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“Come for a quick visit, then we’ll let them all rest,” the nurse said, taking a step back into the ward.
I was pretty sure the invitation did not include me, so I retook my seat, urging Archie forward. “Go,” I said. “I’ll wait here.”
He hesitated, but I waved him off, and a moment later I was alone in the waiting room as the snow fell gently outside the window. How strange it was, I thought, that two people could be so physically near one another and be experiencing such completely different life events in that same space. Aubrey and Wiley were parents. They’d just been through one of life’s great milestones—delivering a child. And here I sat, wishing for a boy to kiss me.
I settled in, and within a few minutes, my phone was buzzing again as Archie sent me photos from the other side of the door. The baby. Aubrey and Wiley grinning madly as they held him. Aubrey holding up a middle finger and glaring at the camera as the baby nursed. There was a pause, and then one more photo arrived, this one of Archie holding a tiny red-faced infant in his arms. The smile he wore was one I hadn’t seen on him before, so genuine and unguarded it nearly broke my heart. I knew why he didn’t smile like that, but now that I knew him better, all I wanted was to see that smile more often.
He was a good man. He deserved to be happy.
Archie returned to the waiting room after about a half hour, and the remnants of the smile were still on his face.
“He’s so perfect,” he said, his voice a whisper as he retook the seat at my side. “He’s just so little and vulnerable. He’s not even mine, and I suddenly feel like I need to become some kind of baby bodyguard and never let him out of my sight so I can protect him.” He chuckled and I laughed too, his giddiness infecting me at the same time as I recognized a deep longing for a moment I’d never get to share with Jake.
I squeezed his hand. “I’m so happy for you guys. Is Aubrey okay with the timing of it all? I know she’s been wanting to be married first.”
“The second he arrived, she forgot everything else in the world, I think.”
“What did they name him?”
“She wanted to call him Marvin, but Wiley wasn’t a fan.”
“It’s not a popular name these days,” I agreed, feeling relieved for the tiny guy.
“So they chose Phineas and gave him Marvin as a middle name. They’re going to call him Finn.”
“That’s adorable.” I sighed. “I’m so happy for you guys.”
He let out a breath and sank back into the chair, still holding my hand. He raised our locked hands between us now and looked at them, as if just realizing we were touching. For a moment, we were silent, and his thumb rubbed a line along my hand. The motion sent a bolt of nerves through me.
“What now?” I asked, and it came out as a breath.
“They’re keeping Aubrey and the baby overnight. Wiley’s not leaving her side, so they’re bringing in a cot for him.”
I nodded. That sounded right.
“And I guess we’d better figure out what we’re going to do,” he said. After he uttered the words, his gaze slid to mine, and I saw the same questions that were circling in my mind.
“There’s a hotel over there,” I said, pointing to the window with my free hand. I’d seen the sign for it as I’d watched the snow fall. “Close is probably good, right?”
He nodded. “I’m hungry too. Are you?”
“Starving.” I confirmed this, a bit relieved we might focus on the food before we had to handle the hotel question. Would we be spending the night together? Did I want to? It would be digging myself even deeper into this situation. I could admit I wanted to spend more time with Archie... but there would come a point when I’d need to tell him who I really was.
“Okay,” he said. “I guess we should get going.”
“Let’s head out, Uncle Archie.” I grinned at him, squeezing his hand again as we stood.
“Man, I love that,” he laughed.
We held hands all the way down to the main floor and out across the parking lot, and Archie’s joy was contagious. I felt light and happy, like the snow falling around us was just one more part of a day designed to make us see the goodness and light in the world—even though we’d both known darkness too.
But as we navigated through snowy streets, and I internally clenched through turns I feared we might slide right out of, anxiety set in. We passed a couple fast food places, and then agreed on one that lay just ahead of the turn in for the hotel. We picked up some food—the smell nearly driving me crazy—and headed into the hotel parking lot.
I was going to a hotel. With a man I didn’t know well. One whom my family regarded as the ultimate enemy.
Why, then, when we approached the desk to ask about rooms for the night, did I feel such a jolt of happiness when the clerk informed us they had only one left?
Archie gazed at me, meeting my eyes and then lowering his. “We could go to another hotel.”
