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As though she didn’t see her incredible strength. Her endurance. As though taking for granted those things that made her so incredibly unique and wonderful.
“You may have leaned on Wood, as you say,” he told her, “but it was a reasonable choice, Elaina.”
“Reasonable to take my recovery, my happiness, at his expense? And then to allow it to go on for years?”
“Or maybe you gave him something to hold on to while he recovered from his own grief. Maybe you gave him a reason to keep going.”
Her shrug, then, was a little slower. A little less self-deprecating.
And he was glad.
Chapter Ten
There were other things Greg was going to have to know. Despite them having shared some important memories with one another, Elaina knew they were virtual strangers responsible for the physical health, emotional health and happiness of a new person on the earth. Still hardly able to wrap her mind around it all—seemingly so different from her original plan to raise a child on her own—she led Greg back out to the kitchen, through the French doors and out to the backyard. He’d been there once before, but hadn’t had a chance to explore it.
The air was a little cool as the sun set, but felt nice.
“This is something else,” he said, looking impressed as he glanced around the yard, headed over to the built-in barbecue by the pool, and on to the kiva fireplace close by. Dropping down to one of the padded wrought iron chairs by the fireplace, as if to try the experience on for size, he asked, “Does this work?”
With a flip of a switch in the wall of the barbecue, she turned on the flame, sat down opposite him. Wood had built the barbecue, fireplace, pavers and all, because she’d asked for them. And she could count on one hand the times they’d sat out there together. She should have invited him out to do that more.
It just hadn’t occurred to her. She’d figured he’d come out if he wanted to. Because she’d been so deeply into her own world that she hadn’t even thought to ask about his.
“What about you?” she asked Greg, forcing herself out of her own head. Thinking about him. “Do you have family who need to know about the baby?” She blinked, shivered, lifted her hands to the warmth of the fire. Or... “Do they already know?”
What family did he have? Biological family to the child she couldn’t even feel moving inside her yet.
“My parents are in Nevada,” he told her, sitting back, an ankle across his knee, seemingly content to hang out. “Both retired. Dad was a plumber. Mom worked in Human Resources for the local school district. No siblings. Five sets of aunts and uncles, all but one younger than my parents. A slew of cousins, but none that close to my age. We all lived in a town of about ten thousand people and yet I mostly only saw my cousins at holiday get-togethers. And you might as well know... I was the quintessential small-town nerd. Not one of the popular guys. Truth be told, I think my younger cousins, two of whom were cheerleaders, were kind of embarrassed to have people know they were related to me.”
At first she thought he was kidding. No way could Greg Adams have been unpopular. Nurses all over the hospital practically drooled when he walked into a room now. They tripped over themselves to beat each other to tend to his needs—medically speaking, of course.
But he wasn’t smiling. Nor was he frowning, really. He seemed at peace with his past. Maybe even fond of it.
She liked that about him.
And...on to the tense stuff... “Do they know about the baby?”
“Do you see them on the doorstep?” He grinned with that one.
She shook her head and he grew serious. “I won’t tell them without you and I deciding together that it’s time,” he told her. “And certainly not before we get our immediate situation worked out.”
His words brought a wave of alarm. That made no sense. “It’s not worked out?” she asked, upset to know that. “You don’t want the suite?”
Maybe she should offer him something to drink. Make him feel more welcome to a potential home instead of letting him feel like he was on trial.
“I want it,” he said quickly, and her muscles relaxed a bit. “Hell, I’m already mentally moved in. But that’s only the beginning. Where do we go from there? We’ll want a pretty firm plan before we bring my mother into the picture. She’s going to have questions, and she’ll want answers.”
He wasn’t kidding but didn’t seem to be complaining, either. She liked that about him. Even more than she’d lusted after his gorgeous body all those months.
“So, just to be clear, you’re going to move in.”
“Yes. And I intend to pay rent, too, so I’ll need you to come up with an amount.”
She hadn’t expected him to offer that. In fact, she was about to argue the fact when she realized he was right to make that part of their agreement. She named an amount that was less than what she knew a neighbor was charging for an adult child to live at home but was still not dirt cheap; she said it included utilities, and wasn’t surprised when he just nodded, agreeing automatically.
And just like that, she apparently had a new tenant.
“When were you thinking you’d move in?” she asked, a little bit scared at how fast things were progressing. And a little bit excited, too.
