Chapter 5

After leaving the hospital, Beck did exactly what he said he was going to do. He went back to the RV and started packing up Jade's things. He worked for a few hours, got himself a late lunch, and then headed back to the hospital to meet Lori and Ethan.

"We don't know how to thank you enough,

Beck. This means the world to us." Lori confessed, for the fifth time.

"You two deserve to be parents. Jade and I just aren't at that stage in our lives yet. It means a lot to us, though, that he gets to stay with his biological family."

Beck took his cousins to the nursery, to show them the baby. Beck informed them of the name he'd chosen for the newborn, and they decided to respect Beck's wish of keeping that as his name. Weston Beck Oliver Collins was signed over to Lorelei and Ethan Collins at 8:45pm.

That was 9 months ago. In those 9 months, life had been strange, to say the least, for Beck. He'd finished out the month and a half left of the semester, and then officially decided he would take a break for the fall semester. His birthday in June was spent alone, in the RV. He secretly hoped Jade didn't have to spend her birthday alone. After spending the entire month of June doing nothing, Beck decided that July would be different. He got an unofficial internship at a local acting training studio. He mostly worked as an assistant to the main teacher, but on occasion, his boss, Penelope Rawlings, let him teach a class.

By December, Beck was settled into his new job, finally getting paid for it, and living in a small studio apartment. He'd been given the apartment by his parents as an early Christmas present. It was also by December that he'd decided to stop going to college. He had already found a job, and went to auditions for small acting jobs at least twice a month. He didn't really understand paying for something that might or might not get him a good job, when he probably has just as good of a chance getting a good job without it.

Jade's 9 months later looked quite different than Beck's.

After spending 5 days in the hospital, Jade was discharged. She'd called her mom on the third day, and her mom agreed to her moving back home. Jade moved back into her mother's house, and continued her recovery process. Jade, unlike Beck, had been unwilling to finish the rest of the semester. After 2 full months of recovery and a little bit of laziness, Jade got a job at a restaurant as a singing waitress. She'd actually spent her birthday in July working a 12 hour shift. At least she hadn't been alone, just like Beck had hoped.

In September, Jade met a guy. He had been a customer at the restaurant. He was cute, and sweet, and totally not Jade's type, but she agreed to go out with him anyway. That one date turned into two and then three, and before they knew it, they were dating.

In the 9 months since Weston was born, Jade and Beck hadn't had any contact with each. Not a text, or a phone call, or even an email. Nothing. They'd essentially decided the other one didn't exist anymore and there was no reason to have any contact with them.

Neither one of them ever told anyone about Weston. Beck's family had simply assumed Lori and Ethan had kept their adoption under wraps, for fear of having it fail again. Jade's family had assumed whatever they wanted about Jade's recovery from surgery, because she hadn't told anyone anything. They had mutually agreed that nobody needed to know.

By December, Jade had moved in with her boyfriend, Austin, and had booked a small acting role in a Hallmark movie. Little did she know, she'd be having a lot more contact with the guy she'd thought she'd spend the rest of her life with.