The Adoption - Until I Find You Again // Book Three

Part Five

I turned around, watching as Emily emerged from some brush with Kesse cradled in a cloth sling that was tightly wrapped around her body. He was, most definitely, fast asleep against her chest.

Her eyes met mine, a touch of concern in her face mixed with apprehension. After all, she didn't know how I was going to react. She held my eyes as she walked towards me, Kesse waking up and sliding his arms around her neck. He turned to look at me but made no move to leave her safe embrace. I walked towards her, both of us slowing as we got closer.

I was confused. She'd been so resistant to all of this in the beginning. And now she was holding Kesse like I'd seen her hold Noah a million times. She shrugged,

"Had to at least try...one last time." I swallowed. Emily reached up to wipe some of the sweat from Kesse's forehead, "He showed me around." He turned his head to look at her. She smiled, "Isn't that right?" Kesse smiled and cuddled into her chest. Emily tightened her arms around him, her eyes growing glassy and red with unshed tears as she looked back at me.

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Emily refused to let Kesse go until she put him down into his bunk for his afternoon nap. She sat there for 20 minutes after he'd laid down and listened to him babble words she didn't understand. But she nodded and smiled as if she did. And when she kissed his forehead and told him she'd be there when he woke up, he rolled onto his side and promptly fell asleep.

She kept her eyes on his tiny form buried underneath a light blanket the entire walk out of the room. Once she was out, I took her hand and lead her to an area where we could have a private chat about what had happened this morning.

Only every question I wanted to ask came a distant second to pulling her into my arms and holding her as tightly as I could. Which was what I did first.

"I'm sorry." I heard her voice say in my ear.

I pulled away,

"Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"Scaring you. I didn't mean to scare you. But I knew if we left then you wouldn't wanna come back. And I needed to try again."

"Em-"

She lifted her hand, the tips of her fingers pressing to my lips,

"I need you not to talk right now." I nodded, my eyes wide while I waited for her to speak, "I love you." She whispered, "I would do anything for you." She removed her hand from my mouth, threading her fingers through mine, "I didn't do this because I was forced into it. Or because I thought failing at it would change how you feel about me. I did it because he deserves a chance. He deserves a shot at the best life. He deserves you as his father. He's just a little boy." She smiled up at me, "He's our little boy."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My entire body felt like I was going to shoot up into the sky. I felt every human emotion crash into me at once. I had no words. Nothing that would convey what I felt or what I wanted. So I just pulled her into me and held her against me as tightly as I could. She circled my waist with her arms, resting her cheek against my chest.

We were both unsure of what the future held now that we'd made this decision. We had a lot to talk about. We had two kids to decide how to tell. Not to mention my parents and her parents...and Niall. But we were gonna do this.

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I called the airline and switched our tickets back to the original ones we had. Thankfully the airline wasn't booked so it was a quick fix, though they did charge me out the ass for it. Whatever, I didn't care. I must have sat on hold for 30 minutes with them while I watched Kesse sitting in Em's lap as she read him a story.