Page 76 of Deliver Me

“Mia!”

“Hey Dad,” she gave him a quick hug. “Just wanted to let you know we’re here before we find a place to sit down.”

“I’m glad you came.” He shook Gabriel’s hand and gestured to the rows of tables laden with bowls and trays. “There’s still plenty of food so make sure you grab some once you’re settled.”

“We will,” Mia promised. There weren’t many seats left but she finally found an empty section and turned to ask Gabriel if he’d like to make a plate only to find him staring curiously back at her father.

“Your dad’s good with children,” he mused.

“Hmm,” she acknowledged. “He loves kids, always wanted grandkids.”

“Has he?” Gabriel asked quietly.

Mia met his eyes, heat rushing to her cheeks. “Sure, eventually. Maybe. Someday. Not right away or anything probably …”

“We never really talked about that, did we?”

“No,” she agreed. The closest they’d come was the first day he’d gotten out, when she’d told him she wasn’t on birth control. That was something she really should have taken care of by now, but there always seemed to be something else that was more important. “Everything seemed so far away, even after we found out it was possible and then it happened so fast.”

He nodded and drummed his fingers on the fancy white tablecloth. “Do you? Want a family?”

“Yeah,” she said, watching her dad hand back the squirming toddler before glancing at Gabriel. “I’ve always wanted kids.”

He didn’t flinch away from the revelation like she’d feared he might, and his face was pensive as he considered her words. “Me, too,” he said finally. “I wasn’t always sure I would—not with the way things were with my parents and after what happened to Brittany—but I think … I think I might want to try. Someday. I don’t know if I have what it takes to be a good dad but …”

“You’re going to be a great father,” she said. “How could you not be?”

“I’m still pretty messed up,” he said and as much as she loved him, as much as she knew he would love his child, she knew he was right.

“Law school takes a while so maybe by then things will be more settled,” she said lightly, lifting her shoulder in a shrug “And if not … well, I would like to be a mom but not having kids isn’t a deal breaker for me.”

“Do you have a deal breaker?”

“Hmm,” she said, tapping her chin and pretending to think it over, desperate to erase the look of sadness and self-condemnation in his eyes. “Maybe if you start to snore really loudly? Or male pattern baldness?”

He blinked at her for a moment before he cracked a small smile and ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the thick black waves. “Hey, don’t evenmentionmale pattern baldness.”

“You never know …”

Gabriel opened his mouth, but Mia was spared his retaliation as Kennedy made her way to the table and slid into a seat beside Mia.

“There you are,” Mia said. “I wasn’t sure you were still going to come. Sorry Alison couldn’t make it. Is she feeling sick?”

Kennedy glanced over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “She’s not actually sick. We broke up earlier this week and she moved out of the apartment.”

“What?” Mia looked around when she realized how loudly the question had been when it exploded out of her.” She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. “Why didn’t you say anything? Are you okay?”

Kennedy smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m actually the one that ended it.”

“Really?” Mia squeezed Kennedy’s hand as she tried to remember if there had been any signs that things between the two of them were strained.

“I loved her,” Kennedy explained, “but we just … We got together so fast after everything happened with my parents. One day I was living with them and couldn’t even be open about who I was and the next I was in a committed relationship. I never thought about what I wanted out of life or if we had the same goals, wanted the same things. When I did start to think about it, I realized I couldn’t answer that question because I didn’t know what I wanted.”

It reminded Mia of her feelings about James so long ago and how caught up she had been in what she had thought she was supposed to want. It had been painful to examine whether she might want something else instead.

“We’re still friends,” Kennedy continued. “I don’t think she was heartbroken or anything. Maybe we had both been slowly figuring out that we weren’t a great match for each other romantically.”

“You have plenty of time,” Mia said. “Take as much of it as you need to figure out who you are and what you want to do.”

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