don’t wanna go to bed.”
“I’ll read you a story.” Jeremy cleared his and Jamie’s bowls and took them to the sink.
“Will Adda read, too?”
He called her Adda. How adorable. She took her bowl to the sink where Jeremy withdrew from rinsing his and Jamie’s. Her hand brushed his. In an instant, awareness of how close she stood to him inundated her senses. The unexpectedness of it threw her off balance. For a few seconds all that existed was him, his nearly six-foot height, fit build, dark lashes around his warm, confident eyes...and the smell of him, spicy but subtle.
Jamie tugged on Jeremy’s sleeve. “Read.”
“Go get into your jammies. We’ll be up in a second.”
Jamie hopped off.
Adeline listened to his feet patter up the stairs, thinking she could hear the sound every day and never tire of it.
“We have about two minutes to get up there before he starts hollering.” Jeremy rinsed her bowl and put the dishes into the dishwasher.
He didn’t have a housekeeper?
He turned and headed for the stairs. Feeling a little awkward participating in this family activity, she followed. He stopped in the entryway to pick up her luggage and carried it upstairs.
At the top he paused and let her catch up. “You don’t have to do this, you know. I can show you to your room and you can get settled in.”
“What’s so tough about reading to a kid?” She kept the mood light, not comfortable revealing how this affected her. She was about to read to her son for the first time.
She took in the huge landing area, a loft with a seating area and desk. There were two halls sprouting off the room, one to the left and one to the right.
Jeremy led her down the hall to the right and entered the first room. Spacious with a love seat and chair and queen bed, blues and greens and carved white crown molding, it invited coziness. A five-piece bath with a walk-in closet was more than she needed.
“How many rooms do you have here?”
“Eight. This one’s closest to the stairs.” He pointed toward the opposite hall. “Jamie’s room is the first one on that side. Mine’s at the end. It’s a suite. More than I need, but it was nice to share with Tess on those lazy days.”
He seemed to catch himself talking inappropriately and scratched his temple. “Not...er...for watching movies on rainy days is what I meant.”
“It’s okay if you spent days in your room with your wife, Jeremy.”
“I know but...”
She held up her hand. “I got it.” She did not need to hear about how much he enjoyed those days with Tess. And she berated herself for even feeling a tinge of envy.
In Jamie’s room, the boy had a book out and was bouncing into position, getting under the covers.
“I want Adda to read first.”
“It’s Adeline, Jamie.” Jeremy picked up the book and sat on the bed. “You’re not very shy today, are you?”
“Adda Lion.”
“Adda-leen.”
“Adda.”
Adeline laughed along with Jeremy, making Jamie laugh, too. “It’s okay, I can read to him.” She stepped forward, taking the book from Jeremy and shooing him off the bed.
Taking his place, she opened the book and began reading, aware of Jeremy sitting on the chair in the corner. The story was about a big, hairy golden retriever named Doug. Doug was a girl dog who struggled socially at doggy day care. The other dogs teased her because she had a boy dog name.
“On the way home from doggy day care, Doug ran into three other dogs,” Adeline read from the book. “They had no home so they didn’t get to go to doggy day care. ‘Look. Here comes Doug,’ one of the dog bullies said.”
Jamie touched the drawing of a black Doberman between a medium-sized brown terrier and a pit bull. “They’re mean.”
“‘She’s got a boy name,’ said the brown terrier,” Adeline went on. “‘Why’d your people name you Doug?’ Doug held her tail high and said, ‘They love me.’ Then the three dog bullies passed. The Doberman didn’t say anything. He knew Doug had a nice home and he had none.” Adeline turned the page. “Doug overcame her fear of the dog bullies. She felt sorry for them instead. They teased her but she didn’t have to let them hurt her.”
“Why are dog bullies mean?”
“They’re jealous,” Adeline said.
“What’s ‘jell-us’?”
She’d have to get used to talking to a three-year-old. “They just want what Doug has.”
Adeline read about Doug going home to her people. Then Doug and the bullies ran into each other at a birthday party. The bullies found a home and they all started to become friends. At that point, Adeline finished to “The End.”
She closed the book. “That was a good story.”
“Yeah. I feel sorry for the dog bullies.”
“Why do you feel sorry for them?”
“They didn’t have a home.”
“Well, then you got the message of the story right. And they ended up getting a home.” She smiled down at him as he looked thoughtfully up at her.
“Do you have a mommy?” Jamie asked.
The question came so out of the blue she had to take a moment to assemble her reply. “Yes.”
Jamie wore such a serious face for one so young. “Did she go away?”
Did he ask very many people this? He must have noticed other kids his age had both a mother and a father. Did he remember Tess? He’d only been a year old when she died. “No, but my dad did.”
“You don’t have a daddy?”
He couldn’t possibly know what a hard question that was. “I do but he went away when I was a baby.”
Jamie stared up at her, his crystal clear blue eyes wide with absorption. “Is he dead?”
“No. He didn’t want to stay with me and my mother.”
With that, Jamie turned and lowered his head. After a time he looked back up at her. “My mommy left me. Daddy said she had to go away.”
“She didn’t want to leave, sweetie. She died. I know she would have never left you if she had any say in the matter.” She put her hand over his tiny one on the comforter. “It’s okay. Your daddy loves you very much, just like my mommy loves me. Some of
