I Never Expected You (I Never 2)

“Hey, big bro, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Zach bends down, unbuckles the straps of Emme’s car seat, and reaches in to pull her out. She’s dressed in one of the onesies Zach had bought her—“Sorry, ladies, my daddy’s taken.” I take a seat in front of the headstone with my legs crossed as Zach hands her to me before sitting next to me. I press a kiss to the top of my daughter’s head.

“Emmett, I want you to meet your niece, Emme Danielle Jacobs. Emme, I want you to meet your uncle Emmett.”

A stray tear runs down my cheek, and Zach reaches up and brushes it away with his thumb. I give him a brief smile.

We sit and chat until Emme releases a loud cry, and it may have only been a week, but I already know that this is a hunger cry. Call it mother’s intuition.

“What do you say we get this little one back to my parents’ house? I think she’s getting hungry, and I don’t really wanna whip out a boob here.”

Zach’s eyes go wide as he takes Emme from my arms to settle her back in her seat.

With one last kiss on the top of the stone, Zach and I walk back to the car, his arm around my shoulders and the other looped through the carrier handle.

When we get to the car, Zach places Emme’s seat in the backseat and closes the door. I settle in the passenger seat as Zach rounds the car to the driver’s side. Zach starts the vehicle but doesn’t move. The familiar sounds of “Golden Slumbers” by the Beatles begins to play on the radio. I stare out the window at the hill where my brother’s final resting place lies. Zach reaches for my hand and squeezes.

“You doing okay?” he asks as he links our fingers.

I turn to face him. “Yeah. I wish he was here, but a part of me knows he’s always with me…us…her.”

We both look back at Emme in the back seat, who has since calmed down. My heart warms, wondering if this is Em’s way of comforting her.

“I love you, Haylee.” He reaches down to my hand and brushes his lips against my knuckles, mainly the engagement ring on my left hand.

“I love you too.”

I open the front door to my parents’ house, and the delicious smells of my mother’s chicken parmesan hit my nostrils, causing my mouth to water and stomach to growl.

“Mmmm, it smells like heaven in here,” Zach says, setting Emme’s car seat down.

The house seems rather quiet. Where is everyone?

“Mom? Dad? We’re here.”

My mom strolls out of the kitchen. “Hi, sweetheart.”

She kisses my cheek and Zach’s before focusing her attention on her new granddaughter. Her face lights up when she sees Emme in her seat. This version of my mother is nothing like the version of her just after Emmett died. My daughter helped mend the pieces of her broken heart.

She reaches in to unbuckle Emme and cradles her in her arms, slowly rocking her back and forth. Emme begins to fuss, indicating that she is hungry.

“Someone’s hungry. I’m just going to go take her up to my old room and feed her.”

I reach for her, but my mom doesn’t give her up. “Actually, why don’t you follow me for a second? I want to show you something.”

“Can it wait?” I look over at Zach, and he shrugs before I focus back on my mother, who has already begun heading up the stairs.

Zach leads his arm for me to follow, so I do.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” I ask Zach as we make our way up the stairs.

“Nope, not a clue.”

Once Zach and I are at the top of the stairs, I watch as my mother passes my old room and stops in front of the bedroom that used to be Emmett’s.

My dad is standing outside the door. He gives us a brief smile before pressing a sweet kiss on my daughter’s head.

“What’s going on?” I ask nervously as Zach steps up behind me and places his hands on my shoulders.