Can't you see me standing in the shadows of love?

 

Thank God for Brandon. Koda thought he would have lost it that day when he got the call from Vanna about her mysterious trip with Remi.

"I need you to come get me," she said she was at Maisy's.

"Maisy's?" He was furious, and more so when he found out Remi was driving Vanna's car without a license. "How could you?"

Brandon helped out by taking him there after work, and Brandon ended up driving Remi and Dove home.

Koda kept his cool. And there was Cade, whom he knew from work. It was a small world after all. 

Although he didn't know him well, they had chatted at lunch before, and he wasn't certain he'd connected all the dots. Of course, that's what he had Vanna for, who gave him the intense low down of Maisy being a surrogate who ended up with the baby, after all.

"Geeze, that's just crazy," he'd said, clenching the stirring wheel all the way home. He hoped this wasn't going to be his summer wondering what Vanna was doing. He just wanted her to stay home with the baby, but he knew that wasn't realistic.

Finally, after she'd given him a play-by-play of her reunion with her best friend ever and Remi, he turned to her and said, "I think you need to learn to drive on the freeway."

After all, he had his old car that Brandon had helped him fix up to get him to the VA hospital. He hadn't wanted to depend on Vanna's Seoul Kia as their only transportation.

"What!" She looked at him furiously as if he was the one crazy now.

"I can't stop you from anything. I know that. But you just need to do this for yourself. You know, you might want to go to the Farmer's Market by yourself, or go to that museum you want True to see."

He knew it would be up to her. "I'll go with you on a few runs, so..so you'll get used to the traffic."

"I don't want to." She crossed her arms in a pout.

"You know you do, you know in that mind YOU CAN DO ANYTHING."

She wouldn't look at him. She kept quiet after they got home, and of course, he put together a one-pot meal that was ready within the hour.

"You did scare me," he finally confessed. "I wish I could be with you every step of the day, but I can't."

"Stop worrying so much," she sighed. After all, she was going back to work soon. "I wish Maisy were closer, that's all."

"I know." 

Koda wished that too. 

"Are you going to tell Harry about Maisy?" Vanna gave him the eye.

"I'm sure Remi will." 

Koda didn't want to even try to go there with Harry about his past with Maisy. That chapter was done. He seemed happy with who was in his life now. And Mali was getting him to take online classes to help his future with a job at the hospital. 

"Just tell me everything," Koda didn't like being left out of the loop. "I tell you whatever happens. I thought you felt the same way."

"I do." 

Vanna looked at him as if she'd come to a new conclusion. She promised she'd never do anything like this again.