Brian chuckled at her expression and shrugged. “I ran to the store this morning and got a few things. I probablyasked a dozen different parents with little ones with them which books had that phrase in them before a guy with a daughter about his age took pity on me. There are also some classics I remember from when I was a kid, and other ones the dad recommended.”
“That’s sweet, though he’s going to bail on the tour now because some of those he hasn’t seen before.” Oliver was already sitting on the floor, pulling books out and showing them to Stella, who stretched out beside him.
“That’s okay. Maybe we can sit at the kitchen table and talk for a few minutes. I installed a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, and we’ll be right there.”
“Okay.” He sounded serious again, which refired her nerves.
He pulled out a chair for her, and then walked around to the other side of the table. She sat, her mind spinning as she tried to anticipate what would come next.
Oliver’s favorite books. There was already a baby gate. He was making this house into Oliver’s home.
“Hey, are you okay?” She heard Brian’s voice, but it sounded like it was coming from some far end of a tunnel. “Siobhan, what’s going on?”
Siobhan couldn’t say the words out loud. Even if she managed to come up with a way to phrase the question, fear closed her throat.
Kelly and Steve lied on the birth certificate and they lied on the adoption papers. Brian Kowalski was Oliver’s biological father and he could fight to have the adoption overturned.
And he’d win.
Nausea rolled through her stomach, and she brought her hand to her mouth as things got fuzzy. The lights seemed to dim slightly and she placed her other handflat on the table in a feeble attempt to steady herself. As though from that same end of the long tunnel, she heard the scrape of chair legs on the floor, and then hands were helping her to the floor.
The laminate flooring was cool and it helped, as did the cool, damp cloth on the back of her neck. He lifted her head slightly before lowering it onto some kind of lumpy pillow, and when the scent of him filled her senses, she realized it was his sweater.
“Siobhan,” he said, his voice very close to her head. “Look at me.”
She reluctantly opened her eyes and found Brian lying on the floor next to her, his head rested on his outstretched arm. Siobhan looked into his blue eyes, oddly comforted despite the power this man had to break her heart and destroy her life.
“I don’t want to take Oliver away from you.”
Her breath caught and a tear slipped out, running down into her hair. If she hadn’t already been on the floor, she might have collapsed as relief sapped the strength from her body. Untangling the mess Kelly had made of their lives was going to be a tough process, but she could get through anything as long as she had Oliver.
“You’re his mother,” Brian continued, and the words helped calm the storm of emotions inside of her. “But I’m his father, andthat’swhat we need to figure out.”
Siobhan wasn’t sure if he intended for his words to be an ultimatum or not, but she heard one. As long as she didn’t stand in the way of his parental rights, he wouldn’t mess with hers.
“Okay,” she whispered hoarsely, barely managing the single word.
She knew she should get up. The dizziness was goneand she felt steadier. But Brian’s face was relaxed and lying on the floor together felt so much less adversarial than facing each other across the table.
Then Stella crawled in between, her belly low to the ground, and Brian laughed. The dog licked his face and then wiggled her back against Siobhan. She smiled as she ran her fingers through Stella’s soft fur, and then her hand stilled when her fingertips brushed Brian’s.
He just smiled and kept rubbing his dog. Siobhan shifted her hand to scratch between the dog’s ears and for a few minutes, the three of them were just content to hang out on Brian’s kitchen floor. By tipping her head, she could see Oliver’s feet and the book he had propped open on his legs. He was still lost in the picture book, oblivious to the goings-on in the kitchen.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said after a while. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s been so much and now it’s actuallyofficialand this is happening. Forever.”
“It’s a lot. I’ve had to sit down and put my head between my knees a few times myself.” He paused, rubbing Stella’s belly. “And I get that I’m overwhelmed by what I’m gaining, so I can’t even imagine how it feels to worry about what you stand to lose. So I just want to say again, right up front, that what I reallywantis for you and me to find a way to co-parent Oliver and nobody loses anybody.”
Even after the week they’d spent together, it was so hard for Siobhan to wrap her head around this Brian lying on the floor with her and offering reassurance being the Brian her sister had been married to. How had Kelly given this man up so easily? It didn’t begin to make sense to her.
She slowly pushed herself to a sitting position, not at all surprised when Brian leaped to his feet to help her up.Once she was back in the chair, she gave him a sheepish grin as she accepted a glass of water.
“I’m not usually this dramatic,” she told him.
“This is all extremely intense. I get it. But I also think part of why it’s so intense is not knowing what lies ahead, so we’re both going to be off-kilter until it’s settled. I’ll ask around and get some recommendations for a decent lawyer who’s as affordable as possible so we can start getting an idea of our next steps.”
He sounded sincere, but alarm bells went off, drawing attention to the little voice in the back of her mind that remained skeptical. Perhaps it was being raised by a manipulative mother, but she couldn’t be sure Brian wasn’t trying to make her drop her guard. If she believed they were going to happily share Oliver, she might not pay attention to him pursuing legal options behind the scenes with a lawyer who technically worked for him. She didn’t want to believe that, but when it came to Oliver, she couldn’t just go on faith.
“I hope you won’t be offended, but I’ll have my own lawyer.”
