“Say something,” Marcus pleads. “You know I love you, and I will love our child just as much. So please, say something sweetheart.”
I throw myself into his arms, nearly knocking both of us over. “I say yes,” I tell him, kissing him hard. “Of course, I say yes.”
Neither of us are delusional enough to think raising this child will be straightforward. Marcus was right, my parents will probably be upset to find out that we’ve been fooling around. Aunt Sylvia might well have a heart attack when she hears the news. Surely she’ll spit some biblical passages about being righteous and godly.
But I don’t care because I have Marcus. With him, I know I can do anything. Strike that. We can do anything. It’ll be hard road, but anything is possible. The way we got together may have been scandalous, but our life from here on out will be perfect.
Because I’m finally getting the happily ever after I’ve always dreamed of. And lucky for me, I’m going to live that life with the perfect guy.
Marcus holds me against his chest. I hear the steady beat of his heart joining with mine in perfect sync.
“I love you,” he says.
“I love you, too.”
And my heart soars into the stratosphere because once upon a time, Marcus Weston was my sister’s husband. But now, the alpha male is so much more … and we have all the time in the world to explore.
Epilogue
Kelsey
My eyes scan the page one year later:
I can’t give Marcus what he wants. He’s talked about being a dad since our first date, but I can never be a mom. Not with my… sickness. There, I said it. I’m sick. And I can’t have a baby for Marcus because my insides are as sick as my brain.
A soft cry from the next room pulls me out of my sister’s diary. Marcus found it in the bedside table when he was cleaning out their shared house before selling it so we could buy a place of our own. The diary is filled with my sister’s musings and confessions about her eating disorder. Reading it was really hard at first, especially since Marcus gave it to me when I was in the middle of my pregnancy and horribly emotional. But it’s gotten easier and I feel like reading about Jane’s life in her own words has brought us closer together. I only wish we could have been this close while she was still alive.
Marcus steps into the master bedroom holding a small bundle in his arms.
“Someone missed her mom,” he says. He joins me on the bed and hands our baby to me. “Janie decided she isn’t quite ready for bed just yet.”
“Is that true, baby girl?” I coo, tickling our daughter’s chubby cheeks. Although Janie was a surprise pregnancy, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us. Because we’ve gotten lucky with baby Janie. The first couple of months, she would wake up a bunch during the night, but she’s been sleeping longer lately. And she’s such a good child. She rarely cries during the day and only a few times at night.
My parents say that she behaves just like her namesake did many years ago. I hope it’s true. I hope baby Janie inherits the best parts of Jane, the best parts of me, and all the good in her father.
Because things weren’t easy. Mom and Dad were horrified when we first shared my pregnancy with them. They, like me, felt like it was a betrayal of my late sister. Over time though, they got used to the idea. Now they’re constantly begging for a chance to babysit their only grandchild. It’s hard for Marcus and me to leave the baby for even an hour, so we haven’t taken them up on the babysitting quite yet. But I have a feeling we’ll take them up on their babysitting offer soon enough.
Plus, after Janie was born, we decided to jump right into the fray and take her for long walks through the streets of our small town. The looks we got were enough to make me want to turn around and shelter from their judgmental stares. I can handle the mean words and tight lipped smiles, but what about my baby? She did nothing to deserve this.
But Marcus pushed me forward. He said that no matter what, we’d be on the baby’s side, and she would know that. So mean neighbors be damned. His strength gave me back my own strength. I started calling people out for being jerks. I responded to their comments with my usual snark. It didn’t make things worse. It made things better. Now, people stop to ask how Janie is doing and laugh at her adorable prattle. Marcus was right. We’re on Janie’s side, and now so is our community.