He wraps me up in a hug, burying my face in his chest. I look up. “I didn’t know she was allergic, I swear it. I told Samantha there were nuts in them and she just said your mom would love them.”
“I didn’t understand her signing,” Samantha protests, and then she begins to pick at her cuticles. “She’s not very good at it.”
“You’re a liar, Samantha!” Mick cries out loud as he signs it too. “You did this on purpose and you know you did!”
Her face flushes. “I did not!”
“Your left eye twitches when you lie,” Ryan tells her.
She stamps her foot. “Does not!”
“It does,” Mick says. “It always has. You’re lying now and you were lying then.” He points toward the door. “You should go.”
“I won’t.”
“Oh yes you will,” four female voices say from behind me, and I look around to find all four of my sisters, along with Emilio and Marta. “You do not want to fuck with my daughter,” Marta says, pointing a finger at Samantha. I have seen Marta get all mama-bear-like before, but I have never seen her quite so forceful. She points to the door. “Out!”
Samantha turns and runs down the hallway.
“She could have killed her,” Ryan says. His face is so pale we could light a dark room with it.
“She didn’t,” Marta says. “Your mother will be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Ryan says.
“I do. I’m a mother, Ryan. We know everything.”
“What do we do now?” Mick asks.
“Now we wait,” Emilio says.
Everyone sits down, and Mick and Ryan don’t say a word about my sisters and my parents waiting with us.
“Do you want me to ask them to leave?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “They can stay.”
“Marta,” Emilio jokes, “I haven’t seen you be that forceful in a really long time. It’s kind of turning me on.”
“Someone had to do it,” Marta says. She points to my sisters. “Two of you are pregnant, and therefore incapable of fighting. I couldn’t let you get hurt.”
Wren freezes as Emilio looks at each of them in turn. “Wait. Two of you? What the fuck?” His eyes skip from one of us to the other. “I know Star’s pregnant, because she’s blowing up like a basketball all of a sudden.”
Star presses a hand to her belly. “I am not,” she mutters.
“Who else is it? Who’s pregnant?” Emilio demands.
Wren tentatively raises her hand. “It’s me,” she squeaks out. But Peck and Finny raise their hands too.
“Oh, shit,” I whisper.
“I just found out yesterday,” Finny says.
“Sam and I were waiting to tell everybody,” Peck adds.
Wait! All four of my sisters are pregnant at the same time? My brain struggles to catch up.
Emilio heaves a sigh. “You girls are going to kill me. I’m going to die of a heart attack and it’ll be because of you.”
“You’re too mean to die,” Marta says.
“Damn straight.” Emilio sits down beside Wren, because he knows Wren is the one who needs him right now, and he takes her hand. He doesn’t say anything else to her. He just holds her hand. She lays her head on his shoulder and we all wait.
Every few minute I hear Emilio mutter something about too many fucking babies at once. And this is what you get when you have five girls. You have to worry about all the penises. And then he goes silent again. “Eight little hands and eight little feet,” he whispers. He looks at Wren, squeezes her hand, and she tears up a little and nods. “We got this,” I hear him whisper.
“I know we do,” she whispers back. But the tears continue to fall.
Ryan
Relief is a palpable, living, breathing thing when the doctor comes out to tell us that Mom will be all right. I get choked up and Mick does too. The doctor tells Dad that one person can go see her at a time, so he goes first.
I pull Lark into my arms and hold her tight. “I’m so sorry,” she says, when I finally let her go.