That’s what she’d always wanted. A life with him.
But not this way.
She didn’t want him to marry her out of obligation. He must love Kristi. He’d chosen to make a life with her. She wouldn’t take that away from him. They could be good parents to their child without being married. She’d even find a way to forge a cordial relationship with Kristi, so her child would know he or she was loved by all their parents.
She’d had a great relationship with her stepfather. Cody adored her mother.
Stepparents could be just as important and special as a biological parent, and she would give Kristi that chance to prove it.
Holding the phone to her forehead, she tried not to cry again.
“Why aren’t you calling him? Tell him about the baby. You know he’ll do the right thing.”
“Kristi lost their baby. There’s no obligation now for him to marry her. But he is still going to marry her because it’s what he wants.”
“Butyouare pregnant. He has an obligation to you. He’ll do the right thing because as you said about Kristi and her baby, he doesn’t want his child to grow up without both his parents.”
True. But now that Cody had a chance to ask her to work things out and see if they could be together, that’s not what he did. “I don’t want him to marry me because he feels obligated. We had one night together. She’s been with him for over a year. Hours after we had sex, he said he’d marry her. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t take some time to think it over. He loves her and a life with her and his child was what he wanted. It’s what he still wants.”
She put her hands over her belly where her baby lay sleeping and growing. Her pants were a little tight, but you couldn’t tell she was pregnant yet. She kind of couldn’t wait until her belly popped.
“If that night meant as much to him as it did to me, if I meant that much to him, he’d have called tonight to tell me he and Kristi are over and he wants to be with me. But he didn’t.”
The tears ran down her cheeks again.
“I love him. I want him to be happy. And, apparently, that’s with her. I’ll tell him about the baby later. He can come to the delivery. He’d probably like to be there for that. They’ll already be married. He can be a father to the baby. We just won’t do it together. Lots of kids grow up without both parents living together.”
“Yes, but you could go back to the ranch and live there with him.”
“And her.” Brooke rolled her eyes. “It’s bad enough she’ll be a stepmother to my child and living in my house. I can’t live under the same roof with them.”
“It’s a big roof. You could move to your mother’s side of the house.”
“I’d be miserable seeing him with her every day, and you know it. I don’t want my child to see me like that. I don’t want my child to ever think my unhappiness has anything to do with him.”
Mindy Sue squeezed her hand. “If Cody can’t see what a great woman you are, then he doesn’t deserve you. I’m sorry, sweetie. You’ve been best friends for years. If that isn’t a foundation to build a marriage and a family on, I don’t know what is. I wish he could see that.” She put her hand over Brooke’s on her belly. “I wish that for you and the baby.”
“Some wishes just don’t come true. I’ve had to learn that the hard way. He won’t be mine, but he’ll be a good father to our baby. It’s all I can wish for now.”
They sat in silence for a moment, both wishing things could be different.
Brooke had faced reality the second she’d gotten on the bus to return to school. She’d desperately wanted to beg Cody to choose her. And in that moment, she’d realized she’d spent her whole childhood chasing after him, trying to make him love her.
It didn’t work.
Their night together hadn’t changed anything.
She couldn’t make Cody love her.
She wouldn’t use their baby to get what she wanted.
That was selfish and no way to start a marriage and expect it to last.
Cody made his decision.
Brooke had to learn to live with it and the consequences of her actions.
She needed a distraction. “Tell me why you did your ballerina-slash-booty-dance when you came in.”
