Heavenly spoke first. “Since I don’t have any family left, if you want to spend the holidays in New York, that’s fine.”
Beck shrugged. “If I don’t see Gloria this year for the holidays, we’ll survive.”
God, he owed them both big.
“I’ll talk to my mom and let you know,” Seth assured.
She’d say yes…if she was still speaking to him.
“If you could work that out, that would be…great,” Laura rushed to say. “I’ve never spent a Christmas without my baby and?—”
“I’m not a baby, Mom,” Hudson said between a bite of pancakes and his last swallow of juice.
Her face softened, and she looked like she was fighting tears. “You’ll always be my baby.”
Hudson grimaced, but Seth was pretty sure he was secretly pleased to know his mom still cared so much.
The waitress returned to clear their plates, and Seth handed her his credit card before anyone else could argue. “I’ve got it.”
Ted nodded his thanks. As soon as the waitress came with the receipt, Seth signed. Then they all stood, gathering coats and bags. Emma fussed, and Hudson distracted her with a silly face as they headed for the door.
When he stepped out into the cool mid-morning air, Seth exhaled slowly. The hard part was over. The rest was mere paperwork.
And once those were signed, he’d be able to breathe.
At least until Monday.
Everyone jumped in their respective cars and headed for the bank a few blocks away. Since Laura worked for a different branch of this same bank, she’d been able to arrange a notary to meet them.
As Seth backed out of the diner’s parking lot, Beck turned to him and blew out a breath. “Good job. That went better than I expected.”
“Thank fuck,” Seth muttered. “For a minute there, I thought she was going to change her mind.”
“Nah,” Hudson put in from the back seat. “Mom just needed a minute to get used to you three. She’ll be fine.”
Shockingly, it seemed as if the kid was right.
Once they arrived and piled out, the bank manager led them to a small conference room—private, quiet, with a polished table and enough chairs for everyone. Emma squealed, turning a few heads. The notary, already waiting, smiled at the baby girl.
Seth pulled out the final documents his lawyer had conferred with Laura’s to draw up and spread them across the table. The notary looked them over, asked a few questions, then thrust them in Laura’s direction.
With unsteady hands, she glanced over the documents as if she hadn’t read them at least a hundred times, as Seth had. Finally, she picked up the pen. Slow. A bit hesitant.
Then she gave a shaky nod and, with tears slipping down her cheeks, signed her name on the custody agreement everywhere Seth’s attorney had planted a tape flag.
Behind her, Ted stood, one hand on her shoulder in quiet support, Emma nestled in his other arm.
Seth slid into the chair beside her once she was done. Heart hammering, he dragged in a bracing breath as he took the pen and scrawled his name across every necessary line.
Once he was finished, he set the pen down, the small clatter seeming like an explosion of sound in the otherwise quiet room.
It felt monumental. Final. Because it was. Hudson was legally, officially his son.
Beck stepped forward and signed as witness, his expression calm and steady. Then the notary stamped each form with a decisive thud, the sound echoing in the small room.
They were done. Fifteen minutes and a few strokes of a pen later, and his life had changed completely. As terrified as he’d been to have another baby since Beck and Heavenly had been pushing to start a family, he couldn’t imagine life without Hudson now.
Would it be like that, so seemingly natural and inevitable, if the three of them had a child?
