Ella
“Cora?” I gasp the minute I get the phone to my ear, still scrambling out of bed and tangled in the sheets.
“Hey, Ells,” she says, her voice somehow both tight and bored at once. “Sorry to wake you up – ”
“You didn’t wake me – ” I say quickly, reaching for Rafe in his crib and scooping him up in my arms. Behind me, I hear Sinclair climbing out of bed too, coming to my side.
“I didn’t?” Cora asks. “Why actually.” Her voice goes stony. “Don’t tell me. Knowing you and Dominic, I probably don’t want to know.”
A little laugh bursts from me as I shake my head, trying to get back on track with this conversation. “Cora,” I say, looking down at Rafe’s bright, wide -awake face, “what’s up? Why are you calling? Is the baby -”
“Yeah,” she says on a sigh. “Roger insisted I call. Baby’s on its way!”
“Oh my god!” I shriek, spinning to Sinclair and beaming at him for the second time this morning. “It’s time for the baby! We’ll come right away -”
“No, take your time,” she says on a sigh and I frown at her even though she can’t see me.
“Cora, what is going on? Why are you calling in the middle of the night for us to come but then also telling us not to hurry?”
“Because my stupid mate made me call you,” Cora says, her voice annoyed. She lowers her voice to a whisper. ” He’s completely freaking out, Ells, even though everything is progressing totally normally -”
“Awww,” I say, passing Rafe to Sinclair’s waiting hands and smiling up at him. “Go easy on him, Cora! He’s a first-time dad!”
a last time dad,” she mutters, making me laugh again, “if he’s
question in my eyes. Can we go? Is there any pressing national business that means we need to stay back? Sinclair nods eagerly to me,
says on another sigh. “Do you mind? Honestly, Ella, I don’t think my body is anywhere close to ready
to get himself and
he’s trying to talk me out of it – anyway,” she sighs, “will you just
the background, his voice thick with anxiety though I can’t hear what he’s saying. My heart swells a little for my secretly-sweet brother-in- law, who
say, “we’ll be there as soon as we can. And
on a sigh. “See
I practically skip into the closet
right?” he asks, cupping my face in his
think so,” I say, nodding up at him. “Apparently she’s still got time – Roger’s just
out of his control. It’s going to drive him crazy to have to watch Cora have to go through a great deal of labor and pain and not be
and selecting some clothes that I hastily pull on. When I’m ready, I turn to take
on the shelf and sitting down with him in our little arm chair so he can
grins at me and I laugh, because the way he looks at me when I talk – god, it’s as if he’s
thinking about how
suddenly my eyes fill with tears when I realize that in my
the title has already passed
is it?” Sinclair asks, and I whip my head up to see that I was so lost in my thoughts that I
I laugh
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