Page 20 of The Heart Remembers

“You asked me my name, but I didn’t answer, and those boys said I was dumb. You called back to them, telling them to shut up. No one stood up for me like that before, and even though you used those words, I trusted you. You were holding my hand. ‘Gotta get back on the horse,’ you told me, treating my bike like the steed in my fairy tales, but you didn’t release my hand. You walked me home, called me ‘princess’ again, and I thought you were a hero.”

She pauses and takes a deep breath. “That’s the guy I know you to be, Levi. That’s the only person who needs to be remembered here.”

Sweet fuck.

“And I didn’t mean anything by asking if you were okay with AJ. I just wondered if you wanted me to hold him. I don’t mind.”

Katie’s been great with AJ, holding him every day and talking to him. I notice he’s begun responding to her, following her voice in a room or reaching out for her when she nears someone else holding him. She doesn’t even blink, just accepts his little hugs and kisses his temple like he’s hers. It makes my insides ache that his own mother rejected him so easily. I haven’t heard from Alicia since she left, and I don’t expect to. Still I feel sorry for my own son. I want him to have a mother or at least a woman who loves him like Tricia loved me growing up.

“I’ve got him,” I tell her, and she slides her foot up my shin a bit. She’s so freaking sexy, and she has no idea what she’s doing to me with her feet touching mine, rubbing against me as she is. Her words and memory also do something to me. She’s really held onto me in her heart as I’ve held onto her. Somehow, this upsets me, like we’ve lost so much time between us.

“Gonna need you to stop that.” What she’s doing to me—dragging her foot up my shin—is causing an inappropriate reaction, especially with AJ on my lap. I try to keep my tone low, but my voice cracks. Katie stills before attempting to disentangle her feet. “It’s turning me on, and it’s uncomfortable with AJ.”

Katie rolls her lips inward like she did after we kissed, and her face heats. “Sorry.”

“No, you aren’t,” I tease. “You have no idea how sexy you are. Sitting in that tube, looking like a tasty treat.”

Katie starts to laugh. “It’s scrunching up my stomach.” She’s wearing a sporty red bikini that shows off the firmness of her body.

“Totally hot.” I focus on her belly, noting her smooth skin, and wonder what she’d look like pregnant. Alicia looked amazing even though she hated every minute of it. Katie will be stunning one day when it happens for her. My thoughts drift to Dr. Derek, the dissatisfying doctor, and I don’t like the idea of him or anyone else impregnating her.

“You’re really beautiful, Katie girl,” I add, softening the compliment, and Katie’s face heats again, having nothing to do with the sunshine around us.

“You’re not bad yourself,” she says, smiling at me and reconnecting her feet to hold onto my ankle.

“Wounded and all,” I mock of myself, lifting my partial leg.

“Wounded and all.” She winks, and I like this girl more than I should.

+ + +

That night at the street fair, the crowd gathers near the band. With my prosthetic in place, I’m able to walk through the street easier than using my crutches, giving my arms a rest. Ironically, this week, the band is a military group, dressed in their fatigues and singing country songs. The VFW, Veterans of Foreign Wars, is a big deal in town, hosting events and activities, bike giveaways, and an annual beer tent during Harbor Days. I’m certain if I went there, I’d get recognition for my service, but I don’t want to draw that kind of attention to myself.

With AJ in her arms, Katie dances side to side when we stop to listen to a song. She twirls him in a circle, holding his little hand like she’s really dancing with him, and I have a vision of her teaching him to dance in a living room when he’s older. Before an eighth-grade dance, Tricia did that for me, wanting me to be comfortable leading a girl around the dance floor. I didn’t think it’d be too hard to hold a girl at her waist and spin her around a few times, but Tricia showed me how to take my time and sway with the music.

Watching Katie with my son, I walk up to her, almost paralyzed by her smile as I approach. Her rosy lips curl mischievously before pressing a kiss to AJ’s little temple.

“Want to dance with Daddy?” she says to him. Although Tricia and Lys say it plenty of times, referencing me to AJ, it sounds different coming from Katie, like she’s his mother, and addressing me like a woman might call her husband as the father of her kid.

“Daddy wants to dance with AJ’s date.” It sounds wrong on a multitude of levels, but I place a hand on her hip, and with AJ between us, we start to sway to the song. I hum along eventually.

“If you tell me you can sing, it’s over.”

“What’s over?” I tease. Her face turns pink. “You saying you’d fall for me if I was a singer?”

“You cannot go wrong with a rock star.”

“Seeing as this is a country song, I guess I’m out of luck.”

Katie laughs as our hips move, and we casually bump against each other. AJ has his little fingers curled in her blond hair and her arm lazily loops over my shoulder.

“People are going to stare,” she mocks of me and my earlier inhibitions.

“Let them look. The prettiest girl in the world is dancing with me.”

Katie pinkens again and presses another kiss to AJ’s temple while keeping her eyes on me. I want those lips on me instead of him, and I’m almost jealous of my son.

“Earlier, I meant to mention I’m sorry about your brother and your father.”