An Unexpected Christmas Baby (The Daycare Chronicles 2)
Page 56
He didn’t know the situation.
Guilt assailed her. She’d kissed him.
And she’d liked it.
Far more than she’d ever liked Steve’s kisses.
What did that mean?
“Mom’s a doctor.” The darkness in the SUV made her feel safe. Secure.
Or maybe it was being with him.
“A cardiologist.” Fitting. She was dying of heartache.
“And your dad?”
“He’s into a lot of different things.” He had investments in just about every field out there. “Computers, mostly,” she said. She couldn’t tell him the truth. But she wouldn’t out-and-out lie any more than she had to.
She’d already told him she was an only child in one of their earlier phone conversations. They’d both been “onlys.” She knew, from that same converation, that he didn’t want Diamond to be.
“Have you told them about me?” he asked.
Oh, God, don’t strike me down in my sleep. “Yes.”
“And?”
“They’re worried about my...well-being.” She could be completely honest with that one.
“Surely they don’t think you’re better off alone.”
“No, of course not. It’s just been so hard...on them, too.”
“Are they afraid of the possibility that you might get talked into trying again?”
Trying again.
Her chest tightened. The cords in her neck were taut. Her throat. What if she wanted that someday? Not simply to try again but...to try with Flint?
She shook her head.
She couldn’t stretch the truth that far.
“I don’t know,” she finally said when she could.
“Do you think they want you to? Or hope you might?”
Looking out the car window, she thought about her mom and dad. “They’ve never said,” she told him, but figured if they had, the answer would be no.
Just the thought of living through the months of waiting and worrying that would be involved—
Enough was enough.
And the three of them...they’d had enough.
* * *
The week following their trip to Julian was inarguably the best week of Flint’s life so far. The only shadow at all was Stella’s restraining order hearing and, in the end, it had been postponed. She’d asked for more time to prepare.