“I’ll take either,” he booms. His voice cracks.
Which makes my chest squeeze.
Because Daddy doesn’t crack very often.
Grandma pats his hand. “That’s right; we’ll love that baby to bits, no matter what,” she says.
He nods.
And then he resumes pacing.
Time crawls as we all watch the clock on the wall. Thirty minutes pass. Then forty.
Charli makes a second trip to the vending machine. Bryce on her heels.
Imma Jean tells a story about the time Matty was five and tried to mount a sheep to ride into town like it was a horse.
Grandpa falls asleep.
Grandma keeps praying.
Daddy keeps pacing.
And I sit there, thinking about Matty.
My big sister.
My protector.
The one who taught me how to read, and braid my hair, and ride a horse, and throw a knee if a boy ever got too handsy.
The one who gave up so much to keep Wildhaven Storm Ranch alive and raise us girls.
And now she’s in a room down the hall, doing the hardest thing a human body can do.
Bringing a new life into the world.
For a moment, the weight of it hits me so hard that I feel breathless.
My sister is becoming a mother. For real this time. Not just assuming the role she was never supposed to have when she was a teenager after our mother passed.
And we’re becoming …
Aunts.
My eyes fill with tears again.
“Not you too,” Charli groans as she walks back in and tosses a package of Hostess CupCakes into my lap.
“I can’t help it,” I whisper. “We’re gonna be aunts soon.”
Shelby grabs my hand. “We’re getting a baby.”
“We’re getting a baby,” I repeat.
The hallway door suddenly swings open.
Footsteps echo toward us.
