Page 108 of Knot Convenient
I bit my lip. Usually, I wouldn’t let him put himself out for me, but the desire for a cinnamon bun was winning out. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. It’ll take me forty minutes, max, if she’s busy this morning. I’ll go as soon as I’ve cleaned up the toast monster.”
“You are a gem, you know that?” I asked as he beamed.
“I know, but you can tell me again.” He laughed, leaning down to kiss the top of my head on the way to clean up Milo. “Can you handle the toast monster for an hour?”
“Considering he is already half asleep, thanks to said toast, I think I’ll be fine.” I smirked, scrunching my nose at Emmett.
In no time, Emmett had Milo squeaky clean, and I’d consumed enough of the ginger tea to be only slightly nauseated. Emmett grabbed his keys on the way out and headed off to get me my breakfast craving. He really did spoil me, and I was so grateful for it.
I took a few moments, finishing the final cleanup in the kitchen, before picking up my sleepy baby and carrying him upstairs for his nap. For a moment, I considered joining him because a nap sounded fantastic, even though I’d just woken up.
“Rest up, buddy.” I laid Milo down, put on the soothing music with his little star lights, and left the room. I didn’t want to sleep the day away. At least not yet, so I’d go downstairs and watch something.
My foot had just hit the bottom step when the doorbell rang.
I was very lucky that Milo slept through anything. We had lived in noisy, high-traffic areas pretty much his entire life, so he had developed the skill of sleeping through constant noise.
Tugging the door open, I was met with a stranger wearing jeans and a polo shirt. I went to open my mouth to tell him that the guys weren’t home, but he spoke so quickly that I didn’t get the chance.
“Summer Winters?” he asked, and there was something about his tone.
My name… it really was a joke. Then again, I loved being part of the pack, so I both adored and despised the name combination at once.
Heartbeat accelerating, I said, “Yes?”
“You’ve been served.” He handed me the folder and, without another word, turned and left, leaving me standing in the doorway holding it, utterly baffled.
I stared down at the envelope in my hand, taking a few seconds for reality to sink in. What the hell?
The moment it did, I closed the door and hurried to the couch, sitting down and ripping open the papers. Thankfully, Milo was still down, so I could give the paperwork my full attention.
It took a moment to find the title, but when I did, my breathing faltered.
Petition for custody based on biological relationship.
My stomach dropped, pulse racing. I paused, reread the sentence several times, then paused again. This couldn’t be right. That man wanted to—No.
Milo’s biological father couldn’t petition for custody—he had willingly signed his rights away.
It wasn’t until I came across two familiar names that my chest tightened with horrible understanding.
Connie and Albert Groening.
Jilly’s parents.
The ones who had abandoned her the moment they learned she was pregnant in college. They hadn’t even been there for her during the birth. And when she died…
What the hell is happening?
Jilly had hated her parents before she got pregnant. One evening after she found out, we sat down together, and she told me about how they raised her—or rather, the emotional abuse they subjected her to. They were cold and indifferent. They cared more about grades than they did about her well-being, and she was determined not to raise her own child like that.
In fact, she was the complete opposite of her parents. Jilly was bright and vibrant, had a love of everything colorful, and wanted nothing more than to be a kindergarten teacher.
That was one of the reasons she had asked me to take Milo if anything happened to her, because the idea of her precious baby going to her insufferable parents was inconceivable. So this was…
I read through the papers—again—trying my best to understand the legal wording as the nausea crept back in. Ginger tea couldn’t fix this.
