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‘Plus, you know, he has taken it off for me.’
Tia snapped her head around to Seth.
‘Zeke has taken his leg off for you?’
That was some level of trust. It was ridiculous that she should feel jealous of her son. Or that it rankled so much that Zeke appeared more comfortable to show Seth his amputation than he felt with her.
She tried to shake the foolish notion off, but she couldn’t.
‘He took it off this morning to show the other kids with robot arms or legs.’
‘What other kids?’
‘At the sailing school we went to. You remember, Mummy.’
She remembered that Zeke and Seth had been spending some time getting to know each other whilst she was carrying out the medical training that morning. But she’d had no idea Zeke had been planning to take his son to a sailing school. And certainly not that it had been for other amputees. But how utterly Zeke.
It was wonderful that he was bonding with his son, over something he loved so dearly. And it was utterly nonsensical for her to feel excluded.
So why did she?
‘I didn’t know you were going to a sailing school, that’s all.’ She plastered a bright smile to her lips. ‘I think sailing is a lovely hobby to have.’
‘Come with us,’ Seth declared suddenly. ‘We’re going back tomorrow. I think there’s going to be a race.’
‘I have to lead another medical training exercise,’ she realised. ‘But Zeke will look after you. Just remember to listen to everything he tells you to do. He’s an incredible coxswain.’
‘That’s the person who steers the ship,’ her son told her proudly. ‘Zeke explained it to me today. He told me that he set up the sailing school to help children who lost their arms or legs just like he did. Only he was a soldier, Mummy. Like you were. Isn’t that cool?’
‘Very cool,’ she agreed, cranking her tight smile up a notch.
The last thing she wanted was for Seth to think that she objected to him spending time with his father—not that he even knew that was who Zeke was.
Lifting her hand to her head, she massaged her temples. It shouldn’t feel this complicated, and she should be pleased that Zeke was sharing such a vital part of his life with his son, and it was clear he was doing it in such a way that Seth thought it all terribly cool. But there was a part of her that felt...odd.
As though Zeke was able to open his life up to his son in a way he had never been able to do with her.
Even before the accident.
But surely that was insane?
Still, she couldn’t escape the disconcerting notion that he had avoided doing anything with his leg since she had arrived. The way he’d been getting out of his wet gear at the lifeboat station that night. The way he’d been at his house when she’d been there. Even here.
As though he was okay with her seeing it if he was dressed, but that he couldn’t let her see him with nothing but the prosthetic.
Which was ridiculous, given the way he’d made her orgasm with such wild abandon.
But, as she sat at the poolside, her feet dipped into the cool water, Tia pondered the problem and wondered if tomorrow she might now find a way to pop down to the sailing school and see Zeke in action, after all.
Not that she wanted to get closer to Zeke for her own benefit, of course. But it would be a good thing to do now that he was going to be a part of Seth’s life.
CHAPTER NINE
‘YOUR LITTLE BOY is loving his time here, isn’t he?’ Netty, one of the other mothers, laughed as she watched Seth run after her own son, both of them shrieking with delight.
Tia also watched the boys play. Seth and Robbie—who had lost his right arm aged two because of meningitis—had apparently become firm friends in the week they had been together. It was a shame that in a few days Netty would be taking him home, her week-long holiday over.
‘Seth adores it,’ Tia acknowledged. ‘And Zeke loved sharing his passion for sailing with him.’
