“Okay.” She handed her sister the test. “The bathroom awaits.”
“Yay! I’ve never been so excited to pee!”
The white stick clutched in her grip, May dashed off to the powder room to pee excitedly. Emmy threw the box and instructions in the trash, leaned against the counter, and waited. Her heart had been fluttering with nerves and excitement ever since she’d gotten the text from May requesting that she stop off to buy a test on her way tothe house. The instructions had said it might take as long as three minutes for results to appear. She was pretty sure not even half that time had passed before she heard excited noises echoing down the hallway. She smiled to herself, allowing a couple tears to slip down her cheeks. She’d cried a lot of happy tears lately.
The bathroom door opened, and Emmy heard her sister’s hurried footsteps as she clambered up the stairs to find Victor. They had agreed ahead of time that he had to be the first to know. Since Victor had been hanging in the office with Will (something about a video game tournament), Emmy wasn’t surprised to hear her fiancé enter the room behind her a minute later.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on the top of her head.
“From the sound of it, she’s pregnant,” Will said.
Emmy placed her hands over his, enjoying the way she could feel her engagement ring pressing ever so slightly into her finger. A rose gold band with an arrangement of colorful stones that looked just like a little sun, it was the perfect fit for her in both size and style. Better than that, Will had proposed with not only the ring, but a necklace with a V-shaped pendant that doubled as a nifty ring holder. Just like that, he made it so she always had a safe place to keep the ring, even when she was wrist-deep in mulch and soil.
“She’s pregnant,” Emmy confirmed. “I can’t believe it. She’s going to be such a great mom.”
“You’re going to be a great aunt, too.”
“Heck yeah. I can’t wait.”
Will pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “How do you say, ‘Congratulations on being pregnant’ in Japanese?”
“Ninshin omedeto¯gozaimasu.”
There was a pause.
“Is there a shorter way to say congratulations?” Will asked.
“You can just sayomedeto¯.”
“Okay. That’ll be my backup plan. Let me try the long one. Say it again.”
Emmy repeated it for him. He fumbled it. She repeated it again.
“Okay, I got this,” Will said after repeating the phrase several times. He turned her around and rested his hands on her waist. “Are you wearing sweats to our engagement party?”
“I thought about it, but no. I brought a change of clothes.”
“You can wear your comfy pants. It’s your party.”
“It’sourparty,” Emmy corrected.
“It’s our party, and I will still love you if you wear sweatpants.”
Emmy lifted herself up on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. His lips had become familiar all over again. It had taken very little time for them to start seeing each other regularly, and she’d enjoyed falling for him—the real him—and watching him fall for her. Even better, this Will was a little happier, a little more carefree, than the one she had met in the book. Probably because he wasn’t currently going through a soul-wrenching existential crisis.
It had been extremely difficult, at first, not to tell him that they’d met before the wedding, that she knew him and didn’t know him at the same time. But even that struggle had faded over time as she had come to see him as a personwho lived in her world, solidly grounded in reality. Plus, May knew everything. Being able to confide in her sister had made a huge difference.
The book was a distant memory now, and she had to admit she was grateful to it.
“Break it up, you two!” May ordered sternly as she marched back into the room.
Emmy abandoned Will without a second thought as she turned and flung her arms around her sister. “Say the words. I know you want to.”
“I’m pregnant!”
Emmy pulled away from the hug, beaming. “I’m going to spoil your kid rotten.”
“Get in line.”
