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“I can extend it,” he said. “There are a lot of options. One could be I stay with you half the time and come home half the time. My mother plans on traveling once the marina is sold. I could stay at her place. I don’t know. Could it work? We don’t know.”
If he was thinking those things that meant she had to mean more to him. She wasn’t the one making plans or thinking because it wasn’t going to be her life that had to be uprooted.
“There are options,” she agreed.
“That’s right. And nothing that has to be talked about today. I don’t talk about the marina much because I didn’t want to get into this conversation and ruin what we’ve got going.”
“We can’t always push it off either,” she said.
“No. I don’t think I am any more than you. We know it’s there. I’ve got six weeks left and I can extend it longer. Or I can come home and go back there half the time. You can come to me on the weekends. We can make it work while we figure the rest out. That is if we are both willing to do that. I am. I’m saying it right now, one month in, I’m willing.”
She felt her eyes get a little misty. She’d been holding back making any commitment. It was way too early for her to consider it.
He wasn’t holding back though and that made a difference.
25
Looking For The Positive
“Are you ready for this?” Zara asked him on Wednesday.
He was picking up Max and then they were going to her parents’ house for dinner.
Liz and Tony Wolfe had arrived back in Mystic yesterday. They were only staying a week, but they wanted to see their daughter. Liz had dropped in to see and talk to Zara last night but said she expected Ren to come to dinner before Christmas Eve when the whole family would be together.
On the drive back Sunday, they’d discussed their plans for the holiday. This was the first Christmas his mother would be alone. He was spending it with her. He wanted her to have that time with her grandson.
Zara said she was going to Lily’s on Christmas Eve and he was invited. He decided it would be a good time to go and be around the rest of the family to feel things out. His parents never did anything on Christmas Eve anyway.
Zara would have brunch Christmas Day with her family and then go to his mother’s later on for a late lunch. It was working out much better than he thought it might.
“I have to get it over with,” he said, laughing. “Your father is not going to deck me or yell or anything in front of Max, is he?”
“Of course not. But I’m not sure how welcoming he’s going to be at first,” she said. “Sorry. It might take my father a bit to warm up is all. I’ve been talking to my mother almost daily since she found out we were dating. She’s updated. She knows what is going on and we are getting along well. She would have relayed a lot of this to my father too.”
It was the best he could do. He would be more stunned if Tony or Liz weren’t protective of Zara after what happened last time.
“That’s good. I guess. But I don’t need anyone to fight my battles. I can do it. If it takes time to win them over again, then I’ll make sure I’ve got the time to do it.”
“Don’t worry about my parents,” she said. “I’m not. This is my life. It’s your life. We will figure it out on our own. And you should be happy this week too. I’m so glad the paperwork went through on Max’s name.”
“Thanks,” he said. “It’s been months. It shouldn’t have taken this long so I’m not sure why it did. It didn’t take as long to get my court date and petition them. It was pretty cut and dry.”
He had Max’s birth certificate. He had his paternity results and Rachelle’s death certificate. He had all the documents she’d given him when she’d dropped Max off and there was even a letter found in her apartment addressed to him when the landlord went through her things. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to ever see it or not and he hadn’t told Zara about it.
He still had it with Max’s possessions. Something that he’d keep.
She’d written a week after Max had been dropped off stating that it hurt to do it, but she couldn’t handle caring for Max.
She knew she had a problem and she was getting worse rather than better. She couldn’t afford treatment and wasn’t even sure she wanted it. It’d killed him to read that. That someone could know they had a problem but not want to get help.
But she’d said she loved Max and sometimes when you love someone you had to let them go. That was what she was doing. That her son would have a better life with his father.
He thought that letter would be enough to seal it and make the process quick, but it hadn’t been.
He’d gotten the call this morning that the paperwork was finally filed and Max officially had his last name. He’d also given his son a middle name and felt like he had more say in things by doing that since Max didn’t have one.
“As long as it’s done, that is all that matters. If I had time I would have baked a cake to celebrate.”
