Jane F & Peter P
Defeated was a good word for it. He so badly wanted a place to belong, and Madison Valley had seemed like maybe it was it. Indianapolis certainly wasn't it. But he was being an idiot. Jane had a life here. She had a baby girl, one with someone she actually loved. He didn't even know if she still talked to his father, whoever he was.
But then she was hugging him and maybe it wasn't the right choice but Peter was helpless to not hug her back tightly. If this was the only chance he would ever have to hug his birth mother, then he was going to take it.
"I didn't know," he said quietly. Which was true, at least. He hadn't known anything about her. Maybe it had been better, in the long run, but it still kind of sucked. And maybe if he had known about her, known when existed, then he could have waited till he'd turned eighteen to do this.
Fighting to put that brave face back on, he shrugged. "It was on my way to swing through here. Figured I'd stop in." Which would have been funny if it was even close to true. He had no idea where he was headed next.