His voice was soft, slicing under her protests.“What?”
“I’m sorry if you feel like I have overstepped, but I’m not sorry for stepping in to help.I know you want to be independent, but I want to contribute and help make things easier for the sake of our daughter, if nothing else.”
She battled with his logic.She could see why he might feel it was fair.Except it wasn’t fair.She didn’t deserve fair.Especially when she had kept Bella a secret from him.
“If it makes it any easier, you can consider this a down payment on any alimony you might be expected to receive.”
“Alimony?We were never married.”
“Child support is still a thing, regardless of whose name is on the birth certificate.Or should be, in any case.”He looked at Bella, held out his arm, and she snuggled in.
Oh, her girl was so hungry for her father’s affection.
Gen’s eyes watered.Affection from a father was something she had never known, her father disappearing before she was born.But if her own dad had stayed, if he had contributed to Gen’s upbringing as Kyle seemed insistent on doing for Bella, how different would Gen’s life have been?How different would Gen’s own mother’s life have been?It would’ve meant Mom not having to work like a slave for ridiculous hours every day.Mom, not living in a tight knot of narrowed expectations.Mom, not distrusting and self-reliant and independent, and raising her daughter to be the same.Life could’ve been so different.
And yet here was Kyle, stepping in when he’d been deliberately excluded, wanting to help her, help them.It didn’t make sense.
“Why are you being so nice to me?Especially after all I did?”
He studied her for a long moment.“It’s called grace, Gen.Undeserved favor.It’s what I’ve received from God, with His incredible forgiveness for my sins.And it’s what I want to extend to others.”He pressed his lips together.“And all the more to those I deeply care about.”
Deeply care about?Her heart skittered.Did he meanlove?
But the expression in his eyes held sincerity and, yes, warmth, but not the kind that had flamed between them before.Instead of heat, this warmth spoke of an earnest desire to help her, to bless her, just like he’d talked about before.
Moisture lined her eyes and she blinked it away.
“Mommy, don’t cry.”
She shook her head, but the tears that she’d stored up for so long seemed to have lost all sense that they were supposed to be controlled, and finally released.
“Mommy?”
She could hear the fear in Bella’s voice as she hugged her.Bella had never seen her lose control to this degree.She sucked in a breath but still the tears kept coming.“I’m sorry.”
She pressed her face against Bella’s hair, hating that Kyle was seeing her crumple like this, but still the wretched weeping continued.
Then he shifted, drawing near, and wrapped his arms around them both.
She closed her eyes, and again savored his warmth, savored his nearness.He was saying something, but she couldn’t quite hear it, her ears wedged between Bella’s hair and Kyle’s chest.
She shifted, felt his instant release, then caught the last of his words.
“…fill her with Your peace.Amen.”
“Amen,” Bella echoed.
Amen?Bella was praying now?Since when?
But she kept her eyes closed, then felt Kyle’s hand shift to her back, where warmth grew, then slowly spread.
She didn’t know what it was but it felt good, like the stirrings of hope, like maybe things could work out.Like maybe some of that peace Kyle had just prayed for had found its way into her heart.
“You’re right, Bella,” he murmured.“She does smell better.”
“What?”She reared back, and accidentally knocked the back of her head against his chin.“Ow!”
She rubbed her head, and he rubbed his chin, just as her mom walked in.
