Page 21 of A Return For Ren

Zara felt the chills going down her spine. “Did she?”

“No. She went back to her car and returned with two boxes. That’s it,” he said. “My son’s life was in two boxes. Clothes, some toys and his documents. Birth certificates, medical records. Who his doctor was. She lived about thirty minutes away.”

“At least she was smart enough to include those things. But to me that meant she was never coming back,” she said. “How could you know that at that point?”

“She knew,” he said. “She said she was in a bad place. She was shaking and looked hungover. She liked to party and drink. I figured she was. It made me wonder how well Max had been taken care of. Her parents didn’t live around there that I could remember. She had no other family.”

Zara shook her head. “He’s so well adjusted though.” And the abandoned comment made more sense to her now.

“It’s taken months for me to get him that way. I won’t go into how hard it was. It’s still hard. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here and end up with road rash more often than not. If it wasn’t for Colin and Dee, I’m not sure what I would have done.”

Obviously not come back here. “Your mother would have helped.”

“She didn’t find out about Max until a few days ago when I showed up with him.”

“That’s wrong, Ren,” she said firmly.

“It is,” he said. “It was. She was upset and hurt I didn’t tell her when I came back for my father’s funeral. It wasn’t the time. Too much change for her. Too much for me too. Life was finally settled down as much as it could. I’ve got lawyers working on changing Max’s last name to mine. Thankfully I had the birth certificate and then Rachelle’s death certificate. It was all easy enough after that. Nothing is fast in the legal system it seems.”

“What happened to Rachelle?”

“She overdosed. They found her at home a few days after she’d died. One of her friends hadn’t heard from her and went to check. I didn’t remember her doing drugs, but maybe she kept it from me. Or she started after Max was born. I tried not to think she was doing them while she was pregnant. I’ve had him looked over and checked by two different doctors. It’s a worry I’ve got.”

“I’m sorry for that,” she said. “He’s young enough now they might not know any long term effects.”

“So they said, but he’s growing well. Above average. He’s hitting all his milestones on time if not faster. So far so good.”

Looking around at the toys, she’d noticed most were geared toward learning and development. It reminded her that as much of a jerk as Ren was to her, he had a heart of gold prior to their breakup.

He put others first.He was always doing things she wanted to do when they went on dates. He’d helped a little old lady put gas in her car once when they were teens. He even paid for it when the woman realized she didn’t have enough cash.

He did simple things that touched her heart but then crushed it later on. It was so hard for her to understand he was the same person.

He cared and he’d work hard to make sure his mother didn’t. Tess Whitney worked a ton and Ren hated it. He took the shifts he could to help her, but it didn’t always pan out.

It just seemed to Zara she hadn’t fallen into that category of someone he would never want to hurt.

7

The Best In People

Zara was feeding Max his dinner when the pizza was delivered.

“I can finish doing that while we eat?” he said when he came back to the kitchen with the box in his hand.

“I do this all the time. I’m a pro at it,” she said.

“The point that you do it all the time is why I can,” he said.

“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s nice to do it and not feel rushed or worry there is another child waiting their turn.”

“I couldn’t do what you do,” he said. “But you’ve always had this crazy amount of patience.”

It was a good trait and a flaw in his eyes.

Zara always found the best in people. And when the worst was exposed she brushed it off. Or she gave people the benefit of the doubt.

She didn’t get mad. She didn’t shout. She didn’t scream.