Epilogue One
Evie
Nine Weeks Pregnant
My knee bounces as we sit in the waiting room. Nerves and worry swirl in my stomach as I try to prepare myself for the possibility of another loss.
Monty and Josie sit on either side of me as we wait for my name to be called. Josie places her hand over my knee and squeezes. “Deep breaths, Sweets. One step at a time.”
Our eyes connect and I nod to her, because I don’t think I can speak without throwing up.
This pregnancy is already so much different than my first one.
I’m sick all the time, and can barely keep anything down.
Josie said there’s a medication that the doctor can give me if the nausea doesn’t subside.
Monty has his arm thrown around my shoulder, and he pulls me close. Placing a kiss to the top of my head, he whispers in my ear, “I’m so excited to see our baby.”
That brings a stupid giddy smile to my face. Ever since we had the talk a couple weeks back at Harper and Xavier’s things have been different in the best way possible.
We sat down with Monty and Josie’s parents and told them about our relationship.
There was minimal shock when we broke the news.
They asked simple questions like how long have we been doing this and do the boys know?
These were the questions we were prepared for, but we also prepared for the chance the news was not handled well.
Silly me to think they wouldn’t be in support. They’ve always been such wonderful people every time I’ve interacted with them.
We decided to wait to tell them about the pregnancy because we wanted to have our first ultrasound to make sure everything was okay.
I couldn’t put myself in the position to tell multiple people and then retract the news if things didn’t work out.
The only people who know are Harper and Xavier, but I know they won’t tell anyone.
We plan to tell the boys, well at least Shiloh, about the relationship this weekend.
Hayes is still too young to understand, and all he knows right now is the three of us anyways so it will be easier for him.
We’re going to take him on a full day of activities and then after supper we’ll talk to him about it and answer any questions he may have.
“Evie Parker?” The technician calls for me, and I jump up.
Josie and Monty follow close behind toward the scan room. Inside the room is very sterile, there’s a couch off to the side of the exam table. The technician tells me to remove my pants and get situated with my feet in the stirrups and informs us she’ll be right back.
Making quick work, I get undressed from the waist down and hop up on the table. Once I’m laying there, I close my eyes and slowly work on a breathing exercise that Josie does with me. I need to center myself because being worked up isn’t going to help the situation at all.
There’s a knock on the door, and my head whips to it as it opens and the technician comes through with a smile on her face.
“Alright, let’s go and see this baby shall we?” She asks, sitting on her stool and preps the internal ultrasound probe.
“Yes, please.” I say in a shaky breath. Monty and Josie stand at my side as we wait.
“Okay, I’m going to touch your thigh before I insert the probe so you know it’s coming.” She says, and I nod my head.
Moments later there’s a soft touch on my right thigh before I feel the probe enter me. It’s slightly uncomfortable as she moves it around, but I’m more focused on the screen beside me as I look for the sac. At first there isn’t much, and I begin to get nervous.
“Ah there we go!” The technician says, “Here is baby, it looks like it’s right on track, but let me just move arou–” She stops mid-sentence and my heart stops.
“What is it?” I ask in a panic. It’s happening again. I lost this baby too, and I don’t think I’ll survive this time.
“I just need to–” She moves the probe around a little more then smiles, “it looks like you’re having twins.”
“What!” we all say in unison.
The technician laughs, “here, see this.” She points at the gestational sac, and we all nod. “That’s baby a, but if I move over just a bit… Here is baby b.” I watch in complete awe as the screen shows two outlines.
Two babies. Two.
I’m having twins.
The rest of the appointment passes in a blur, the babies are measuring exactly where they’re supposed to be.
They print off pictures for us and we schedule our next appointment.
When we get in the car, I’m still in shock.
Looking at the ultrasound picture that shows baby a and baby b, all I want to do is tell my best friend.
“Can we go to Harper and Xavier’s before we go home?” I ask, still not taking my sight off the ultrasound.
“You got it.” Monty says as he signals to turn off the road that’ll bring us to Xavier’s. Josie sits next to me in the back seat, our hands threaded together.
“Holy shit, we’re having twins.” I say in disbelief and it causes Josie to laugh.
“Yes we are.” She squeezes my hand and I finally look away from the ultrasound, looking at her. “I’m so excited to watch you experience this. You’re going to do amazing.”
My eyes sting with tears, I lean over and press my lips to hers. “Thank you. I don’t think I could have been able to do this appointment without the both of you.”
“Absolutely, we’ll be there for every appointment.” Monty tells me, and I catch his eyes in the rearview mirror. He’s showing me everything that he’s feeling in that look and I can’t help but be giddy.
This is what being loved is supposed to be like. This is the love I’ve always deserved but never knew about.
“I love you both.” He says to us, before focusing back on the road.
“I love you too.” I say, “and I love you.” I bring Josie’s hand up to my lips and kiss it quickly.
“I love you guys too.” Josie repeats her answer. A wave of contentment washes over me, and I spend the rest of the drive watching the scenery.
Twenty minutes pass before we finally pull into Harper and Xavier’s driveway. We get out and make our way up the porch, knocking on the door.
We hear a bark come from behind us and when we turn around Winnie is circling the three of us with his tail wagging ferociously. Xavier comes up the porch a minute later with a smile on his face.
“What a surprise, what brings you guys around?” Xavier slaps his hand on Monty’s shoulder.
“We just came from the first ultrasound, Evie wanted to see Harper before we made our way home.” Josie tells him as she pulls him in for a quick hug.
“Of course, she went to lay down about an hour ago. Let me go get her.” He walks past us and gives me a quick hug before continuing into the house. We follow close behind, and get ourselves settled in the living room.
A couple minutes later a sleepy Harper comes into the room rubbing her eyes. “Hey guys, I didn’t expect to see you today.” She takes the seat next to me, “How did the appointment go? Is everything okay?”
“More than okay,” I tell her eagerly and take out the ultrasound picture. “I’m having fucking twins, Harps!”
“What!” She screams, snatching the photo from my hands and looking down. “Holy shit, Xavier they’re having twins!”
“Oh shit.” He says looking over Harper’s shoulder then looking at the three of us. “Congrats guys, that’ll be fun.” He laughs.
“Should we tell them?” Harper looks up at Xavier, and he nods.
“Tell us what?” I ask, I look between the two of them.
“Well, I wanted to tell you sooner, but with everything that was going on. It didn’t feel right…” Harper starts, she tucks a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Oh spit it out already, bitch.” I tell her in exasperation. Monty and Josie chuckle in the background at my impatience, but my bestie has been keeping something from me and she needs to spill.
“I’m pregnant.” Harper says with a huge smile on her face.
“Shut the fuck up!” I scream, “We’re both pregnant.”
She nods her head quickly, and tears threaten to fall from my eyes. I leap forward and wrap my arms around her. I hear congratulations being said behind us but I can’t be bothered because my bestie is having a baby at the same time as me.
“Holy fuck, we’re besties having besties!”