Josh helped me up. “Everything looked okay?”
The tech smiled. “I’m going to send the images to the doctor and he’ll tell you all about it.”
“But…” Josh said, his voice tinged with worry. “Is she okay?”
The tech looked around. I wasn’t sure for whom; we were alone. She leaned in. “She looks perfectly healthy to me.”
Josh sighed and then helped me sit up, kissing my temple. “Thank you.”
“Congratulations.”
The tech showed us out, and as we made our way to the ER, Josh’s cell phone rang. He glanced down, rolling his eyes and pressing the speakerphone button.
“Hello?”
“Josh? It’s Hope. Are you working today?”
“At an appointment with Avery, what’s up?”
She hesitated. “Oh. Never mind.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “She has your phone number?” I whispered.
He held up a finger to me. “Did you need something?”
She sighed. “Toby’s running a fever and fussier than usual. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind picking up some diapers on your way home. Size three.”
I made a face.
“Uh … sure, I can do that. Any brand?”
“Luvs, please. Thank you so much.”
Josh hung up the phone, and I eyed him.
“What am I supposed to do, baby? He’s sick and she’ll have to drag him into a store screaming if I don’t help.”
“He’s not screaming. Did you hear him screaming? Strange for a sick baby who already had colic.”
Josh’s eyes softened. “I’d want someone to help you if I weren’t around.”
“You think Hope will help me?” I asked, sardonic.
Josh opened my door. “Yeah, I do. She’s actually a nice person, Avery. You’d like her if you got to know her.”
I sat in the passenger seat, waiting for Josh to jog around to his side. “If she were interested in getting to know me, I’d be friends with her, too. Don’t you see it, Josh? You can’t be that blind.”
“She works the late shift, Avery. I’m off when she’s off. Otherwise, she’d be bugging you to run her errands for her.”
I frowned. “Is this the first time she’s called you for something?”
“Er … no. But sometimes I’m busy.”
“Josh, you are not her husband! Stop letting her order you around!”
“Okay, Avery. Don’t get upset. I’ll fix this.”
“You’d better,” I said, settling back into the seat.
Tipping the longneck to my lips, I let the beer slide down my throat, soothing the itch that had been forming. Winter had come and gone. The March air was warm, but I still wore my old hoodie. It smelled like Avery.
“Shots no longer doing it for ya?” Ginger ran her bar rag over the wooden surface. She was smiling, but her eyes showed how long of a day she’d had.
“Needed a change of pace,” I replied, leaning the bottle back to read over the label.
“Everything okay with you and the old lady?”
I nodded, chuckling at her terminology. Ginger had recently been seeing Bear, a meathead biker who rarely showered. He was already rubbing off on her.
“She’s a little stressed,” I said.
“Hormones.”
I nodded and took another swig. It was more than the baby on the way. In fact, Avery loved every minute of being pregnant, even with all the aches and pains that came with being thirty-one weeks along. As time passed, she’d grown more agitated. She’d even begun to suffer from hallucinations, and they’d been happening more frequently.
It was scary as hell, but we’d been to the doctor, taken as many tests as being pregnant would allow, and our only option was to try meds she couldn’t or wouldn’t take.
“It’s not just hormones, Ginger.”
“How did the tests come out?” she asked.
I shrugged, taking another swig. “With her fluctuating hormones, the doctor is reluctant to diagnose her. The MRI didn’t reveal anything, either.” I was beginning to worry it was all just in our heads.