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Owen freezes and looks stricken and then his eyes fill with tears. He takes off running toward the house.
Sutton’s expression is grave when his eyes meet mine and he shakes his head. “He’s not normally like this, but there’s a lot going on right now. I’ll explain more later. I better see about him. I’m sorry to bail on the unloading. Hopefully this won’t take long.”
“Oh no, please don’t worry about this. There’s not much more. Go be with Owen. I hope he’s okay.”
I watch as he hurries to the house and Weston moves next to me.
“Kids, man. Good thing you’ll have your own place and will be spending most of your time at the courthouse,” he says under his breath.
I’ve said nothing about working at the courthouse, but as soon as Weston heardjudge, he’s assumed that’s what my job entails.
How wrong is it to lie by omission?
“He’s a sweet kid,” I say quietly, wondering what’s going on and if I’ll know how to help Owen when it’s just the two of us.
CHAPTER SIX
OKAY, MAYBE I AM
SUTTON
I find Owen in his room, sitting on his bed. He puts his fists over his eyes and wipes them.
“Sorry, Dad,” he says. “I don’t know why this is happening today.”
“You never need to be sorry for how you’re feeling. And knowing you’re worrying about this move of your mom’s just lets me know I need to talk to her. I’ll call her tonight, okay? I want to put your mind at ease.”
He nods. “Okay. But even if I have to go see her sometimes, can I still have a dog?”
I groan. “Can we see how things work with Felicity helping out around here first?”
Part of my hesitation in getting a puppy has been trying to train one with my unpredictable schedule, but having another adult around would help…if Felicity is even agreeable to being around dogs.
“Okay,” Owen says, nodding excitedly. “I think she’ll be great, and we should see if she likes dogs.”
I sigh, knowing I can’t resist this boy and his desire for a dog for very much longer.
“Do you think she saw me cry?” Owen asks softly.
“I don’t know, but it’s all right if she did. You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about, okay?”
“Yeah. Let’s go back out there and help. I only took up the lamp and there’s probably lots more to do.”
“We should give her time on her own to get settled too, but you’re right…we can make sure everything’s unloaded first.”
He’s already out the door and in the hall when he calls out, “Come on, Dad.”
I brace myself on the doorjamb and follow him out, and we help with a few more boxes.
Weston heads back to Silver Hills for a party, but before he leaves, he invites Owen and me to the divisional round gameagainst Houston in a couple of weeks. I tell him we’ll be there, and then Owen and I go pick up food from Sunny Side. When we get back, it’s dark, but the lights are bright enough to see Felicity near the gate overlooking the water. Her long blonde hair lifts with the wind and she wraps her arms around her sides.
We grew up in this house—the Summit House. When my parents got married, Granddad and Grinny moved from the big house to the smaller Alpine House on the same extensive property and gave my parents this place. When my parents died, Granddad and Grinny moved back in with us and stayed until I married Tracy. I tried to give the house back to them when Tracy and I divorced, but they wanted Owen to be raised here like I was.
My siblings and I learned to swim before we could talk because of all the water surrounding the side of the house. I’ve added a ton of lights along the edge of the water, but I’m still not comfortable having a bunch of kids over here. When Owen has a play date with a friend from school or Dakota, I take them to play at our family resort or the park.
With every person I interviewed, one of the first questions I asked was, “What kind of swimmer are you?”Felicity said she’s anexcellentswimmer,and I assured her that Owen is too, but that I still watch him like a hawk when he’s outside.
I’ll have to reiterate how important it is for her to never let her guard down when he’s outside, but even as I’m thinking it, I’m telling myself to relax. I’m a control freak and an overprotective dad who’s had to mostly do this on my own. Even admitting that I need help is hard for me.
