For someone who didn’t want children, Wally certainly appears enamored with Willow. He holds her like one might hold hot tea in a fine china cup and looks at her the way one might admire a favorite painting or sculpture. In the middle of the night, I wake to find Willow in his arms and him looking down at her like this. I watch for an indeterminable amount of time. The sight of them nearly overwhelms me.

“I’m glad,” I say, startling him, “that you are my person.”

He looks up at me and smiles. “I think a few people might fight me for that role.”

My face must convey my confusion.

“I don’t think you realize how many people you have, Fern. Carmel. Gayle and your library colleagues. Owen. And yes, me. And don’t forget Willow.”

I take a minute to consider that. While I’m doing so, Wally says, “Rose said you weren’t capable of raising a child. I suspect she may have convinced you of that too, right?”

I shrug.

“Is it just the Billy thing that worries you?”

“It’s mostly that. But also my sensory issues. You have to admit, I’m not the ideal mother. What if the baby wants to watch fireworks? Or have a birthday party? I couldn’t even handle school pickup or drop-off with all those shrieking children and swarms of mothers in puffer jackets, making small talk.”

Wally thinks about this. “Okay,” he says. “Well, I’ll do the school pickups and drop-offs and the birthday parties.”

“You? When? When would you do the school drop-off? When you’re in your van creating your app? When you are traveling around the world promoting FollowUp?”

“I sold FollowUp, Fern.”

I blink. “You sold it? Already?”

He nods. “For a lot of money. It makes the deal for Shout! look cheap. So I can do the school run every day, if you like. And you can stay home, or go work in the library, or come to school pickup with me and wait in the car. You can do whatever you like!”

But it can’t be that easy. Nothing in life is that easy.

Willow chooses that moment to start fussing.

“Is she due for a feed?” I ask.

Wally checks the app and determines that she is. He brings her to me. As she latches on, he enters the feed time into the app. The ritual of this, even over the past twelve hours, is one I’ve come to quite enjoy. As she feeds, we watch her. It’s surprisingly satisfying. I’ve never found watching an adult eat enjoyable.

“She’s a miracle,” Wally says.

I think about that. “Well, no, not really. Pregnancies are actually biologically quite straightforward.”

He rolls his eyes. “Sure, but … you were on birth control. Which means, what were the chances? Point zero three percent or something?”

I look at him. “I wasn’t on birth control.”

He blinks. “But you told me you were.”

“No, I didn’t. Why would I say that?”

“I don’t know, but you did say it,” he says emphatically. “The first night. I remember it clearly. You told me it was safe.”

I frown. “It was safe. But what does that have to do with birth control?”

Wally closes his eyes for a moment; then he exhales and smiles. “Well, I guess that solves that part of the mystery.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean … it explains how you mysteriously became pregnant.”

If Wally is bothered by this, he is keeping it well hidden. But his proclamation about “mysteriously” becoming pregnant triggers a realization that there is something I haven’t been clear about.

“There’s something else I have to tell you, Wally,” I say. “The pregnancy wasn’t an accident.”

Wally frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Rose couldn’t have a baby. She confessed this to me when I found prenatal vitamins in her bag and assumed she was pregnant. It turned out she’d been trying for a baby for a while and couldn’t have one. So … I decided to have a baby for her. It sounds crazy, I know. I just thought … I can have a baby and Rose can’t. Why wouldn’t I help her out? It seemed so simple. Then … I met you and … and…”

“… and you asked me on a date so you could become pregnant with a baby for your sister?”

“Yes.”

Wally places both hands on his temples. “Wow.”

“But by the time we had sex, I wasn’t even thinking about that anymore. I wasn’t thinking about—”

Wally walks to the corner of the room, shaking his head. “Wow,” he says again. “It’s genius.”

“What is?”

“Rose,” he says.

“What do you mean?”

“She must have known what you would do if you found out she couldn’t have a baby.”

I shake my head. “But she didn’t even tell me she wanted a baby, I found her prenatal vitamins.”

“Which she just happened to leave lying around?”

I think about this. But I don’t believe it. “You think she did that on purpose? So I would realize she wanted a baby and try to have one for her?”

He shrugs. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Well,” I say. “In any case. I’m sorry.”

Wally walks back to my bedside. He looks down at Willow. I’ll never get tired of the way he looks at her.

“You know what’s funny,” he says. “I’m not.”

When I’m released from hospital, we go back to Wally’s new flat, stopping by Rose’s en route to collect Alfie. Wally’s flat is in an older-style building that reminds me a lot of my old place. He rented it a few months back—things got so busy with FollowUp that he decided he needed a more permanent base. It still looks like he hasn’t properly moved in. He says it’s just a stopgap until we buy something bigger, but honestly, I quite like it. I loved my little flat.

Willow and I don’t leave the flat for the next forty-eight hours, and Wally only leaves to walk Alfie. Carmel is our only visitor, coming by to drop off a pile of books for me, a couple of takeaway hot chocolates, and an adorable pink onesie for Willow. She said if I needed anything, she was just at the end of the “line.” I wasn’t sure what line she was referring to, but when I told her this, she just laughed and said she’d check in with me tomorrow.