Long Time Running - By Hannah Foster Page 0,5

against the door of the living room Eric smiled to himself as he watched Jack pressed up against the corner of the chocolate brown leather sofa. Deeply engrossed in the book he was reading, the young boy was pulling absently on his bottom lip; it was a move he was all too familiar with as he often struck the same pose while reading or studying.

Jack was the very best he and Nathalie had to offer. He was bright and curious; he laughed easily and was incredibly stubborn once he made his mind up. While he mostly saw Nathalie in him, every once in a while he would catch a glimpse of himself in his son and it still surprised him at how fulfilling that feeling was.

Eric Smitherman Senior was a difficult man with exacting standards and where most fathers loved their sons, he merely tolerated his. From the time he was a small child he had felt the burden of expectation and the bitterness of disappointment. His father had had grand plans for him and expected him to do exactly as he told him to, without question. Eric's house had not been one filled with love or laughter. His mother had lived in fear of his father and his father used his approval - or his son's need for it - as a weapon. He had considered it nothing short of a miracle that he had been able to fall in love and be a good partner. Feeling his father's imprint on him, he had believed it impossible to offer the same to a child. He was shocked at just how wrong he had been.

"Hey buddy, you almost ready? Aunt Sarah will be here soon."

Looking up from his book Jack nodded. "Eric?"

"Yes?"

"Am I sleeping over on Friday?"

"Not this weekend Jack - I'm working. But I've booked next weekend off and I got us tickets to the Yankees."

His green eyes widened in shock. "You did?"

Grinning, he nodded. "Andrew is coming and there's an extra ticket for you to bring Stephen if you want."

"Like a guys' night out?" he asked.

Eric chuckled. "Exactly. A guys' night out at the game."

Scrambling from the couch Jack sprinted across the room and threw his arms around Eric, squeezing him tightly. "You're the best Eric."

Too overcome to say anything, he just hugged him back. A sharp knock at the door broke the moment.

"That will be Aunt Sarah. Go get your stuff from your room."

"Okay!" he replied, running down the hallway.

Eric ambled to the door and opened it. Nathalie's sister could not be more different from her. A district attorney, her dark blonde hair was kept short and while she and her sister shared the same eyes, there was little of Nathalie's humor or warmth to be found in them.

"Sarah," he greeted her.

"Is he ready?" she asked, looking past him down the hallway.

"Almost. You're welcome to come in."

"No, thank you," she replied perfunctorily.

It was the same pantomime as it always had been with stilted politeness and long, awkward pauses. They had never been close but the circumstances they now found themselves in seemed to strain an already tenuous relationship. Nathalie had always tried to excuse her sister's coldness by stating that they had dealt with their parents' deaths when they were teenagers in very different ways. Nathalie had embraced life and those around her but Sarah had seemed determine to hold the world at bay.

"Listen," Eric began, lowering his voice. "I want to revisit the issue of telling Jack I'm his father."

She violently shook her head. "No."

"Sarah" he replied, gritting his teeth, preparing himself for battle.

"Nathalie doesn't want this."

"Nathalie isn't here!" The exasperation in his voice was total. "What she wants, or wanted, isn't really a factor. One of these days Sarah he is going to need to know I'm his father."

"You're a father figure, is that not enough?"

His blue eyes clouded over as he glared at her. "No, it's not."

"You never wanted kids," she reminded him.

She always reminded him of that. It was her stick, her card to play against him to keep him in line and remind him of how they all wound up in this position in the first place.

Exhaling slowly, he tried to keep his fast-rising temper in check. "My wants and my reality haven't matched up for quite a while Sarah. I wanted Nathalie but the reality is she left me with a three line note and an empty apartment. I didn't want children but the reality is I have a son. And