“I didn’t ignore you,” Tad said calmly, his avatar racing around a checkerboard-looking thing, just ahead of the blockages that kept appearing on the path. “I didn’t know you were there. But you know I’m here. That’s the difference.” Ethan, a full lane ahead of Tad in his own version of the same puzzle, was also two squares ahead of the blockages. And he had a hefty collection of blockage obliterators in the spare feeding trough in his zoo barn, meaning her son was winning soundly. “You knew Danny was there. Why didn’t you look for me, too?”
“I was there to see Danny.”
Wiping her hands on the towel she’d brought in, Miranda stopped. Stared at the back of Tad’s head.
Should she put an end to the conversation? Call them in for dinner? Pull Tad aside to warn him, remind him, whatever?
“Who’s Danny?” she asked, sensing she was overreacting even before the words were out of her mouth.
Tad’s quick glance in her direction readily confirmed her suspicion.
Ethan, still looking at Tad, didn’t seem to hear her. “Why were you there to see him? You know his mom, too?” The question wasn’t as friendly-sounding as it might have been. More accusation than curiosity.
Clearly she had work to do where her son was concerned. He wasn’t just her little boy anymore. It wasn’t just the two of them against the world. She’d known the time would come. Had to give herself a second to swallow the sadness.
And endure the instant shard of fear that followed.
“I do know his mom,” Tad said. “So does your mom.”
No! She stepped closer to them, but before she could get words out, Tad gave her another look. Not condemning. Not a warning.
More like a promise of some kind.
“She can’t tell you about him because he’s a patient and it’s against the law for medical personnel to talk about their patients, but he’s not my patient and while his stuff isn’t my business, I can tell you that he knows I got hurt. Your mom knew I got hurt and brought me in to meet Danny.”
Ethan’s gaze had been locked with Tad’s through the entire explanation. Miranda was close to tears.
“But why?”
“He just had a question to ask me about my injury.”
Which didn’t explain, at all, why Tad had been at the elementary school. She waited for Ethan to ask.
“I got a scar on my leg, and got burned on my back, too, see?” Turning, Tad pulled up his shirt, exposing the scars on the lower part of his back. She’d seen them higher up, too, that day in her examining room with Danny.
“Wow. Did it hurt?” Ethan asked, eyes wide behind his glasses as he talked to Tad.
“Yep. A lot. More than anything else. Ever. Except maybe...you thinking I’m not your friend.”
“How’d it happen? Did you get shot?” Ethan knew Tad was a police detective.
“Nope. It was an explosion.”
“With some bad guys?”
“One bad guy.”
“Did anybody die?”
“Just the bad guy.”
“Cool.”
She didn’t think it was cool.
“So...are we friends again?” Tad moved right in.
“I guess.” Ethan turned back to the TV and started to laugh. “Hey! I won even when we weren’t playing!”