A Baby Affair (Parent Portal 2)

“You have one?” Perhaps a cat who’d deigned him not worthy of her appearance the one time he’d been inside her place.

“Not right now. But I don’t want to live someplace where I can’t ever have one.”

The woman was just so fascinating to him. Contradictory, and yet...not really. Either she just plain couldn’t make decisions and so had to plan for every eventuality, or she knew herself well enough to plan for the possible eventualities.

“You like pets, then.”

“Yeah. But I was thinking about my baby, too. What if he wants a dog someday? I want to live in a home that can accommodate that.”

He. For a long time, she’d been using she most often. Did that mean she knew the sex of the child? She’d had the ultrasound weeks ago. He’d wanted to ask, but thought it best to let her share as she saw fit any information that was nonessential to health and security.

But...he. There’d be a

boy in the world who was a part of him. Who might look like him. Have the same birthmark on his shoulder. The same ear shape. The same thick beard that required twice daily shaving if he wanted to go without shadow...

He did a mental retake, brought himself back to the topic at hand. Pets. Innocuous as always.

“Did you have a pet growing up?” he asked.

“Tiki,” she said, barely missing a breath as they pedaled. “She was a Poochin—a cross between a poodle and a Japanese Chin. We got her for Christmas when Angie was two and I was three. I think, with Angie getting so independent, Mom wanted another baby in the house.”

She was smiling, which made him smile. Angie came up a lot in Amelia’s conversation. He’d asked to meet the other woman, but Amelia had never responded to his request. And, of course, he couldn’t push.

“How long did you have her?” he asked, eager for another peek into her private world.

“Until my junior year of high school. But we almost lost her once, which is why I could relate to what you were going through with Talley.”

Two bikes were coming from the opposite direction and Craig sped up to allow Amelia to fall in behind him and be more safely out of the way. When she rejoined him, he asked, “What happened to Tiki to make you almost lose her?” It was like he couldn’t stop himself from soaking in whatever she’d offer up. He had to know everything he could know about this beautiful woman. For his peace of mind where the baby was concerned, yes, but he could no longer deny that there was more to it than that. That his interest was more personal.

“The vet thought she had cancer.”

He’d been expecting a near?car accident. Or a runaway incident. Maybe a dangerous bug bite.

“He said we needed to do a biopsy, which would cost about six hundred dollars. Duane said spending that kind of money on a ten-year-old dog was wasteful and said we couldn’t have the test done.”

“But your mom had the test done, anyway,” he surmised when she didn’t finish her story. “Did the vet agree to take payments in installments?”

“Nope. Duane said no and Mom always did what Duane said.”

Ah. The lightning bolt hit him late. Based on what she’d told him about her mother, about herself, in relationships, he should certainly have seen that one coming.

They pedaled silently for a block or two. Slowing their pace. Most of the time they had the sidewalk to themselves—due mostly to the cloudy sky, he figured.

“So what happened with your dog?” he asked when he couldn’t find a way to just let it go.

“Duane told Mom we should have her put to sleep.”

Anger flared in his gut, and harsh words stopped just short of flying out his mouth as she continued.

“Angie and I stayed up most of that night. Crying. Holding her. And the next morning we went with Mom to the vet. I asked him if there was some way to do the test and let Angie and I work off the payment. We’d already agreed we’d clean poop out of cages if we had to, or spend Saturdays washing floors...”

Her smile was more quirky than sad. And again he was filled with admiration. And something more. An understanding, maybe. Amelia Grace was not a woman who said things she didn’t mean. She thought things through. She looked for her answers. And she implemented them. The baby she was carrying was proof of that.

“An older woman in the waiting room overheard me and offered to pay for the biopsy,” Amelia was saying. “Turned out she lived not far from us, had a lot of money and was all alone. Angie and I visited her after school a few times a month at least for the next few years, until she moved to be closer to her son. She had the most amazing stories to tell...”

“And Tiki?” he asked, grateful for that nameless older woman. Gratified at the validation that many good and decent people lived in the world.

“She didn’t have cancer. She just had a clogged duct.” Amelia’s words brought relief, even though he’d calculated the dog had lived another three years.