I stole a glance at him as he forked a slab of pie into his mouth. I hadn’t taken a test yet. Should I say anything?

If I was pregnant, he would be happy, wouldn’t he?

Chapter Twelve

Adam

When I proposed to Anna that night, I didn’t expect that six months later we’d be actually getting married, but then I hadn’t expected her to tell me she thought that she was pregnant.

‘Please say something,’ she had urged as she’d twisted the corner of the duvet cover round and round her finger.

‘I… I…’ It’s the best news I’ve ever received. We’re going to be better at this than my parents. I’m going to love you forever, but ‘Holy fuck,’ was all I actually managed to say.

‘Adam!’

‘Sorry, it’s… brilliant, Anna. Really. Brilliant.’ I hadn’t realized just how happy the thought of being a dad made me until the following day when we bought a test from Boots, giggling like teenagers, before finding out it was a false alarm.

‘Oh.’ Anna couldn’t keep the disappointment from her voice. ‘It must have been stress that was making me feel sick and messing up my cycle.’

I had hugged her closely to me, feeling like a heel. The worry of me going AWOL had caused this. But later we had talked. Properly talked. We now knew undoubtedly that we wanted children.

‘We should get married first,’ Anna said.

‘The sooner the better. This year.’

So a winter wedding it was. Initially we had worried about possible snow and ice but then British summers are never predictable. You can’t book the sunshine and I didn’t need it to be perfect – I was marrying the perfect woman and everything else came second to that.

‘Nervous?’ Josh handed me a can of Fosters. It was only ten o’clock in the morning but I couldn’t resist cracking it open. There were a few hours to kill until we had to be at the church.

‘Yeah. A bit. It’s mad, isn’t it, how much has changed.’

‘Totally. Who’d have thought one holiday would lead to this.’ Josh gestured around his new flat.

‘You don’t regret moving?’ Me and Anna had bought a two-bedroom starter house near to her mum. Josh had stayed in our old place for a few weeks but then decided to move up north too.

‘Nah, I was ready for a change of scene and you might be a twat but…’ He took a swig of his lager. ‘Someone has to look out for you. I am the best man.’ He adjusted his cravat.

‘That doesn’t mean you get to cop off with the chief bridesmaid.’ Despite his best efforts, Nell had, so far, continued to resist his charms.

‘One kiss. If she’d kiss me just once, I’d die a happy man.’

‘She’d eat you alive.’