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A shudder ran through her at his words. “Oh, Aidan, if only none of this had happened,” she whispered.
“But it did,” he said, desolation tingeing his words.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ALTHOUGH SOME OF the things they’d talked about last night were painful, Grace felt a little better this morning. The call had given her hope that they might be able to work things out between them.
Just as she finished tidying the bedroom and placing clothes in the laundry hamper, the phone rang. Aidan. She hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon. “How are you doing? Did you get any rest?” she asked, falling into her old habit of being concerned for him.
“I did a little, not much. I’m too worried about how I’m going to cope with Emma.”
Should she simply say what was on her mind? After last night, it was worth a try. “I thought that maybe if I drove to Spartanburg today, we could talk about all this, maybe work out a plan for Emma.”
“I’d like that so much, darling. I really believe we can solve this if we try. We can get our life back on track. To be honest, I spent part of the night thinking of ways to fix things, and so if you are willing to come here, I’d like to see you as soon as possible.”
“How is Emma?” she asked.
“She cried when I came near her again last night. She wouldn’t let me put her to bed. Pretty upsetting stuff, but like Lisa said, Emma has just lost her mom. Lisa suggested that I might consider having Emma see a child psychologist. I hadn’t thought of that. For now, I’d like to see if I could gain her trust, have her be willing to spend time with me…with us.”
Grace heard the uncertainty in his words and remembered her promise to herself to keep in mind that Aidan had no family member to confide in or rely upon the way she did. “Aidan, it will take time. She sees you as a stranger, and it will be a big change for her to see you as anything other than that. I’m sure it will eventually work out.”
“If you’re here with me, everything will be fine,” he said, and she knew by his tone he expected her to reassure him that she would be there for him.
She suddenly felt shy and uncertain. She’d never behaved this way around Aidan, this new thing of holding back. She’d always rushed in to support him in whatever he was doing.
“When will you be here?” he asked, and she heard the loneliness in his voice.
His need for her drew her in. The familiarity of that role comforted her, despite their issues. She couldn’t help herself, it seemed. “I’m ready to go now, so about two hours maybe.”
He gave a protracted sigh. “I’ll be waiting right here for you. Truthfully, I spent a miserable night last night without you.”
“Me, too,” she confessed.
“Grace, please drive carefully,” he murmured in her ear.
“I will. I have to pack, then I can get on the road,” she said, as she placed her pajamas in her suitcase.
As she hung up, she realized she would like Aidan to come home with her. Their conversation last night proved they could work on things together, and that lifted her spirits, made her believe they could put their marriage back together eventually. Just on that one subject they had so much to think about, to talk about, and it would be much easier to do it here in their home.
They needed to sit down with a counselor to talk out their concerns about how Emma had come into their lives and how it had affected their marriage.
She climbed into the car, her mind focused on what lay ahead. She had so many doubts about all this. She wasn’t sure she wanted the child of her husband’s affair. What if she couldn’t accept Emma into her life? She felt guilty for feeling that way, but she couldn’t help it. And a part of her resented that he would simply assume that she would be okay with the child he’d fathered without her.
