Good point. One he filed right there on top with everything else that had just taken over his list of important matters.
“You feel responsible for her,” Elaina said next, standing to face him.
“Of course I do.” He started to feel defensive, and shook his head, meeting Elaina’s open brown gaze. “I feel strongly about doing what I can,” he admitted to her. “My genes could be responsible...”
“It’s not thought to be hereditary, but leukemia is a genetic disease,” she affirmed. “Still... I worry about you, Wood.” She looked him right in the eye. “Your whole life...you take on others’ problems, to the detriment of having a life of your own—after your dad died...then giving up your football career for Peter when your mom died. And taking me in when Peter did...”
“What would you have had me do? Turn my back on them? Or you?” He’d thought she’d known him better than that. Un
derstood him better. He’d done what he had because he’d wanted to, as well as needed to.
“No, of course not. It’s just...”
“It’s my biological child. I can’t turn my back on it.”
“Of course not. I’m not suggesting you do. At all. I’m just... Be careful, okay?”
Don’t expect too much to come of it, Wood translated. Don’t expect too much of Cassie. As he had of Elaina.
He’d never forget the night he’d tried to kiss her, thinking they might become a real husband and wife, trying to give her the option of a full life again, and seen the horrified expression on her face when she’d realized what he was doing.
Horrified for him, that was.
She’d been sorry. So sorry. Had cried for him.
All in all, she’d taken the actual rejection much harder than he had. He’d been told no before. Had been ready to shrug it all off. Hadn’t really even been feeling it all that much himself, but had been willing to try to build more...
Until she’d felt sorry for him. That was what had rankled. Not the fact that he hadn’t had sex that night.
“Believe me, I’m in this for the child,” he told her now. “The mother is out of my league.”
“I don’t like it when you talk that way about yourself.” And yet, he noticed that she didn’t deny his assertion.
“I offered to take her to the procedure on Wednesday.” He told her about Cassie’s decision not to tell her loved ones about the worrisome prognosis until she knew more.
He stood there, letting her study him, not sure what she’d find.
And then she nodded. “You’re always the guy with the strongest shoulders. I do love that about you, in spite of what I just said about you having a life of your own.”
He smiled at her. She saw him as he was. That’s what family did.
“Would you do me a favor, then?”
“Sure, what?”
“Would you call Cassie? Let her know that I’m a good guy who’s only trying to help where he can? She’s...an independent sort, and while I get the idea that she wants me around, she won’t let herself accept help.”
“I’ll call her if she wants me to, Wood, of course, but ultimately the choice is all hers. You know that.”
He did. Completely.
“And don’t forget, I’m here for you, too,” Elaina added. “I get that this can’t be easy. Feeling responsible like you do. But you have to know that things like this... We try to find scientific explanations, but in the end...a sick baby...sometimes it’s just fate...”
He knew she was right.
And hoped to God the baby he’d helped make wasn’t sick.
Chapter Six