Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,27
Kevin along?”
“If it weren’t for the fact that your son would be disappointed by having to stay home after you’ve promised him an evening with his hero, I would never let you get away with this,” Ruby said, her expression grim.
Deanna frowned at her. “It’s not your call.”
Ruby sighed. “No, sadly, that’s true.” She waved Deanna out of the room. “Go. Fetch Kevin. I’ll get the door. Maybe I’ll have more luck explaining to Sean how real, grown-up dates are supposed to work.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Deanna warned, almost afraid to leave her friend alone with Sean. Ruby rarely hesitated to speak her mind.
“Oh, go on,” Ruby ordered. “I promise I won’t embarrass you.”
Deanna left the room reluctantly. To her relief, when she returned—without Kevin, who was still in the bathroom—Ruby and Sean were discussing baseball, not the rules of dating.
“Hank’s a big baseball fan, too,” Sean said, his expression completely innocent. “Maybe we could all go to a Red Sox game sometime.”
“Sure,” Ruby said easily, surprising Deanna with her ready agreement.
Sean seemed taken aback, as well, but he rallied quickly. “I’ll talk to Hank and work on getting the tickets, then. You and Kevin up for it, Deanna?”
“Kevin would be thrilled,” Deanna said honestly.
Sean’s gaze locked with hers. “And you?”
She flushed under the intensity of his gaze. “Sure. I’d love to go.” What could be safer than a ballpark, surrounded by thousands of screaming fans, one of them her five-year-old son? If there was a way for Kevin to continue seeing Sean from time to time that wouldn’t put her heart at risk, she was willing to consider it.
She caught the knowing glint in Sean’s eyes and realized he had a pretty good idea of exactly what was going through her mind. Before she could think of some way to extricate herself, Kevin thundered down the hall and launched himself at Sean.
“This is so cool,” he said from his perch on Sean’s shoulder. “Where are we gonna go?”
“That’s up to you and your mom,” Sean told him. “What kind of food do you like?”
“I like pizza,” Kevin said at once.
“I think we can do better than pizza tonight,” Sean said, his gaze steady on Deanna. “How about seafood? Or Chinese?”
“Mom likes Chinese,” Kevin admitted, his face scrunched up in disgust. “I think it’s yucky.”
Sean laughed. “Okay then, no Chinese food. Steak? Burgers?”
“A great burger sounds good to me,” Deanna said. That would mean the kind of casual place where Kevin would feel comfortable and she wouldn’t have to worry quite so much about him misbehaving. They hadn’t been to a lot of fancy restaurants, not on her income. Joey’s was the cream of the crop, and most of the regulars there considered Kevin a surrogate grandson.
“Then I know just the spot,” Sean told her. “It’s not too far from here. We can walk.”
For the life of her Deanna couldn’t think of a single good hamburger place in the neighborhood, but she trailed along beside Sean, content to listen to her son’s nonstop barrage of questions and Sean’s patient responses. She tried to imagine Frankie showing such patience and couldn’t. It was a solid reminder that those occasional regrets she had about his absence from his son’s life were wasted.
“Here we are,” Sean announced as they reached an apartment building half a dozen blocks from her place.
Deanna gave him a quizzical look.
“There’s no place in town that makes a hamburger any better than mine,” he said. “And it just so happens that I went grocery shopping earlier.” He studied her intently. “You okay with this?”
She managed to nod. The truth was that she felt a small quiver of anticipation in the pit of her stomach at the prospect of seeing where he lived. The building was certainly unpretentious, but the lawn around it was well tended. There were flowers blooming in pots beside the front door. A half dozen children were playing catch on the stretch of grass. She saw Kevin studying them enviously.
Apparently, Sean saw the same thing. He waved at the kids. “Hey, Davey, Mark, come on over here.”
Two dark-haired boys broke away from the others and ran to Sean, regarding him with the same adulation that was usually evident on Kevin’s face, though these boys were around ten or twelve.
“This is my friend Kevin,” Sean told them. “Would you mind letting him play with you guys while I’m getting our dinner ready? Is that okay with you, Deanna? He’ll be fine. Davey and Mark are very