I nodded.
“Are you coming back down after?”
“Yes”—I gently pushed back from him—“but I need to talk to you about something.”
He leaned back, alarmed by my tone. “Everything okay?”
Right as he asked, little Kacey came to the stairs, his toddler gait thump-thumping down the steps. “Mommy? Dack?”
“We—we’re down here, buddy.”
He joined us in the hallway. “Hi, Mommy.” He had a devilish grin, knowing full well he was supposed to stay in bed. Then he looked at Jack. A delighted expression crossed his face as he approached Jack with his pointer finger outstretched.
I realized too late what Kacey saw.
Everything unraveled in slow motion.
Please don’t, Kacey!
“Oh, Dack! I have one of dose too!”
He poked Jack in the side then lifted his own shirt.
Their birthmarks.
Two to three inches in length.
Like a brush stroke of brown paint over their right hip bones.
Nearly identical.
Jack stiffened and his hands dropped to his sides.
Fear paralyzed me.
He stared at Kacey for a few long moments as silence hung like dense smoke—smothering me. When he spoke, his whisper was strained. “Please tell me I’m making the wrong assumption.”
Jack’s chest heaved. When I looked at his face, moisture was in his blue eyes. His throat worked with a swallow. I opened my mouth to speak but words died on my lips. A choking noise came out instead as pain ravaged my heart. Kacey hung on my leg and whined for the milk. Jack finally looked at my face. The hurt in his gaze was more than I could bear.
He studied me for a few long moments. “Miranda? Say something!”
“I—” As I fumbled for words, his expression froze. The hurt and moisture receded and a gaze as icy as Jules’ took its place. The muscles in his cheek rippled as he clenched his jaw.
He took a couple steps back from us and ran his hands over his head, muttering cuss words. He looked at Kacey again then back at me. His voice, hard and unfeeling, commanded, “Take him upstairs. I don’t want to lose it in front of my—” He motioned toward Kacey then paced down the hall once more, running his hands over his head again.
My vision blurred as I ushered Kacey toward the stairs.
“Miranda?”
I turned back.
“Youarecoming back down tonight.”
THIRTY
Miranda
“About damn time.” Jack didn’t look at me. I’d just come down the stairs from tucking Kacey in and he was leaning against the window sill, looking into the night rain.
