again and pacing away from her, fury making him shake once more. He whipped around. “You’re the one who walked.”
“I know, but I was afraid he would keep hoping you would come back,” she explained.
The anger Jonah was keeping in check tore at him. He clenched and unclenched his fists and took deep breaths, knowing he needed to calm down.
“Children accept life as it comes to them,” Kate continued in a subdued voice, her words running together as she spoke quickly. “My parents were around the first couple of years. Dad wasn’t well the past three years, nor was Mom for the last two, but for a while Henry had a father substitute.” She turned to face Jonah squarely.
“It hasn’t been easy this past year. Mom and Dad were very ill, and I had to quit my job to take care of them. Since I couldn’t give a lot of attention to Henry, he’s learned to entertain himself, but he’s also a little shut off. He’s a solemn child and sensitive, and I think he picks up on what is going on around him. Don’t intimidate him.”
“I don’t intend to intimidate him, Kate. I want to love him,” Jonah said in a clipped tone while he looked at the little boy playing in the sand by himself. Other children ran around the playground together, but Henry kept to himself, and Jonah wondered how solitary the child’s life had been.
“You named him for your dad, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Yes. Henry Neighbor Whitewolf.”
“So you let him keep my name?” Jonah remarked in surprise. “And his middle name is my dad’s? Why did you do that, when you intended for Henry to never know his grandfather?”
“I thought someday I would take him to meet your folks, but then time began to pass and my parents got sick. I had a baby to care for and I just didn’t do anything about it. I never had a quarrel with your folks, Jonah.”
He gritted his teeth and shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. After a long silence, he said, “It was pretty shabby treatment, Kate, to keep the knowledge of their grandchild from them.”
She locked her fingers together. “I suppose you’re right, but if I had gone to see them or called or let them know in any way, you would have showed up and I was afraid of a custody battle.”
“Well, we need to talk about that one.”
She glanced at her watch. “I won’t run away. As of Monday morning, I’ll be an advertising executive for Beckman and Holloway, a San Antonio ad agency, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
“Sounds like a great job,” he said.
“I think it will be. It’ll pay more than the one I left.” She looked at Henry. “Right now, we haven’t had lunch, and I know Henry should eat. I need to try to find an apartment today, and I have an appointment this afternoon with a day care. Can we talk next week?”
“No. You’re not putting me off now. I’ll take you both to lunch.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she argued quietly. “I have a lunch packed in a cooler in my car. Jonah, be reasonable—we can talk tomorrow.”
Jonah shook his head. “Let’s go to lunch and talk. You can look at apartments later. Right now, I want to go tell him I’m his father. I’ve been out of his life for too long already.”
They stared at each other, and he could feel the muscles clenching in his jaw. He hurt as if every bone in his body were broken, ached with longing for the years he hadn’t known his child. Hot anger still consumed him, and to his chagrin, he still found his pulse racing every time he looked at Kate. He didn’t want her to have that power over him, but she did. He just hoped he never let his need for her show. When he thought what she had done, keeping Henry from him, he decided it would be better to keep his basic male reaction hidden from her.
He was astounded that she would try to keep his son a secret. That was a side of her he had never known.
“I’m going to tell him,” Jonah said, finally breaking the silence.
“No!” She gripped his arm and he inhaled, hating the hot tremor that sizzled through him from the touch of her fingers. She yanked her hand away as if she had touched burning metal. “I’ll go tell him right now,” she said, looking at Jonah intently, her gaze searching his features. “You’ve changed, Jonah. You’re a hard man.”
“You’ve changed, too, Kate. And what you did was—” He bit back the word he was about to say. It was over, and from this hour on, he would know his son and his son would know him. And in that moment, Jonah knew what he could do for the future.
“I’ll go tell him, but this is going to be sudden,” she repeated.
“I’m not the one who caused it to be that way. Go tell him.”
She clamped her lips shut, but nodded and turned away. He watched the slight sway of her hips and drew a deep breath. “Damn,” he whispered to himself. She was still beautiful and she could still stir him with a look or even the slightest physical contact. To him, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. He couldn’t see her any other way. Not even now, when he was so angry with her.
For too many reasons he ached as he watched her sit down in the grass near the sandbox and talk to Henry. Their son. Jonah couldn’t get over the knowledge. He had a son! Henry Neighbour, named for his dad and her father.
Jonah thought of his parents. His father would stoically say nothing about not being told about Henry all these years, but would simply pick up with the present. His mother would cry buckets over the lost years and pour out her love on this grandson, if Kate would let her.
Children’s laughter floated in the air, along with the whistles of birds. A faint breeze blew, and shadows shifted over him as Jonah sat waiting in the shade of a tall cottonwood tree. While he watched his ex-wife with their son, he thought of his future and the plans he had already made, and now what lay ahead and what he should do.
While Kate talked to Henry, the boy turned and stared at Jonah, who gazed back, aching inside. He wanted to go put his arms around his son and hug him. He longed to hold Henry. Five years and he had never yet held his child.
“Oh, dammit, Kate,” he whispered, and started walking toward them.
Henry got up and brushed off the sand, and Kate took his hand as they approached Jonah. The boy was slender, too quiet and withdrawn, yet there was absolutely no mistaking that Henry was his son, Jonah thought.
As he walked up to them, Kate and Henry stopped. Jonah kept his eyes on the boy, who watched him when he hunkered down in front of him. “I’m your dad, Henry.”
“Yes, sir,” Henry said quietly, frowning at him.
“I’m glad to see you and I want to get to know you.”
Nodding solemnly, Henry stared in silence at Jonah, who had held on to control long enough. He succumbed to impulse, reaching out to pick up Henry, standing and hugging the child, trying to hide the tears that stung his eyes.
“Henry,” he whispered.
The little boy’s arms wrapped around his neck, and Jonah gritted his teeth and squinted,
