She took him by the hand and led him to the sofa, where he glanced at the clock on the cable box. He had an hour, and he’d gladly give a few minutes of that time to her.

Sitting next to him, she took his hand and curled her fingers around his. “It’s been almost a year since we lost John. His death woke me up to the fact that life is short, and all that matters in the grand scheme of things are the people I love. I want to be here with Alex. I want to take some time to plan our wedding and maybe have a baby of our own.” She looked up at him with a shy smile that slayed him. “I don’t want to look back and have regrets. I talked to Nick about it—”

“You talked to Nick? Before you talked to me?”

“My decision is going to simplify your life and complicate his. I thought he had the right to know what I was thinking when I first started thinking it.”

“You should’ve told me,” he said, trying not to be irritated that she’d told her boss and friend first.

Raising a saucy brow, she said, “So you could talk me out of it?”

“No, so we could make this decision together.”

“I didn’t want to stress you out when you had so many other things on your mind. I’m only telling you now because I thought it might help today in court to tell the judge that your fiancée will be devoted full-time to Alex’s care.”

“It stresses me out to know you had something this major on your mind and didn’t feel like you could talk to me about it.”

“So you’re bummed because you weren’t the first to know? I didn’t really expect that reaction.”

He stood, unable to contain the energy zinging around inside him. “I’m not bummed. How could I be when you’re offering to do such a huge thing for our family?”

She came up behind him, putting her arms around him and refusing to let him put distance between them. “Then what is it?”

“What if you do all this and we lose custody? Have you thought of that?”

“No, I haven’t, because we’ll get custody. How can we not after all we’ve done and been to him since he came into our lives?”

“I wish I shared your confidence. I have a very bad feeling about this.”

“Tommy, look at me.”

Reluctant to show her his turmoil, he turned to her.

“It’s all going to be fine. I know it is. We’re his family, and he’ll know his real mother, but the judge isn’t going to take him away from you.”

“You have no way to know that for sure,” he said, even if her assurances bolstered his flagging confidence.