been bad news?”
“That’s one way to put it.” She offered a brief smile. “I don’t suppose you got the name of the tow truck driver?”
“I’m afraid not. Is it important?”
“Probably not.”
“But?”
“But I’d rather not have the news of your visit spread all over town. If Adam was the driver, he won’t say anything to anyone. If he wasn’t…” She shrugged.
“I didn’t come here to cause you trouble, Maggie.”
“You haven’t. I just don’t want any part of the media hype that’s surrounding you. I’ve got a lot to do in the next few weeks, and the last thing I need are reporters camping around my property trying to get a story.” Her voice was light, and Kane almost believed that was all there was to the story.
Almost believed it, but didn’t.
He dealt with secrets every day. Big ones. Small ones. He knew when a person was hiding something, and Maggie was.
Right now, he had no choice but to let her keep her secrets, yet Kane had no intention of letting Maggie suffer because of the part she’d played in bringing Eli home.
“Okay.”
“What do you mean, ‘okay’?” she asked, frown lines marring her forehead.
“Just that you have a right to your privacy. Whatever your secrets are, I’m not going to try to uncover them. But if you’re in trouble because of what you’ve done for my family, I’ll do whatever it takes to help.”
“Are you in trouble, Ms. Tennyson?” Eli asked, the cookie he was holding crumbling in his hand, and Kane could have kicked himself for giving his son more to be anxious about.
“Of course I’m not. Am I, Kane?” She frowned, spearing Kane with a disapproving stare.
“That was just a figure of speech, Eli. Ms. Tennyson isn’t the kind of person to get into trouble.”
Somehow, though, Kane had a feeling she was in trouble.
He wanted to push her for answers, find out what was really going on, but couldn’t. Not with Eli listening. Kane would bide his time, wait until he had a chance to speak to Maggie alone, and then he’d try to get to the bottom of things. In the meantime, the best thing he could do was clear out of the house before word of his visit spread and she was inundated with the press she was so eager to avoid.
“You finished with those cookies, sport? Because I think it’s time to head home.”
“Can I have one more?”
Kane wanted to say yes. He wanted to give Eli everything in some vain attempt to make up for all the years he’d been unable to give him anything. That wasn’t the way to build their relationship, though. God willing, he had a lifetime to live with his son, and the rules for their relationship needed to be set now rather than later. That meant being a father rather than a benevolent friend.
“You already had three. I think that’s plenty.”
“But they’re my favorite.”
“Then we’ll pick some up at the store tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and your parents are coming. We can’t get cookies when they’re here, can we?”
Your parents. Not Granddad and Grandma.
There was no connection between Eli and his grandparents, no shared holidays or birthdays that the boy could remember, nothing to make them more than strangers. But it still hurt to hear Eli refer to his grandparents in such an unemotional way.
“Sure we can. We’ll just go in the morning before they arrive. Even if we can’t, I’m sure Grandma won’t mind doing a store run with us.”
“Okay.” Eli gave in easily enough, but that was the way he’d dealt with everything during the past twenty-four hours. Whether it was his nature, a learned behavior, or simply a response to a stressful and upsetting situation Kane didn’t know. Would probably never know.
“Ready?” Kane held out his hand, his heart aching as Eli skirted by it and walked out of the kitchen.
“It must be incredibly wonderful to have your son back—and incredibly difficult to know he’s not quite yours yet,” Maggie said, neatly describing exactly what Kane felt. Elation. Sorrow. Joy. Pain. All of it mixed together in a confusing mass of emotions that Kane could only sometimes control.
“It is, but we’ll make it through this. We’ll get back to some kind of normal, and eventually we’ll feel like a family again.”
“I know you will. Eli is a wonderful little boy. He’s going to be just fine.” She walked out of the kitchen, and Kane followed, wishing he was as confident as Maggie seemed to be.
Time and patience. They were the key.
Kane just needed to keep that in mind as he navigated the new life he and Eli were forging together.
“You two be careful out there,” Maggie said as she opened the door, stepping behind it so that she wouldn’t be visible to anyone outside.
Was she hiding from someone?
If so, Kane wanted to know who.
He was tempted to go back to the hotel, log onto the Internet and do a search on Maggie Tennyson. Try to figure out what her secrets were and just how worried he should be for her.
Doing that would be a lot easier than trying to figure out the path that had taken Eli from chubby, happy toddler to quiet, solemn child. Figuring out where Eli had been, who he’d known, how it was possible that a kid whose picture had been on milk cartons and billboards, whose story had been in newspapers and on television, had escaped detection for so long, was something that Kane had to do. For his sake. For Eli’s.
Kane had learned a lot in the past decade. He’d learned that grief wasn’t fatal. He’d learned that life continued no matter how much a person might not want it to. Losing his wife had taught him that. Losing Eli had reinforced it. Now he’d been given a second chance, and he wouldn’t waste it burying his head in the sand and ignoring what his son had been through.
He opened the car door for Eli, waited as he climbed in and then shut it again. As he rounded the SUV, his gaze was drawn to Maggie’s farmhouse. She’d closed the front door, but light spilled out from a downstairs window. As Kane watched, a figure passed in front of it. Quickly. Furtively. Maggie.
The woman who’d listened to Eli, who’d cared enough to go to the police when no one else had, had secrets that she didn’t want to share. He was sure of that.
Maybe he should leave her to them, but Maggie had stepped in when others had stepped back. She’d listened to Eli’s story about having another name and another home, and she’d acted on what she’d heard. She’d been the catalyst that had brought Kane’s family back together. That was something Kane would never forget and could never repay. If what she’d done had caused her trouble, he’d do whatever it took to help her.
If she let him.
And based on the way she’d acted when they’d met, Kane doubted she would.
He got in the car and backed out of the driveway, Eli’s silence filling the darkness. Was this what they were destined for? Long silences and stilted conversation.
Kane refused to believe it. God hadn’t brought them this far to leave them floundering. There would be healing. There would be a future filled with all the things they’d missed out on during the past five years. As Kane drove toward the hotel, he tried to take comfort in that.
THREE
Maggie paced the bedroom at the top of the stairs, her stomach churning with dread. She needed to lie down on the inflatable mattress,