For Our Son: A BWWM Parenting Romance For Adults (9 page)

"What would you have asked me?"

"That’s one of the main reasons I quit, actually. I didn’t want to
hear most of the answers to the questions I was asking."

Grace admired Ryan’s honesty. Silence fell upon the car once again.

"Probably what your perspective on the whole…you know…was...” Ryan
failed to finish his thought for fear that Grace would give him an answer.

"You don’t know?" Grace asked. If her memory served correctly,
she had made her feelings abundantly clear to Ryan.

"I know what I think your perspective is. But you’ve actually never
said…with words. You gave me the silent treatment for awhile. I guess I could
read between the lines a little." Ryan looked over at Grace briefly and
grinned.

"Well that’s a pretty broad question." Grace couldn’t even
begin to answer him.

"Basically, I’d ask if you think I ruined your life,” Ryan blurted
out.

"No.” Grace frowned. "Why would you think that?"

"Because…remember how you wanted to wait before having sex and I
talked you into it? I know you had lots of things you wanted to do, but then
you got pregnant, and…”

"Yeah, but that didn’t stop me from doing any of the things I
wanted to do…except maybe becoming a fitness model,” Grace joked.

"So you don’t blame me for everything?"

"Ryan, people don’t get pregnant by themselves. Even if I wanted to
blame you for everything, I couldn’t. I was there, too. And I wanted to be with
you as much as you wanted to be with me."

Grace’s last sentence embarrassed her to say. She hoped Ryan wouldn’t
comment about it and he didn’t. She quickly changed the subject to one of
airline food, or lack thereof. Ryan seemed eager to discuss the new topic and
pretty soon Grace and Ryan were chatting away about issues that didn’t require
much depth or emotion.

Once they arrived at the airport, Grace checked her purse for her flight
itinerary. Ryan put a baggage tag on his luggage and helped Grace with her
three bags.

"Where are you sitting?" Grace asked Ryan for his seat number.

"Next to you. The seat was available when I made my flight
arrangements,” Ryan stated matter-of-factly.

Grace didn’t say as much, but she was glad Ryan was going to be next to
her on the plane. She was uneasy about flying and it would be nice to have
someone familiar to share the ride with.

After they’d boarded the plane and all the small talk was done, Grace
settled back with a magazine. Ryan donned a pair of headphones and began
watching the in-flight movie. As he was fiddling with the cord, Grace glanced over
at his hands. She had always loved the look of Ryan’s hands, and now they were
just a grown up version of what she had admired in her youth. When she looked
up he was watching her. She quickly turned her attention back to the magazine.

"This movie is stupid,” Ryan announced. He took off the headphones
and placed them in their original position. Across the aisle, Grace saw a few
people following suit.

Ryan reclined his seat and put his head back in preparation of taking a
little nap. Grace finished flipping through her magazine before sitting back
and closing her eyes. In a matter of minutes, both she and Ryan were fast
asleep.

It seemed like the blink of an eye before the pilot was speaking over
the loudspeaker that the nonstop flight had arrived in San Francisco, CA. Grace
opened her eyes and noticed that she was resting her head on Ryan’s shoulder.
She quickly straightened up. Although Ryan had been awake, he pretended to be
awakened by Grace’s returning of her seat to an upright position. He stretched
and faked a yawn.

"Are we there yet?" he asked.

"Yes, thank goodness. I hate airplanes."

"Me too."

The real adventure began when Ryan and Grace arrived at their hotel. Ryan
supplied his reservation confirmation number and received his room key no problem.
When Grace stepped up to the counter with her confirmation number and credit
card, the front desk associate had a surprise for her.

"We don’t have a room in your name,” he stated flatly.

"I beg your pardon?" Grace was tired and she was certain she
hadn’t heard correctly.

"Thompson? There isn’t one in our system.” The young man repeated
himself.

"But I have a confirmation number,” Grace insisted.

"Yeah…I don’t know what to tell you."

Customer service training was obviously lacking in this hotel chain. Grace
requested to speak with a manager. After a few minutes, a woman who appeared to
be in the middle of her lunch break came and stood before Grace.

"How can I help you?" she asked dryly.

"I made reservations for a room and now I’m being told I have no
reservation. I even have a confirmation number." Grace restated her
dilemma.

"We show nothing under that number,” the manager said.

"You did." Ryan stepped up beside Grace. "Because when I
called, I gave her number and said I wanted to book for the same dates she
had."

"And you have a room?" the manager looked at Ryan.

Ryan nodded and provided the paperwork he’d just been given. The manager
punched a few numbers in the computer screen. Suddenly the expression on her
face changed completely. She became extremely cordial.

