“Here’s to another week closer to your due date,” Nick said as he placed a glass of orange juice where Tess sat at the kitchen table. She had come downstairs since Nick’s father, Ben, was scheduled to paint the nursery that day. “You didn’t need to get dressed. It’s just my pop and he’s seen a bathrobe before.”
“Maybe so, but he’s not going to see me in a bathrobe.” She absentmindedly straightened the collar on her pale blue maternity top. “I might be the size of a cow, but I still have some dignity left. And since this is the first time I’ve met your father, I want to make a good first impression—or at least as good as a woman who is eight months pregnant with his illegitimate grandchild can make.”
“Don’t worry, you’re going to love my pop,” Nick assured her as he buttered two slices of wheat toast and added them to a plate of scrambled eggs and grits.
“But is he going to like me? I’m not sure how I’d feel in thirty-odd years if Junior here surprised me like you did your dad.” She patted her abdomen and the baby shifted ever so slightly beneath her hand.
Tess had known meeting Nick’s father was inevitable. Initially, she had considered rejecting Ben Russo’s offer to paint the baby’s room but then understood she needed to be a gracious recipient of a grandfather’s gift—an incredibly difficult role for a woman who prided herself on being independent.
“What’s not to like?” He kissed the top of her head as he slid the plate of food in front of her. “Eat up.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she began sarcastically. “Maybe that I got pregnant with their son’s child and didn’t tell him?”
“If my pop had a problem with it, he wouldn’t have offered to paint the nursery,” Nick explained. “He’d be pressing my sisters into action to do something devious. I have to be honest, though. He was upset when he first found out, but he was upset at me, not you. Then the thought of having another grandson calmed him down.”
“What about your mom? How does she feel about this?” Tess asked, digging into the steaming food with her fork.
Meeting Nick’s father had been her first thought upon awakening that morning. Normally, she didn’t give a flip what anyone thought of her. Actually, she rather enjoyed being viewed as a badass by the opposing parties in her cases. But this? This was different. This was her son’s grandfather, and she was nervous that he would think badly of her regardless of Nick’s insistence to the contrary.
“She’s okay too. Still a little stunned, but okay. I’m the baby of the family. She’s like a mother bear protecting her cub, and I have absolutely no doubt you’ll be the same way with this baby.”
“Based on some of the stuff I see online, I don’t think I’m going to let this one out of the house until he’s ready for college. Or maybe when he’s thirty.”
Nick chuckled. “Good luck with that. I was sneaking out…I guess I probably shouldn’t tell you that, huh? Or you’ll keep him chained to his bed until he’s forty.”
Before Tess could respond, a knock sounded at the back door.
“That must be Pop,” Nick said, moving quickly to answer the door. When he opened it, he froze and glanced back at Tess, his eyes wide with surprise.
“Is everything okay?” Tess asked anxiously since Nick blocked her view of the door.
“It will be if Nicky will stop looking like he’s seen a ghost and let us in.” A woman’s annoyed voice filtered into the room from the deck.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” Nick’s voice caught in his throat.
“Is that any way to greet your mother? Come here and give me a hug and introduce me to Tess.”
Carol Russo stepped into the kitchen and enveloped her son in a motherly embrace. She kissed him lightly on the cheek then used her thumb to wipe away a trace of her lipstick.
Tess watched the exchange between mother and son, upset a bit over the woman’s unplanned visit. But at the same time, she envied the relationship Nick and his mother enjoyed.
Tess would give anything for her mother to be aware of the visits they shared and of the fact she was going to be a grandmother. At least she had seen Tess succeed in her legal career before the dementia robbed her of those memories too.
“She’s right over here, having breakfast,” Nick said, voicing the obvious.
Tess also observed the non-verbal exchange between Nick and his father, who had followed his mother into the kitchen. They raised their eyebrows in unison, swapped grimaces and shrugged their shoulders.
Carol pushed past Nick, and with arms laden with several boxes and bags, she made her way across the kitchen. Tall and slender with stylishly short gray hair and eyes as blue as sapphires, she wore black corduroy slacks, a gray turtleneck sweater and a tweed jacket. She had a silver scarf artfully tied around her neck, creating a look that was chic but not an attempt to regain lost youth. She appeared vibrant with an effusive personality that was in direct opposition to what Pauline Callahan had been.
Carol placed the boxes and bags on the kitchen counter before sitting across the table from Tess.
