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It was hard for him to believe that his time here was almost done. Three months and Max was almost nine months old now.
He was growing left and right and on the move so much that Ren was afraid to blink for fear of losing his kid in the little rental house.
Thankfully Max wasn’t showing signs of walking yet, but Ren had a feeling he was going to be doing that before the average kid did too.
On one hand he was thrilled Max was thriving so much; on the other, he knew the hard work was yet to come.
If he thought it was hard alone before, now he’d have to watch his kid every second so he didn’t hurt himself.
“Don’t feel bad,” she said. “Life comes with responsibilities. But it makes times like this much better. And I know you want to talk so we should.”
He sighed. “I know we’ve held off talking about the future as much as we could. That’s on me.”
“There is part of me that hasn’t wanted to talk about it either, but I know the time is creeping up on us. It’s been a great few weeks.”
“More than a few weeks,” he said. Though the past few weeks after the holidays had been more intense with them. More homey and cozy too.
They had a routine that he liked and was going to miss.
“I agree. We are getting closer.”
“We are,” he said, reaching his hand out to lay on hers. “The landlord contacted me yesterday. They wanted to know if I was going to extend another month or not. They need to list the property if I don’t.”
She had a short smile on her face. “Do you need to be here for your mother any longer?”
“This isn’t about my mother,” he said.
“Ren, we have to move on. There is no need to push off going home and make it harder. If you’re asking me if I’m willing to do this long distance, the answer is yes. Although, it’s not something we can do long term and both know that.”
“I’ve told you I’m willing to relocate here.”
“It’s too early to do that,” she said. “I know that. The fact you are willing and I believe you is good enough. If you don’t need to be here for your mother, then you should make plans to return to your life and we can plan our next steps.”
She was being reasonable about this and he would be too. It was going better than he thought.
“That’s good,” he said. “My mother listed the marina a few weeks ago. You know that. It’s not that busy this time of year so she is working less and has help. It could take time to get an offer, but there isn’t much for me to do other than come visit.”
“Which I hope you plan on doing even if I’m not around.”
He smiled. “She would come to me. I know. Nothing is keeping her from Max. I wouldn’t do that anyway.”
The conversation on Christmas Day about his father still wasn’t sitting well with him, but his mother was right. Until he could open up and talk more about things, he was going to have an anchor on his ankle pulling him back under.
“As you shouldn’t. What did you have in mind to make this work? During the week, I’m here. The best I can do is come down Friday night and stay until sometime on Sunday.”
“We can do that now and again. I understand you probably need to fill Max’s slot at some point, right?”
“I do. I’ve got a waitlist of pregnant women and then the baby wouldn’t start for six to eight weeks after. I’ve got time to fill it.”
“Then I’ll hold that spot until then. You’ll get paid regardless.”
“Ren. You aren’t going to pay Dee and me. That’s crazy.”
“I can’t win with you. You’re mad if I want to pay rent one more month too. This is much cheaper than a month’s rent since Max would be here. I was hoping maybe we could alternate weeks. One there, one here.”
“That can work. If you think Max won’t get confused,” she asked. “You need to keep him in mind too.”
His son was always in his mind. Max remembered Dee when he saw her the few times since they’d been gone and he knew Max would remember Zara too.
