Currant Creek Valley - By RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,37
I’d like to talk to you about it. I don’t have much time to waste on this one. When you’re done with the real estate agent, come and see me at my home office.”
He rattled off an address, just assuming Sam would snatch it out of the air and remember it.
“I’m sorry. That’s not convenient for me.”
Both men looked at him, surprise on their features.
“How do you know until you hear what I have to say?”
“I meant meeting Saturday won’t work for me. I’m picking up my son in the morning so he can spend a couple days with me. He’s staying with my brother and his wife in Denver.”
“Bring him along. I like kids. I’ve got a couple grandchildren myself and I’m about to gain a whole passel of step-grandchildren.”
“Is that right?” Brodie asked, sounding surprised. “I hadn’t heard you were making things official. You didn’t say a word, all through dinner. When’s the big day?”
“Don’t know. I’ll show up whenever Mary Ella tells me.”
Mary Ella. He knew one woman named Mary Ella, had just met her that morning, in fact. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Harry Lange was about to marry Alexandra’s mother.
He wasn’t sure if that changed his ambivalence about the man at all but he had liked her mother. If Harry had convinced Mary Ella to marry him, Sam had to be inclined to think more favorably about him.
“If you don’t mind me bringing my son along, fine. I can be there tomorrow, late afternoon.”
“Great. See you then. Now I suggest you get a move on, son. Alex is a woman of her word.”
He had already figured out she would be. He nodded to both men and hurried to his pickup.
At the motel, he quickly changed out of slacks to cargo pants and suitable hiking boots. Back in his pickup, he was keying in the street address she had given him to his GPS when his cell phone rang.
Maybe she was backing out. Surprised by the fierceness of his disappointment, he reached for his phone and was happy on several levels when he saw his brother’s home phone number, the one Ethan used to call him.
“Hi, Dad!” his son chirped when he answered.
He suddenly missed Ethan with a fierce ache. “I thought you would be sleeping. I tried to call earlier but Aunt Cheri said you were still at Luke’s party. How was it?”
If not for the huge birthday celebration thrown by one of Ethan’s classmates—the party he had been hearing about for weeks—Sam would have driven down to pick up Ethan that night to bring him back with him.
“It was really fun! Luke has a swimming pool and a slide and a trampoline. I was very careful to follow all the rules. Only one person at a time is permitted to jump on the trampoline, Luke’s mom said so. It’s a safety issue. I waited to jump until everyone else was done and having cake.”
He wasn’t sure how he felt about having a son afraid to do anything he wasn’t supposed to. Pretty ironic payback for a guy who had broken as many rules as he could, once upon a time.
“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow,” he said.
“What time do you think you’ll be here?” Ethan asked. “I want to set the alarm on my watch.”
He laughed, even as he had another qualm. Since Kelli died, Ethan had been obsessed with setting alarms, keeping to schedules, probably out of some need to control the world around him that had turned so confusing and scary.
He wanted Ethan to be a regular kid, breaking rules, taking chances, missing the bus once in a while. Embracing life.
“I should be there around ten, then we’ll come back here and have two whole days together. You’re really going to like Hope’s Crossing, I promise. Remember how nice it was when we came that day last month? They’ve got a park here with a cool climbing wall and a rocket you can play on inside. In the winter, we can go sledding and maybe you can learn to snowboard.”
“I don’t know about that. My friend William said his brother broke his leg snowboarding.”
Further evidence of Ethan’s fears. “It can happen sometimes, but it’s a pretty fun sport if you know what you’re doing.”
“I guess.”
“We can talk about it. We have a few more months to go before it snows again. Meantime, get some rest and I’ll be there after breakfast tomorrow. I’ll see you soon.”