Page 45 of This Is Love (The Light to My Darkness 3)

“Yes we do, James. He’s going to live.” There wasn’t a doubt in her voice.

I wanted to believe her. I desperately wanted her to be right. “You don’t know…”

“He kicked, James. We had a discussion and he kicked and that means he’s going to stay and fight.”

All throughout her pregnancy, Penny always claimed that Liam’s constant kicking was him agreeing with her. That they were on the same page. I wasn’t going to deny her this. And I wasn’t going to risk my son’s health because of my stubbornness. “Okay.”

“Okay? And you’ll come with us?”

“A bet is a bet.”

“Thank you, James.” She pressed her face to the side of my chest as she wrapped her arms behind my back. “I’m going to fix everything I broke.”

And that’s when I realized that she blamed everything that happened on herself. She was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. And I was letting her take it. Because I was tired. And she was right. I wasn’t fine. But I didn’t know how to tell her that. I didn’t know how to tell her that I was having a hard time catching my breath. That my physical therapy wasn’t helping. That I might need to have another surgery soon. We were already worried about our family becoming three instead of four. I didn’t have the strength to tell her that it might become two instead.

PART 3

Chapter 13

Tuesday - Penny

Scarlett clung to me even tighter as Susan approached us.

“Hi, darling,” Susan said. She put her hands on her knees and leaned down slightly. She looked stiff and uncertain and definitely didn’t seem to know how to interact with children. And then she put out her hand. Like she was waiting for Scarlett to take it and kiss the back of it.

I tried to ignore Susan’s oddities. I was on my knees with my arms wrapped around Scarlett, who refused to let go of me. “This is your grandma,” I whispered in Scarlett’s ear. “There’s no reason to be afraid.”

“I already have a grandma.” She looked up at me with her eyes full of questions.

“Yeah. But you know how you have two grandpas? My dad and Daddy’s dad?”

“Yes. I have two grandpas and only one grandma.”

“Well, that’s the thing, Scar. You have two grandmas too. This is Daddy's mother.”

“No.” She got really close to my ear and whispered, “It’s the bad Dalmatian lady.”

I stifled a laugh. Honestly Susan didn’t look anything like Cruella de Vil. She didn’t have half black hair and half white. She wasn’t wearing any fur. I think it was probably more the air that Susan gave off. One of snobby sophistication. And maybe a slight tinge of murderiness. It was hard for me to like her too. But I was trying. For James’ sake, we both had to try.

“Is she shy?” Susan asked. “That’s a rather unfavorable characteristic. Come here child. I want to meet you.”

“Actually Scarlett isn’t shy at all. Are you, Scar?” I had been terribly shy growing up. I still was around new people. But my closest friends knew that I was quite talkative around anyone I was comfortable with. I tried to ignore Susan’s snub. This wasn’t about me. This was about our family being put back together. And this was part of that.

“I don’t know what shy is,” she whispered into my ear.

My sweet baby girl. I hugged her tightly and kissed the side of her forehead. “It’s okay, go say hi to your other grandma.” I reluctantly let go of her.

Susan put her hand back out for a friendly shake of some sort.

But Scarlett ducked under it and hugged her leg.

For a moment Susan looked like she didn’t know what to do. And I watched in horror as she lifted her hand like she was going to pat my child on the head. Like a dog. But at the last minute she got down onto her knees, in her expensive dress and nylons and hugged my daughter back.

“Nice to meet you, Grandma,” Scarlett said. “Do you want to see my room? I have lots of stuffies to play with.”

“Stuffies?”

“Pandas and monkeys and all the zoo animals.”

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