Holly had Saige laughing before Elara had finished her first drink.
There were too many people moving through the barn for Elara to hear what had started it, conversations shifting beneath the music as people came and went. She had been talking to Erin when she looked across and found Holly close beside Saige, saying something that made her duck her head and laugh into her glass. Sophie was curled sideways on one of the pews beside them, Matt opposite, and Saige had stopped looking around the room.
Erin followed Elara’s gaze.
“She’ll be right.”
Elara looked back at her. “I know.”
“Didn’t say you didn’t.”
Before Elara could answer, Luke appeared behind Erin and slipped an arm around her waist.
“What have I done now?”
Erin twisted enough to look at him. “Who said we were talking about you?”
“You were.”
“That confidence is part of the problem.”
Elara laughed as Luke leaned across Erin to kiss her. Erin caught his shirt and pulled him closer, and across the barn Holly leaned towards Saige, said something against her ear and kissed her.
Saige’s hand found Holly’s waist almost immediately. Sophie watched them for a moment before leaning across when Holly drew back and kissing Saige herself. Matt said something that made Holly laugh, and Saige answered him over Sophie’s shoulder while Sophie’s hand stayed on her thigh.
Luke’s fingers brushed Elara’s back. She caught the front of his shirt and kissed him, and by the time they separated Erin had wandered off into another conversation.
Luke glanced down at his half-open shirt.
“Do I bother?”
“Probably not.”
He laughed and left it that way.
Bryce caught Elara’s eye from farther along the pews. Liam had lost his shirt somewhere, Joel was sprawled beside him, and Bryce sat between them while Liam talked. Elara stopped as she passed.
“You’re wasting your time.”
Bryce looked up. “Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“It sounded like one.”
Liam laughed. “See?”
Elara bent and kissed Bryce. His hand caught behind her neck, keeping her there for another moment before she straightened and moved on, leaving him with Liam and Joel.
Saige was still with Holly and Sophie, Matt closer now. Sophie was halfway through saying something to him when Saige interrupted and Matt laughed. Holly leaned against Saige as she spoke, one arm loose behind her shoulders, and Saige reached across Sophie to touch Matt’s arm as she answered him.
Erin caught Elara near the bar before she got much farther.
“There you are.”
“Was I missing?”
“For a while.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
Erin smiled and caught the front of Elara’s shirt, pulling her closer.
Elara looked down at her hand. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“That doesn’t look like nothing.”
Erin kissed her instead.
Elara laughed against her mouth and caught her around the waist. Erin’s fingers slid into her hair as the kiss deepened, the movement of the barn carrying on around them until somebody bumped the bar hard enough to make the glasses jump.
Elara opened her eyes.
Saige was kissing Matt.
Sophie had one hand beneath Saige’s shirt. Holly stood close beside them until Saige reached for her and drew her back in, Matt’s hand sliding around Saige’s hip while Holly kissed her.
Erin caught Elara’s chin and turned her back.
“Rude.”
Elara smiled. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
Erin kissed her again.
The evening moved on around them. Luke found Erin again somewhere along the way, Holly appeared beside Elara wearing considerably less than she had earlier and stole a kiss before Sophie called her back, and Bryce crossed through the barn with Liam beside him and Joel close behind, his shirt gone now. He caught Elara’s eye without slowing.
Saige passed not long afterwards with her shirt open, Sophie leading her by the hand and Matt and Holly following behind.
Saige glanced across.
Their eyes met.
Elara raised her glass.
Saige smiled and kept going.
Bryce came up beside Elara, warm skin brushing her arm. A faint red mark showed high on one shoulder, and she ran her thumb across it.
“Busy?”
“Apparently.”
He reached for her drink.
She moved it away. “Get fucked.”
Bryce glanced around the barn. “Seems likely.”
Elara laughed. “That was terrible.”
He kissed her before she could say anything else, then left when Joel called him.
Erin caught Elara’s wrist and pulled her back towards Luke.
By the time Elara saw Holly again, she was carrying her boots and laughing at something behind her. Sophie followed, fastening her shirt as she walked, Matt dragging his own shirt over his head beside her.
