AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s the rumor.”
He reached out a hand, stroked a strand of hair behind her ear.
She trembled a little, but even as he thought she might lean closer, her eyes grew serious and she stepped away. “Where’s Tyler?” she asked.
That snapped him out of his musings in short order. Since when did he get so lost in nostalgia for the past and admiration for a woman that he forgot to watch his son?
Already Kara was hurrying through the house looking for him. He heard her footsteps as she searched the ground floor, so he started up the stairs. Before he got to the top, she was calling to him. “It’s okay, Jimmy. He’s right here.”
A lump came into his throat when he heard where that voice came from. He walked down the stairs and through the house to enter the bedroom that had been his mother’s when she’d become too weak to negotiate the stairs.
He’d spent a lot of time with his mother there. Always believing she’d be well again someday. But that day had never come.
Tyler stood there now, near the window. Colby was nearby with Ty’s duffel bag full of belongings, which he must have fetched from the car. The look on his face was accusing, and Jim knew he must have overheard at least some of his conversation with Kara Brand.
“Can this be my room, Dad?” Tyler asked.
Jim swallowed hard. “This is just the room I had in mind for you. It was your grandma’s room, you know.”
“Really?”
Jim nodded, then turned to Kara. “The place is in great shape, Kara. Better than I realized. You have to let us pay you rent for staying here.”
“You’re not paying me rent to stay in your own house, Jimmy. No way.”
“It’s not my own—”
“It’s always been yours. Always will be, no matter whose name is on the deed.”
“But you’re paying a mortgage on it.”
She shrugged. “I need a fence around the backyard, and that’s just for starters. There’ll be plenty to do. And...” She glanced down at Tyler. “Look, I just really want you guys to stay here. And to tell you the truth, I think youneedto stay here. Tyler... he needs to touch his roots, Jimmy. And maybe you do, too. Please don’t back out now.”
He stared at her, studied her and thought she really meant it. Hell, he half thought she might be right. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll stay.”
“That’s great news,” Colby said, joining them in the little room. He set the duffel bag on the bed. “I was getting tired of carrying that thing.”
Tyler giggled at him, then made his way over to the bag to unzip it and begin unpacking his things all by himself, while Colby looked at Jim the way he’d look at an assassin.
* * *
Jim didn’t sleep that night. Colby had spent an hour after Tyler had gone to sleep, telling him that it was wrong, what he was doing to Kara Brand. That if he intended to go through with it, he wasn’t going to be a part of it. He couldn’t stand by and watch a woman like her get taken in by a damned con-artist who just wanted a mother for his son. And that yes, Tyler did deserve a woman like Kara. But Jim did not.
It ate away at him. Guilt. But it didn’t matter. He’d do anything for his son. And he’d told Colby so.
In the morning he lay in the bed beside Tyler in what had been the last place he’d ever seen his mother alive. The place where he used to bring her hot tea and dry toast when the chemo got to be too much for her. The place where he used to sit for hours reading to her from her favorite books or watching her favorite TV shows or just talking.
God he’d missed that when she’d gone. He’d had his father, and they’d been close, but it just wasn’t the same.
As he looked down at his precious little boy sleeping in that bed, he realized he was lucky. At least he’d had a mother for a little while. Hell, eleven years. Better than half his childhood. She’d been there and she’d been great, right up to the end. And the thing that had bothered her most about dying was that she wouldn’t be there to keep doing things for him and for his dad.
Poor Tyler. He deserved to know that kind of love. And he wanted it. He wanted it so much.
He thought about that and he thought about Kara. And then he thought, why not? Hell, he’d have to be careful not to let Tyler get too attached until he was sure she was committed. Because there was always a chance she would tell him thanks but no, thanks. But really, why shouldn’t he make a try for her? He liked her well enough. If he was going to trust any woman with Tyler, it would be her. She was gorgeous. He was pretty powerfully attracted to her and he had a feeling it was mutual. Those things would help.
And she was the farthest thing from a self-centered party girl that he could imagine. So why not? What did he have to lose?
He pursed his lips, paced through the living room and into the kitchen, thinking it through. There had to be a downside here. A solution this perfect couldn’t be without pitfalls.
