Page 19 of Woven Hearts
He hums, turning toward me and burying his face against my chest. My heart swells and he nuzzles into me, bringing his hand up to grasp my side and run his thumb along my skin. “What phone call? To the therapist?”
The… therapist? “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“For Eli,” he mumbles.
Ah, makes sense. “No. To my mom.”
He rolls to his back, not opening his eyes. His brows pull together for a second, his face frozen in confusion, and then he squints an eye open. “Your mom?”
I can’t resist leaning in to steal a quick kiss. He looks so fucking adorable. All confused and sleep-mussed. He kisses me back for a second, but then he pulls back with a gasp. “Oh fuck. Your mom.”
There you go, beautiful. “Yeah, we may have fucked up. We need to call them. But how do you say, ‘Hey, Mom, we’ve got a kid now?’”
Roman chuckles, dragging his hand down his face and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Uh, I’m not sure. Probably just like that, right? Or, ‘Congrats, you’re a grandparent again.’”
Sleepy brown eyes lock on mine, and my heart stumbles at the brightness there. I’m so glad that it seems none of the demons from last night followed him into this morning. “Jesus, beautiful.”
He raises an eyebrow. “What?”
Tangling my fingers in his thick hair, I brush my lips along his collarbone and work my way to his mouth, smiling at the hitch in his breath. “I’m just thinking about how apt your nickname is. You reallyareso fucking beautiful.”
His face flushes bright pink. “Okay. Let’s call your mom,” he says, sitting up.
I chuckle at his clear dismissal of my compliment and sit up with him. Grabbing my phone, I turn it over in my hands while I think about how this call needs to go. This really is nerve-wracking. She probably gave up hope that Roman and I would ever give her grandkids. Not that she isn’t grandma to Wren and Warren. Lord, she has those two spoiled. Even worse than I do, I dare say. Roman cocks his head at me as if to ask what the fuck I’m doing. I have no idea why I’m so nervous about this. Unless it’s because part of me fears that Eli won’t want to stay with us.
“Baby.” I turn fully to Roman, and he reaches out, taking the phone from my hands. “It’s going to be okay. Let’s call, yeah?”
I nod, exhaling a shaky breath. “Okay, yeah.”
He unlocks my phone and dials the number. My heart jumps into my throat the second it starts ringing and my pulse skyrockets. When Mom answers, I can’t even talk. “Give me a second, love. I’ve got to get toan exam room.” I try to swallow. Once, twice, three times. It doesn’t help. “Okay, I’m good. What’s going on? You guys okay?”
Roman’s eyebrows raise and he stares at me. “Yeah, Lydia, we’re okay,” Roman says, saving my ass.
“Oh. Hey, darling. It’s nice to hear from you.” The genuine happiness in her voice brings me so much joy. Ilovehow much she loves Roman.
“We have some news,” he says, gripping my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I’m all ears.”
Roman watches me for a second, and I force a deep breath into my lungs. “Roman and I are fostering.”
She’s quiet for a second. “That’s wonderful.”
That’s not all, dumbass. Tell her the rest.My throat closes up. Why is this making me so nervous? I look at Roman with what I’m sure are wide, panicked eyes. He clears his throat. “We’re hoping to adopt him. If he’d like for us to.”
“What?” Her voice is whisper-soft and full of disbelief. Roman opens his mouth to speak, and thank God because Ican’t, but Mom cuts him off with a scream. A happy scream. But a loud scream, so loud that it cuts out the phone speaker and sounds like her voice is cutting in and out.
Roman laughs, happiness lighting up his features, and my stomach does a wild flip.
When Mom’s finally done screaming, she laughs. “Perfect. I need all the details. Tell me about my grandchild.”
Roman smiles, his eyes soft and gooey. Good God, you’d think after all this time, I’d be less enamored with this man and not more, but no. He’s constantly in my thoughts. Always. It’s like every day that passes, I love him more and more. It feels impossible, and yet… it’s so fucking true.
“His name is Eli,” I say. “He’s fourteen. He came to the Hart Foundation a couple of days ago. We brought him home last night. He’s still a little overwhelmed with everything, but we’d love for you and Dad to come meet him soon.”
“And just in time for the wedding,” Mom muses, her voice dreamy.
I’d almost roll my eyes, but she really does love all of us so much. She’s going to shit herself when she finds out that Julian and Hold are getting engaged soon too. And I can say this with confidence since Julian told me that he was going to ask Hold and Hold told Roman he was going to ask Julian.
