Aria grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. “This isn’t his fault. He wanted to raise the baby with me. I rejected him. None of this is his fault.”

Her confession took the wind out of his sails. “Oh. Well, then. Are you stupid?”

“Shut up,” Cooper told Justin. “She must have her reasons. Give her a break.”

“It’s his parents,” Donna said. “She hates them.”

“Can’t pick your family,” Cooper said, changing his tune. “Give the man a break.”

She rolled her eyes at his abrupt change of opinion. It couldn’t really be that simple, could it? Then again, maybe it was. She loved Eli. She loved him for his rare smile, his determination, and his good heart. Was putting up with his parents really too high of a price to pay? What sort of person would she be to ignore real love?

Not someone she could be proud of.

“Coop, you’re a genius!” She planted a kiss on his cheek. Her brother, the handsome ex-soldier. A genius. Who knew?

“Well, yeah.” He grinned. “It took you a while to notice.”

“I have to see Eli,” she said, flying out the door. “I love him.”

While Aria was leaving her parents’ house, Eli was on the phone to his mother.

“You knew what you were doing to me when you brought Victoria to that fundraiser,” he accused her. “Every comment you made and every action you took belittled Aria and drove her away. Never mind that I had chosen to date her. You didn’t think she was good enough. You’ve ruined everything.”

“Darling, I saved you. Your future is with your business in Auckland, not in some inconsequential town with some nobody girl.”

“My future is exactly what I choose it to be,” Eli snapped, the last cords of his temper fraying. “Aria and my baby. That’s what I want. And Teri. Jesus Christ, she deserves better. If she wants to run the company one day, then fine. But that’s her call. If she wants to come back and stay with me here, as far as I’m concerned, she can. You know, there’s a good chance she will. There’s not much for her at home.”

“I’m sorry you feel like that,” Frances said more softly, and Eli thought that maybe, just maybe, she meant what she was saying. Either way, he had to press on.

“I want you to be part of my life, Mother. I want my kid to have a nana and granddad, but you have to decide whether you can accept the decisions I’ve made. Do you think you can do that?”

“I can try,” she replied, as serious as he’d ever heard her. “If you’ll give me another chance.”