Page 2 of Wait for Me

Instead of leaving him with nannies and strangers when he wasn’t with his French grandparents, Marie had agreed to let Logan have full custody of Jonas.

Looking back, Logan wondered why Marie hadn’t put on a fiercer fight. Maybe it was true that not only did Marie want out of the marriage, she also did not want to be reminded of Logan at all, as their son would certainly do.

Three years of single parenting later, Logan considered himself an expert at handling his son. Yet, there he was, bottom lip out, eyes on the verge of tears.

“All right,” Logan found himself saying. “We’ll fly to France for your birthday.”

“Fly? No, Dad. I want to go on a big boat!”

“A ship?” Logan shouldn’t have suggested that.

He cringed.

“Yes, a ship!” Jonas clapped his hands and nodded his head, his blondish hair reminding Logan of Marie. “Can you buy me a ship, Daddy?”

“Not the one you want to go on.” Logan wasn’t sure if the kid understood.

“I want a ship!”

Does he have to shout out everything?

Logan tried to calm him down, but the boy had a big smile on his face. It was Marie’s smile.

Melted Logan every time.

“Can we have my birthday on a ship?” Jonas asked. “Please?”

“Logistically, no. Don’t you want all your friends to come to your birthday party?” Logan didn’t feel like sending twenty or more kids and their parents or guardians on cruise just to eat a birthday cake.

“What’sjickally, Daddy?”

No point explaining. “Why don’t we celebrate your birthday first? Let’s have a party here at home. We can have it outside in the playground, if you want. You can invite everyone in your kindergarten class, plus all your junior golf buddies and Sunday School class friends from church. After that, we can have a second birthday celebration on a ship just by ourselves.”

Logan was thinking that a three- or four-day cruise in the Caribbean would do it. It was about as long as he’d wanted to be away from his office. So much work to do.

“With Mommy! Will she bring me presents?”

Presents. Plural. Never just one present. It has to be more and more.

What have I done with this kid?

“Uh, I’m sure she will.”

Although Marie hadn’t seen Jonas in these three years since she had left the United States, Logan didn’t want Jonas to think that she had ignored him. If he had to give him a good memory, he would wrap up some presents and address it from Marie. She wouldn’t mind, would she? After all, they always bought what the kid wanted.

“Woweee!” Jonas jumped up and down. “I want to see whales! And geezers!”

Logan coughed, suddenly feeling older than thirty-five years. “You mean glaciers?”

“Uh-huh. And bears and salmons… Dad, do they have eagles there?”

There was only one place in the world Logan could think of where they could see bears, salmons, eagles, whales, and glaciers in the same area.

Alaska.

He didn’t want to go back there, really, to the place where he had proposed to Marie.

When was that?

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