Page 20 of Long Road Home

This time it was Jordan.

“Hey,” I said, answering it and shoving the phone into my shoulder to finish the salad.

“I want to come back and see him.”

God. His voice. His beautiful, rich and thick voice. It was slow as molasses, warm as the summer sun. Hearing it so full of pain gutted me, and I had no one to blame but myself.

The timer dinged on the microwave and I moved to the oven, saying, “I’m cooking dinner. Would you like to join us?”

“Toby okay with that?”

“He wants to spend time with you, but he’s scared you won’t like him.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, then a short burst that chilled me to my bones because it wasn’t a happy laugh. “Well that makes two of us. I’m on your street. See you soon.”

He disconnected, and I stared at the clock.

Shit! “Toby!”

I shouted as loud as I could and hoped he didn’t have headphones on. Footsteps pounded on the floor almost above my head and down the stairs. “What?”

“Kitchen, kiddo.”

He appeared moments later, eyes swollen, hair disheveled, shoulders slumped. “Jordan called. He wants to see you, so I invited him for dinner.”

The doorbell rang and both of our heads whipped in that direction. Toby’s eyes went wide and his jaw slack.

“That’s him, kiddo,” I said, my voice soft and on the edge of tears. “It’ll be okay.”

“He going to yell at you again?”

I still had no idea what he heard. I shook my head. “No. I promise he won’t. He wants to get to know you. That’s what tonight is, okay?”

“Whatever.” He shrugged and started heading toward the door. When I called his name, he stopped and glanced back at me. “What?”

“I love you, kiddo. I think you’re the best thing in the world. Jordan will too, I guarantee it.”

His chin did that wobble thing and his cheeks turned pink.

Then he rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

Which meant when he disappeared from the kitchen, I was smiling. It was sad and shaky, but I was still smiling because Toby wanted this. I saw it in his eyes filled with hope and fear.

I thought I’d done what I had to do years ago to do right by my son, and now, it was time to finish that job by fixing all the mistakes I’d made.

Seven

Jordan

Dinner was brutal and awkward.The food was delicious, something that shocked the hell out of me. When I complimented Destiny on it, she looked as surprised as I felt. Back when I’d known her, she couldn’t boil water for macaroni and cheese. Tonight she’d whipped up a full meal and had apparently cleaned the kitchen as she went because when I showed up, Toby barely saying hello to me when he let me in the door and I followed him to the kitchen, there wasn’t a single dirty dish out.

I’d wanted a beer with dinner. Maybe a whiskey. Hell, I would have settled for a glass of wine since that’s what most chicks drank these days, but given she’d offered me water or tea, I took the water.

I wanted to know everything about Toby. His favorite color, his grades, how he liked school, and if he played basketball as well as it looked like he would have. Mostly, I stared at him and cataloged every one of his features. His eyes were mine. His mouth was Destiny’s. He had my height, given he was already five feet tall, but it was her mannerisms he’d picked up. The way his mouth curved, or he shook his head. He dragged his hand through his hair in a way that was eerily similar to Rebecca’s nervous habit.

Mostly, I gawked at him like a freak, forcing myself to answer questions Destiny asked us both, fake smile on her face showing she felt the pain of this moment as well as I did.

I told them about blowing out my knee in a motorcycle accident and walking away from ball. That was when I told them about opening the golf resort and spa on the northeast edge of town.

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