Page 55 of Until You

“The slideshow,” she says. Her voice catches. She stops. Recovers. “Cora. That was—” She shakes her head. “James cried. I want you to know that. He’s going to deny it, but he sobbed.”

“Rebecca,” James says, from approximately two feet away.

“You did.”

“I had something in my eye.”

“Both eyes. Simultaneously. For four minutes.”

Payton claps his dad on the shoulder. “No shame in crying, Dad. I cried.”

“We heard you,” Addison says.

Payton shrugs. “Men are allowed to have tender emotions.”

“That’s right, baby,” Rebecca says.

James Blankenship is a large man who looks like he was assembled from the same materials as his sons—broad through the shoulders, serious around the jaw, with those eyes that don’t miss things. He looks at me with the particular expression of a man who has something to say and is choosing the precise version of it.

“It was beautiful,” he says. “What you found in that box, what you did with it—” He stops. Clears his throat. “My mother keeps things in closets. Has for thirty years. I don’t know why we never thought to do something like that before.” He holds out his hand.

I shake it.

His grip is exactly what you’d expect. Firm. Certain.

“Thank you,” he says.

“It was my pleasure,” I say, meaning every word.

And then Oliver steps forward. He doesn’t clear his throat or raise his voice or call for attention. He just shifts on his feet slightly.

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me a little closer. “There’s something I want to say. To all of you.” He glances at me—a brief, private look that asks okay? I give him the smallest nod. Okay.

He looks at his parents. At his grandparents.

“Cora and I… we met before she started working for Mimz and Pops. A few months ago. We didn’t know who the other was. We didn’t know we’d end up—” He pauses. Not from uncertainty, but rather deliberateness. Choosing exactly the right words the way he does. “We ended up here. And the baby she’s carrying is mine.”

The lobby holds its breath.

One second.

Two.

Then Mimz says, “Well, I knew about the baby, and I knew the two of you would be just right for each other, but I didn’t know that part.” She claps her hands together once. “Couldn’t have planned that better if I’d tried.”

Oliver pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’m not even gonna touch that one.”

“So wait,” Rebecca says. “That means you’re carrying my first grandbaby?”

“I guess I am,” I say. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Oh, honey, it’s more than okay.” Again, she pulls me into a tight embrace. “Oliver, I’m so proud of you.”

“Uh, for getting a woman pregnant before marriage?” Payton asks quietly.

James smacks him upside the back of his head.

Oliver makes a sound that might be a laugh or might be a choking noise. Possibly both.