working busily to register where she was. When the mattress dipped, she knew. Dylan’s house, Dylan’s bed. She turned to him and said, “Hi, honey.”
The darkness shifted a little as he rolled in and pulled the sheet up. Wordlessly, he reached for her and she went willingly. He held her tight against his bare chest and desire flared through her, but just as quickly, desire turned to guilt. This wasn’t the time.
Alex snaked her arm around Dylan’s waist and held him close as well. His shaking body answered her question. After her long battle with cancer, Maria was at peace, but her son was a long way from it.
All Alex could do was hold him. Nothing she could say would erase the pain of losing a mother so young. Nothing would comfort him that he’d learned too late of her sacrifices for him, that his contempt for her when he was a teenager wasn’t entirely justified. He’d just have to come to terms with it on his own. What she could do was offer him the comfort of her arms, the knowledge that, despite their troubles, she loved him.
Hours later, she woke in the same position and found him still asleep. Her body’s clock told her it was time to get up and begin her day. Though she hated to wake him, if she didn’t, the boys would be late to school and so would she.
“Dylan,” she whispered. A soft almost-snore indicated he hadn’t heard. “Dylan,” she said, a little louder. This time he stirred, and then jerked as he registered her head on his chest and her arm around him.
“Wha…?” he said, still groggy. Then, coming more fully awake, “Oh, Alex.”
For a moment she considered answering, “Who else were you expecting?” Ordinarily, he’d laugh. Under the circumstances, it might not be the time or place. Instead, she kissed his chin and wiggled to loosen his arms around her.
“I’ve got to get up, Dylan. Do you want to send the boys to school today, or not?”
“Mom,” he said.
“I know, honey. I’m so sorry. I didn’t tell them.”
“It’s okay. No, you’re right. I’ve got so much to do today, and it’s better they go to school. I’ll call the school and make sure no one says anything. I’ll tell them when they get home.” He was wide-awake now. She could see in his eyes he was already making a mental list of the tasks he had ahead of him.
“I can get them ready and drop them off if you want. But Davi just about went crazy last night wondering where you were.”
“I know. The social worker says he still has some separation anxiety. He’ll outgrow it, as soon as he understands I’m not going to leave him.”
Alex didn’t rise to the bait. They’d discussed this. It had been too hard, in their small town, to keep the boys away from her as their foster parents warned before custody transferred to Dylan. And, as they’d warned, the boys became attached to her. They could see Dylan’s feelings for her and hers in return.
What they didn’t understand was why she didn’t live with them all the time. How do you tell a couple of kids that age that things don’t always work out the way you wish they would? That she loved their brother but couldn’t sacrifice her own plans for him, not yet. Davi’s separation anxiety was as much fear that she wouldn’t come back some day as it was clinging to the brother who had come back. Dylan tried not to blame her, but she blamed herself.
Speaking of her own plans, was she going to go to school as scheduled today, or stick around for Dylan’s sake? As much as she hated missing classes, she felt she should be here for him. It was hard to know what was right. At almost twenty, she’d never been in this position before.
After breakfast and after she dropped the boys off at school, she swung by the newspaper office to let her dad know what had happened overnight. In the middle of telling him she’d see him when she got back from classes in Casa Grande, she abruptly changed her mind and decided to go back to Dylan’s to see what she could do to help him with funeral arrangements. Something she couldn’t explain pulled at her. Dylan needed her, she was sure of it. On the way, she saw former mayor Wanda Lopez out walking the dog she’d rescued after she lost her