A Mother's Secrets (Parent Portal 4)

“She’d love that. But, you know, she’ll never leave that house she’s in.”

He nodded. “I think part of my problem finding a house is that none of them measure up to that one. I’ve never been in a building that feels so much like home.”

“So she hasn’t asked you to live with her?”

He didn’t answer. But his gaze didn’t back down at all.

“She doesn’t know I’m here, sir, and might never speak to me again when she finds out.” A bit of an exaggeration. He hoped. Though, technically, she didn’t need to say anything to him during doctor’s appointments and the birth.

Dennis wiped a hand slowly down his face. Glanced at a picture on his desk. Jamie could only see an angled back of the frame. Wondered if Christine was in it. Or if it was just his current wife and son.

“I can’t promise anything. I’ll have to make a call. But I know who adopted Chris’s baby.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Chris wasn’t all that happy about going with Jamie to Anaheim, over an hour’s drive from Marie Cove, one Saturday in her sixth month of pregnancy. She’d put him off the first time he’d asked her to accompany him to see the same group of students who’d performed in Mission Viejo be guest artists on the main stage at Disneyland. But when he’d asked a second time, saying he wanted to support his students, but really didn’t want to show up to the busy park alone and then added that it would be good for the baby to hear his voice in a crowd of voices, she reluctantly gave in.

She wore yoga pants, a long, colorful, tight-fitting tunic top and tennis shoes without socks and was kind of looking forward to the day as she climbed into Jamie’s SUV and strapped herself into that so comfortable seat.

But she dialed her enthusiasm down the second he smiled at her. In jeans and a T-shirt, with his dark hair curling at the collar, he definitely needed to be some woman’s husband. Her stomach warmed, her heart pounded harder and she knew the fear was her mind’s way of telling her to be careful. To guard herself. It wasn’t like she’d be getting much out of the theme park anyway. They weren’t staying long and she couldn’t do many of the attractions due to her condition.

And the last time she and Jamie had taken a trip out of Marie Cove—the only other time they’d been in a vehicle together—had nearly ended their relationship.

It had thrown her life in a quandary that she didn’t care to repeat.

“I talked to my mom today,” Jamie said as he set the cruise control for highway driving. “She’s planning to stay a month after Will’s born.”

“That gives you three months to find a house or you’ll be sleeping on a very big couch in a very little room.” His little rental had two bedrooms, but from what he’d said, one was nearly full with baby stuff already.

Not her business.

“I bought the cottage.”

Turning to look at him, determining that he wasn’t kidding, she didn’t try to hide her shock. “Why? That place isn’t big enough to raise a child. Besides, it’s too close to the water. A toddler learns how to open doors anywhere from eighteen months to two years, depending on his height and it only takes a second with your head turned...”

When she heard the vehemence in a statement she had no business making, she cut herself off. Stared straight ahead.

And realized her hand was cradling her baby bump. She snatched it away. But it was her stomach and where else was she going to put her hand? She tried the door handle. Around her belly to her thigh. The edge of the seat beside her thigh. And back to her belly.

Then, at Jamie’s silence, turned to see him alternately watching her and the road. Back and forth.

She wasn’t saying another word.

“I’m hoping to be in a new house by the time Mom comes,” he said. “And she can use the cottage. It can be a weekend fun spot, you know, for days at the beach. And a place for Mom to stay. My house won’t ever be big enough for me to have her watching over my shoulder like she’s done ever since my father died.”

“I’m sure it’s just because she loves you and knows the pain of loss...”

He glanced at her again, and she swore she wouldn’t take her gaze off the road in front of them for the rest of the day. “I’m sure you’re right,” was all he said.

His mother had lost her husband. Her father had lost his wife. Each parent had a child, about the same age, at home.

She hadn’t ever put the facts together quite like that. Realizing that she and Jamie had something kind of deep in common. He’d had Emily’s parents watching out for him. She’d had Gram and Gramps. Both of their single parents had remarried, but there’d been one major difference. Jamie’s mother had kept him with them.

Thinking of which brought back to mind her father’s odd phone call a few days before. Him calling every month or so to check in, if she hadn’t called him or Tammy, was normal enough. But before he’d hung up, he’d told her he loved her. Out of the blue, just said the words.

She hadn’t known what to do with them. Had pretended she hadn’t heard. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d expressed any deep emotion around her, and he chose then, when she was hormonal and not herself?

Not that he’d know that. She’d purposely chosen not to tell him about her surrogacy. Just hadn’t wanted to go there. It meant she was going to have to make up some kind of excuse to miss Christmas dinner, but she could always say she was volunteering over the holiday. He’d believe that.