Kasey flipped on the porch light. He took off his hat and grinned down at her.
Her breath caught. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.
Slater.
Ten years fell away. She suddenly felt that her arms and legs were too long, her braces too tight, her hair too curly and her voice too high.
“Slater?” she whispered.
He nodded. “Yeah, Kasey, it’s me.”
Her knees shook as she moved closer to the screen door and studied his face. Older, a few more lines. He was more rugged, his dark hair a little longer. Different, but so familiar.
“You gonna make me stand out here all night?” he asked.
She looked down at her sons, who were still frozen in place, their necks bent back, their mouths open as they stared at the stranger. Under a different situation, she might have laughed. Unless they were sleeping, her sons were never quiet this long. But this wasn’t just a different situation.
This was Slater.
Her fingers shook as she reached for the screen door and pushed it open. Slater glanced down at Cody and Troy. Still staring, the boys slowly parted, and he stepped inside.
Kasey’s first impulse was to yell for Jeanie, to tell her that her big brother was here to pick her up. Her second impulse was to jump into his arms. She did neither. All she could do was stand there, a lump in her throat and a tight ache in her chest.
“Ah, these are my sons,” she said finally. “Cody—” she touched her oldest son’s head “—and Troy. Boys, this is Slater, an old friend of mine.”
Troy pressed against her, curious, but cautious, while Cody craned his neck upward and stared. “How old are you?” Cody asked.
“Cody Thomas Morgan,” Kasey reprimanded, “where are your manners?
“Well, you said he was old,” Cody grumbled.
With a half grin, Slater slipped his hat back on, then knelt and leaned close to Cody. “I’m thirty-four,” he whispered. “Is that old?”
Cody shrugged. “Not so bad. My mom’s twentyseven.”
Slater raised his brows in mock surprise. “That old, huh? Do you have to help her across the street and speak real loud so she can hear yon?”
Cody and Troy both burst into giggles. Kasey rolled her eyes and shook her head. What in the world was all this talk about age? Cody had never asked anyone how old they were before.
“We just got back from vacation,” Cody offered. “My mom bought a new horse called Miss Lucy, and we got to go to the rodeo and the water park.”
“And ride a roller coaster,” Troy added. He’d unglued himself from her side and had moved a few inches closer to the visitor.
“You ever take your kids on a roller coaster?” Cody asked.
“Cody,” Kasey warned, though she was curious herself now, “that’s enough questions.”
Slater smiled. “I don’t have any kids.”
“How come?” Suspicion edged Cody’s voice. “Don’t you like them?”
“Cody! I said, that’s enough.” Kasey took hold of her son’s shoulders.
“Sure, I like kids.” Slater tipped his hat back and looked at both Cody and Troy. “But I was moving around a lot, working on oil wells, and I just never got married.”
Cody’s eyes widened. “You work on oil wells. That’s cool. Does oil really squirt ten miles up and get all—”
Kasey clamped a hand over her son’s mouth. “No more questions. I’d like to talk to Slater now if it’s all right with you two.”
Cody and Troy glanced at each other and smiled. “Sure, Mom,” Cody said, looking back up at her. “You want us to leave you guys alone?”
Leave them alone? Kasey frowned at her son. Why was everyone, including her sons, acting so odd today? Was there a full moon tonight? “That’s not necessary.”
Slater straightened. “I, uh, heard you got married.”
She wondered how a man who’d walked away from family and friends—without so much as a glance backward—could have heard anything. “I’m divorced. Two years now.”
They stared at each other, the momentary silence awkward and heavy. Then they both spoke at the same time.
“You look—”
“You’ve sure—”
They both stopped, then smiled.
“Aw, hell, Kasey.” Slater shook his head as he opened his arms. “Come here, will you?”
With a small laugh, she moved into his arms. He was solid muscle against her, his scent masculine, his touch so familiar. This really was Slater. Tears gathered in her eyes and she blinked them back, afraid that he might see them and think her silly or childish.
Smiling, she pulled away and looked up at him. His eyes were still the same deep brown, but there were lines beside them now. She frowned at the jagged scar on his right temple and wondered what had happened. His jaw was more square, his chin stronger, his hair a richer, darker brown.
When she was seventeen she’d thought him the handsomest man alive. Looking at him now, her opinion was still the same.
His arms around her, his hands touching her waist made her dizzy. How could he have this effect on her after all these years? He couldn’t. She was overtired, stressed from her trip. Why else would her pulse be racing and her head ringing?
“You gonna get that?”
“What?”
He nodded toward the kitchen. “The phone. It’s ringing.”
“Oh, yes.” She heard it now. “Of course.”
She pulled away and backed toward the kitchen. “Cody, Troy, take Slater into the living room and keep him company. I’ll be right back.”
Slater watched Kasey turn and disappear into the kitchen. He glanced around the entry, letting the past back into his life for a moment. Everything was the same; the dark oak table just inside the screen door where Mrs. Donovan had always kept fresh flowers, the hat rack beside it where Mr. Donovan had always hung his gray Stetson beside his blue baseball cap. And the family portrait, taken on the front porch, not long before he’d left. He took a step closer and grinned at the framed snapshot. Kasey, with her brilliant smile and wild red hair, one arm looped over her father’s broad shoulders, the other arm twined around her mother’s slender waist. He stared at the picture and his smile faded
The same, and yet, not the same.
He glanced down at Kasey’s sons. Definitely not the same.
He
