“You’re on speaker,” Alex replied. “Can you at least act like you like me?”

“You’re pregnant!” Ani yelled. “I mean, Sarai’s—hell, you know what I mean.”

“How the hell did you figure that out?” Alex complained, laughing.

“Because you put me on speakerphone, idiot,” Ani replied. “And you already eloped. What the hell else would you have to tell me?”

I couldn’t fault her logic. Alex smiled at me and I tried to smile back, but my face felt frozen. Why was I so nervous?

“That’s awesome! When are you due?” Ani asked. I felt the muscles in my shoulders relax a little in relief.

“July,” I answered, my voice coming out a little rough.

“Wow, you guys didn’t waste any time,” she replied laughing. “Congratulations.”

A couple of minutes later, Alex hung up and then called his parents. My worry disappeared as his mom squealed and cried, and his dad told us that he was “real excited” for us in his calm, quiet way. They were surprised, but there was nothing but excitement and happiness in their responses.

Alex was enjoying this, telling everyone that we were having a baby. He loved sharing the news, and I felt tears hit my eyes more than once as he proudly talked about how we’d already heard the baby’s heartbeat and how he thought we were having a girl because I wasn’t sick and any boy of his would already be wreaking havoc from the womb.

Alex’s sister, Kate, didn’t answer her phone, so he left her a message telling her to call him because he had news. I had a feeling that she was going to know exactly what he wanted to tell her, the way Ani had. I laughed as he tried to make his information seem really mysterious.

“Okay, just Trev left,” Alex said, taking a deep breath. “I’d call my aunt and uncle, but I have a feeling my mom has already called Aunt Ellie.”

“She seemed pretty excited,” I replied while Alex scrolled through the contacts on his phone.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “She loves kids, and grandbabies are even better.”

I smiled, but my stomach still churned with nervousness. This wasn’t as hard as I’d thought it would be, but the phone call I was dreading loomed. If Alex wanted to make only one more call, then it was almost my turn. I looked at the clock and realized that Alex had been talking to his family for almost two hours already.

“Trev?” Alex said, putting the phone to his ear. “Hey.”

He waited, leaning back in his chair until the front legs came off the floor.

“Yeah, I was just calling to tell you the news.”

He smiled.

“Really? Okay, sure,” Alex said. He held the phone out to me. “Morgan wants to talk to you.”

“What?” I whispered, not reaching for the phone. “Why?”