Saige came after them.
Her hair was tangled, her shirt hanging open over her bra with one button fastened somewhere near the middle. Sophie leaned back to kiss her before Matt drew her away, and Holly said something that made Saige laugh.
Then Saige saw Elara.
She crossed to the bar, reached past her and took the drink from her hand.
Elara watched her take a mouthful. “Seriously?”
Saige handed it back. “What?”
“Get your own.”
“I had one.”
“Had?”
Saige looked vaguely over her shoulder. “No idea.”
Elara shook her head.
Holly called her name.
Saige turned, then glanced back at Elara with a small grin before heading away again.
Bryce came alongside Elara and rested his hand at the small of her back while the gathering carried on around them.
Two days later Elara sat alone at the kitchen table, the morning light pale and thin through the window. Her coffee had gone cold in the mug, the ceramic pressed against her palms like something she was trying to warm back to life. She had been sitting there for twenty minutes, maybe longer, listening to the house settle into its own quiet rhythm.
She traced the grain of the wooden table with her fingernail, following a knot that looked like a closed eye. Last night came back in pieces. Saige’s laugh too bright, too fast, filling spaces that didn’t need filling. She had talked about university, about her classes, about the semester she was supposed to finish. She had talked about everything except what had happened in the barn.
She heard it again now. A sound from down the hallway. Muffled, soft, like something caught in a throat.
She set the mug down. The cold coffee sloshed against the ceramic, and she watched it settle. The hallway stretched out ahead of her, the bathroom door closed. She had not heard it open. She had not heard footsteps. Just that sound, and then silence.
She rose. The chair scraped against the floor, a sound too loud in the quiet house. She crossed the kitchen, her bare feet cold on the timber, and stopped at the edge of the hallway. The bathroom door was still closed. The light was on under the door, a thin strip of yellow against the dark wood.
“Saige?”
Silence.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.” She said it without thinking, the words out before she could soften them. “Open the door.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Elara leaned her palm against the doorframe, feeling the rough grain of the wood under her hand. She could hear breathing now, shallow and quick.
“Saige.” She kept her voice low, even. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
A pause.
“I can’t.”
“You can.” Elara pressed her forehead against the wood, feeling the cool surface against her skin. “Whatever it is. You can.”
Silence stretched. She heard a small, choked sound—a sob swallowed before it could escape. Then the click of the lock engaging.
“Saige.” Her voice cracked on the name. “Don’t lock me out.”
No answer. Just the sound of breathing, and then a single, broken sob. Elara’s hand curled into a fist against the frame. She wanted to pound on the wood, to demand the door open, to reach through it and pull her daughter close.
She stepped back. Her bare feet made no sound on the timber. She stood in the hallway, the light from the kitchen warm behind her, the strip of yellow under the bathroom door cold in front of her, and she waited.
The door opened a crack.
Saige’s face appeared in the gap. Pale. Red-rimmed eyes. Her dark hair was tangled, damp at the temples like she had been sick. She was holding something in her trembling hand—a small plastic stick, white, with a tiny window that Elara’s eyes found before her mind could catch up.
Two pink lines.
Elara looked at Saige’s face, at the tears tracking through the pale skin, at the way her hand shook around the plastic stick.
Saige did not speak. She just stood there, holding the test, her eyes searching Elara’s face.
Elara opened her mouth. The words would not come. She reached out, her hand moving on its own, reaching for Saige, for the door, for something to hold on to. Her fingers brushed the edge of the doorframe, and Saige flinched, and the door pulled shut again.
Elara stood frozen. Her hand hung in the air where Saige’s face had been.
From inside the bathroom, she heard a single, broken sob. Then the click of the lock engaging.
The house was quiet. Elara stood in the hallway, her hand still raised.
Her hand lowered slowly, finger by finger, until it hung empty at her side. She pressed her fingertips into the doorframe once, hard. Then she turned.
“Bryce.”
It came out louder than she meant, and rougher.
He appeared a moment later, barefoot, in worn jeans and a faded work shirt open at the collar, his dark hair still mussed from sleep. His grey-blue eyes found hers.
