still beautiful and she could still stir him with a look or even the slightest physical contact. To him, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. He couldn’t see her any other way. Not even now, when he was so angry with her.
For too many reasons he ached as he watched her sit down in the grass near the sandbox and talk to Henry. Their son. Jonah couldn’t get over the knowledge. He had a son! Henry Neighbour, named for his dad and her father.
Jonah thought of his parents. His father would stoically say nothing about not being told about Henry all these years, but would simply pick up with the present. His mother would cry buckets over the lost years and pour out her love on this grandson, if Kate would let her.
Children’s laughter floated in the air, along with the whistles of birds. A faint breeze blew, and shadows shifted over him as Jonah sat waiting in the shade of a tall cottonwood tree. While he watched his ex-wife with their son, he thought of his future and the plans he had already made, and now what lay ahead and what he should do.
While Kate talked to Henry, the boy turned and stared at Jonah, who gazed back, aching inside. He wanted to go put his arms around his son and hug him. He longed to hold Henry. Five years and he had never yet held his child.
“Oh, dammit, Kate,” he whispered, and started walking toward them.
Henry got up and brushed off the sand, and Kate took his hand as they approached Jonah. The boy was slender, too quiet and withdrawn, yet there was absolutely no mistaking that Henry was his son, Jonah thought.
As he walked up to them, Kate and Henry stopped. Jonah kept his eyes on the boy, who watched him when he hunkered down in front of him. “I’m your dad, Henry.”
“Yes, sir,” Henry said quietly, frowning at him.
“I’m glad to see you and I want to get to know you.”
Nodding solemnly, Henry stared in silence at Jonah, who had held on to control long enough. He succumbed to impulse, reaching out to pick up Henry, standing and hugging the child, trying to hide the tears that stung his eyes.
“Henry,” he whispered.
The little boy’s arms wrapped around his neck, and Jonah gritted his teeth and squinted, fighting the knot in his throat and the hot tears that threatened to spill. He hadn’t cried since he was too young to remember, but it was all he could do now to hang on to his emotions. At the same time, he didn’t want to let go of Henry. He held his son in his arms, marveling at the miracle that had been given to him. A son. He had a son!
“I love you,” he whispered.
Reluctantly, he set Henry on his feet, knowing he might have been too emotional for the child. When all this was so new to Henry, Jonah had hoped to keep a lid on his feelings and slowly get acquainted with his son.
He glanced at Kate and she turned away quickly, but not before he glimpsed tears in her own eyes. “Come on, Henry. We have to eat lunch,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, falling into step beside her.
“I’m taking you to lunch, Henry,” Jonah said. “Where do you like to eat?”
The boy looked up questioningly at his mom. “If you insist, Jonah, let’s go to a cafeteria so he can eat some vegetables,” she said.
“Sure,” Jonah agreed. “Did you go to preschool, Henry?”
“No, sir,” he replied.
“He starts kindergarten this year,” Kate said.
Wondering about his son’s life, Jonah continued asking questions and getting yes or no for an answer. He held the car doors for Kate and Henry, noticing his ex-wife’s long, shapely legs when she slid into the vehicle.
At the cafeteria Henry stood in the line between them. Fighting the temptation to constantly touch him, as if to reassure himself that Henry was real, Jonah watched him, taking in everything he did, marveling at the child.
As they started through the line, Jonah leaned down to Henry’s level. “You get whatever you want to eat. Anything.”
Wide-eyed, Henry looked up at Kate, and she nodded, giving Jonah a searching look.
“I want that,” Henry replied, pointing to a bowl of bright blue cubes of gelatin.
Jonah couldn’t resist brushing Henry’s head lightly. When the boy turned to look up at him, Jonah smiled. Henry smiled in return and then his attention went back to the food spread before him. In minutes he had a tray filled with fried chicken, the gelatin, mashed potatoes and gravy. When he pointed to some corn, Kate spoke up.
“Henry, you have enough. You’ll never eat all of what you’ve taken.”
“Let him get it, Kate,” Jonah said quietly, and then he turned to Henry. “I told him to get whatever he wants and I don’t mind. If it’s all right with your mother, go ahead, Henry. Get the corn and whatever else you want.”
Kate looked at Jonah and then nodded to Henry, who took the dish of corn. Next, he wanted a fluffy white roll, and then chocolate cake.
They sat at a table by a window, where they could see across a grassy expanse to cars moving on the busy thoroughfare.
Henry cleaned up the bowl of gelatin first and then started on his fried chicken and mashed potatoes. While he ate, Jonah turned to Kate. “We need to work something out.”
She nodded and gave him a worried glance. “We’ll work out a schedule, but please understand, Jonah, I have to get settled and get him into a day care facility.”
“When are you moving your things from North Carolina?”
“There wasn’t much to move. I sold nearly everything before I left, and we’re sort of starting over now.”
Surprised, Jonah remembered the house he had shared with Kate, a comfortable three-bedroom home in a booming neighborhood. Kate’s parents’ house had been a desirable two-story in a pleasant, older suburb. In the divorce he had let Kate have the house and one car.
She kept her eyes down as she ate, and he studied her again, sure her clothing and jewelry were inexpensive.
“You sold both houses and you didn’t keep any furniture—not what we had or any of your folks’ things?” he asked, giving her close scrutiny.
“I kept a few little things, which I have in the car with me,” she replied, shaking her head.
“Kate, what happened?” he asked, puzzled by her answer. “Even if our possessions gave you bad memories, you loved your parents’ things. I can’t believe you let them go. What did you do with them?”
“I sold them,” she said, busily cutting a thick slice of roast beef. “This is a delicious lunch, Jonah.”
“So you don’t have furniture? Are you going to rent a furnished apartment?” he asked, surprised again, and realizing things must have gone really badly for her to sell both houses and all the furniture. Yet where had the money gone?
“Yes,” she admitted with obvious reluctance.
“Why, Kate? You had a rewarding job and your dad had his own business.”
“I’m sure you remember that Mom and Dad had the roller rink.”
“Sure, I remember. It was a thriving operation,” he replied.
“It was up until the time that we married, but it started slipping then. By the time we divorced, the neighborhood had changed and a bigger, newer rink was built in a better part of town. Instead of getting out, Dad held on. During that time he lost their health insurance because he couldn’t keep up the premiums. Finally he lost the business.”
“Sorry, Kate,” Jonah said tightly, still consumed by anger over Henry, and trying to listen as well as think ahead and make some plans. “What happened then?”
“Dad