“I am so glad to finally meet you.” She clasped Tess’s hands between her own. “I’ve fussed at Nicky for keeping you a secret for so long. Look at you. You’re positively glowing.”
A wave of heat crept up Tess’s neck and colored her cheeks. Of course she was glowing—from embarrassment.
“I hope it’s okay that I came today. I thought while the guys painted you and I could get acquainted, and I even brought over some of Nicky’s baby things since you’re having a boy.”
Tess mumbled a stunned “thank you,” surprised at how accepting Nick’s mother seemed.
“Nicky also told me you haven’t bought any bedding for the nursery yet. I don’t want to butt in if you’ve already made any decisions, but if not, I love to sew and would like to make a crib set and curtains for the baby’s room. I brought along some fabric swatches to match the paint you selected. I love what you’ve done with this kitchen. Did you decorate it yourself?”
Carol came up for air and Tess didn’t know which question to answer first.
“Sort of. A client has a decorating business and she was so grateful for the divorce settlement I got for her that she offered her decorating services at a discount. I just told her what sort of overall look I wanted to achieve, and this is what she came up with. It’s probably my favorite room in the house. Actually, it’s the only room that’s really been fully decorated. I never seem to have the time to do the other ones.”
Oh great. Now Nick’s mother would think she was also a workaholic who would hand her child off to a nanny and hire out anything else she couldn’t squeeze into her day planner. And if Nick had shared anything about Wendy, his mother might even question her ability to select a nanny.
“Oh, I understand completely,” Carol said. “Nicky has two older sisters and an older brother. When he decided to surprise us all and come into the world two months prematurely, it was difficult to handle it all. I had to learn to prioritize and pick my battles with my other three children. I always worried about him because he had such a precarious start in life. The NICU and all those tubes and wires; why, I nearly fainted the first time I saw him in that incubator. I was used to strapping, eight-pound babies who came home with me after a couple of days in the hospital, and here was this scrawny little three-pound boy Ben could hold in the palm of his hand.”
Tess watched a look of discomfort cross Nick’s face, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, obviously wishing his mother would stop talking about him.
“Mrs. Russo, I think you did a terrific job with Nicky.” Tess grinned mischievously at him. “He doesn’t appear to have suffered any ill effects from his early arrival.”
“Well, Pop, I think you and I need to head upstairs and put a couple coats of Hilton Head Beige on some walls. Don’t you?” The tone of his voice screamed let’s get the hell out of here.
Tess almost began to plead with him to stay downstairs a while longer until she felt a little less awkward around his mother. But she knew that eventually she had to face the music, or in this case, face the mother. She might as well get it over with.
“Have fun, boys,” Carol said. “And don’t worry about Tess. I’ll take good care of her. I even brought lunch for everyone. I’ll call you when it’s time to eat.”
Nick’s mother sewed and cooked and had raised four children. What other talents did the woman have? It wouldn’t surprise Tess if she’d grown the cotton, spun the thread and woven the fabric swatches all by herself.
The men made a few trips upstairs, carrying paint, drop cloths, rolls of painter’s tape and a variety of brushes and rollers. Somewhere outside, Alley hissed in protest at the ruckus of them going back and forth for their tools. Tess rose and picked up her breakfast dishes, ready to carry them to the sink.
“Let me do that. You sit back down. I remember how tiresome it was to even think about doing anything when I was so far along.” Carol took the items from Tess, put them in the dishwasher along with other things from the sink, and then efficiently wiped down the kitchen while Tess looked on helplessly. For the past weeks, Nick had been taking care of her, and now his mother was doing the same. And she wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful or guilty.
Decades had passed since Tess had known what it was like to have someone take care of her. That luxury ended when she was ten years old. After her father walked out, her mother had been so consumed with trying to make a living that she had not had time to sit back and relax. Tess was beginning to realize she’d done the same thing. The baby was the first concession she had ever made to anything that didn’t revolve around her career, and sometimes that scared her to death.
“Let’s go in there,” Carol suggested, pointing to the adjacent den. “It’ll probably be more comfortable for you.”
Tess shuffled to the next room and eased onto the sofa, shoving a pillow behind her back for support. Carol followed with the boxes and bags she had brought with her and placed them on the floor in front of Tess. She pulled an ottoman from in front of the fireplace and sat on it, facing Tess.
“These belonged to Nicky—I mean Nick,” she said, opening the top box. “I know he hates for me to call him that, but it’s habit. He’ll always be my baby.”
