“And what?” My heart is pounding as he squeezes my fingers tightly before answering.
“And I’m already falling for him.”
I give Jennings a truth he may not be ready for, but it’s the truth nonetheless. “Then you know exactly how I feel since I fell in love with him about two minutes after I found out I was carrying him. So I know exactly what it’s like to take the fall.”
“Will you let me help him? Help you?”
“Why don’t we see where this goes?” I suggest, not saying yes or no. I stand, take my wineglass, and go to refill it.
As I turn to grab the bottle, I don’t know whether to be anxious or concerned when I hear him mutter, “I already know where this is headed.”
Dean, Jed, are you listening? Please don’t let this be something that ends up hurting Kevin, I plead to the heavens. Taking my drink, I go back to the table to continue my conversation with Jennings until Kevin’s emotionally stable enough from my teasing him about women’s sanitary products to join us again.
Jennings
Kara has been gracious with the making a conscious effort to bring me into Kevin’s life. So far it’s only been a meal a day, and I’m starving for more, but at least she called me and explained why.
“I know you’ve missed out on so much, Jennings,” she told me when she was inviting me over for dinner two days ago. “But I spoke with Kevin’s therapist. She feels it’s best to take care as there have been enough emotional turmoils in his life recently. Together, we have to ease him into this in a way that can be monitored.”
So, while I want to whisk Kara and my son off to some remote cabin where the three of us can learn every nuance about each other, I’m putting my own wants on the back burner. Kevin’s welfare is the most important thing to both Kara and me. But, even as Kara and I both admit the bond between Kevin and me seems to be growing each time I visit, with her making excuses to leave the room for longer periods of time, there’s a complication.
It’s getting harder to ignore the fact the air seems to disappear every time Kara gets near me.
I groan aloud at the desk in my room at the B&B. “Little Owl,” I say aloud in the empty room. The term of endearment suits her even more now than it did back when I first knew her. Between those unblinking golden eyes and the layers of color in her brown hair, the uncanny ability she has of sitting perfectly still before darting off to tackle something critical in that moment, the moniker I dubbed her with sixteen years ago is even more apt now.
That and the fact she makes this adorable hissing noise when there’s something scientifically inaccurate on TV.
I almost fell out of the chair the other night when the noise came out of her mouth. First her face scrunched up, and then the sound came out right before she yelled, “That’s not right! The science is off!”
Kevin, obviously used to it, merely patted his mother’s arm consolingly while he offered some advice. “Word of warning, Jennings. We try to never let her watch anything with science involved unless it’s on NatGeo.”
“Good to know,” I chuckled, even as the screeching sound emerged from her mouth as a small-town sheriff stumbled across a town in California as he uncovers a secret laboratory of scientists responsible for all mankind’s scientific breakthroughs.
I can’t remember the last time I had a better night before then. Until the next night I was with them. And when I’m not there, Kara and our son constantly consume my thoughts. I go to sleep thinking about them with a smile on my face and wake thinking about them first thing in the morning.
And in my dreams, Kara chases me there. The floodgates of my memories now open, my brain has spent the last several weeks superimposing the woman she is today with her touch from the past. And I’m slowly dying every time I’m with her. “I finally get it, Jed,” I say aloud. Kara Malone is an incredible woman, one I never should have let go. And I’d give up just about anything to have a second chance with her, to be able to hold her while touching her soft body. Anything, that is, except our son.