It was filled with cars, every one of them dark and still. But as they stood in tense silence for what felt like an impossibly long time, a pair of headlights came into view, tiny at first, following the road up to the market and then pulling in so that Grayson could hear the crunch of the tires on the gravel.
“I’ll be waiting,” Evangeline said, patting his arm.
“No,” he told her, taking her hand in his free one. “Will you stay with me?”
She looked up at him, her eyes so serious, and nodded.
A moment later the car door was opening. And then unexpectedly, the passenger door opened.
“No,” Grayson breathed.
Evangeline squeezed his hand, and he thought it might be the only thing anchoring him to his sanity.
But as the two figures got closer, he saw that it was as bad as he’d feared. Levi Williams was approaching with Brianna by his side, her bright hair practically gleaming in the parking lot lights.
“That’s his mother?” Evangeline whispered.
Grayson nodded.
Levi held a folder in his hand and Brianna carried a thick envelope.
It’s over,Grayson thought to himself, pressing a kiss to the top of Leo’s head as his heart broke.
“Hey,” Levi said. “Thanks for coming out. And you must be Evangeline?”
“Levi?” Evangeline asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “And this is Brianna.”
“Hi,” Brianna said shyly.
“Grayson, do you want privacy for this conversation?” Levi asked.
“She can stay,” Grayson said firmly, tightening his hold on Evangeline’s hand.
“Brianna?” Levi asked.
“Of course,” she said. “If you want her here, Grayson, that’s great.”
“Brianna, would you like me to explain things?” Levi asked.
“I can do it,” she said, turning to Grayson.
He held his breath as he met her eyes. There was no need for her to explain. Of course she wanted her sonback. Grayson would give anything to keep him, and he wasn’t even the boy’s father.
“When I was…” she began and then cleared her throat and looked down. “When I waswithyou, I didn’t know I was already expecting.”
He could feel Evangeline’s eyes move to his face in surprise. But of course he had already known that Leo couldn’t be his, at least not biologically.
He nodded to Brianna.
“I guess I don’t need to tell you again that I wasn’t ready to be a mother,” she went on. “And when I looked up his real daddy to tell him that I was expecting, I found out he had passed away in an accident. I… I didn’t know what to do.”
Passed away?
“But then I remembered you,” she said with a shy smile. “You were a good man, I could tell. That’s why… well, that’s why I came to you with the baby like I did.”
He nodded again, unable to speak.
