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Peter’s eyes filled with tears.
“No, no! Don’t do that!”
The chocolate-colored twins moved into the same lane and rolled on top of each other.
“They’re dropping like flies! You can take it, Petie! Only a little farther.”
Peter’s small chest shook with a sob.
“Shake it off! Shake it off and come to Kenny.” He crept farther into the lane.
Peter let out an earsplitting howl.
“No crying, buddy! Don’t ever let ’em see you cry. Come on! I’m right here.”
Frozen, Peter sat on the mat and sobbed.
The little girl in the lacy yellow romper shot across the finish line to win the race, but Kenny was too busy inching forward on his own hands and knees to notice.
“Don’t quit! Nobody remembers a loser. Come on, Petie! You can’t quit!”
Emma couldn’t take any more. She hurried forward onto the mat and snatched the sobbing little boy up into her arms. “It’s all right, luv. I won’t let that crazy man get you.”
Kenny came out of a trance and looked up. For the first time he seemed to realize where he was.
On his hands and knees.
A third of the way down the lane.
In the middle of a baby race.
Quiet fell over the small crowd. Kenny turned red and shot to his feet. The quiet intensified. Then a grizzled man in a John Deere cap gave Kenny an admiring salute.
“Now, that’s the way you turn a kid into a champion.”
Chapter 15
Kenny couldn’t breathe as the ghosts of his past crashed on top of him. Emma was clutching Petie to her breast. She gazed across the mat and gave Kenny a look that seemed tinged with pity. He couldn’t tolerate it, and he rushed forward.
“Let me have him.”
Petie screamed and gripped Emma’s neck more tightly. “Just give him a minute,” she said.
But he didn’t have a minute. He jerked his wallet from his pocket, thrust it toward her, and grabbed Peter. “Buy yourself something. I’ll be back.”
He quickly left her behind and carried the screaming baby to his car. He could never let her witness this.
Accompanied by the sound of Petie’s earsplitting shrieks coming from the car seat, he jumped behind the wheel and peeled out of the parking lot. “It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay.”
He blinked his eyes and raced toward the edge of town. The baby’s screams didn’t subside. Finally, he found the privacy he needed, a narrow lane that led toward a patch of trees. He parked his car in the exact place he’d hidden his bike when he was a kid coming apart inside.
“Why’d you beat me up, Kenny? I didn’t do anything to you.”
As he retrieved the hysterical baby, Petie arched his spine, trying to get away. His shrieks hurt Kenny’s ears, but the look of betrayal in the baby’s eyes broke Kenny’s heart.
“I’m sorry, fella. I’m so sorry.” Pressing his lips to his brother’s hot, damp temple, he carried him into the trees toward the rushing sound of the river. “Shhh . . . don’t cry. Don’t cry, scout. It’s all over.”
As he rocked and crooned, the baby’s sobs gradually subsided. He walked him along the riverbank, stroking his little back, humming and talking nonsense, letting the rush of the river soothe the baby as it used to soothe him when he came here to recover from some piece of nastiness he’d unleashed on Torie or one of his schoolmates. Finally, Petie quieted enough for Kenny to settle down in the shade of a bigtooth maple. He leaned against the trunk and propped the baby on his lap.
