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Seamus sat at the table with Kyle on his lap.
“I’m mad that you weren’t there,” Kyle said, his lip quivering. “Mommy was sick.”
“I know, buddy.” Jace’s eyes filling with tears. “I’m very sorry I wasn’t there when you guys needed me. I would’ve given anything to be there. I loved your mom very much, and I love you and your brother, too. I always have.”
“Why didn’t you come when she was sick?”
“I was still in prison.”
The child’s light blond brows furrowed with confusion. “Do we hafta live with you now?”
“No, you’re going to stay here with Seamus and Carolina, who also love you very much. I promise I’m not going to mess up your lives. I just want to be a friend to you and Jackson, if you’ll have me.”
“What do you think, Kyle?” Seamus asked. “Would you like to be friends with Jace?”
After an impossibly long pause, Kyle gave a slight nod that greatly bolstered Jace’s spirits.
“Thank you,” he said. “I’d love to be your friend and Jackson’s, too.”
“I don’t want you to be my friend!” Jackson said, sobbing in the doorway. “We needed you, and you weren’t there!”
Jace got up and went to him, kneeling before the child. “I know I wasn’t, and I’ll be sorry about that for the rest of my life. I’ll do whatever it takes to try to make it up to you in any way that I can. It’s a lot for guys your age to understand, that people can make terrible mistakes that cost them everything. That’s what happened to me, and the worst part of it was that I hurt you guys and your mom. She didn’t deserve that. She was a wonderful person and a great mom.”
Jackson’s chin quivered the same way Kyle’s had.
Jace reached out a hand to him. “Man to man. I’m very, very sorry, Jackson.” He held his breath, waiting to see what the child would do.
When Jackson took hold of his hand and let Jace fold him into a hug, he went weak with relief. “I love you and Kyle very much, and I always will. If you ever need anything, anything at all, you can come to me, even if Seamus and Carolina will be your parents.”
“You can never have too many people who love you,” Carolina said.
“Aye,” Seamus said, sounding emotional, “that’s very true.”
Kyle came over to where Jace was holding Jackson.
Jace extended his arm to include Kyle and hugged his sons for the first time since they were babies. “I missed you guys so much when I was away. I thought about you all the time and wished I could be with you. And I’m so, so sorry you lost your mom.”
He held the two boys for a full minute before they started to squirm. When he released them, they burst out the door with Burpy hot on their heels.
“Was that it?” Jace asked Seamus and Carolina. “Was that the worst of it?”
“It’s hard to say for certain,” Carolina said. “They’re apt to have more questions and feelings about it all, but you handled it as well as could be expected.”
“I agree, mate,” Seamus said. “Well done.”
Again, he was strangely honored to have Seamus call him that, knowing the other man well enough by then to know he didn’t give away such things. “Thank you both for everything. I’ll never have the words…”
“It’s the honor of our lifetime to help raise your sons,” Seamus said gruffly.
As Jeff droveKelsey to her apartment in a building the McCarthys owned near the marina, his mind raced with things he needed to do now that he’d landed an off-season job. First, he needed to tell the company in Tampa that he wasn’t going to accept their offer after all, and then he needed to get out of the lease he’d recently signed there.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
Jeff realized he hadn’t said a word since they left Mac’s house. “I think so.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s what I want to talk to you about.”
