Blown Away
Page 18
Taylor, deciding the time was right, turned toward Cole and said gravely, “You know I have a father.”
“I do,” Cole replied. “And I know he’s in jail, and you’re mad at me because I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry about that.”
“That’s okay. I was thinking about it in the back of the truck. Mom just wanted me to think he was good. And you love Mom, so you like to do what she wants.”
That summed it up pretty well.
“Anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about. I mean, not exactly.”
“Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
He fidgeted a little, opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. Cole glanced at him worriedly and saw that the usually plainspoken boy appeared to be embarrassed.
“Just say what you’re thinking,” he encouraged. “It’s okay to be honest. You’re not going to hurt my feelings, or make me angry.”
Taylor’s embarrassment turned to confusion. “I was going to talk about me.”
“Oh.” Prepared to go wherever this conversation was taking them, Cole nodded, grateful for the straight stretch of road and the quiet traffic that allowed him to split his concentration. “Okay. Go ahead.”
“Okay.” Taylor leaned slightly toward him. “I’m pretty good in school. I’m not very good at sports, but I like to watch football and baseball. I usually do what I’m told, but sometimes I forget.” He sighed, then admitted candidly, “Well, I don’t really forget. Sometimes I just want to do what I want to do, and Mom’s scared of everything. And when you’re bigger than all the other kids, you have to act like you’re older—and braver. I have a couple of stitches in my head from riding a bike on a split-rail fence. But I won’t do that again. I bled all over the place and Mom really freaked.”
It took Cole a minute to realize Taylor was selling himself. He pulled off the road and stopped the truck.
Unbuckling his seat belt, he put a hand to Taylor’s dusty, disheveled hair. “I’m already convinced you’re pretty special, Taylor. What are you trying to tell me?”
Taylor swallowed, his eyes huge and uncertain. “I was just wondering…would you like to have a kid like me?”
Cole felt an old wound close and an entire future open up.
“I’d like that a lot,” he replied finally. “And I know you’re worried about what your dad would think….”
Taylor shook his head, his expression alarmingly mature. “No. Not anymore. I don’t think he really loves me.” He smiled cautiously at Cole. “But you do, don’t you?”
“Big-time.” Cole unfastened Taylor’s seat belt and took him into his arms.
Taylor hugged him tightly. “Then maybe we should have Christmas after all.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER Cole stood Taylor halfway up the ladder he’d placed near the tree. Cole held onto the boy, who was leaning over to place the angel tree-topper with her Love banner on the topmost branch of the magical tree.
Kara, Shirley, and Brad and Emily applauded. Mel barked and wagged his tail. Kara had called Brad to assess the burn on Cole’s back. He’d brought Emily and Little Brad with him, and quickly determined that it was a first-degree burn and barely worthy of sympathy. But he’d washed it carefully, put antibacterial cream on it and covered it with a wide bandage from the medical bag he kept in the car.
Cole swung Taylor to the floor again. Kara’s heart was so full, she couldn’t speak. Something had happened between her son and Cole on their way home from the strip mall where she’d almost lost both of them. Neither of them had volunteered to share the content of their conversation, and she wouldn’t ask. But she could see that whatever they’d discussed had lightened her son’s emotional burden considerably and given him a new confidence with Cole.
She said a silent prayer of thanks for getting everything she’d wanted for Christmas.
“Why don’t you all stay for lunch?” she asked Cole’s family. “If I can’t find anything in the cupboard, we’ll order something.”
“Sounds good to me.” Brad pointed to a burned-out bulb on the tree. “While you’re doing that, I’ll see if I can fix the bad bulb. Taylor, you helped put this up. You know where the extra bulbs are?”
Emily excused herself to feed the baby, and Shirley ran home to bring back cookies for dessert.
Alone in the kitchen with Cole, Kara wrapped her arms around him and kissed him thoroughly, so grateful to have him safe and sound—and in her life.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
“Just barely,” he said, his eyes smoky with desire. “You’ll have to keep telling me over and over.”
She kissed him again, long and lingeringly. And then she became aware that they weren’t alone. She raised her head to see Taylor watching them, his eyes alight with happiness.
“Isn’t there a corny old song about a kid seeing his mom kissing Santa Claus?” he teased.
Kara laughed, still holding on to Cole. “There is. Do you know what it means?”
“Yeah,” he said, beaming. “Santa Claus is the kid’s dad.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3303-8
Muriel Jensen is acknowledged as the author of this work.
BLOWN AWAY
Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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