"Are you two together?" she asked.

"Traveling together, yes,” Grace clarified.

"Okay, well I see what happened…” The manager smiled to soften the
blow. "Whoever made your reservation," she pointed at Ryan,
"must have thought you wanted to be with her…they combined your
reservation with hers and that generated a new confirmation number and voided
the old one."

"What?" Grace didn’t understand.

"So what you’re saying is…you gave me her room?" Ryan asked.

"Well, we added a guest to your room."

"So there are two beds in my room?"

"Um…let me check…actually, no. There’s one queen sized bed."

"Okay, well we know what went wrong so can we just fix it. I’m
really tired." Grace rubbed her forehead.

"Actually we’re booked solid. There’s a medical convention in town
and since this is a university city…" the manager shrugged as if that
information spoke for itself.

"So what you’re telling me is that because of your mistake, I’m
left to sleep in my car? Is that what you’re saying?" Grace positioned
herself for a fight.

Ryan watched Grace’s temper flare. He tried to hide the smile that
threatened to smile across his face. It had been a long time since he’d seen Grace
in action. He had always liked her feisty nature.

"This is all my fault, so, Grace, you take the room and I’ll sleep
in the car,” Ryan offered.

"No way. This is
their
fault and they’re going to fix
it!" Grace pointed at the front desk personnel. "Can you call another
hotel or something?"

"We can, but we’ve been calling all night for other customers and I
don’t know of any vacancies in the area. But we will keep trying,” the manager
assured them.

"Is there a hotel manager I can speak to?" Grace wasn’t quite
satisfied.

The front desk manager looked concerned that Grace wanted to talk her complaint
higher, but she picked up the phone anyway.

Shortly after, a man resembling a used car salesman emerged from an
office across the hall. He wore a very insincere smile and nodded a lot. He
wasn’t much help, telling Grace that even their most expensive suites were
engaged for the convention. He did offer to waive the charge on Ryan’s room and
to contact them as soon as something else became available, but as of right
then, they were stuck.

Ryan pulled Grace aside so that he could speak to her without the
audience of the hotel staff listening in.

"Let’s just take the room, get rested up a bit and get something to
eat. I’m sure we’ll be able to think better when we’ve got full bellies." Ryan
smiled.

"Ryan, I’m exhausted and I don’t want to spend the night searching
for a place to sleep. And Matthew’s surgery is at ten tomorrow morning. I need
to get some sleep." Grace’s weariness was beginning to show.

Ryan handed Grace his room key.

"And what are you going to do?" Grace asked him.

Ryan shrugged. "Right now, I’m going to get something to eat. After
that…who knows."

"Should we just share a room?"

"I don’t think we have any choice."

They had both finally come to the only obvious solution. When they
looked over at the front desk, they saw that the manager had also realized
this.

When Ryan and Grace entered their hotel room, Grace looked over at the
bed and then back at Ryan. He seemed to read her mind.

"I can ask them to bring in a cot or something,” he suggested.

"That’ll work." Grace had forgotten all about cots.

Apparently she was the only one, because when they called down to the
front desk to request one, there were none available.

"This just isn’t our lucky night." Ryan sighed.

"Yeah, or the universe really wants us to sleep together." Grace
attempted a joke. When she saw the look on Ryan’s face, she tried to rephrase
her statement. "I didn’t mean
sleep
together. Just share a
bed." The more she spoke the worse it sounded. "So you’re going out
for food?"

"Yeah." Ryan answered. "Do you want something?"

"I’m so tired I don’t even want to think about eating, but then
I’ll probably wake up in the middle of the night ravenous. I’ll take some
chicken from wherever you go."

When Ryan left, Grace took that opportunity to jump in the shower. She
didn’t want to be naked while he was actually in the room with her.

The shower did a lot to calm her frazzled nerves. The heat lamp in the
bathroom penetrated her aching muscles and relaxed her even more than the
shower had. She dried herself off before wrapping herself in the hotel robe.
She loved hotel robes.

As Grace rummaged through her suitcase it became quickly apparent that
none of her pajamas were suitable for sharing a bed with another person. She
usually slept in a T-shirt and underwear, something she had brought an
abundance of. However, if she wore that, coupled with the comment she’d made
earlier, Ryan would definitely think she was coming on to him. And that
couldn’t have been further from the truth.

When Ryan finally returned, Grace was under the covers with the sheet
pulled up to her chin. The white terrycloth robe was visible on her shoulders.

"You sleep in a robe?" Ryan asked.

"I do tonight,” Grace said as she accepted her chicken sandwich
from him.

