I clap him on the back. “You will be.”
The front door opens and closes, and Quinn calls us all to eat now that Weston is here. It’s pure chaos getting all the kids to sit at the little table Quinn set up next to the formal dining room table, and two pieces of pizza are dropped, and one cup of milk is spilled.
Finally, we’re all settled, and everyone digs into their food, looking at Quinn and Archer between bites, waiting for them to share their news. Quinn looks ragged again, cheeks pale with dark circles under her eyes. She’s not eating, which is a dead giveaway that she’s pregnant again.
“When are you due?” Owen asks, reaching for his drink. Charlie elbows him. “Oh, come on. Why else are we all here? Unless you’re dying or something.” He actually looks worried. “You’re not dying, are you?”
“I’m not dying,” Quinn quips. Archer takes her hand and smiles. “And yes, we are expecting again.”
Archer takes a folded-up ultrasound photo from his pocket and Mom lets out a shriek, jumping up and racing around to hug Quinn.
“Twins! Oh my goodness, you’re having twins!”
“We are,” Archer answer, since Quinn is being smothered by our mother. “It was quite the surprise. They’re not identical,” he adds, knowing we’re all wondering.
“These are our last,” Quinn assures everyone with a laugh. “We wanted four but got a bonus baby.”
The rest of dinner is spent talking about babies, and Mom telling Quinn—in way too much detail—about her experience being pregnant with twins. Quinn goes upstairs to lie down right after dinner is over, not feeling well.
Jackson begs me to go downstairs with him to play video games, and I take one for the team and skip out on helping clear dinner dishes. We’re two rounds into Mario Kart when Archer comes downstairs, followed by Weston.
“Aw, man,” Jackson huffs. “Is it time to go already?”
Wes takes the controller from me. “It’s time for you to lose.”
“Dad,” Jackson laughs, looking up at his dad. The older he gets, the more he looks like Weston.
“Hey,” Archer calls, motioning for me to come over.
“What’s up?”
“I was supposed to go to that medical convention on Monday, but after Quinn’s OB appointment today, I don’t want to leave her.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Her blood pressure is still low, and the morning sickness is hitting her hard already, even though she’s been taking anti-nausea medication.”
“Fuck. But the babies are okay?”
“Yeah. Nothing is abnormal,” he assures me. “I can’t leave her with three kids knowing she feels that bad, and carrying two babies instead of one is causing her to have a lot of round ligament pain.”
“I don’t know what that means, but it doesn’t sound fun.”
“It’s not. But I already have my room paid for and can’t get a refund. It’s at a sweet hotel, and Quinn and I both thought you should go. Get out of here for a while.”
A break from the cold sounds fucking fantastic.
“And I already called the airline and can transfer my first-class ticket to someone else for a small fee.”
“First-class, you say? Twist my arm, why don’t you. I’ll go.”Chapter 23RoryI move to the back of the plane, rationalizing that I have the best chance of surviving a crash if I’m in the back. I know it doesn’t really matter where you sit, but I’m a bit of a nervous flyer and I’ve never flown solo before.
I made it through security just fine, though, and found my terminal with no issues either. After a half-hour delay, we’re clear for takeoff. I take a selfie and send it to Hilary, teasing her that I’m going to Miami while she’s stuck at work. I felt bad, actually, being the newbie and getting randomly selected to go to the conference.
Though other than lying by the pool in between panels, I don’t really know what I’ll do. I’m alone in a big city I’ve never been to before. It’s a bit intimidating, but just sitting here in the plane is empowering. It might be silly to some people who do stuff like this all the time, but to me, a solo trip to Florida is a big fucking deal.
Now if only we could get rerouted to Orlando and I’m able to make a quick stop to Disney…
My phone vibrates with a text, and I open it to find a group photo of everyone at work huddled together, pouting. We got more snow last night, which is what caused the backup with the flight. The temperature rose enough during the day to help melt the snow on the runway, but it’s dipping back down tomorrow to the lower teens. I’m going to hate the cold even more when I come back, I know.
I get settled, stash my phone in my bag, and grip my armrest as we take off. I got a window seat, and watch the landscape pass us by for most of the flight instead of reading the first book in a new vampire romance series I bought specifically for the plane.