And then she’d been alone.
Just like Sue.
“I’ll handle your father if he finds out,” she said. “Set something up with Uncle Adam and let me know….”
With a nod, Belle rolled the stroller up to a bench and spent her remaining minutes cooing to both babies. Garnering smiles from them.
And, Sue was glad to see, allowing the little ones to coax smiles from her, too.
A MESSAGE WAS WAITING for Rick when he got to work Wednesday morning. From his attorney. The stay had been granted without a formal hearing.
“Yes!” Rick leapt up. Strode around his desk, returned and punched the replay button to hear the message again. He had to punch it a third time before he heard the rest.
Rick was being considered as a potential adoptive parent for Carrie. He call
ed Welfare immediately,
He’d have to go through extensive investigation, have a medical exam, submit his home to inspection, give proof of child care ability. The list was long. The requirements didn’t faze him a bit.
Nor did the number that popped up on his cell phone just after his ten o’clock meeting regarding the following year’s teacher contracts. He took the call.
“This is Rick.”
“Ricky. I just heard from Sonia at the agency.”
“Yeah, she said she’d be calling you.” He could have been more civil. Considering his recent victory.
“Sonia said my April hearing date might be moved.”
“The court date wasn’t for final approval, anyway,” he prevaricated. “It was just for placement in your home. It takes at least six months of successful parenting before they’ll make it final.” All things he’d found out that morning.
“Right. But you know, once I have her home, they aren’t going to take her away.”
She was right—until she screwed up.
“So it’s true, Ricky, what Sonia says about you? You’re really going to try to get her yourself?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you think that’s wise? I mean, look at you, Ricky. A thirty-one-year-old man who’s never been married. What do you know about raising a child?”
A helluva lot more than she did.
“And what about child care? You’d have to drop her off with strangers every day. With my job at the day care, I can just take her with me.”
He’d heard that from Sonia this morning. And from his attorney.
He didn’t tell his mother what he’d told them. Mark’s wife, Darla, had kept Hannah. She’d agree to keep Carrie. He hoped.
As soon as he informed his friends of his victory.
They were going to worry about him.
But Rick couldn’t allow himself to be swayed by doubts. It was time to move forward.
“I’m her grandmother, Ricky. I was there when she was born. You don’t even know what her mother looked like—”
“Whose fault was that?”