Elise’s face pinches. She looks uneasy, despite the fact that I’ve been around May since the day she was born. Before then, I had no experience with babies. But neither did April. We figured it out together.

“I don’t know,” Elise says. “That’s not...”

“Mom.”

Elise’s eyes swing to April again before she relents and hands May over to me. I take her carefully, propping one arm under her butt and wrapping my other securely around her back. Elise still looks unhappy with this, but finally she steps back.

“We’ll be right in the cafeteria if you need us,” Grant says, reaching for his wife’s arm.

Once they leave, I sit back down in the uncomfortable chair with May. She’s quieted down now and is smiling at me. I stand her up with her tiny feet on my thighs, holding her under her armpits to keep her steady. God, I love this girl.

April watches me and her daughter together with a combination of fondness and sadness in her eyes.

Having a baby at nineteen certainly wasn’t something April intended. College life had given her a first real taste of freedom, which kind of got the best of her—there was a lot of partying and random hookups. But that freedom didn’t last long when she got pregnant and decided to keep her baby. Suddenly, she was dropping out of school and back home living with her parents (who surprisingly didn’t disown her), ready to do whatever it took to raise May.

If you ask her, though, I bet she’ll say she hasn’t regretted her choice for even a minute. She loves May with everything she has.

And now...

Fuck.

Now she won’t get to see her daughter grow up. And poor May won’t even remember her.

These thoughts bring the tears I didn’t think I had left to my eyes. I try to hold them back as May pouts at me, reaching out and poking my face with her stubby fingers. Sucking in a deep breath, I force a smile for her, and her eyes light up as she coos.

“I need to ask you something.”

I shift my gaze to April. “Yeah?”

“I want you to be May’s guardian.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, distracted by May bouncing on my thighs.

“Brenden.” April’s serious tone yanks my focus back to her. “I’m asking if you’ll adopt her and raise her once I’m gone.”

Everything in the room goes still and silent. Or maybe the low beeping of the machines has been drowned out by the sudden whirring noise in my head. May stops bouncing, as if she’s just as stunned by her mother’s words as I am.

“You want...” I say. “Adopt... I...”