Then again, he’s Stephanie’s boy, and regardless of who the father is, that makes him something special to me.
“Oh yeah, I spent the night at my friend Tanner’s house. Sorry, I didn’t think to tell you.”
He looks genuinely concerned about disappointing me, and that makes me like the kid all the more.
“Hey, no worries. It’s not like we set a date and time or anything, right? You’re just a cool kid. I don’t have too many friends in the neighborhood, and I like talking to you.”
Jackson’s wide grin splits his face, his straight white teeth flashing for me. “I like talking to you too,” he says. Then his expression turns shy, and he glances down to pick at the white paint on the fence. “I’m not very good at making friends either, so I like to think you’re my friend too.”
My heart squeezes, and if I didn’t already adore the kid, I think I do ten times more now.
He’s just so dang genuine.
A trait I know he gets from his mom. “Absolutely, I am,” I assure him. “Anything you need, I’m here for you. That’s what friends are for.”
Jackson flashes me another wide grin, his green eyes so like his mother’s, they momentarily steal the air from my lungs.
“Jay, how are those tomatoes coming?” Stephanie calls from the shadows of the front door.
My heart freezes in my chest, my body tensing as my eyes snap up in her direction.
Like a deer caught in the headlights, I don’t know which way to turn.
She’s never come outside for one of our chats before, and suddenly, I feel like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
I thought I was being so sneaky, but I let down my guard—and now she’s going to find out I’m here.
“Jackson!” she says, her voice suddenly harsh as she comes flying down the front porch steps with a ferocity I’ve never seen from her before. “What did I tell you about talking to strangers?” she demands, reaching him in a matter of seconds and wrappingher arm protectively across his chest as she pulls him several steps away from the fence.
“But, Mom—” he objects as he turns to face her.
“No ‘buts’. You get inside that house right now and stay there,” she commands, her tone so authoritative, I’m tempted to obey—even if the order wasn’t meant for me. “We’ll talk about your listening skills later.”
Jackson’s shoulders slump, and he gives me a half-hearted wave as he mumbles a quick goodbye before scampering inside.
“And you,” she says, rounding on me as soon as the front door closes behind him.
I’ve never been scared of anyone in my life, but the fire in her eyes actually makes me take a step back as I raise my hands in self-defense to show I meant no harm.
“Who do you think you are, approaching my child like that? What do you want with him?” Stephanie’s fury is palpable as she storms toward me, only stopping when the fence obstructs her path. She might be nearly a foot shorter than I am, but the heat of her anger makes her feel larger than life.
What throws me completely off balance, however, is not her temper.
I’ve seen her fired up before—if not quite to this degree.
I would know how to handle that—I could even anticipate it.
But what’s put my tongue in knots is the fact that she doesn’t sound like she even recognizes me.
Have I changed that much in the eight years since she last saw me?
Sure, I’ve bulked up some.
I can grow a proper five-o’clock shadow now, and I’m sporting more tattoos.
But am I really all that different? Enough that the woman I dated for two years wouldn’t know who I am?
I need to answer her, but I can’t seem to form words now that I’m standing so close to her.
