“I can’t leave—”
The older man cut him off with an impatient head shake. “Get a hotel room tonight. I’ll stay with Evan. You’ll feel better, and you’llbe able to show up better for your son if you get some rest.”
Propping his elbows on his knees, Jeff massaged his forehead. He knew his dad was right, but… “I promised I wouldn’t leave him.” And he could hardly bring himself to let the kid out of his sight, even to use the toilet.
“He’s hopped up on pain meds, son. He’ll never know you’re gone. And if he wakes up, he won’t be alone.”
“Bridgettold him I didn’t want him.” Jeff’s voice came out strangled. “He thinks it was my choice that I didn’t visit after they moved.”
“Christ.” Dad gripped the foot of the bed until his knuckles turned white. “That woman was…a piece of work.”
Understatement of the century.
Jeff had been a fucking fool not to see the truth of Bridget sooner. But he couldn’t regret it because then he wouldn’t havethis awesome kid.
He closed his eyes for a moment and considered his dad’s suggestion. If he found a real bed for the night, would Evan think he’d been abandoned?
“I probably wouldn’t leave either.” His dad sighed, moving to Evan’s side and adjusting the plastic bracelets on the boy’s wrist so they weren’t digging into his skin. One had his patient information, the other was left over fromwhen they’d blood-typed him before his surgery.
They sat in silence for several minutes, both lost in their own thoughts.
“Hey,” Dad said, his thick brows scrunched up. “Don’t you have type A blood?”
“Yeah.” Jeff looked up and became fully aware of what the man had been doing. “Why?”
Dad frowned. “It says here that Evan is type B.”
“I know.” He should have realized his father would spotthe discrepancy.
“But—”
“Dad,” Jeff stood and rested a hand on his father’s shoulder. Had he always towered over him like this? “Iknow.”
Surprise flickered over Dad’s features, and he stared back.
Finally, he gave a slow nod. “Okay.” He squeezed Jeff’s hand and nodded again. “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to get some coffee. You want anything?”
To see Evan healthy, runningaround like a kid again. His life back. Tara. “Coffee would be great.”
How odd that his dad knew nothing of Tara. She was in Jeff’s thoughts nearly as much as Evan—she commanded all the interstitial moments—and yet nobody in the world knew there was anything between them. Maybe there was nothing to know. Hadn’t he told her as much?
But it felt like the changes she’d wrought within him shouldhave left a visible mark. Like anyone who looked at him should know he’d been graced by her touch.
A few minutes later, his dad returned carrying two paper cups with plastic lids and corrugated sleeves. “Coffee, one sugar.”
“Thanks.” Jeff took the offered cup.
“What’s wrong?”
Jeff scoffed, his gaze jumping to Evan. “Besides the obvious?”
Dad didn’t take the bait, he merely raised aneyebrow.
With a sigh, Jeff leaned his elbows on the bedrails and tried to catalog every detail of his son’s face. Soon, he wouldn’t have any baby fat in his cheeks. In the fall, he’d be starting pre-K. Jeff had already missed too much.
“There’s a woman I work with at Steele.” He swallowed hard and gave his dad a broad, PG overview of what he and Tara had been through. “I used to think shewas too perfect, too… I don’t know, untouchable, maybe. I couldn’t imagine myself with a high-heeled city girl like her. But she’s so much more. She’s…incredible.”
“You’re in love with her.” Dad smiled.
