to take on anything.
I was marrying a doctor.
I had to keep reminding myself of that fact.
He wouldn’t purposely hurt himself. Seeing the way he looked at Maddie and me, I knew he wouldn’t risk his health. Not now. Not when he had
so much to lose.
So I needed to do the impossible. I needed to trust fate, that cruel, twisted bitch who’d already taken so much from me. I needed to trust
that he would fight this and would be here with me at the end, holding my hand, kissing my shoulder, just like he was today.
Because the alternative was just too hard to imagine.
After receiving a proper welcome from Maddie, Cece, or Cecelia as she was properly known, made her way around the room greeting everyone. She
finally made her way back to us, and gave us both long, lingering hugs.
“I love you, Logan,” she whispered as she held on to her son. So many years had been lost between them and I knew she was trying to make up
for the time lost. For the time she’d wasted.
“I love you too, Mom.”
Tears glistened in her eyes, and she nodded, giving me a small smile. She cupped my chin briefly before being dragged off by Maddie once again.
We said our hellos to her new husband, Richard, and made our way around the room, greeting our other guests that had made it in that day.
“Dude, vasectomy. I’m telling you. Get one. Now,” I heard Logan’s best friend Colin say.
“It can’t possibly be that bad, Colin. Millions of people have babies every day.”