The Child Who Changed Them (Parent Portal 5)

Though she and Wood had worked a lot of hours and Retro had been fine. The big dog now acted as both guard and best friend to Alan, too.

Greg fidgeted in the passenger seat a bit on the way to the clinic, as though he didn’t know what to do with himself, and she kept her resulting smile to herself. He might not be used to being a passenger, might not be comfortable with it, but he wasn’t complaining.

Something she’d grown to count on with him. He was the same way at work. If he saw cause to do something in a way not of his own choosing, he did it with good attitude. Like the Brooklyn situation. He hadn’t made accusations. He’d just quietly sought the truth through factual tests and then reported them.

“We need to start talking about the future,” she said as she turned off her street. “If you really want to be a part of the baby’s life in utero, we’ll have to start spending more time together...”

“I’ve already put in to be back on day shift,” he interrupted. “It won’t be long now before the baby’s moving. And listening...”

Her belly jumped, almost as though the fetus could already hear and was responding, except the sensation was a little lower than where the baby lay growing.

And Greg was talking about maybe having dinner together in the kitchen any night they were both home. “We could set a time to show up, maybe put together a cooking schedule, that kind of thing.”

He’d evidently given it a lot of

thought. “I was thinking about scheduling time each week to go out to eat, or do other things...you know, like today, going to a pet adoption day...”

Eating together every night: that sounded a lot like family to her. And she and Greg weren’t going to be that.

“That’s fine,” he said. And then... “Eating together every night... I’m still me...still fixated on building something that isn’t there.”

“It’s obviously something you need, Greg. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a family. You have to know that.”

His nod was easy, the accompanying shrug casual. “I just need to let nature takes its course, to wait for the...what did Heather call it? Wait for the butterfly to alight upon me. I actually do know that, you know...”

“And I actually like that you think like a family man,” she told him as she turned into the clinic parking lot. “I put a high value on your overall willingness to do hard work when required for the greater good. And then head home as opposed to always having to be somewhere else. And I know other women who also value that quality in a man.”

Because it couldn’t be about him and her.

Still, it felt good knowing that about him. Understanding it.

She was getting to really know the man who was father to her child.

And liked what she was learning.

The baby she was carrying was lucky to be coming into the world with Greg as a permanent part of its life.

Chapter Fourteen

The sixteen-week checkup was an uneventful and quick evaluation of Elaina’s weight and vitals, along with Dr. Miller listening to the baby’s heartbeat, and with an “everything looks good, see you in a month,” they were done.

“Just one other thing,” Dr. Miller said as Greg got up, eager to leave the small examination room that he felt was overpowering. Three doctors in one room...and a man who was doing exactly what he always did—weaving stories in his mind about the woman who was attached to his life. Trying to make a forever family out of a relationship that was barely a friendship... “If you two want to know the sex of the baby, we have a couple of options. We can do a blood test—with new technology we can generally tell at seven weeks—or we can do another ultrasound and try to see...”

“I don’t want to know yet,” Elaina said, even as Greg was shaking his head, too.

She glanced at him, smiling, and he smiled back.

As parents, they seemed to be on the same page already.

“You seriously don’t want to know the sex of the baby, either?” Elaina asked him while he sat beside her trying to be fine with not being behind the wheel. She was a decent driver. Great. Maybe even better than him—or as good as him—but he just...enjoyed driving.

Not so much riding. He liked being in control of the machine barreling him down the road. Liked being able to control the power in the machine.

Lord knew there was little else in his control at the moment.

“I really don’t want to know yet,” he told her. And then kept talking. “I don’t want the sex of the child to narrow our choices in terms of how we’re going to parent. I’d like us to come to agreements about what our lives are going to look like, first, how we’re going to co-parent, before we start thinking about nursery colors or names.”

“I was thinking purple and yellow for the nursery,” Elaina said. “Faith and fun. Wisdom and youthful joy. Which is what some experts say those colors represent or inspire. And even if they don’t, I think they’re bright and peaceful at the same time. And if it’s a girl, Marisol, and if it’s a boy, Austin.”