“You’re human,” he said softly.
She looked down at their hands, her paler fingers entwined with his. “Yes.” Her voice was even quieter than his. “I guess that’s it.”
“Hey.” He squeezed slightly. “We’re entitled to have feelings, too. God knows our kids have been sharing plenty of them.”
Her small giggle pleased him. No, not tough at all.
A minute later she regained enough composure to become self-conscious, and retrieved her hand from his. He was sorry. He relaxed where he was, stretched his legs out as far as the coffee table allowed and asked her if she and Cait had had an appointment at either adoption agency today.
Turned out they’d gone to both places. That was one of the reasons, he realized, that she was distressed. Cait, apparently, had listened but barely mumbled one- or two-word answers to any questions asked of her.
“Then on the way home, she said, ‘I can talk for myself you know, Mom.’ Not mad, but warning me off.”
Molly might not be tough, but she did have a take-charge personality or she wouldn’t have gotten as far as she had in school administration by her age. He didn’t feel much sympathy for her daughter.
“Did she not want to go?”
Molly made a face. “Who knows? If not, she didn’t say so. Heck, I may find out she’s decided to get an abortion and done it without even telling me. At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked.”
“Can she?” he asked.
“Without parental consent, you mean?” When he nodded, she said, “I don’t know. I’m assuming there are ways.”
“Would you be angry?”
She shook her head. More of her hair slipped from the elastic. “Hurt that she was so determined to shut me out. See, there I go again. But I’m not sure I could help it. I’ve made it clear that I’ll support her decision. So if she decides not to let me support her…” She blinked a couple of times, and he took hold of her hand again.
“When they lay that squalling baby in your arms at the hospital, they should warn you what they’re going to turn into. You worry you’ll fail this small creature without realizing the creature metamorphoses into a hideous monster for one stage of its development. Maybe if we knew from the get-go, instead of misty eyes and melting heart, we’d start out wary.”
He loved what a smile did to her face, and to a mouth that was a whole lot softer than it had appeared at first meeting, too. She kept it firmly compressed entirely too often.
“You’re right,” she declared. “Baby books should carry warning labels. ‘Forget childbirth, having a kid really hurts when they hit their teens.’”
“You’ve got it.”
This time they grinned at each other like idiots.
Finally she appeared to notice they were holding hands and wiggled her fingers until he released her. He wasn’t letting her get shy. Shy? The formidable Vice Principal Callahan? “Tell me what you learned today.”
That got her going again. She admitted that she’d expected a sales job. Any adoption agency must have dozens to hundreds of desperate couples waiting for that perfect baby, and subconsciously Molly had assumed that would color how they dealt with teenage mothers on the fence.
“But it wasn’t like that at all. Both the women we talked to today were cautious, to say the least, kind and really good to Cait.” She rolled her eyes. “At least, they tried to be. They were pretty matter-of-fact about how it works. We heard about traditional and open adoptions.”
He tensed a little at that idea. “Open?”
“Caitlyn, at least, could stay in touch. They vary all the way from adoptive parents sending photos and maybe notes once a year to ones where the birth mother practically becomes part of the family.”
“What about the birth father?”
“I’m guessing that’s a possibility, too.”
He nodded. “How did Cait react to that idea?”
“Who knows?” Molly said with exasperation. “But at least she was listening.”
“They must get birth mothers who back out at the last minute.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“I’m thinking back to your expectation that you’d get a sales pitch. It wouldn’t do them any good to channel used car salesmen. Even if the kid signs on the dotted line, there’s still a period she can back out, even after the baby goes home with the adoptive parents, right?”
“Right. The law is weighted on the birth parents’ side.” She was nodding. “Of course you’re right. It must be awful to let a couple think they’re getting a baby, then have it yanked away at the last minute.”