“Oh.” He stared up at her though blue eyes so much like his father’s it was crazy. “I was made in Las Vegas?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” He swal owed, and she could practical y see the wheels turning in his little brain. “How?”
She’d always known that someday she’d have to answer this question. She was prepared. She’d gone over it in her head several times, but never in her imaginings had Sam been sitting two feet away, a bag of peas on his shoulder, looking like he wanted to know the answer, too. “Wel , when two people make love, they sometimes make a baby.”
“Oh.” Autumn held her breath, waiting for the next “how.” The questions were only going to get harder. He turned and faced Sam. “Can I have your gummy worm?”
“Go for it.”
Conner jumped up and ran into the kitchen as fast as his little sneakers could carry him.
A sigh of relief escaped her lungs as she scrubbed her face with her hands. “I feel like I just dodged a bul et.”
“I was kind of interested in how you were going to answer the questions working their way through his brain.”
She frowned and dropped her hands. “You were no help.” She leaned forward to make sure Conner was stil in the kitchen before she said, “He asked you, and you certainly know what conceived means. Good God, you’re the biggest perv on the planet.”
He laughed, not at al ashamed. Of course not. He was Sam. “Not the biggest.”
“You’re right up there.”
“Which is why I probably shouldn’t answer such delicate questions.”
Conner returned, munching on a red gummy worm. The little wheels in his head were stil turning. Just because he’d taken a worm break didn’t mean he was ready to let the subject go.
“Okay.” Autumn jumped to her feet before Conner could get his questions out. “We better get going now.”
“We just got here.”
“We talked about this, Conner. You knew we weren’t going to stay long. Your dad needs to rest.”
“What I need is a shower.”
She started toward the kitchen. “Let’s get your hoodie.”
“I need your help.”
That stopped her, and she slowly turned to face Sam. He was looking at her. “Me? You need me to help you take a shower?”
He chuckled and used his good hand to push himself up. “No. Not unless you insist.” He tossed the peas on the coffee table and pointed to his sling.
“Somebody hooked this thing up in the back, and I can’t get it off.” He moved past her, just natural y assuming she’d help him out. “I’m not so sure I need it anyway.”
“Can I have your cupcake, Dad?”
“Knock yourself out, but just make sure you eat at the bar. I can’t break out the DustBuster after you leave today.” He looked back at Autumn over his shoulder. “Come on.” When she didn’t move, he stopped and turned to look at her. “I’m not trying to push you around. I just need a little help.”
That wasn’t the reason her feet were glued to his carpet. Helping him out of his sling felt a little too intimate. A little too close. As if he read her mind, he asked, “Do you think I’m going to try something on you?”
He made it sound so ridiculous that there was only one thing left for her to do. She shook her head and shrugged out of her fleece jacket. She tossed it on top of her purse and fol owed Sam. “Of course I don’t think that.” They moved down a curved hal and passed a room that could only be Conner’s.
“That’s good, because I’m in no condition to start something that I can’t finish,” he said over his shoulder. “No matter how pretty you beg.”
If he hadn’t already been hurt and moving kind of slow, she might have been tempted to hit him. Instead, she kept her attention focused on the dark blue figure-eight splint across the back of his white T-shirt and the beige strap of his sling. He was right. The figure-of-eight and sling were Velcroed in back.
She fol owed him into the large master bedroom with a spectacular view of El iott Bay. The bed itself was stil unmade and rumpled from the night before, and a pair of hockey shorts, socks, and big pads had been kicked to one side. The walk