Page 29 of Coming Home for Love

“Mom, this is Osiris Jr., but we call him Little O. My son. You didn’t know about him, but I didn’t either.” She looked at me with her eyebrows bunched. “It’s not her fault, though. She didn’t know how to find me. I left school in a hurry, remember? None of that matters because he’s mine, and I didn’t want to spend my time here being mad. By the way, this is Wynter. My son’s mother.”

She went back to looking between Osiris and me.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting this, but I…” Her sentence trailed off.

“Mrs. Gray, I apologize for not making you all aware of Osiris’s existence. I wasn’t sure how to go about it since I had never met you before. I truly do apologize, and I hope we can move past this.”

She sat back and crossed her arms. My heart thundered against my chest because I couldn’t read her face. I knew I was wrong, but I prayed she didn’t hold it against me, and definitely not against Little O.

Neither of us said anything. My guess was she was processing the news.

“Mommy.” Little O murmured as he stirred.

I rubbed his back to calm him down so he could fall back to sleep, but he wasn’t having it once he realized we were somewhere other than home.

He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and crawled to his father’s lap.

Mrs. Gray watched the interaction and smiled. “I guess it’s a good thing he knows who you are.”

I didn’t know if she was being smart or what, but I kept my mouth closed.

“Wynter has told him about me, and I’ve been spending almost every waking moment with him since I found out.”

She cut her eyes at me, then back at the O’s.

“That’s good.” She got up and sat on the arm of the couch near Osiris.

Little O looked at her but kept his body tucked against his father’s.

“Can you say hi to your grandma?” Big O said.

Little O’s eyes glanced my way, then onto his grandma. He resisted for a minute but finally spoke to her.

“Hi,” he said shyly then buried his face into his father’s chest.

“Hi.” She turned toward me. “He looks just like Osiris when he was little.” She smiled widely. She looked my way again, and I thought she was going to say some bullshit, but she surprised me when she said, “Listen, Wynter. This wasn’t the way I imagined meeting my grandson, but I won’t hold it against you. I’ve already missed enough, and I don’t want to miss any more. We’ll figure everything else out. For now, let’s have dinner while I get to know you and this precious baby.”

“I’d like that.”

Big O stayed quiet the whole time, watching the interaction between his mother and me.

I was grateful for him sticking up for me because this could have gone a different way.

Mrs. Gray got up and walked into the kitchen. Osiris and I got up at the same time.

Before I could walk away, he grabbed my arm. Little O was still in his arms, so he switched him to one side so he was on his hip. He closed the space between us and kissed me.

“I told you that you didn’t have to worry about anything. I hope you still don’t have the nervous shits, because you can’t be stinking up my mother’s house.” He laughed.

I playfully shoved him, and giggled. “Whatever.” I paused and stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, though.”

After the three of us washed our hands, we went to the kitchen. A few minutes later, his father came in and was friendly toward us. Little O took to him like he did with my father, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

We stayed there for a while, and I couldn’t help but to feel good inside because they accepted Little O and me like we’d been there all along. I knew my baby would be well loved no matter what happened between Osiris and me.

I’d been in the States for a month and had no plans to leave. Unbeknownst to anyone, I was in the process of buying a house. Now that I knew I had a son, nothing could keep me from him.

I had been spending all my free time with him and his mother, and my feelings for Wynter had been getting deeper by the day. I loved experiencing her being a mom as well as living out her dreams. To show her my appreciation, I had a night planned for the two of us. My parents agreed to keep Little O until the next day. That little boy loved them just as much as he loved Wynter’s parents. Sometimes, I couldn’t even spend time with my own son because the grandparents always wanted him. I wasn’t mad at it, though, because my boy was loved on all sides.It also gave me and Wynter a little alone time when she wasn’t working.

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