a cupboard. How would you like to fly it in the park sometime?”
The little boy’s face shone. “Can we, Mommy?”
Furious with Rowe for putting her into such an awkward position, she said, “Viscount Aragon is a busy man, sweetheart. I’m sure he has more important things to do than fly kites. You and I will do it on our own.”
Jeffrey’s face crumpled. “You don’t know how to fly a kite. ’Member the time you smashed my airplane?”
She remembered only too well. Last Christmas Santa Claus had visited the Castle School and had given a model plane to Jeffrey. She had painstakingly glued the model together, frustrated to find she had several bits left over afterward. Jeffrey hadn’t cared. His eagerness to see the plane fly had lasted only as long as it took Kirsten to crash it into a bush a dozen feet from the launching site. One of the missing pieces had turned out to be the ballast that kept the plane on an even keel.
“This time I’ll let you fly the kite,” she promised.
“Why can’t Viscount Aragon fly it with me?” He turned to Rowe. “You’re not too busy, are you?”
Rowe gave her a searching look. “If I was, I’d have said so. But Mommy is the boss in these matters. She can tell me her decision later at the office. We’re going to be working together a lot,” he said for the little boy’s benefit. “If she says yes, we’ll go kite flying next Saturday.”
Jeffrey nodded eagerly. “I’ll be really good till Saturday, promise.”
“Till Saturday then.”
Kirsten kept her anguish from showing as she tucked her son’s hand in hers, ignoring the tug that told her he’d prefer to walk by himself. She needed to feel his hand in hers to reassure herself that he was fascinated only because Rowe was a man. The Castle School had some male teachers and Jeffrey had contact with the other children’s fathers, but he had no male role model at home.
And whose fault is that? she asked herself angrily, the pain in every step reminding her of the too-tight shoes. Rowe could have been involved in Jeffrey’s life from the beginning. He had been the one to ignore Natalie’s letter, not caring, it seemed, how the child turned out. He couldn’t come along now and simply take over. She wouldn’t let him.
Unaware of her fury, Rowe was continuing to walk with them. “Don’t you have a home to go to?” she demanded, not caring how rude she sounded.
“My home is in Solano, the capital city of Carramer,” he explained for Jeffrey’s sake, adding, “Not that I’ve spent much time there up to now.”
“You prefer to be free, I suppose.” Just like her father. As a free spirit, Felix hadn’t wanted to be tied down, either. Her family had lived in a series of rented houses as their father moved from one short-lived job to another. When their parents died, there had been no family home they could retreat to while they dealt with their grief. No inheritance for Jeffrey, either, making Kirsten determined to give him the most secure childhood she could, with none of the anxiety that had plagued her and Natalie while they were growing up.
Even if it meant putting up with Rowe’s presence in her life until his cycling race was over, she would do it for Jeffrey’s sake. Moving him from home to home was not going to happen if she could prevent it. One day she intended to buy them a place of their own. For now, they were happy here, and she would not allow Rowe’s arrival to interfere.
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