Ugly Love (Hoover)/Chapter 28

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☕

Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love. Chapter 28

New fatherhood and an unfinished family reckoning

2014

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “Ugly Love”

The original takes about 7 minutes to read

Microsummary

Miles and Rachel bonded over their newborn son in the hospital. His father praised his maturity, then insisted on discussing Lisa and Miles’s mother despite Miles’s wish to postpone the conversation.

Chapter Summary

Six years earlier, eighteen-year-old Miles sat with Rachel in the hospital, admiring their day-old son, Clayton. Rachel asked hypothetical questions to establish how they would handle future parenting decisions.

Miles said he would accept Clayton being gay and wanted him to feel comfortable talking to them. He would also respect his religious beliefs. Rachel praised him as a father after asking how he would react if Clayton committed a terrible crime.

A nurse arrived to take Clayton for his circumcision. Suddenly anxious about the procedure, Miles asked to hold him first. He apologized to his son and joked about his future relationships with girls before both parents kissed him goodbye.

Alone with Rachel, Miles wanted to kiss her. She felt uncomfortable and unattractive after giving birth, but responded to his teasing. He told her he loved her more than yesterday, and she said she could not wait for tomorrow.

Later, Rachel and Clayton napped while Miles stood outside their room. The nurse had said Clayton barely cried during the procedure. Miles texted Ian, who planned to visit after seven that evening.

Miles’s father brought coffee and remarked that Clayton resembled him. He said he was proud of Miles for handling unexpected fatherhood responsibly and treating Rachel well, although he had not wanted him to become a father at eighteen.

His father then brought up Lisa and Miles’s mother. Miles tried to postpone the conversation, unwilling to hear a defense of his father’s actions that day. His father insisted it was important. Despite wanting to focus on Rachel and Clayton, Miles listened because this was his father.

Characters

💗

Miles — narrator, eighteen-year-old young man, Rachel’s partner and Clayton’s father; affectionate, playful, and protective, proud of his new family but resentful of his father’s actions toward his mother.

💞

Rachel — young woman, Miles’s partner and Clayton’s mother, recovering in hospital after childbirth; thoughtful about parenting, affectionate, and playful despite pain and discomfort.

🍼

Clayton — day-old baby boy, son of Miles and Rachel, said to resemble his father; held affectionately by both parents and taken for circumcision before napping with his mother.

☕

Miles’s father — adult man with an eighteen-year-old son and newborn grandson, trying to accept Miles’s early parenthood; sincerely proud of his son but insistent on discussing unresolved issues involving Lisa and Miles’s mother.

🩺

Nurse — adult woman working in the hospital, responsible for taking Clayton for his circumcision; reassuring toward his anxious parents and accommodating when Miles asks to hold him first.

Quotes

“It would only bother me if he felt like he couldn’t talk to us
about it. I want him to know he can talk to us about anything.”
Rachel smiles at Clayton, but I know her smile is for me.

Of course, our love is real, and our relationship is
real, but until I witnessed her give life to my son yesterday,
everything I felt before that moment was like child’s play
compared to what I feel for her now.

For how you’ve handled it. For how you’ve treated
Rachel.” He smiles. “You made the best of a difficult situation,
and that’s honestly more than most adults would do.”

This summary is based on the UK edition of the novel (London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2014).