Lost and Found Groom by McLinn, Patricia (most difficult books to read .TXT) 📗

beside his pal, Jason. Apparently they were playing a two-year-old’s version of keeping up with the Joneses.

“My t’uck,” announced Jason, waving a green toy in his fist.

“My t’uck.” Matthew snatched up a red one from beside him.

“My new shoes.” Jason patted his Velcro-closed footwear.

“My new shoes,” Matthew repeated, not entirely truthfully.

“My sweat-ah.” Jason poked his tummy, covered by a blue sweatshirt.

“My sweat-ah.” Matthew’s, also blue, truly was a sweater.

Jason widened his scope, searching for the next item.

“My Mommy,” he declared triumphantly, waving his arm in the vague direction of his mother, a petite blonde busy placing ice cream-sloppy paper plates carefully into a garbage bag.

Matthew levered himself to his knees, scanning the room. Spotting her, he shouted with such glee that she couldn’t stop an answering smile. “My Mommy!”

Jason pointed to the man holding the garbage bag for his mother. “My Daddy!”

The next moment strung out like a series of still photographs, each etched into Kendra’s heart.

Matthew’s hesitation, followed by a kind of confusion. Jason clambering to his feet and trundling across the room, shouting, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” knowing somehow that he’d won, yet innocent of any malevolence. Matthew flopping back to sit on the floor, his face creasing into a pucker of uncertainty.

Kendra took a step toward him. But that brought Daniel into her line of sight and stopped her cold. His expression was so utterly shut down that she knew he had witnessed the episode. How could his face show no emotion and yet she felt such overwhelming blame?

She started toward Matthew again, but Daniel’s curt gesture ordered her to stay still.

Movement from Matthew caught her attention. He’d put his thumb in his mouth. His left hand idly stroked the top of the truck by his side. Then he started to move it back and forth, gradually shifting his focus. In another minute, his thumb was out of his mouth and she heard his “Vroom-vroom.”

She walked out of the room, not stopping until she’d reached the open side door, drawing in slow, calming breaths.

She wasn’t surprised when Daniel spoke from behind her.

“Don’t you be the one to let him know it’s a big deal, Kendra. He’ll understand soon enough that it’s a big deal that he doesn’t have a Daddy. If he doesn’t, the other kids will let him know.”

She squeezed her eyes tight against the pain buried so deep in his calm voice. He knew exactly how it felt to learn that, to understand what it meant not to have a daddy. Or a mommy.

“We’ve gone over this.” It came out fairly steady.

“Yes, we have. You don’t want Matthew to know he has a father on the chance that father might not come back someday.”

She twisted around to find him leaning against the opposite doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest.

“Daniel–”

“I know, I know. Give you time.” He uncrossed his arms, and pushed away. “At some point, Kendra, time’s going to run out.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A week later, Daniel sauntered in, bigger and more alive than anyone else in the basement room.

Kendra firmly reminded her accelerated heartbeat that was because most of the occupants of the room were under four feet tall and less than a decade old. It didn’t help.

That had been happening more and more often.

She never should have let things get so carried away that night of the country club dinner. She knew the power of her attraction to him. She knew how it could shut down her brain and her common sense. She’d had proof of that not only in the middle of a hurricane, but in her own home. She had to be more careful.

“Dan’l!”

Matthew launched himself with no care or caution. Before Kendra could even gasp at the foolhardy leap, Daniel had caught Matthew in the air and swung him up to eye-level, boy and man who looked so alike grinning at each other.

“Easy does it there, Matthew.”

No one seeing the two of them now could doubt the relationship. Kendra thought she detected a couple of glances from parents dropping off children or preparing for a tour of duty at the babysitting co-op. Marti’s look from across the room was more than a glance, though her expression gave no hint of what she was thinking.

Matthew was so young, surely that would protect him–from the gossip and from his own wondering about his father–until she’d figured out the best way to tell him. The best way to make sure he wouldn’t be hurt.

Her son’s delighted squeals brought her back to the moment, and Daniel spinning the boy around.

“Daniel, be careful! He could fall!”

Daniel slowed his circles to a stop. “I’ve got a good hold on him. He won’t fall.”

“Mo’, Dan’l! Mo’!”

Daniel shook his head. “Sorry, fella. Your Mom says no.” As he put Matthew down, he softened the refusal with a smile that had Matthew mirroring the expression.

“I go play,” the boy announced once he’d been set on his feet.

“There you go, Matthew,” Daniel approved. Then he repeated in a lower tone that reached only Kendra’s ears, “There you go.”

Three short words transported her to the middle of a hurricane, holding onto the only sane thing in a wild universe–him. She could feel his hands stroking her back, could almost reach out and touch his warmth, his reality.

And when he met her gaze, she knew he recognized her thoughts.

She bent her head, pretending great attention to straightening the straps of her tote bag she’d set on a chair.

“How are you, Kendra?”

“Fine. What brings you here?” She kept her inquiry briskly impersonal. “I thought you’d finished your co-op duty for the week.”

“I did.” He grinned, looking boyish and extremely pleased with himself. “I knew you’d signed up for today. That’s why I came.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” He stuck his hands in his jeans’ pockets. “I want to ask you something. Rufus is letting me use a plane this afternoon–”

Her throat constricted. “You are not taking Matthew in a plane.”

“Kendra, I wouldn’t even consider it if I hadn’t checked it out myself. It’s a solid plane. It’s perfect