“When you took him without asking any questions or telling me the timing was wrong and he couldn’t be yours, I knew I had done the right thing putting your name on his birth certificate.”
Grayson blinked at her, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Your name is on Leo’s birth certificate,” Levi confirmed quietly. “Brianna brought us a copy. Technically speaking, you can take him to the doctor, enroll him in school, anything a parent needs to do.”
“Why?” Grayson heard himself ask.
“You were kind,” Brianna said simply, not meeting hiseyes. “You were stable. I could tell. And plus you were… lonely.”
Her words cut all the deeper because they were true. He wouldn’t have made the mistake he had with her that night if he hadn’t been desperately lonely and grasping at straws to fill in the void in his heart.
“How… how is he?” Brianna asked.
Grayson opened and closed his mouth, unable to answer.
“He’s the most wonderful baby in the world,” Evangeline told her. “He’s a good eater and a good sleeper, and he loves to laugh and smile. The two of them have a beautiful bond. Grayson adores him.”
“You’re his…” Brianna began.
“Nanny,” Evangeline said quickly. “And it’s the best job in the world.”
“It’s good that you have help with him,” Brianna said shyly to Grayson.
Remembering himself, Grayson, gestured to his son, offering for Brianna to hold him.
But she stepped back slightly, shaking her head like he’d offered her a basket of live snakes.
“It sounds like he’s happy with you,” Levi said in a neutral tone, as if to distract them all from Brianna’s reaction. “Would you be interested in formally taking full custody of Leo?”
“I signed the papers already in his office,” Brianna said, meeting Grayson’s eyes again. “If you sign too, then it’s official.”
“Yes,” he said quickly. “I’ll sign.”
Levi brought out the papers and Grayson signed them on the hood of the car, his hand shaking.
Evangeline signed as a witness, and Levi notarized all three copies, then gave a set to Brianna, as Grayson tried to get his mind around the idea that Leo wasn’t being taken away from him.
“I’ll keep this one at the office,” Levi told Grayson, placing it back in the folder and handing the other one to Grayson.
“I, um, brought some info on his father and me,” Brianna said, holding out the envelope she had been holding. “In case he’s ever curious. And his birth certificate is in there too. All this… well, it inspired me to go back to school, to try and make some better choices in my life. Maybe if he has questions for me when he’s older, I’ll have some answers I can be proud of.”
“Thank you,” Grayson told her, wishing he could articulate all the ways that Leo had changed his life too, all the ways she was changing it with this priceless gift.
“I’m glad you’ll be happy together,” Brianna said with a small smile. “I guess some things are meant to be.”
Grayson pressed his lips to Leo’s head again. The polite goodbyes between the others faded away as he lost himself in his joy.
23
EVANGELINE
For Evangeline, the next week seemed to fly past in a happy blur of holiday activities.
She was grateful that they were all keeping busy, because it allowed her time to think about her feelings.
She had been half in love with Grayson anyway, but learning about the circumstances surrounding him taking Leo in had absolutely floored her.
Grayson Ward wasn’t just a good man, he was an angel.
