Page 57 of Never Forget
He shifted Rosie to one side and pulled me into a hug. His arm felt solid around my shoulders. "Congratulations, Jamie."
When he pulled back, he was smiling. For a second I was thirteen again, my heart doing that stupid thing it used to do whenever Sam Reeves looked at me like I mattered. I looked away before I could think too much about it.
Rosie tugged at my sleeve. "Can we get ice cream?"
"Yeah, sweetheart. We can get ice cream."
Sam drove us to the place on Broad Street with the homemade waffle cones. Rosie sat between us in the booth, chattering about nothing, sticky fingers and pink ice cream on her chin. Sam caught my eye over her head and smiled.
For a moment, sitting there, we felt like a family.
I called Mark that night, after Rosie was asleep.
"It's official," I said. "The guardianship went through."
"Jamie, that's wonderful." I could hear the smile in his voice. "Congratulations! I know how much this means to you."
"It does."
"So when are you coming home?"
I looked at the guardianship papers on the kitchen table.
"There are still some things I need to take care of here. There’s the reform proposal and Jack's LODD reclassification. I'm not done yet."
The pause on the other end of the line lasted a beat too long.
"Right." His voice was still warm, but something underneath it had shifted. "I was hoping... I thought maybe after the hearing, you'd be ready to come back."
"I know. I'm sorry. I just—I can't leave this unfinished."
"I understand."
He did. That was Mark. He always understood. He'd been patient and steady and present through all of it, and he was still being patient now.
Which is why I had to ask.
"Mark, when I come back—I'm bringing Rosie. You know that."
"Of course."
"So I need to know." I gripped the phone tighter. "Are you ready for that? To be a father?"
Silence.
It stretched and filled everything he wasn't saying.
"Jamie...I love you. You know I do."
"That's not what I asked."
I heard him exhale. When he spoke again, his voice was careful.
"I wasn't planning on having kids for another five years. Maybe more." He paused. "I thought we had time to figure it out together."
I closed my eyes.
I'd seen him with Rosie. The way he read her stories. The way he made her laugh. I thought that meant something. I thought it meant he was ready, or close to it. That when the moment came, he'd rise to meet it.
