“Not once?” Sasha asked.
I shook my head.
“I’m surprised.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Why’s that?”
She smiled at me and gave me a small shrug. “You are just so good with kids. I see you with Mikey, and I’m always impressed by how well you handle him, and I’m not just talking about his illness. You are just great with him.”
Her compliment made me blush. Mikey had been my whole world since he was a baby. My mother was better at dealing with him now. His illness made it so that she had to be. But there had been times when we were growing up that she’d been unable to get out of bed.
“I guess I wouldn’t be upset if I were pregnant.” I wouldn’t be. I loved kids, and Sasha was right. I was good with them. That wasn’t what gave me pause when I thought about what it might mean if I were pregnant.
“I don’t know how Marco would react to me being pregnant,” I said. I grabbed my water and swallowed a small sip. Thinking about Marco caused the bile in my throat to rise. We’d just started figuring things out between the two of us, and now, I was potentially throwing another wrench into that plan.
Sasha reached out and took my hand. “I can assure you that Marco would be ecstatic to be a father.”
She squeezed my hand, and I was grateful for the contact. It calmed my nerves. “I don’t know if you are right, but I appreciate it.”
A wide, happy smile broke out over Sasha’s face. “Selfishly, I hope that you are pregnant.”
I laughed at her excitement. Sasha was the type of person who always made the people around her happy. “Why?” I asked.
“Because then our kids will grow up togther! It’ll be the best.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t help but feel a pinch of excitement at the picture that Sasha was painting. The thought of having a family, a real one, excited me. Marco might not be perfect. There was a darkness in him which sometimes seeped out and stained the things around him like an ink slipping out of a ballpoint pen, but I knew that he would make an amazing dad.
It was a testament to what Marco would do when he felt that someone was threatening his family. And as someone who had never had someone to look out for them, I knew how important that was.
“Can you give me the name of your doctor?” I asked Sasha.
She nodded excitedly. “Tell her you’re my sister. She’ll make sure that you get the earliest appointment she has.”
I didn’t correct Sasha and remind her that we were in-laws. It seemed pointless. I didn’t have many friends, and neither did Sasha. And despite our many differences, we managed to make a relationship work. We were sisters in all the ways that mattered.
“Hey, Sasha,” I called out. She was looking at her phone, sending me the number of her doctor. “Thank you…” I trailed off for a moment. I could feel my voice growing thick with emotion as I tried my best to speak. “For everything.”
Tears sprung to Sasha’s eyes, but I knew that she appreciated my friendship as much as I did hers.
Marrying Marco had come with its challenges, but Sasha was one of the bright spots, and I knew that I could never regret the family that I had stumbled into. No matter what happened next.