Tess’s hand flew instinctively to her abdomen.
“This was his christening gown. I made one for each of the children. And his great aunt Rosa knitted this darling sweater and cap from yarn she brought back from a trip to visit family in Italy.”
Carol continued to pull out gowns and sleepers, booties and blankets, each with a story behind them. Tess had nothing from her childhood save for a few books and a necklace given to her by her mother when she turned thirteen.
Tess lovingly fingered each item as Carol placed them in her lap—or what was left of her lap—and she swore she could feel the baby kick a little as if pleased with the gifts that were a connection to his father.
“These are some of Nick’s books and toys.” His mother pulled out a well-worn copy of The Pokey Little Puppy and a box full of building blocks. “I thought for a long time he might be an engineer or something to do with building because he’d play with these blocks all the time.” She stacked several of them atop each other. “But then he discovered cameras during his teens and well, you know the rest.”
She scooped the blocks up and returned them to the box, a wistful expression on her face. Tess had to wonder how she would feel if her child was almost four decades old and living his own life—a life that took him to exotic places, often for long stretches of time.
“Now about the crib set.” Carol changed the subject abruptly and began to pull fabric samples from a tote bag. “Do you have anything picked out yet?”
“I looked at the selection at the Baby Super Center and found a few things I liked. I know I don’t want cutesy ducks or other barnyard animals, and I’m not particularly fond of primary colors.”
Carol dug into the bag and pulled out several coordinating fabrics in dusty blues, mossy greens and beiges. “I thought these might coordinate with the paint. The stripes would be perfect for window panels and for a dust ruffle. I could take these four solids, piece them together and make a valance. And this brown and tan print would be perfect for a quilt.”
Tess was speechless. Absolutely nothing she had seen at the store or online came anywhere close to what Carol had shown her. She was absolutely sure if she did find it, it would be in some trendy boutique with an equally trendy name and have an exorbitant price tag to match.
“Oh, you don’t like this one.” Disappointment shadowed Carol’s face as she gathered the fabrics, shoved them aside and pulled more from the tote. “There’s also a combination of plaids and stripes that would—”
“Actually…I really love it. It’s just, well, aside from the colors being absolutely perfect, I can’t believe you would take the time to do all of this. After all, until a few weeks ago you didn’t even know about me and this baby, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were angry with me.” Tess’s voice cracked on the last words and tears gathered behind her eyelids.
Carol dropped the fabrics and joined Tess on the sofa. She put her arm around the younger woman and gave her a tender hug. “I will admit at first I was a little angry you had kept such a big secret from us. But I was equally as angry with Nick as with you. Then he explained everything to us and I decided it was more productive to be happy about this than waste a lot of effort on negativity. At least you didn’t do what Nick’s former fiancée did. I’m so very grateful for that.”
Tess’s eyes widened in disbelief. A fiancée? Nick had been engaged?
Carol studied Tess’s face. “You didn’t know. And here I’ve just opened a big can of worms. I should really let Nicky tell you about it.” She had reverted to his nickname.
“If he hasn’t told me anything by this point, I’m not sure he ever will. But I’d like to know since she apparently did something that caused her to become a former fiancée.”
Carol paused, uncertainty crossing her face.
“Mrs. Russo, please. Nick and I are already on uncertain ground and if there’s something I need to know so I can avoid repeating some horrible mistake, don’t you think I should be told about it?”
“Call me Carol, please,” she began. “And it’s too late for you to make the same mistake. I’m not sure Nicky…Nick could have gone through that again.”
Curiosity had the best of her, but Tess would wait and let Carol say as much or as little as she chose, if she chose to say anything at all.
Carol twisted the gold wedding band on her finger then looked squarely at Tess. “When Nick was a junior in college, he met a girl from out of state—Mellanee Washburn. I don’t like to judge people, but…well…she came from a questionable background. Her father was in prison for embezzlement and I was never quite sure what her mother did. I had my ideas of course, but wasn’t going to do or say anything against her. Nick loved her.
“At Christmas that year he brought her home for a visit. I can’t prove it was her, but several things went missing, just small things, and I think she stole them. But not long after they got back to campus after the holidays, Nick called to let us know he wanted to get his great-grandmother’s ring from me so he could propose.”
Carol paused, and Tess sat silently, waiting for the woman to continue. The subject was obviously an emotional one for her.
