The Child Who Changed Them (Parent Portal 5)

She didn’t want to leave the sweet guy, even for a second, but nodded. “We’re coming right back,” she told him, her tone dead serious. Hoping that he understood. “You’re not alone anymore.” When she stood up, Greg had the most peculiar look on his face. Like he’d seen something that both frightened and intrigued him.

“What?”

“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?” he asked, walking with her toward the door of the shelter. “Both of us... We just don’t want to be alone.”

Maybe. She couldn’t let him convince her to stray off course. “I’d rather be alone than hurt anyone by not being able to give them the love they need.” Peter had needed something different from what she could give him. She’d fought him. And he’d been so upset by her outburst that he hadn’t seen what was coming right at him.

She’d seen. She’d screamed. But it hadn’t been soon enough...

Blinking away the blinding memory of oncoming silver glints, she walked next door to a family-owned café, slid into the booth of the window seat they were shown and picked up her menu.

“There are many ways to not be alone,” she said, when she realized she should have been making a meal choice. She hadn’t even seen what the place served. Didn’t really care. As long as it was healthy for the baby. “Many ways we can love...”

“And there’s danger here, with you and me, because in one sense, we both want the same thing, and that wanting brings out characteristics in us that lead to relationships that don’t work.”

Sitting across from her, Greg picked up his menu, at least appearing to be studying it, while she sat there with her mouth open. Here she’d been getting all defensive inside, bracing herself to not fall back into her old ways, and he hadn’t been providing her the means, after all.

He understood.

And more, made her feel almost...normal. God, it had been so long since she’d felt normal. Ever since her parents had been killed, leaving her a college sophomore all alone in the world...

All alone.

There were those words again.

She hadn’t been alone. She’d had Peter. And Wood. Neither had felt like family as her parents had.

But Greg did?

“The wanting, though...needing to have people in your life...that’s human nature,” she said slowly, not needing her menu to hide behind.

“Yep.”

They each had their personal issues. They had a baby to raise. And they had each other’s backs.

It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t the family life she’d always wanted.

But she was glad he was sitting there across from her.

That he wanted to be a part of his child’s life.

Glad that he was the father of her baby.

And a bit ashamed that she felt that way.

Because where did that leave her with Peter’s memory—and the child they were supposed to have had?

* * *

“Why didn’t you want to know the sex of the baby?” Greg finished his club sandwich, sat back and couldn’t get enough of looking at his companion.

She fascinated him. Losing her parents...her husband...the fight she waged to get herself out of that wheelchair... Even without seeing her medical records, having seen the extent and placement of her scars, he knew that the percentages had not been in her favor. Knew the pain she had to have endured, day after day, week after week...

And there she was, still trying to do better.

She’d nearly finished the chicken salad and pineapple sandwich she’d ordered, having looked at her watch every ten minutes or so. The shelter was clearly going to get one hour. Not a second more.

“Kind of like you, I want our decisions made before we know the sex of the baby, but for a different reason.” Her downward glance seemed almost embarrassed, but she looked back up almost immediately and told him, “Knowing the gender makes it all more real, makes the baby seem more concrete, and... I want to know if our co-parenting is sharing things together, or separately, before we get that news. It seems like one of those moments that will live on forever, and I don’t want it spoiled by awkwardness.”