Chapter 156

“Hello! Don’t yell at me. I’m in a hospital bed.”

“Yeah. Sorry. Where can I touch you without making you hurt?”

“See how it’s done?” I asked Rip. “Here is good.” I wiggled four fingers on my right hand, and noticed the bare one in the middle, where my engagement ring shouldn’t have been, but was, last I’d had it on.

Shelby took my hand. “You’re staying?”

“I’m staying. For you…and my little nephew.”

“It’s a boy?” Rip asked. “Yes!”

“I don’t know. It could be a girl.”

Rip pumped his fist again. “Yes!”

“Gramma said we have to be careful, okay?”

“I will be,” Shelby said. “That’s why we decided to ask a nurse last night. She gave me the same kind of test I could have gotten at CVS.”

“CVS? They’re the enemy!”

“Right. The same test I would have gotten at O’Hanlon’s,” Shelby said. “I took three.”

I smiled.

“All positive. One just now, because they all say first thing in the morning is best. We’ll be careful.”