The Child Who Changed Them (Parent Portal 5)

Somehow.

“Truthfully, I think Wood might be relieved to have you around,” Elaina told Greg what she truly believed. No platitudes, or niceties.

No more hiding. If she could help it.

Greg burst out in a half chuckle, half cough that made her frown. “What?” she asked.

“Maybe you don’t know as much about men as I thought you did. The man’s your ex-husband. Still firmly in your life. Clearly he feels some ownership over you...”

She shook her head. “You don’t know Wood. Family truly is everything to him. More than money, career...he works to provide for his family, because the only thing that really completes him is caring for his family.” She needed him to understand. To be okay with Wood in their lives.

“He thinks you’re getting ready to have his brother’s child.”

“He was against that from the beginning,” she said with a shrug. “Cassie understood, but Wood thought that I was holding myself back by using Peter’s sperm. What he really wanted was for me to wait to fall in love and get married, but when he realized how serious I was about finding love within myself and sharing it outward, not sucking love inward, he thought I should use an anonymous donor.”

She’d been the one who’d been adamant about having Peter’s child. As though justice could be served...

That option was out of her hands now. The challenge ahead of her was the biggest she was ever going to face. To get to know Greg Adams and not get involved with him, to avoid leaning on him or letting herself become dependent upon him. That was particularly difficult because some of the emotions she felt around him were more compelling than anything she’d ever known.

And the second, but most important part of that, was to bring Greg’s child into the world and shower it with the unconditional love she’d been soaking up for so many years.

She had some doubts where the first part was concerned, but the second, she was all over that one. And ready to get on with it.

* * *

Wood thinks Elaina should use an anonymous donor. Sitting at the firepit the man had built, contemplating moving into the home Wood had initially purchased, sleeping in the room he’d slept in—even storing his things in the workshop her ex-husband had built—Greg had to wonder if he wasn’t falling more deeply into his own trap than ever before.

Practically speaking, the plan made sense. He had no immediate place to live. He wasn’t ready to buy a home until he knew more specifically what his life was going to look like, and he didn’t know what kind of space he was going to need or want.

Would he have a child staying with him if he moved out? Need a room for it? Or would he just be visiting Elaina’s house?

In which case, having lived in that home himself would make him feel more like part of his child’s family.

Staying with Elaina gave him the chance not only to get to know her, to plan with her, but to be present as his baby developed.

He couldn’t imagine having been married to Elaina himself and then being happy to have another man move into the life he’d shared with her. He was secretly glad to hear Wood had moved on and was happily married with a family of his own, but couldn’t imagine the man wanting him around.

“You really think Wood will be relieved that I’m here?” he asked.

“I’d bet money on it.”

Greg would bet money that he should proceed with extreme self-care and observation. He’d already played the second-best fiddle. Been the guy the girl settled for. He’d jumped in with Heather without seeing how deep the water actually was—or how dirty.

With Wendy, he’d jumped in the same exact way.

And here he was, flying off the cliff into unknown waters a third time. Except that this time he knew what he was flying toward. And for whom. His child.

“You wait, he’ll be taking you on, too,” Elaina was saying. “Any need he knows you have, he’ll be there trying to help if he can. In his unassuming, stay-out-of-the-way manner.”

She was smiling—a full-out, eyes-glistening-in-the-firelight, hit-him-in-the-gut kind of smile.

While she talked about another man. So...he knew what he was going to do. And what he wasn’t going to do, too. And he needed his eyes wide-open to make it hap

pen.

“You sure you’re not still in love with him?” The man had been her husband. Yes, she’d married him under extreme circumstances and for practical purposes, but sometimes love grew out of those kinds of situations.

And if Elaina did still have feelings for Wood, all the better for Greg himself. Less chance of him forgetting himself in a weak moment. Less need to guard against those moments.