She wanted to punch Clark for questioning her.She was responsible, and she always had been.Always.Even all the wayback in high school, and he knew that.To question her, as if she might not have all her ducks in a row, as if she might bring their niece into a bad situation, was just obnoxious.
“I’m rooming with Mrs.C.,” she said, knowing that would shock and horrify him.
His face contorted.“Seriously?The biology teacher?”
“Yes.I’m surprised you paid attention.”
“Just enough to graduate,” he said.
“So you two know each other,” the social worker said.
“Yes.We both grew up here,” Ellie said.“And our siblings have been …” She sighed heavily.“They’ve been together since high school.Toxic and together, in active addiction pretty much since they were sixteen.We’re their …”
“We’re the emergency contacts,” Clark said.
That they were.“So yeah,” she said.“We know each other.”
“I don’t think there’s any reason that we have to choose,” Clark said.“We can share custody.Like divorced parents, right?”
“In Oregon, yes.Particularly in cases of kinship adoption.If you want to adopt.”
“Yes,” they both said together.
“The field will be clear for that,” Daisy said.“The parents have relinquished their rights, and both of them said that they wanted you to be involved.”
“Is there a birth certificate or …”
“Yes, but in the event of adoption, both of your names can go on it.”
She and Clark looked at each other.His steely blue gaze was hard, but determined.
Was she really going to do this?Were they going to adopt this baby?No thought had gone into the decision.And if it was any other situation, she would’ve said no.She wasn’t prepared to be a mother.The idea wasn’t even on her radar.She hadn’t been in a relationship in at least three years.She’d been focusing on teaching.On getting her life in order.She was a ducks-in-a row kind of person.Probably a side effect of being the older sibling of a sisterwho was constantly on the verge of crashing out.But there was no choice here.This baby was their niece.And they were both from dysfunctional families.The families that had created Ty and Melanie.
She and Clark had their lives together.As much as she wanted to be harsh on him because of his family history, she had to admit that he was doing well.
But doing this with him?That meant submitting herself to a constant feeling of fight or flight.The constant stomach-tensing, heart-palpitating Clark of it all.
You’ll get used to it.For her.
“This is what we want,” she said.“We want to adopt her.”
“Then we’ll work with you to make that happen.”
CHAPTER2
God Almighty, how had he gotten himself into this?Clark asked himself for the hundredth time as the car seat was fitted into his truck.
This was bad in about a hundred different ways, and here he was, doing it anyway.
He had no idea what to do with a baby.
And he’d never known what the hell to do with Ellie Parks.
In truth, he knew now, as he’d always done, exactly what he wanted to do with Ellie.From the moment he’d first met her, he’d wanted to kiss her senseless.But he’d been Clark Porter from the wrong side of the tracks, and she was Ellie Parks, from the nicest gated community in town, and there was just no way she’d have ever looked twice at him.
Unfortunately for everyone, her younger sister had done more than look twice at Clark’s younger brother, Ty.
So had begun the fifteen-year hell of that toxic relationship descending into addiction, and all the reasons Ellie had been off-limits back then were even more complicated now.