His voice was low, careful. “What is it?”
She shook her head. The words wouldn’t come.
He stopped close enough to touch, waiting.
“It’s Saige,” she said. Her voice came out thin, like it had been stretched too far. “She’s in the bathroom. She locked the door.”
His jaw tightened. “Is she hurt?”
Elara shook her head. Then she nodded. Then she shook her head again.
“I need you to see it.”
Bryce didn’t ask what it was.
He looked at the door. Then he looked at her. “She locked it?”
Elara nodded.
He raised his hand and knocked.
“Saige. It’s Bryce.”
Silence.
“Saige.” Elara moved to stand beside him, her shoulder brushing his arm, her hand finding his. His fingers closed around hers. “Please. Let us in. Whatever it is, we can—”
“You can’t.” The voice came through the wood, thin and cracked. “You can’t fix this.”
Elara’s grip tightened on Bryce’s hand. She felt him squeeze back.
“We’re not here to fix it,” he said. “We’re here.”
Silence. Elara watched the strip of light, waiting for the shadow of movement beneath it.
Then the lock clicked.
Elara let go of Bryce’s hand and reached for the door handle. The brass was cool under her palm. She turned it.
The door swung open.
Saige stood on the other side, small and pale in the harsh bathroom light, her dark hair tangled, her hazel eyes red-rimmed and swollen. She was still holding the test, both hands now clutched against her chest.
“I’m sorry,” Saige whispered. The words cracked on the way out. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t—”
Elara stepped forward, into the bathroom, into the light, and took Saige’s face in her hands. Her thumbs brushed the tears from Saige’s cheeks, smearing them across the pale skin.
“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t apologize.”
Behind her, she heard Bryce step through the door. She heard him stop. She heard the small, sharp breath he let out when he saw the test.
Saige’s eyes flicked past Elara to him, and her face crumpled, the tears spilling over.
“I didn’t know who to tell. I didn’t know how to say it. I thought if I said it out loud, it would make it real, and I can’t—I can’t be real right now. I can’t be anything.”
Elara pulled her in. Saige’s face pressed into her shoulder, her body shaking, her hands still clutching the test between them. Elara felt the plastic stick dig into her collarbone, and she didn’t care. She held her daughter, one hand in Saige’s hair, the other flat against her back.
Bryce stepped closer. His hand came to rest on Saige’s shoulder.
“We’re here,” Bryce said.
Saige pulled back, just enough to look at him. Her face was swollen, blotchy, her nose running, her eyes red.
She looked down at the test in her hands. The two pink lines stared back at her. She turned it over, then back.
“I don’t know who the father is,” she said quietly. “I mean—” She stopped. Her eyes flicked to Bryce, then to Elara, then back to the test. “It’s possible, but I don’t know.”
Bryce’s jaw tightened.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Not right now. Right now, we need to get you out of this bathroom.”
Saige shook her head. “I can’t breathe. I’ve been trying for an hour and I can’t.”
“Then we sit with you until you can.” Elara took the test from Saige’s hands, gently, carefully, and set it on the edge of the sink. “We don’t have to solve anything today. We just have to be here.”
Saige looked at her. The tears had slowed, but her eyes were still glassy. “What if I can’t do this? What if I’m not—what if I can’t be a mother?”
Elara took her face in her hands again and held her gaze.
“You don’t have to decide that right now. You don’t have to decide anything.”
Saige’s breath hitched. Then, slowly, she nodded.
Elara wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her out of the bathroom, past Bryce, into the hallway. The kitchen light glowed warm ahead. Saige’s feet shuffled on the timber, small and unsteady, and Elara held her upright.
Bryce followed a step behind.
She guided Saige to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. Saige sat, her hands flat on the wood, her shoulders hunched. Elara filled a glass of water from the tap and set it in front of her.
“Drink,” Elara said. “Slow.”
Saige picked up the glass. Her hands shook. She took a sip, then another, and set it down with a small clink that sounded too loud in the quiet kitchen.
Bryce reached across the table and put his hand over Saige’s. She turned hers beneath it and held on.
Elara rested her hand over Saige’s other one.