He wasn’t going to call. He had his life. She had hers. And Little Guy was the only thing they had in common.
With her emotions firmly under control, she stopped at Big Spirits, the senior citizen drop-in facility attached to Little Spirits, the day care where Lillie Henderson worked part-time, to chat with one of the female residents—a referral to the pet-therapy program.
She saw Lillie’s car in the parking lot and decided to pop into the day care, as well. Jon Swartz, Lillie’s fiancé, was there picking up his son. Lillie was in the back with a preschooler whose father was terminally ill, and who was having adjustment problems in class. Lillie had told her about the child the previous afternoon when they’d shared a seat in the pet-therapy van.
“So this is Abraham?” Dana said as she walked up behind her classmate.
The two-year-old with dark hair that hung just above his big brown eyes stared at her from his perch on his father’s hip. And then smiled.
“Oh, hi, Dana,” Jon said. “Yes, this is Abe. Abe, say hi to Daddy’s friend, Dana. She goes to school with Daddy.” He put his face right up to Abe’s as he spoke.
“Hi,” Abe said, and gave her another grin.
“Oh, my gosh, he’s adorable!”
“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” Jon’s grin wasn’t the least bit apologetic. Dana’s heart constricted. A father who adored his child...it was meant to be that way. Not like Daniel...
“...thanks to his ear tubes.” She’d been so lost in her own thoughts that she’d missed most of what Jon had said.
“Ear tubes?”
“Abe was throwing some major tantrums,” Jon told her as the three of them stood in the empty waiting room. “I figured Lillie had mentioned all of that to you. It turned out Abe was going deaf.”
Dana sucked in air so fast she almost choked. “He... I’m so sorry. I had no—”
Shaking his head, Jon interrupted her. “He’s fine now. Almost. There’s still some fluid buildup that makes it a little hard for him to hear, but it won’t be long now before he’ll be hearing as well as the rest of us.”
Lillie hadn’t said a word about Abe’s hearing problems the day before. They’d mostly talked about potential ways they could integrate pet therapy with supporting children who were going through trauma.
“Lillie was really excited about the plans you two came up with yesterday,” Jon said. “And she told me about asking for your help in finding a particular Christmas present for this little man.”
“She said you two moved in with her last weekend.”
“That’s right. So if you find a you-know-what for him, we can take him anytime. The backyard is fenced and we have plenty of room in the house.”
The way Jon’s face lit up as he talked about the you-know-what gave Dana the feeling that the puppy was as much for him as it was for his son.
The three of them made a perfect little family—one any puppy would be lucky to join.
Assuring Jon she’d do her best to find a you-know-what as quickly as possible, Dana asked him to give her regards to Lillie and left before envy could worm its way inside her.
If she wanted a perfect little family of her own, she would have one. When the time was right.
Until then, she had friends and school and volunteer work, a place of her own. And a dinner engagement she was going to be late for if she didn’t get her ass in gear.
* * *
JOSH HAD PLENTY TO DO. Accounts to familiarize himself with. Markets to analyze. He hadn’t gone so long without studying the market since he’d first become fascinated with Wall Street in high school.
He smelled Dana’s flowery scent as soon as he walked in the door Thursday after work. He heated up the vegetable soup she’d left, wishing he had some fresh homemade bread to go with it. And some cookies left for dessert.
He called his mother to assure her he was doing great and assure himself that she was fine, too. But he kept things brief. He wasn’t going to get into a discussion with her. Didn’t want to hear about life back home. And still hadn’t mentioned L.G.
“I’m not going to be calling again for a while, Mother.” He’d been toying with the idea and knew it was the right one. But cutting that last tie...
“You have to call, Joshua! All I have are your phone calls.”
Watching L.G., who was twisted around, biting himself on the hip, or trying to, in between losing his balance and falling over, Josh weighed selfishness against saving self. He wasn’t going to be able to change until he left his old world behind.
The basketball incident had shown him that. Give him something familiar and it was all too easy to fall back into old habits. But this was his mother. She’d done nothing to deserve being cut off from her only child.