Elaina lifted her head. “Yeah.” And then, “You ready to tell me what’s on your mind?”
Gaze leaving the largely vacant freeway briefly, he glanced at her. He knew her well. And she knew him well, too.
“I had a call yesterday morning... Do you remember when Peter first started his residency at the Parent Portal?”
“Of course. We had to move to Marie Cove because of it. You said you got a call,” she continued. “Was it a job offer? Back in LA? Is someone offering you a chance at full contracting?”
He had his contractor’s license. Could be in business for himself. Bidding jobs, hiring crews like his, along with plumbers and electricians and drywallers. She wanted that for him.
He liked being free to be available at home whenever he was needed. Liked not having a job that required his first loyalty. And the rest... He already picked his own crew. Bid his jobs. Ran them. He just did it all for whatever contractor hired him...
“No...the call wasn’t for a job. It was from the Parent Portal.”
She leaned forward. He heard the movement. Could see her turned toward him, briefly highlighted and shadowed by the headlights that sped past in the opposite direction across the median.
“Something to do with Peter?” she asked, her voice softer, hoarse. She’d told him once that she missed his brother every second of every day.
Wood could relate. He was pretty sure that not a day had gone by since his little brother’s death that he didn’t think of him at least once.
“Indirectly,” he told her. “Peter asked me to donate sperm to the clinic,” he said, just needing it done now. If she showed shock, surprise even, that someone had picked his sample over others’, so what? Didn’t change any of the facts. “He was hitting up everyone he could,” he added.
“I remember,” she told him. “He donated, too. We talked about it...” He heard her intake of breath as she broke off. And then she said, “Is that what this is about? Someone used Peter’s sperm? His baby is out there and the family is seeking contact?”
Something like that. But not quite. “Someone used my sperm,” he told her. “And the woman was seeking contact.”
He glanced her way and then back, sparing himself whatever surprise she might be showing. Didn’t hear an intake of breath, even.
“Was that your lunch today?” she asked him, sounding more curious than anything.
“Yes.”
She was facing forward now, no longer even pretending relaxation. Her eyes wide-open, she stared out the windshield. Her hands were clasped together over her stomach, but that telltale rubbing back and forth of one thumb up and down the other gave her away every time.
“What did she want? Is the child in some kind of danger?”
“She’s only four months pregnant. And yes, the fetus could be compromised. She’ll know more next week. Worst-case scenario, she might need my bone marrow.”
Elaina’s head turned toward him then. “You told her you’d donate, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Wow. How horrible for her. I’m assuming it’s blood related?”
He answered her questions. Cassie’s age, which she’d told him over lunch. The fact that it was her first child. What he knew about what was seen on the ultrasound. Mostly just confirmation of what she was guessing was going on. And as he reached their exit and slowed the truck, he listened as she told him in more detail what a bone marrow transplant would involve for him, the donor, and for the baby, too. Describing tests and time frames. Procedures. The wait to see if the transplant was a success. Percentages of chances of success.
She was still discussing the situation as he pulled into the garage, and as they walked into their house together.
Elaina went down on her knees to greet Retro, who came running in through the doggy door. Taking her head in both hands, rubbing her and bending to bury her face in the dog’s neck for a hug. “Did you get any sense of what kind of support system she has?” she asked, her face even with Retro’s as they both looked up at him.
Their gazes were a spotlight, the family spotlight, on him, and there he stood. Trying to find his place.
“A solid one,” he said. Repeated almost verbatim what Cassie had told him about her friends and family. Her law partners.
“Good,” Elaina said. “She’s going to need it. Long term, if the situation requires it, but right now, too, as she makes her way through the initial adjustment...”
“There might not be an adjustment,” he had to point out. “The baby could be just fine.”
“She’s had the scare, Wood. She’s known real fear,” she said. “That doesn’t just disappear with a healthy diagnosis.”