“I wondered if she was pregnant since it all happened so fast, but Nick assured me that wasn’t the case. He came home one weekend to get the ring and told me he planned to take her to Jekyll Island for spring break and propose to her.”
Carol fidgeted with the fabric samples, her discomfort obvious.
“He had everything planned—the ring, a hotel suite booked for them, dinner reservations at the Jekyll Island Club and then he was going to suggest driving out to the beach where he would propose to her under the stars.”
“What happened next?” Tess asked, letting her cross-examination skills take over, then realizing what she had done. “I’m sorry. Just take your time.”
“Nick came home unannounced halfway through spring break. He wouldn’t talk to anyone. He locked himself in the apartment over the carriage house where he lives now. Back then it was a game room the boys had rigged up. I could see the hurt in his eyes, but he wouldn’t talk to me. I knew it involved Mellanee somehow and figured they had just had a lover’s quarrel.
“Then Tony—that’s Nick’s older brother—and his wife Donna came to dinner one night and I insisted Nick join the family to eat. When Tony announced that he and Donna were expecting a baby, we were thrilled. Then Nick spoke up and told us he would have had the same announcement to make except he’d discovered that Mellanee had gone to a clinic near the university and had an abortion without telling him. He hadn’t even known she was pregnant.”
Tess placed her hand protectively over her abdomen. Upset as she’d been over the unplanned pregnancy, she had never considered anything other than having the baby. It wasn’t that she was against choice, just that she had made hers. She felt heartsick at hearing the story and could only imagine how hurt and angry the Russos must have been.
And now she understood Nick’s concern for her and the baby’s well-being. So many other things made sense too—his no-strings-attached attitude when they’d met, his anger when he had discovered she was pregnant. He had been raised in an environment that was all about family, and the opportunity to have a family with the woman he had loved had been stolen from him many years ago.
“So maybe you can understand why Nick behaves the way he does sometimes? One minute he’s on top of the world about you and the baby and the next he’s distrustful of your motives.”
“Motives?” Tess asked. “What motives could I possibly have for anything?” Sure, she hadn’t told him initially about the baby, but once he had learned about it, she had been nothing but straightforward.
“None that I can see, but please understand where Nick is coming from. I think Mellanee viewed us as rich, and she thought Nick would be her meal ticket to Easy Street. Then a bigger ticket and an easier street came along.”
“She met someone else?”
Carol nodded. “The son of an Atlanta business owner who was a big name in society circles. She knew his family would never accept another man’s baby so she just solved her little problem, as she called it. She only went with Nick to the beach so she could have a little fun at a nice resort before she broke up with him.”
“How did he find out?”
Carol paused as if in a mental debate with herself about how much to share.
Tess placed her hand on the older woman’s arm in a soothing gesture. “You don’t have to tell me anything more. I can tell this is difficult for you.”
A few minutes passed in silence and Tess reached for the bag of fabric, presuming the discussion of the former fiancée was over.
Carol resumed the story, her voice just above a whisper. “A few days into spring break, Nick found a receipt in his car from a clinic he knew performed abortions. The receipt was dated the same day she had borrowed his car to supposedly help a friend move to a new apartment. When he confronted her, she laughed in his face and told him he would never be rich enough to suit her.” Carol paused, still visibly angry over events from years past. “That girl just wanted to ride some man’s wallet, and Nick’s wasn’t thick enough for a comfortable trip.”
A few long moments passed before she seemed to regain her composure. “I honestly believe that’s why Nick has focused so hard on his career. It gives him a valid reason for not sticking around anywhere long enough to get attached to anyone or anything.”
Tess mentally agreed. She had rather liked the situation too. She and Nick had a good time when he was in Atlanta, and when he left, there were no promises and no expectations.
Carol continued. “From what he told me, their confrontation got ugly. All he wanted to know was why she never told him. And she screamed at him and ranted about him being a controlling monster and how she never wanted to see him again. Nick was more than happy to oblige, but as a result, it has also kept him out of the country more often than not.”
“And Mellanee walked away with your great-grandmother’s ring.”
Carol shrugged and gave a choked laugh. “No, she gave it back to him. Literally threw it at him. She asked him how he possibly thought any woman would consider such a trinket as a serious marriage proposal. Apparently Mr. Easy Street gave her a four-carat diamond, and great-grandmother’s half-carat set in platinum filigree was no comparison in her mind. She had no appreciation for sentimental value.”
