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Hansley’s mother will probably want to kill me.
He studies me. “Why do you care anyway? I thought the pressure was off because this isn’t real?”
“I want to make a good impression on your family.” My head begins to ache as I realize this is only a part of the truth.
I want Hansley’s parents to like me because…
Goodness. Why is this so important?
“Overachiever.” He slants me a teasing grin. “Stop stressing. When you meet them, you’ll realize you wasted all this energy over nothing.”
I chew on my bottom lip. “What if I say the wrong thing?”
Hansley rolls his head back against the seat rest. “You won’t.”
“What if she hates me on sight?” I panic.
“Never,” he mumbles, his eyes closed.
“How do you know that?”
“Because she’s the most loving, giving person I know.”
“You don’t understand mothers. They still see their sons as these precious babies they carried for nine months and—”
“She didn’t.”
I pause. “What?”
“Mom didn’t carry me for nine months.”
“It was a surrogate?”
His lips twitch. “No.”
“So then…?”
“I’m adopted.”
My body levitates straight out of my chair.
“Hansley, I—”
“Didn’t know?” He smirks and shakes his head. “Because I don’t advertise it.”
“How old were you when you went to live with them?”
“Five.”
“And your birth parents?”
He shrugs.
My heart aches for him. “I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was fortunate enough to get adopted by the world’s best couple.”
I study his face intently. There’s something in his voice. Some darkness that I can’t touch, but that I can feel. It’s the same brokenness I sensed when we first met at Make It Marriage.
