Page 5 of The Heart Remembers

“You know I still can,” he teases her, and a smile blooms on her face.

“Factory closed,” she warns him.

“I’m sensing a re-opening soon.”

“Not producing anything,” Tricia says, waving a hand around her lower belly, and I’m covering my eyes like it will help me not hear this conversation.

“Why?’ I mutter, and Katie chuckles.

“Don’t need to produce. Just need the factory open and willing to service,” Leon adds.

“Okay. Child here. Innocent ears,” Katie warns, walking AJ around the island and coming to stand near me. She stops beside me and then notices AJ’s ears.

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”

“No worries,” I mutter, reaching out for my son, who doesn’t seem to want to be relinquished from the beauty holding him. I totally get it, buddy. I’d hold onto her too, pressing up against those breasts and wrapping myself around her if I could.

Jesus. Stop thinking about her.

“When did this happen?” Katie asks, noting AJ’s ears again. My son has hearing aids. With advances in auditory detection, the doctors discovered his hearing loss early, and he’s on a list for cochlear implants once he reaches one year old. It’s a controversial issue among the deaf and hearing-impaired community, I know, but it’s the decision I’ve made for my child. Selfishly, I want him to hear my voice, and I long for the day he can speak to me, as deciphering his cries is challenging on most days.

“When he was three months old.” Alicia was upset. She didn’t want a damaged child, as she called him. It was bad enough she had a faulty man beside her. My leg hadn’t been an issue on our first night or the several after that when she was a booty call. Once we crossed over to let’s be committed, and I’ll take care of you, her opinion became fact. She didn’t like that I had missing parts, even if it only was the bottom of my right leg.

“Is he in therapy for this?” Katie asks, not sounding intrusive, just curious.

“Here she goes. Going into PT mode,” Leon says, rubbing his hands together. Pride fills his voice, and I wonder what I’m missing.

“I’m a physical therapist, which doesn’t really have anything to do with ears. He needs an auditory specialist and maybe a speech pathologist one day.” Katie stares at my son before pressing kisses to his temple. “He’s so sweet,” she mutters to his skin.

God, she’s sweet, and I want those lips on me.

“We’ve been to several specialists. I’ve got it covered.” Especially as it’s only me, I’m doing all the things. Thank goodness for a decent pediatrician who recommended the ear doctor and then that doctor who recommended the hearing aids. It’s been a constant revolving door of specialists with more to come. I’m familiar. I’ve had several specialists myself along the way, but none of my physical therapists ever looked like Katie. If she had, I don’t know that I would’ve been able to concentrate enough on learning to walk and not wanting in her pants.

And there I go again.

No pants. No thinking about the space between her thighs as her shorts are short and her legs long. No thinking about what’s just under the hem and how she’d feel against my fingers or my tongue.

Just no, no, no.

I sound like I’m scolding AJ when he reaches for something he can’t have.

And I definitely cannot have Katie Carter.

3

[Katie]

After everyone’s arrivals, a rousing buffet dinner follows. As it’s summer, the younger set are home from college or on break from high school and have much in common on that front. The over-thirty group shares tales of parenthood, marriage, and jobs. I’m sort of between the two age groups, making it awkward at times. Too old for one; lacking life experience with the other. Then the adult segment of our family likes to drive home the fact I’m not married yet while wondering when I’m getting engaged.

Levi; Lys Ramirez, Leon’s sister; and my cousin Meghan are all from the same graduating class at Elk Lake City High School, and I spend time listening to their stories as they reminisce. When we were younger, Lys was infatuated with Levi, but it was strange to hear her discussing him all these years later with Meghan when he left the table.

“He’s still so hot.” She giggled like a teen instead of someone thirty-four years old. Lys is married, but her husband didn’t come with her on this trip.

“Too bad about the baby. Geez, who would leave him?” Meghan added.

I don’t have the details but learned enough by listening. Levi is a single dad. He said he wasn’t married, but it didn’t sound like AJ’s mom was in the picture, and it made me sad, reminding me of how my own mother abandoned me.

“Hey.” At the greeting, I look up from my seat on the thick boulders edging the large lake to find Levi standing behind me. A natural-looking wall was built here in an attempt to protect the land. The water rose high back in 2020, and something had to be done to prevent the lake from eroding the foundation of people’s property.