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Sliding off the stool, she walked around the counter and hugged her Corrie felt sivenhim about you until ere almost married Unfortunately, it’s still a…a problem between us, even after all these years"
"And I refuse to let history repeat itself," Roy said He tossed the paper aside and returned to the kitchen "Have you told Chad about the baby?"
Gloria bristled "No, and I don’t intend to…at least, not yet" She felt that when she did tell him, she should know her own intentions Adoption re I’ve said"
Gloria didn’t respond She didn’t feel she had to ht that hter what you did," Corrie said angrily
"Fine, I will"
"Tell ain
"Sweetheart," Corrie said, reaching for Gloria’s hands "Chad knows about the baby"
The words went through Gloria with the force of a blow torch
Gloria jerked her hands free of her h she asked the question, she already knew the answer
"I did" Roy stepped forward and confronted her face-to-face "You can hateto let what happened to me happen to another randchild"
Gloria felt the sudden need to sit down
"Furthermore…"
"What else is there?" She wondered what other betrayal he was about to hit her with
"Those books you’re reading didn’t come froave them to you?"
"He asked ht be best"
She drew in a deep breath "In other words, he didn’t want to give theently "You’ve hidden this from him for months What did you expect?"
"Does he know the doctor wants to do an ultrasound?"
"Yes, Mack nant She’d wanted to tell hiht to know--and then she’d learned he was involved with soh without adding another person She’d concluded that it was better to wait until her own plans were clear Only when she’dhireed with her, and he felt strongly enough to go behind her back
"Gloria," Corrie whispered "I’ I could to talk your father out of this"
Gloria looked at Roy, who stared belligerently back at her
"What…what did Chad say? When you told hiet the question out
"At first he was surprised"
"And later?"
"Angry" Roy didn’t try to soften the word "Who wouldn’t be? He has a right to know he’s going to be a father"
"Is…is he still seeing…her?" If Gloria had known the other wootten it As it was, she tried not to think about Chad at all, let alone Chad with that lovely blonde
"You’ll have to ask hi and for a nored it Corrie was the first to move She reached for the receiver while Gloria and Roy looked at each other with no sense of resolution between theaze away from Gloria and went to Corrie’s side He placed his hands on her shoulders while she spoke excitedly into the receiver "Yes, yes I’ll phone you as soon as I’ve got the flight nuive Linnetteup, then threw her ar voice "Linnette had a boy They’ve na approvingly "That’s a nice, solid name"
"How’s Linnette?" Gloria asked
"Fabulous Pete said she was a real trouper Gregory weighed over eight pounds and is al boy," Roy said, srandson" His eyes shone with pleasure and they hugged each other tightly
"That makes oodness, I’ve got to get on the internet and book ht" Corrie raced out of the kitchen
"I’ll call Mack and Mary Jo and tell the off in another direction
"I can help," Gloria offered She glanced around the kitchen and got to work finishing the casserole Corrie had started She was about to place it in the freezer when Roy cah her suitcase one final tiht then?"
He nodded "Before we end here, I wanted to be sure everything’s square between you and me"
Gloria considered the question "It’s square"
"Good"
That was all he said Then Roy was back to his paper, lookingwhile
Gloria left about an hour later She stopped at the grocery store on her way ho there in the darkened lot, sobbing
Gloria wasn’t easily given to tears If anything, she kept her emotions hidden and rarely if ever revealed them to others
The tears were an obvious reaction to the birth of her sister’s son, and to seeing how happy and excited Corrie and Roy were That had to be it