notice the tears gathering in her eyes. If he acknowledged them, it would be his undoing. He knew she was being made to feel like an outsider, when all she’d done was love him and his son.
An hour later, he’d made his reservations, and Emily dropped him off at the airport. “You’re not flying out today?” he’d asked when he noticed she hadn’t brought her bags.
“Not until later,” she told him.
Boone kissed her hard. “I love you,” he reminded her. “We’re not letting anything keep us apart, okay? I’ll be back in North Carolina in a couple of days at most. We’re going to have an amazing Christmas.”
She smiled, though it was clearly forced. “Sure,” she said. She stayed there until he was through security, then waved one last time. Something in her forlorn expression cut straight through Boone, but he simply couldn’t deal with that now. All he could think about was getting his son safely back home.
* * *
Thanks to a phone call to Frank to alert him of his plans, Boone actually managed to arrive at the Farmers’ house ahead of them. Frank had dawdled on the road, taking a slew of side trips ostensibly to show B.J. the sights. Apparently Jodie hadn’t caught on, or if she had, it had been too late. She looked genuinely stunned when she saw him and his rental car in their driveway.
B.J. ran straight to him. “Dad, I didn’t know you were going to be here already!”
“I came as soon as I heard about your trip,” he said mildly.
Jodie whirled on her husband. “You knew about this,” she accused.
“I did,” Frank said. “When you wouldn’t listen to reason, I saw no other choice. I wasn’t going to let you land the two of us in legal hot water because you were being irrational.”
Jodie regarded him incredulously. “Irrational? You think it’s irrational to want to keep our grandson away from the woman who ruined our daughter’s life?”
“Enough!” Frank commanded, giving a pointed look at B.J. “We’ll discuss this later, Jodie.”
B.J. was looking from one adult to the next in confusion.
“Okay, buddy,” Boone said with forced cheer. “Thank your grandparents for taking you on a cool road trip, then grab your suitcase. We need to head back home, so we can be there for Christmas.”
“But I thought Grandpa and Grandma Jodie were going to have Christmas with us,” B.J. said. “They said we were all going to be here.”
“Not this year,” Frank told him. “We’ll come back in a few weeks and you can show us all your presents. You and I will do some more fishing, okay?”
“Okay,” B.J. said, throwing his arms around his grandfather’s waist. “I love you.”
“Love you, too,” Frank said.
When B.J. went to hug Jodie, tears streamed down her cheeks. She squeezed him tightly.
“Never forget how much we love you,” she whispered brokenly.
“I know,” B.J. said.
As they drove away, Boone glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that Frank had gathered Jodie into his arms. She was openly sobbing now. While the scene tore at his heart, he knew there had been no other way to handle the situation. Eventually they would work things out, but only when Jodie could let go of her irrational determination to get even with Boone.
Though he should have been relieved to have his son safely beside him and to be on the way home, he couldn’t stop thinking about the expression he’d last seen on Emily’s face. He had a hunch the crises weren’t entirely behind him.
* * *
After the long cross-country trip to California, the overnight stop in Colorado, the emergency flight to Florida, then the drive to North Carolina, Boone was exhausted by the time he got home. He’d have preferred to make the drive from Florida in a long day, but he’d known better than to push it, as tired as he was. Once home, he decided he and B.J. needed a good night’s sleep before going in search of Emily.
Over breakfast, B.J. regarded him with disappointment. “I missed the school pageant last night,” he told Boone. “Grandma Jodie said it was just a play and that there would be other ones, but I really wanted to be in it. Do you think Emily got home in time to see it?”
“She was supposed to be here,” Boone said. “But she knew you weren’t back, so I’m not sure if she went. We’ll find out this morning.”
But when they walked into Castle’s by the Sea a few hours later, there