Chapter 24: Pass the Butter

I held on.

I held on that night, and the next morning, and every day until the appointment.

I did not say "everything will be fine," because she had heard it three times already, from people who meant it.

I said, "I'm here," and I said it until she believed it.

The doctor's office was warm and smelled of lemon wipes.

Willa lay back on the paper sheet with her braid over one shoulder, gripping my hand so hard that my fingers went numb.

The doctor spread cold gel across her stomach and tilted the screen toward us.

There was a gray storm of static.

Then a small, quick flutter in the middle of it.

"There's the heartbeat," the doctor said. "Strong. One hundred and sixty-two."

Willa made a sound that wasn't a word.

I couldn't see the screen anymore, because my eyes had filled.

She pulled my hand to her mouth and pressed it there and shook.

We stayed that way for a long time.

"Every one of them," she whispered at last. "Every one of the others, they never had this."

"This one does."

"Say it again."

"This one does, Willa."

We stopped at the bank on the way home.

I did it at the counter while she waited with the ultrasound photo in her purse.

I opened the account I had been planning for months, in Archie's name, with Willa as the trustee.

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