"Oh yeah…I just sleep in boxers. That’s all I have,” Ryan said
apologetically.

"It’s not like we were planning to share a room or anything,” Grace
said.

As they ate, Grace noticed Ryan glance over at the phone and then his
watch several times.

"Expecting a call?" she asked him.

"Actually, I should make a call. My phone’s dead though…”

"Well do you want to use mine while it charges?"

"Nah. There's caller ID. I can only imagine what my girlfriend
would think if I called her from your phone at night."

"What? We just arrived and we took take the same flight. It’s not
that odd that you’d be with me."

"I know, it's just…I didn’t exactly tell her we were traveling
together."

"Why not?"

"Just seemed easier."

"Oh yeah, I forgot how she feels about this whole situation."
Actually, Grace hadn’t forgotten, but it was her way of reminding Ryan, in a
non-threatening way, of that horrible encounter on the first occasion she’d met
Sophia.

"Yeah…I’m sorry about the way she acted that day, by the way."

"We’re all adults. You can’t be responsible for other people’s
behavior."

"I know, but still…"

Ryan and Grace ate the rest of their meal in silence. When they were
done, Ryan accepted Grace’s garbage and put it in the receptacle by the door. Grace
shed the robe she was wearing and slid down underneath the covers. She listened
as Ryan took his turn in the bathroom, showering, urinating and brushing his
teeth. It seemed like such an intrusion – her being there with him.

When the light from the bathroom cut into the darkness of the rest of
the room, Grace quickly shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She didn’t
want Ryan to feel uncomfortable at the prospect of her having heard him
relieving himself. She also didn’t want him to feel exposed as he walked across
the room in only his underwear.

"Should I request a wake up call?" Ryan asked. He knew Grace
wasn’t asleep.

"I already did,” she whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Ryan whispered back.

Grace laughed. "I don’t know."

Ryan fluffed his pillow and then settled down for a much needed rest.

It all seemed
innocent enough. By no action of their own, they had been forced to share a
hotel room, and a bed, but they were making due. They respected one another’s
privacy and slept as far on their sides of the bed as possible, but as the night
progressed and their subconscious minds took over, Ryan and Grace drifted
closer and closer together. By the time the sun replaced the moon a few hours
later, they were completely entangled in each other's arms.

Chapter fourteen

By the time Ryan awoke the next morning, Grace was already showered and
dressed. She was bustling around the hotel room with a brush in one hand and a
shoe in the other. Ryan eyed the clock. It was after eight.

"Grace! How come you didn’t wake me up?" He jumped out of bed.

"I did. Three times. You wouldn’t get up,” Grace said as she
focused on what she was doing.

"Was there a wake up call?" Ryan asked.

"Of course not." Grace was going to make it a point to put
another complaint in to the front desk.

"This hotel sucks!" Ryan hollered as he disappeared into the
bathroom. The shower spray began immediately.

When Ryan emerged, dripping wet with a towel around his waist,  Grace
quickly diverted her eyes as he walked across the room and grabbed his clothes.

"How much time do we have?" he asked as he entered the
bathroom once again.

"About ten minutes." Grace tried to remain calm. She hated
being late, but she especially hated being late for this. Matthew’s doctors
were not going to wait and Grace wanted to see the little boy before he was
wheeled into the operating room.

"I’ll be ready. Don’t worry,” Ryan promised.

And true to his word, he was. With his hair still wet and unkempt, Ryan
stuck his feet into his shoes and headed for the door.

"You have some toothpaste there," Grace pointed to the corner
of Ryan’s mouth.

"Thanks." Ryan wiped it away before he and Grace hurried
through the door.

Luckily the trip to the hospital was a short one. Ryan trailed behind Grace
as she hurried up to Steve and Monica Woodcraft, the couple that had adopted Matthew
eight years prior.

"Are we too late?" Grace asked frantically.

"No, they’re running a little behind schedule. Matthew’s just
taking a little rest. His room is over here." Monica led the way. As they
walked, Monica handed Grace and Ryan orange ribbons. The ribbons symbolized
leukemia and their support in fighting the disease. Ryan and Grace both pinned
the ribbons onto their shirts.

Quietly, Ryan joined Grace at Matthew’s bedside. He looked down at the young
boy whose skin resembled a lighter shade of Grace’s. Prior to chemotherapy, his
hair had been curly, also like Grace’s. But then Matthew stirred and opened his
eyes…those he got from his father.

A small gasp was heard from Grace when she realized Matthew’s eyes were
on her. He looked at her and Ryan as if they were strangers.

"Mom?" he called.

At first Grace thought he was talking to her, but his eyes began to
search the room until they landed on Monica.