Tess shook her head in disbelief. How could a woman—anyone, for that matter—be so manipulative and cruel?
“I know my showing up this morning was a little sneaky. Well, a lot sneaky, but I was afraid you might not agree to meet with me otherwise. Ben and I don’t want to butt into your life, but we do want you to know that we’ll be here for you and the baby whenever you need us. We’ll help after you get home from the hospital, we’ll babysit and we’d even like to start a college fund like we’ve done for our other grandchildren. It’s your decision, but we hope you’ll find it in your heart not to shut us out of this child’s life.”
For almost eight months Tess had worried how she would cope with motherhood. Aside from Maddie, who had promised to help as much as possible even though she was busy with a husband and two children of her own, Tess had believed she had virtually no support system.
She couldn’t count on her mother, because Alzheimer’s had stolen that possibility. Now she’d had a golden opportunity dropped into her lap. She just didn’t want the Russos to think she was taking advantage of them, and neither did she want Nick to think she was trying to weasel a marriage proposal from him. In addition to her own emotional baggage, now she had the ghost of an unscrupulous woman from Nick’s past to contend with.
But Carol Russo’s proclamation had just offered Tess the support any expectant parent needed, and she would seem like an ungracious bitch to refuse. Plus, how cruel would she be to deny her son the loving comfort of his father’s family?
“You and your husband will always be a part of this child’s life. It’s so incredibly sweet of you to do this.”
“We don’t want to interfere with your mother’s role though. So please assure her we’re not out to steal you and the baby away.”
“My mother…” Tess’s voice broke and gave way to tears.
Carol grabbed several tissues from a box on the end table and pressed them into Tess’s hand. “I’m so, so sorry. I forgot. Nicky’s going to be upset—”
“What I am going to be upset about?” Nick asked, bounding down the stairs. He had a beige paint smudge on one cheek and he’d removed his sweatshirt to reveal a white tee, which stretched tightly across his shoulders and outlined the planes of his well-defined chest.
Tess dabbed away the tears then stuffed the tissue in her pocket. “You’re going to be upset that I’m dying for chocolate-iced, custard-filled doughnuts and your mother just volunteered to go to the bakery at the supermarket and get them for me.”
Tess sent Carol an apologetic look, and the woman patted Tess’s hand with understanding. “I remember sending Ben out in the middle of the night for a hot dog, and when he came back with it, I took one bite, felt nauseated and threw the rest away. It’s part of being pregnant and these men are just going to have to learn to deal with it.”
Nick eyed them both hesitantly as if he wanted to bolt back upstairs to escape.
“I’ll make the doughnut run now that the men are apparently taking a break. I’ll be back in a jiffy. Do you need anything else while I’m out?”
Tess shook her head. She needed nothing from the store, but she did need time to absorb this new information about Nick’s past and how it played into their situation.
*****
Nick propped himself against the simple white wooden headboard of Tess’s bed as she relaxed and settled against him. Eyes closed, she breathed in his clean scent as he massaged her shoulders, firmly pressing his thumbs into the tight muscles at the base of her neck.
Next his hands moved to the small of her back, where he repeated the action.
“Did I hurt you?” Nick asked in response to her soft grunt.
“In a good way. I cannot wait until I can lie on my stomach again and let Marco give me a good, deep-tissue massage.”
“Marco? You get massages from a man?”
A tingle of satisfaction ran through her. Was Nick jealous? She knew she could play mind games and let him wonder just how naked she got for a massage, but Nick had been nothing but kind to her and she would feel like a rat for leading him on like that.
“Yes, but you don’t have to worry about anything.”
“Who says I’m worried?” he asked, sounding a little too nonchalant.
You wouldn’t have asked if you weren’t worried.
“Okay, so you’re not worried. But just to set the record straight, Marco is a licensed professional who works in conjunction with my doctor.”
Nick shifted her position so he could reach the area between her shoulder blades.
“He would lose his license if he behaved unprofessionally, so if you were worried, you can stop.”
Nick ran his thumbs down the length of her spine, outlining it vertebra by vertebra until he reached her waist. He slid his hands forward toward her navel then paused.
“I read in one of the books that many pregnant women like having their stomachs rubbed. Do you?”
Tess had only received effleurage from one other person—Maddie. They had attended Lamaze classes together and Maddie had signed on to be Tess’s labor coach. Knowing Maddie had given birth twice gave Tess confidence she would be in good hands with her friend guiding her through labor and delivery.
