“Cherry, do you want me to stick around?” Nora asks when she’s done with her call.
“No, thank you. I think it’s pretty clear Nate and I have to talk alone.”
“Go ask Kate,” I say to Nora. “She can explain it all to you. Might as well get the rest of your gang together so everyone knows.”
“My gang?”
I ignore her, and Nora grumbles under her breath before she lets herself out, and Cherry and I are finally left alone for about twelve seconds. I answer a knock at the door and have a plate of warm cookies shoved into my hands.
How did she make them so fast?
“Hydration and eating,” Jessie says in that same teacher voice. “I’ve been through this, you know, and you are going to listen to me. You can’t let your blood sugar drop, but you also can’t just eat a lot of junk food, either. Believe me, it’s going to be tempting, hunny. I made my husband run out at two in the morning for peach cobbler! These are just to make sure you get something in your belly, but you need a good meal and soon.”
Jessie looks at me pointedly, and I nod.
Cherry’s condition. Taking care of herself. Something Jessie has been through before.
Oh, my God…
I stand next to the couch, cookies still in hand, mouth wide open, and stare at Cherry.
Jessie goes on for a while about nutrition and vitamins. Cherry refuses to meet my gaze, but I know what’s going on here.
How long has she known?
Jessie excuses herself and heads out the door, leaving Cherry and me alone. Cherry seems to be eating one cookie after another just to keep from saying anything to me. I seem to be having a difficult time coming up with words.
“I think you have some, uh, news for me?”
“Um…well…” She licks crumbs from her lips and sighs. “Yes, I guess I do. I’ve been wanting to tell you, but...well, everything happened so fast.” She glances at me and quickly looks away. “I think Jessie probably said too much.”
“Yeah, probably.” I maneuver next to her on the couch. “I need to hear the words. I need to hear it from you.”
“I’m pregnant,” she whispers.
I reach out and pull her into my arms. As soon as I do, she wraps her arms around my neck and starts to cry on my shoulder. I close my eyes, not even able to imagine how she’s feeling. All this time, I thought we were at least in the same boat, but she had a much bigger, deeper issue that was clearly weighing on her far more than any of the rest of it, and I hadn’t even known. It would be frightening enough for Cherry to find out she’s pregnant, but she also thought it was her brother’s child. What could have been going on in her head?
A sinking feeling comes over me.
“Cherry,” I whisper, “what were you going to do? Where were you and Nora going? And where’s Twos?”
“Nate…” Cherry looks away and bites her lip.
I know the answer, and all my muscles tighten at once.
“I…I thought we were…”
“I know,” I reply though gritted teeth.
“It’s not that I wanted to,” she says. “I never would have considered it, not even if you didn’t want anything to do with the baby, but when I thought we were…we were siblings…well, I couldn’t really go through with it. I’m…I’m not sure I could have done it anyway.”
“It’s all right.” I bring her close to my chest. “But…we’re okay now, right? You aren’t…you aren’t still considering…” I can’t even say the word.
“No,” Cherry says definitively.
“Good.” I relax a little.
“Are you…are you okay with this?”
“With you having my baby?” I turn a little and take her face in my hands so I can look her in the eyes. “I’m fucking ecstatic about it, Cherry. I couldn’t be happier with the whole idea. I love kids, and the idea of you having mine has just taken the most insane couple of days ever and given it the ending we both deserve.”
“Really?”
“Really. I couldn’t be happier.” I kiss her softly before pulling her head back to my shoulder. She sniffs a few times, but the crying has mostly stopped.
“So…do you feel like a yo-yo?” I ask. “I know that’s how I’m feeling.”
“Yes,” Cherry chuckles. “Honestly, I don’t know what to feel. I think I might still be in shock, and that started the day I found out about the baby.”
“When was that?”
“Just last week.” Cherry licks her lips and looks at me pensively. “It’s why I contacted you when I did. I knew I had to tell you, but then I wanted to do it at the right moment, and then…well, you know.”
“Am I forgiven for my original, horribly timed proposal, then?”
“Yes, you are.” She continues to look me in the eyes. “So, we aren’t siblings, but you aren’t an Orso.”
“Yeah.” I tell her everything Kate had told me. “Basically, swapping us was the final part of the treaty between our families.”
“That’s fucked up, Nate.”
“Right?” I shake my head. “I know you always wanted that big family thing, but both of ours are as fucked up as they could be.”
“But your family—er, well, I mean Nora and Antony and everyone—they’re good people. I really care about them.”
“They care about you, too, especially Nora.”
“She cares about you as well,” Cherry says. “I don’t think your blood relationship to her matters when it comes to that.”
“Maybe. We’ll see. I know she’ll always make sure you are okay, and that’s important.”
“How are you taking all of this business about being a Ramsay? I mean, I didn’t have a family growing up, and now I know I wasn’t even related to the
