A Baby Affair (Parent Portal 2)

Was she giving him hope here?

“Angie wasn’t your responsibility,” he said, trying to adjust his thinking, just in case. Leaving a door open that he’d come to close. “She’s your sister, not your daughter, and he, by all accounts, was a controlling, insecure creep.” He wasn’t holding anything back. There was just too much at stake.

“She looked to me to be the mother our mom couldn’t be. We, uh, had a talk yesterday.”

Shifting his weight back and forth between his heels and his toes, he adjusted his tie again. Loosened it a bit. Stood in that proverbial doorway, both feet in, but with the escape route open.

“So, you?

??re afraid.”

She nodded.

“But not necessarily opposed, morally, ethically or in your heart of hearts to give us a try?”

Biting her lower lip, she narrowed her eyes, but didn’t turn away from him. “In my heart of hearts I’m so in love with you there is nothing else. I want to be your wife, Craig. That’s my truth. But I’m still desperately afraid of that, too.”

Through pursed lips, he watched her. Looked for signs of prevarication. Of uncertainty. Signs that she was saying what she thought he needed to hear. A sign that she was speaking out of need to tend to him, not from the truth in her heart. But there were none.

“Ask her to marry you already!”

Swinging around, Craig did a double take as a woman with a striking resemblance to Amelia threw back the office door that led into the suite. “You both are a piece of work.” The woman, who was most clearly Angeline Grace, came into the room. “Both of you taking care of others to the point of not just grabbing for yourselves. Grab, for God’s sake.”

“Craig, I’d like you to meet my sister, Angie,” Amelia said, still standing just as he’d left her.

He turned back to Amelia, leaving a beautiful woman behind him, but one who didn’t shine at him as Amelia did.

“Amelia Grace, will you marry me?” he asked.

She nodded, biting her lip, blinking back tears. He heard a little gulp behind him and turned to see Angeline crying, too, her hands clasped against her mouth.

“I know she comes as a package deal,” he told Angie, as serious as he could be. “Isabella and you, too.”

Angie sniffed. Kept her arms up and her hands on either side of her chin as she said, “And you’re going to have to move,” she told him. “She’s the marrying kind, but some issues...”

“I’m fine living in a tepee if Amelia’s there,” he said, figuring he was getting his first taste of the rest of his life. He turned back to the woman who’d changed everything for him. “The house was a symbol of something,” he said. “This week, being there alone, it was nothing but an empty reminder of what I didn’t have. I’ve already met with a Realtor and put it on the market.”

He heard the door close quietly behind them, and knew that dinner that night had to include Angie. Wanted it to include her. He’d taken her on.

They’d also need to call his parents. And he had another problem solved, too. A daughter-in-law and granddaughter were going to take care of the whole upcoming anniversary gig.

“But...you love that house, Craig. It’s your home...and you’re mine... I know that now.”

“I found my home, my family, in your condominium, Amelia. And any other place you might ever need to live.” He’d schedule times to run home to the condo during the day to put Talley out. And walk her instead of riding every night. Or they could walk her together. He probably wasn’t going to be doing much bike riding anymore. Not for a little while, anyway. Until Isabella was old enough to sit in a child carrier on the back.

“I was thinking, maybe, we could move to the ground floor? Those homes have yard areas where my balcony is. That way Talley could have her doggy door...”

Sliding his hand beneath her hair, he looked at her. Just stood staring. A little slow to accept what his eyes were telling him. That when love arrived there were no problems too big to handle.

“I love you, Amelia Grace.”

“I love you, too.”

He kissed her then. Deeply. And she kissed him back. An honest, open kiss. One that promised more than just a moment.

One that promised a life.

* * *