“Mmm-hmm,” she answered, glancing down as his hands began rubbing circles through the soft, knit material of her nightgown.
Tess tapped her finger against several strands of frayed, red string tied around Nick’s wrist.
“What is this? I’ve kept meaning to ask about it, but somehow other things always got in the way. But I want to know since those other things aren’t interfering now.”
Nick’s hands continued their soft movement against her abdomen. “One of my assignments last year was to photograph a monastery in Tibet. One of the monks gave me this. See that?” he asked, lifting his hands and pointing to a spot on the underneath side of his wrist. “The knot? The monk told me it represents the problems in our lives. The knot is to remind me every day to work on solving the problems.”
“So is my being pregnant a knot to untie—metaphorically speaking?”
“Or…” He paused and inhaled deeply, then blew the breath out between his pursed lips. “It could be a reason to tie the knot…matrimonially speaking.”
After her discussion with Carol earlier that day, Nick’s reference to marriage surprised her. He had done nothing but run from any sort of commitment for the past dozen and a half years.
“I have never expected you to marry me, Nick. Emotional involvement was never part of our…whatever it is we have.”
“I know,” he said. His tone was solemn. “But why wouldn’t I marry you?”
“I have filing cabinets full of divorce case files that are damn good reasons why.”
“Just because other people can’t make their marriages work doesn’t mean we couldn’t make it work.”
“Marrying for the wrong reasons is a major cause of divorce,” Tess stated. “And believe me, this would be a wrong reason.” She flattened her hand against her belly. “This was…well, it just happened. It’s not a statement of undying love. It wasn’t a trap to get a ring on my finger or a means of obtaining financial support from you either. You can call me a lot of things, but gold digger isn’t one of them.”
Tess immediately regretted the moment the words left her mouth. Nick slid from behind her, crawled off the bed and moved to the doorway. The look of hurt in his eyes was palpable.
And the ache in her soul throbbed a little more strongly. She couldn’t deny it. She had fallen in love with Nick Russo and it scared the living daylights out of her. Even worse, notwithstanding those cabinets full of divorce files, she was one hundred percent head over heels in love with him. And the not-so-little piece of him growing inside her, unplanned as it had been, confirmed that fact more each day.
“Your mother told me about Mellanee this morning. I’m sorry that happened to you. I can only imagine how much it hurt you. Your mother still feels the pain.”
“Well, yeah. But I moved on.” He appeared to stare out one of the windows that flanked each side of her bed and refused to look her in the eye.
Was his aloof behavior an indication he would move on from her too? Hop a jet to some remote destination after the baby arrived? She wasn’t looking for marriage, but she had hoped for some involvement on his part. If his mother’s words were true, she could count on Carol and Ben to be part of the baby’s life even if his daddy wasn’t.
Count your blessings, Tess.
“Apparently your mother thinks you moved on a little too much. I’m just guessing, but I think she was concerned that she won’t have any contact with this baby because there are no wedding bells in our future.”
“I apologize for my mother’s interference,” he said brusquely. “I’ll have a talk with her and—”
“Don’t. I enjoyed having her visit this morning. Yeah, it was a bit awkward at first, but once we broke the ice, everything was great. She’s excited about being a grandmother again.” Tess steeled herself to let Nick know what she’d told his mother earlier. “I promised your mother that I would never keep the baby away from them. Your folks are great people and I’d be honored to have them in the baby’s life.”
“But not honored enough to get married?” His gaze shifted at that point and he sent a critical look her way.
“Let’s not argue about a piece of paper, Nick. I’ve explained my reasons for not rushing into something for the wrong reasons. You don’t need a piece of paper to make you part of this baby’s life. I’m not going to shut you out. How many times do I have to tell you that before you believe it?”
“But are you going to give him my name?” he asked in a low voice. The look on his face had softened.
Before Nick had come back into the picture, the baby’s last name hadn’t been an issue. He was going to be Michael Reece Callahan, using her maternal grandfather’s first name and her mother’s maiden name. Lately she’d been thinking she should at least put Nick’s last name on the birth certificate. And after all the Russos had done for her earlier in the day, she felt a bit more obliged to give the baby their name as an additional way of keeping her promise to them.
Her growing feelings of love toward Nick warred with her past and the father who had abandoned her.
She chose her words carefully and delivered them without emotion. “That’s still under consideration.”
And with that, Nick spun on one heel and left the room.