“That seems like a departure from what he’s been fighting for,” I said.
“It definitely is. And he admitted he wasn’t going to call me when he brought Remy to the hospital and wasn’t going to let me visit, but that Remy asked for me. It made him realize he needs me and that his parents have been manipulating him. He doesn’t want to take him from me completely.”
I didn’t know how to feel about that revelation. When Grant and his parents first filed the papers, it sent Lindsey into crisis mode. And I went right along with her. That was when we tumbled into each other, when we really faced up to what we were feeling. It only got stronger the more intensely his family fought. Now the sudden shift felt too convenient.
“Do you trust him?” I asked.
My stomach was rolling, my heart pounding in my chest. From everything I’d heard about Grant, he was a master at manipulation and getting his way. Maybe this was just another ploy. A traumatic situation like their son getting injured could be just the thing to make him realize what he was missing without Lindsey. Or how much work it was going to be to handle his healing while listening to him asking for his mother.
Either way, it wasn’t a leap to think this was an opportunity for him to control her again. He could be playing on her emotions and just working to get her back in his web.
“Honestly? I really don’t know. He seemed sincere enough. But this is Grant we’re talking about. Right now, all I really care about is getting to see my son again. I’ll take it one step at a time and just keep showing up until he tells me to stop. And if he does, then I start fighting again.”
I started to ask her about everything that had been bothering me but stopped myself. Instead, I touched a kiss to the end of her nose.
“I’ll make breakfast,” I said. “Why don’t you hop in the shower?”
“Go ahead and get one first,” Lindsey said. “I’m going to doze here for a little bit longer.”
I chuckled. “You’ll take any opportunity you can to sleep more, huh?”
She grinned at me, and I headed for the shower. When I got out, I went into the kitchen and started breakfast. I was working on omelets when I felt her arms slip around my waist and a kiss pressed to the middle of my back. I leaned into her, and Lindsey put her head over my shoulder to look down into the frying pan. The smell of soap and shampoo rose up from her wet hair, and I wished I’d just brought her into the shower with me.
The thought kept me from asking the questions waiting on my tongue. I served up the omelets I cooked alongside roasted tomatoes and hash browns. We sat in the breakfast nook and ate, then got ready to go over to Grant’s house. Lindsey had left some of her clothes at my place to make overnight visits easier, so it didn’t take long for her to be ready to go.
I still didn’t start up the conversation I knew we needed to have as I got dressed. Every time the words came to me, I couldn’t say them. We needed to talk about everything. It would just get bigger and more impactful if we didn’t. But suddenly every moment felt more important. Something was tugging on us. I couldn’t really put words to it yet, but I felt it. Lindsey was right here with me right now, and I didn’t want to lose a minute I had with her.
By the time we were driving away from my neighborhood, I knew it was too late to start up the conversation. I didn’t want to work her up before getting to Grant’s house or upset her before she saw her son. I put it aside, knowing I would have to go back to it at some point soon.
Lindsey looked more and more nervous the closer we got to Grant’s house. Her fingers tugged and twisted at each other in her lap, and she kept looking over at me, then ahead through the windshield, then out the window like she didn’t know where to look or what to do. I reached over and squeezed her thigh to encourage her.
“You doing okay?” I asked.
She nodded but drew in a shaky breath at the same time. “What if it doesn’t work out?”
“What if what doesn’t work out?” I asked.
“What if we get there and changed, sympathetic Grant is gone and mean, thoughtless Grant is back? What if he tells me I can’t come inside and see Remy? Or what if he tries to use wanting to see him as leverage to have me withdraw the papers?” she asked.