Page 119 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“I’ll have to stop over and visit at some point. Maybe the next time we are on the island. I like to give them some time to adjust and sleep.”

“They both looked tired but not horribly. Lincoln took two weeks off after the birth and then only has been workingweekends when Melanie comes over and stays on the island to help.”

“It’s great they can work that out. I don’t want to step on toes with Justine and Garrett, but they know I’m around to help as much as I need to.”

Which meant that when her niece was born, her parents would be on the island more. Or at least her mother.

That privacy would be gone, but it’s not like Luca didn’t have a place for her to go and stay.

Plenty of time to figure that out.

There were more important things she needed to talk to her mother about.

“Speaking of babies,” she said. “Luca is looking into adopting a newborn.”

“What?” her mother asked. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. It kind of just fell into his lap.”

“How does that fall into anyone’s lap?” her mother asked. “You need to explain this more to me.”

She should have figured it would turn into more than she planned. “He always wanted children. He and Zoe tried for years, but she couldn’t conceive. It was her, not him. She wouldn’t do any kind of fertility treatments or consider adoption and he didn’t feel he had a right to push.”

“That’s sad,” her mother said.

“It is. He’s getting older. He wants a child and though we love each other?—”

“Whoa, stop and rewind. Start there.”

Gabriela laughed. “I do love him. He loves me. Mom, I feel he’s the one. I’ve felt it for a while but have been fearful of saying it. Then last week when this whole adoption thing came up, he was nervous. He’s worried about what it will do to our relationship.”

“It’s going to change a lot,” her mother said. “You know that. You know how much work a child is, especially for a single parent, and then with his hours.”

“I know. We know all those things. We’ve talked about it. Just because we love each other, it’s only been a few months. I’m not going to hold him back on something he’s wanted for what seems like forever when we don’t know what a year could bring with us.”

“I see your point. But it could affect your relationship.”

“It could, both positively or negatively. I know all those things. But if I said I wanted to have a baby now with him, it’d be the same.”

“Are you considering that?” her mother asked, the shocked voice not lost on her. “I mean, adoption is no guarantee, right?”

“Now you need to rewind. I have no intention of getting pregnant right now. And yes, the adoption is not guaranteed. It’s a patient. A teenage girl. She’s having a boy, she doesn’t want the baby, the home situation isn’t ideal and she’d already decided to give the baby up. If Luca wasn’t the one to see this patient that day, it would have gone unnoticed by him most likely.”

“So that is what you mean by it falling into his lap?”

“Yes. I can say her name now, because it’s not in the context of my patient, but rather the person who Luca is planning on adopting a baby from. Her first name is Taylor. He talked to her yesterday. She’s kind of excited that someone she knows wants her baby. She’s living with her aunt, who is equally excited over it.”

She was positive a lot of it had to do with Luca saying that he expects Taylor to take care of herself, not just for the baby but for her.

He’d told her that Taylor almost felt relieved that there was a plan in place. The same with Cora.

“And what part are you playing in this? How is he going to manage this with his job? He hasn’t even been employed a year to get Family Medical Leave.”

“But he has vacation and we don’t work the same schedule. For the first few months, I’ll watch the baby while he’s working.”

“Gabriela. I know you love him. I know you love kids, but that’s asking a lot. You work a lot during your rotation and then to care for a newborn for over eighty hours to follow up with the eight you just worked. You’re going to burn out.”

She ground her teeth. “If it were my child I’d be doing that anyway. Where is it any different?”