“No.” She tried to smile, but it wouldn’t take shape. “No, I haven’t told a soul. I have friends, but…”
When she didn’t finish, Richard broke the silence. “Mine all have kids that are way younger. When I first realized what was going on with Trev, it hit me that I didn’t have anyone to talk about it with.”
Molly nodded. “I’ve gotten close to the mothers of some of Cait’s friends, but right now they’re the last people I want to tell that she’s pregnant.”
“Is she home?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“She’s at the dance school. She assists with a class of younger students.”
It turned out he didn’t have to say much. She started to spill. She hurt at the knowledge that Cait would lose dance, if only temporarily, should she continue the pregnancy. No, she was unlikely to go on professionally with it anyway; she was likely too tall, and she didn’t have the single-mindedness required.
“But she loves it.”
She told him that her daughter wasn’t talking to her. Her face pinched with unhappiness. “It’s not that she’s sulking or anything like that. Not like when she was mad at me over Trevor. She’s just…retreated. Gone deep inside. And…it’s always been the two of us.” She stole a look at him that was both shy and filled with pain. “Now she’s shut me out.”
Richard moved without thinking about it. One minute he was on his side of the living room, the next he’d taken the middle cushion of the sofa and her hand in his. Ms. Molly Callahan wasn’t as tough as she’d appeared. Not even close.
“I’ve been feeling some of that with Trevor,” he said. “It’s not the same because I didn’t have the chance to raise him, but I thought we were tight. Finding out how wrong I was hurt.”
She gave a laugh that wasn’t quite a sob. “And in the middle of all this, I have to ask myself why I’m getting my feelings hurt when my daughter is facing something so life-altering. And mostly it is her I think about, but sometimes…”
“You’re human,” he said softly.
She looked down at their hands, her paler fingers entwined with his. “Yes.” Her voice was even quieter than his. “I guess that’s it.”
“Hey.” He squeezed slightly. “We’re entitled to have feelings, too. God knows our kids have been sharing plenty of them.”
Her small giggle pleased him. No, not tough at all.
A minute later she regained enough composure to become self-conscious, and retrieved her hand from his. He was sorry. He relaxed where he was, stretched his legs out as far as the coffee table allowed and asked her if she and Cait had had an appointment at either adoption agency today.
Turned out they’d gone to both places. That was one of the reasons, he realized, that she was distressed. Cait, apparently, had listened but barely mumbled one- or two-word answers to any questions asked of her.
“Then on the way home, she said, ‘I can talk for myself you know, Mom.’ Not mad, but warning me off.”
Molly might not be tough, but she did have a take-charge personality or she wouldn’t have gotten as far as she had in school administration by her age. He didn’t feel much sympathy for her daughter.
“Did she not want to go?”
Molly made a face. “Who knows? If not, she didn’t say so. Heck, I may find out she’s decided to get an abortion and done it without even telling me. At this point, I wouldn’t be shocked.”
“Can she?” he asked.
“Without parental consent, you mean?” When he nodded, she said, “I don’t know. I’m assuming there are ways.”
“Would you be angry?”
She shook her head. More of her hair slipped from the elastic. “Hurt that she was so determined to shut me out. See, there I go again. But I’m not sure I could help it. I’ve made it clear that I’ll support her decision. So if she decides not to let me support her…” She blinked a couple of times, and he took hold of her hand again.
“When they lay that squalling baby in your arms at the hospital, they should warn you what they’re going to turn into. You worry you’ll fail this small creature without realizing the creature metamorphoses into a hideous monster for one stage of its development. Maybe if we knew from the get-go, instead of misty eyes and melting heart, we’d start out wary.”
He loved what a smile did to her face, and to a mouth that was