Craved Mate: Cybermates, Ayers, Candace [the rosie project .txt] 📗

should have gotten an abortion. I don’t want any of this. I just want to live my life. If you like her so much, you take her.”

“Jenny, you can’t just give your child away!” I focused on Heather and Warren. “Tell her she can’t just give her child away!”

“People do it all the time, Uncle Mac. There’s even a word for it. It’s called adoption.” Jenny huffed. “Someone will take her. She’s a cute kid.”

I growled.

A honk sounded through the phone in the background.

“Gotta go. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” She giggled as though the whole thing was some big joke to her.

Stunned, I just stared at the phone wondering what the fuck had just happened. I glared at my sister. “How could you just let her get away with that?”

She looked up from Warren and broke into sobs. “I don’t know what else to do.”

Warren had tears streaming down his face.

I swore and moved over to them so I could rest a hand on both of them while Heather fell apart in Warren’s arms. “I’m sorry. I’m just angry, Heather. You didn’t do anything wrong. That girl is just… Ugh!”

Heather sniffled. “She’s just young and confused.”

I ground my teeth to keep my opinions of my niece to myself. “What about Ame?”

Heather pushed her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “She’s our granddaughter. We’ll take care of her.”

I stared at the two of them, both barely holding on as the stress and fear weighed them down. “No. I want to adopt her.”

“What?”

I cleared my throat and nodded. I could look confident, even if internally I was shitting my pants. “I’ll adopt her. I couldn’t love Amethyst more if she were my own daughter, and I’ve been taking care of her for months. I’ve loved her from the first day I saw her. She needs so much and you’re both already so overwhelmed. Please.”

Warren looked up at me and covered my hand with his own. “We appreciate everything you do for us, don’t think we haven’t noticed and aren’t grateful, but we won’t burden you with our grandkid, Mac. You have a life. From what I heard through the gossip vine, you have a mate that you’re being stupid about. You don’t need a kid.”

“You don’t understand. Ame is not a burden to me.” And I meant that. I didn’t realize how much I meant that until I heard the words from my own mouth. “Being a single dad isn’t perfect and won’t be easy, but I’m already doing it. Unless you’re going to tell me that you can balance everything going on and a little one who will be walking soon, I think you should consider letting me take her.”

Warren and Heather stared at each other. They were clearly having a silent mental conversation.

It dawned on me that I hadn’t adequately expressed my feelings. “No, wait a minute. It’s not like that. We’re talking about Ame as though she’s a thing we have to hand off, but that’s not it at all. It’s not who will take her. I want her. I want to be a dad to her. I want to teach her how to read, and throw a baseball, and cook a mean eggplant parmesan. I want to drop her off on her first day of kindergarten and be the one to go to parent-teacher conferences. I feel in my heart that drool-dlebug is supposed to be with me.”

Heather was eyeing me with an odd expression. “What if Jenny comes back and tries to claim parental rights? It could get messy. Jenny’s our daughter, and despite our disappointment with her right now, we will never turn our backs on her no matter how misguided she is, and Ame is our granddaughter. We’re all family.”

“I’d never keep Jenny away from Ame, or vice versa, unless it was in Ame’s best interest.” I had little hope that Jenny would see the light anytime soon, and in the meantime, Ame deserved a good life with a parent who loved and truly wanted her. “We’ll figure that out if we get there.”

The reality of the situation settled over us, and I found myself sinking into the chair across from Warren. Resting my hands on the table, I sighed. “Life throws curveballs.”

“Yeah.” Warren barked a laugh. “It sure does.” Then, he looked longingly over at the liquor cabinet they kept locked up tight and sighed again. “I’d kill for a whiskey.”

Heather kissed the side of his head and sat beside him. “No.”

Warren shook his head and looked back at me. “So tell us about this mate and why you won’t be with her because she’s human.”

Heather’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, tell us about that.”

I held my hands up. “Not much to tell. She’s not right for me.” The lie didn’t feel great. “It is what it is. She’s gone and I don’t know where she went. Easy as that.”

“What’s wrong with a human mate?” Warren grunted. “Besides the obvious.”

Heather watched the way Warren gestured to his beat-down body and her eyes narrowed as she looked back at me. “Yes, Mac. Tell us why you’re not willing to mate with a human.”

I growled. “You know why.”

Warren looked between us and then scoffed. “Me? You won’t take a human mate because of me?”

“He means because you got sick.” Heather scowled and stood up. Marching over to the liquor cabinet, she grabbed the whiskey and took a long pull from it. “You’re really that big of a chickenshit?”

Warren stared at the bottle but spoke to me. “That’s fucked. Your sister and I have had worlds together before this. You know that. You saw some of them.”

Heather slammed the cabinet shut and glared at me. “You rejected her because you’re afraid.”

“I couldn’t do this, Heather.” I swallowed and looked away. “I wouldn’t be strong enough.”

“If you don’t go after your mate, you’re a fool.” Warren wheeled himself away from the table. “Come on, Heather. Bedtime.”

“You’ll never forgive yourself if you waste more of the time you could