Page 126 of Family Bonds- Gabriela & Luca

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Nope. I’m good.” She stepped under the spray, drenched her head and then put her hand out blindly.

He found the shampoo and slapped it over to her, like he knew exactly what she needed and when.

They were almost too in sync with each other.

And he wasn’t worried in the least over that fact.

36

HE WAS UPFRONT

“Thanks for meeting us on the island for this,” Luca said, shaking his new attorney’s hand.

Adriana Beltron came highly recommended for family court and adoption from Bond Law. He needed the best and took Gabriela’s recommendation to reach out to her cousin’s firm.

The fact that they had a satellite office on the island and were willing to come over with a representative from the adoption agency Adriana worked closely with was only icing on the cake.

He needed to make this as easy as possible for Taylor and Cora, and taking the teen with him to the agency alone wasn’t going to work. Cora couldn’t get the day off, but she could spare a few hours this morning.

“Not a problem,” Adriana said. “And this is Colette.”

“Hi,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Taylor and Cora aren’t here yet.”

He hoped to hell they didn’t change their minds, but it’d be their right to do so.

“I have to say,” Adriana said, “this is a first for me.”

“The private adoption being set up this way?” he asked. Hoping it was that and not the fact that he was Taylor’s doctor. A single man on top of it.

Yeah, it might seem unorthodox to many. He got it.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t give this child a great home full of love.

“No,” Colette said, “We do a lot of private adoptions. That’s not a big deal. Even single parent ones, though it’s rarely a newborn.”

“Then it’s because I’m her pediatrician?”

“Yes,” Adriana said. “There shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve looked into you some myself. Just the basics of your career. I informed Colette that you’re a widower and why you wanted to adopt. That it’d always been an option for you.”

He felt that would only help him if he was upfront with it all.

“Yes. It’s not something my late wife wanted to consider. To be honest, it’s not even something I was looking for right now, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.”

“We’ll meet with Taylor and her aunt first,” Colette said. “We need her to fill out paperwork, then we’ll meet with you and Adriana on what to expect before this can be finalized. It’s a complicated process, but we try to make it as painless as possible.”

He nodded. He had a basic idea of it already.

Had spent the past few weeks reading everything he could and driving his attorney nuts in the process on the best way to proceed.

Should he try to buy a house? Should he have daycare in place now?

Have a solid plan knowing that it might not hold strong?

Then he remembered to dial it back.

There was still so much that could change and this was the first step.

Home visits. Character check references.