He looked at her then. “Did you go fast?”
“No. We were on the hood. But when we were done, my sister got to ride in it.”
“All the way around?”
“Yes.”
He pushed the car around the track again.
“It’s your turn now. What’s the best time you ever had?”
She waited.
“My fish.”
“Your fish is the best time?”
“Uh-huh.”
“What did you do with your fish?”
“Daddy and me goed fishing on a boat and I got to pick out goldfish for my pond we builded.”
“You have a pond?” She’d missed that the night before.
He nodded and pushed the car in his left hand for the first time.
“Where?”
“With the stuff outside.”
“What stuff?”
“Chairs and cooking and stuff.”
Lacey would have picked up a little car, too, if she’d felt herself welcome. Instead, she watched the adorable little boy pushing his miniature vehicles with such precision while she leaned back against the wall.
“And you went fishing for goldfish?”
“No!” His giggle slipped inside her, lightening the weight she carried. “You buy them in the store, where they dunk that thing in for ’em.”
She smiled then, liking this child—a lot—and knowing that, regardless of what she found out, he was going to be one of those she never forgot.
CHAPTER SIX
THRUMMING HIS FINGERS on the arm of the chair, Jem stared at the magazines on the table beside him. He stared at his phone, too, scrolling through his favorite news site, but seeing nothing. He reholstered his phone.
What in the hell was taking so long?
Was it possible that someone really was hurting his son?
Impossible.
He’d know.
But one thing he’d learned since Levi had come into the world, turning his life upside down—kids had incredible imaginations.
They were apt to say anything that came into their heads. Fabrication or not. To a kid Levi’s age, everything seemed real. From cartoons, dreams he’d had and stories he’d imagined.