“My mom’s been acting funny, too. She looks kind of worried when she thinks I don’t see her. I wasn’t sure she’d want me to ask her. But you’d tell me, right? If you’re my dad, I mean.”
Squeezing the back of his neck, Adam figured he had only a few choices for what to do. He could look the kid straight in the eyes and lie his ass off—which he wasn’t proud to admit was his first cowardly impulse. Or he could maybe figure out a way to stall until he’d had a chance to talk with Joanna, maybe send Simon off with his aunt while he and Joanna came up with an acceptable story.
Or he could justify his son’s trust in him and answer with the truth.
“Yes, Simon,” he said, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees, vividly aware that he had just changed both their lives forever with those two words. “I am.”
Sorry, JoJo.
Simon blinked rapidly, as if he hadn’t truly expected the answer despite his suspicions. He’d gone pale beneath the pink of his cheeks. Adam could tell the child’s clever mind was working hard to make sense of this very grown-up revelation.
“You’re probably wondering where I’ve been the past five years.”
Chewing his lip, Simon nodded.
Here was the trickiest part. “It’s sort of a long story. Your mom and I did meet here, and we, um, became good friends. But I was in the army then and I had to leave to go to war. Your mom had to go back to her work in Atlanta. She didn’t know how to reach me, so I didn’t know about you until this week. It was my fault for not leaving your mom my phone number,” he added, making sure the blame fell on him. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you before, Simon. But you’re really lucky to have such a great mom. She’s made sure you had a very good life.”
“My mom is the best.” The boy’s voice was shaky, but unreserved.
“No doubt.”
Chewing his lip again, Simon continued to process the abbreviated explanation. “You went to war?”
“I did.”
“Did you get hurt?”
“Yes, but I got better.” Obviously. Feeling foolish, Adam shifted in his chair, not sure what to say next.
Simon had plenty more questions, which Adam understood. “How come you didn’t tell me before I asked?”
Again, honesty seemed the best policy. “We—I wasn’t sure how to do that,” he said, again accepting full responsibility. “I didn’t want to upset you or spoil your vacation with your mom. I thought maybe we should get to know each other before we tried to figure out where to go from here. It’s a complicated situation, Simon, hard enough for us adults to deal with, never mind a kid. I wanted you to concentrate on having fun this week. You did, didn’t you?”
“I had a lot of fun. But I wish I’d known you were my dad when we did stuff together.”
Adam squeezed his tight neck
again. “I’m sorry, Skipper. That was my call. I just thought it was easier that way.”
And it made him feel even guiltier to know it had been easier on him, not necessarily the boy.
Squirming around, Simon sat on his feet sideways in the chair, gripping the armrest in both hands as he leaned forward to ask, “Do you want to be my dad?”
Again, Adam almost drew back in instinctive self-defense, but he made himself remain still. He struggled to come up with the right words. He didn’t want to say something wrong and mess up the boy’s life any more than he already had. Questions like this were what he’d been trying all week to avoid.
He took a deep breath. “There is no other kid in the world I’d rather have for a son than you, Simon. You’re smart as a whip. Funny and friendly and well mannered. You’re excited about learning new things, nice to kids like Cody who have extra challenges, gentle with animals. I couldn’t be prouder of you.”
Simon had followed along intently, his young face creased with his effort to follow everything Adam was saying. “I like you, too,” he said after a pause.
Adam couldn’t help smiling. “I’m glad.”
With a sudden frown, Simon tilted his head. “Do I still have to call you ‘Mr. Adam?’”
“You, uh...you can call me whatever you want.”
“Will you still call me Skipper? I like it when you do.”
“Then, sure. Skipper it is.” Feeling as if he’d just run through a minefield, Adam looked purposefully at his watch. “I know you’re going to have a lot more questions, and your mom and I will try to answer them all. But for now, we’d better get back to her. It’s close to dinnertime.”