CHAPTER 11
Shaking her head,Leslie poured a cup of coffee and gazed out the window at the two boys playing in the yard. Each held a stick in their hand as they practiced the defense moves Jeremiah taught them.
She grabbed a book, a blanket, and her drink and headed to the front porch to watch the kids. If she let them tire themselves out this morning, it might make for a peaceful afternoon, allowing them to get things accomplished without too much fuss. Both boys needed clothes for the funeral. Tucker’s dress pants came to his ankles, and Jeremiah never bothered with such things. Maybe if she hemmed Tucker’s pants, they’d work for Conner, she thought as she tucked the blanket around her legs.
“Be careful with those sticks,” she called out to them as Tucker swung a bit too hard for her liking.
“Mom, we’re supposed to hit hard. It helps usdevelop muscles,” Tucker replied as he defended himself from Conner’s onslaught of strikes and jabs.
“It will potentially turn into a black eye, stitches, and a hospital visit we can’t afford,” she reminded him. “Play safe or find another game.”
“Do you want to toss the football?” Conner asked, letting his stick fall to his side.
“Sure. After we work on our legs. Grandpa said it’ll increase our stamina when we hike,” Tucker advised Conner like an older brother.
Leslie smiled. The two of them grew up together, and she worried if Owen or one of his brothers took Conner away how it might affect them.
The sound of a truck coming down the gravel driveway made her turn and shade her eyes. Her heart sped up as she recognized Owen’s truck, and she glanced over to see the boys moving toward the back of the house to use the equipment Jeremiah set up for them.
Owen parked and got out. His rugged appearance and bulging muscles only made him more handsome over time.
He climbed the steps of the porch and sat down beside her on the swing.
“Elias and I will be leaving around two. We’ll be gone for a few days,” he informed her.
“It’s not a problem,” she replied. “Conner’s at home here as much as he’s at your house. He even has a bedroom.”
The two boys ran around the corner, each grabbing their sticks again and battling some imaginary foe.
Leslie cringed, hoping they didn’t run to the front. She planned to tell Owen about Tucker when the time felt right. The family needed to deal with Jeremiah’s death first. Glancing at Owen, she saw him squinting his eyes as he watched the two rabble-rousers exchange blows.
Panic filled her, but she didn’t plan to lie to him or make excuses. After all, he walked away and never thought of her again.
Owen smiledas he listened to the boys play-acting their fight against the enemy. Once upon a time, he and his brothers carried on as they did. Three of them went on to use their skills in the military.
The lump in his throat grew bigger as he watched the older boy instruct Conner. His mannerisms and brown hair reminded Owen of himself at his age.
Noticing Leslie’s hesitance, he became all the more determined to get to the truth.
“Is he mine?” he asked quietly, dreading her answer. If she said yes, it meant he left his son, too.
“Yeah,” she said without hesitation.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, peering at her.
Her eyes filled with tears. “How? I didn’t find outuntil two months after you left. By then, you changed your number. You made it clear you didn’t want me in your life. I didn’t know how you’d feel about a child, but I didn’t want him to get hurt,” she said defensively.
“I’ve sat up all night and almost came to your house at two this morning to ask you. You knew of other ways to reach me. Gunny found me,” he said, watching her.
“I don’t know, Owen. You walked out on your family and me. I didn’t feel the need to hunt you down. Would it have made a difference to you? I didn’t want you back because you felt a sense of duty to me or to Tucker. I survived on my own. My mom died from cancer two months before his birth. The first few months sucked, but then one day, your dad showed up. He took one look at Tucker in the bassinet and cried. He blamed himself for your leaving.”
Sighing, Owen stared at his feet. The gaping hole in his chest grew larger as he imagined how much he missed out on Tucker’s life.
“He said he checked on all of us, but he made no mention of me,” Owen said softly. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because I begged him not to,” she sniffed. “If you wanted to come home, it needed to happen on your terms. Jeremiah knew about you. He told me when you got injured and stayed at a hospital in Germany. Ihoped you might return when you got discharged. Instead, you rented a cabin in Wyoming.”
“You knew where I lived all along?” he asked, surprised.
