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“There’s a fuck ton of stuff to do. To get ready.”
“Yeah.”
“You can’t stay here, for starters.”
“I know it. The lease is up in a few months, so the timing is perfect. I’ll get somewhere bigger. Somewhere that can be baby proofed. Which I can’t even believe I’m saying.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll buy you a house.”
I stared at him. “What? That’s ridiculous.”
“No, it’s not. It’s obvious. Actually, I even know which house.”
“What the fuck? You found out not two hours ago that I was pregnant. How can you have a house already?”
“I’ve been looking around in Esperance for a while. Wolfe, and now Grayson, spend so much time here, it seems easier for me to have a base here, too. There’s a house that’s just come on the market, four doors down from Wolfe and Esme. I’ll buy it, you can live there. I’ll just need some office space and a bedroom. You’ll barely even know I’m there.”
“Oh. That actually makes a lot of sense. But I can’t let you buy me a house. That’s crazy talk.”
“How about it’s not for you? It’s for the babies.”
He had me caught and knew it.
“I’ll make the necessary arrangements and it’ll be done by the end of the week.”
“You’ve never sounded more like a billionaire than you did just then.”
His only reply was to smile and sip his coffee.
The lapse in conversation gave me the perfect opportunity to say what I had to say. What had been playing on my mind since just before we left the doctor’s office.
“Hey,” I began hesitantly, setting my mug on the coffee table. Rhett glanced at me, eyebrows raised in silent question. I drew in a deep, steadying breath. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay, this sounds very serious. I’m not sure I can cope with any more information bombs, but off you go.”
“It’s related to the babies. In a way.” My palms were damp with nerves as I twisted my hands in my lap. “You know how the doctor asked us for our family's medical history?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, um, that’s going to be a problem for me, actually.”
Clearly, he could tell how serious this was, because he placed his coffee cup next to mine on the table and turned so he was facing me fully. “How so?”
“Well, the thing is... I can’t just ask my mom and dad…” Here goes. Jeez, why was this so fucking hard? Just take the plunge, already. “Because I’m…I’m adopted, so, um, yeah, I don’t actually know how to even start looking for the information. Or talking to my biological parents. It was a closed adoption, so I don’t even know their names.”
The words felt like a weight, pressing down on the space between us. I watched his face for any sign of shock or judgment, but all I saw was a flicker of surprise, quickly replaced by a thoughtful frown. To my immense surprise, he reached over and coveredmy hands with his and looked deeply into my eyes. “Wow, that must have been really tough.”
Okay, I wasn’t expecting this much sensitivity from him. Honestly, it was like he was a changed man. “It wasn’t easy.”
“Especially the part where you found out you weren’talwaysWright.”
I stared at him for a few beats while my brain tried to process what he was saying. When the penny finally dropped, I burst out laughing. There it was. “Asshole.” Still, I felt better. Somehow, him not making a huge deal of it made it seem less overwhelming.
Pulling away from me, he grabbed his coffee again. “That sure does put a spanner in the works. I have no idea where to even start. What have your parents…your adoptive parents, told you? How much info are we working with?”
He’d gone straight to problem-solving mode, which meant I could too. “Like I said, closed adoption, so I don’t have names, ages, ethnicity. My adoptive parents are on my birth certificate. I’m actually not sure if my parents know any more information themselves. If they do, they’ve never mentioned it to me. The only thing I know is the name of the adoption agency. And I only know that much because I stumbled across it one day when I was helping Dad clean out his office.” The memory of that day was so sharp and painful that I had to stop to catch my breath.
“Text me those details and I’ll get right on it.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I guess I’ll also need to speak to my parents and get all that information. Of course, they’ll want to know why I need it, which means telling them we’re expecting. Unlesswe can come up with some sort of believable lie as to why I’m suddenly deeply interested in their health history.”