"Stay close to home afterward. Your mother
can't do everything herself," Uncle Jacob warned. "I'll help as much as I can," I said. He finally
focused his gaze on me, his eyes searching my face to
see if I were looking at him any differently since our
conversations in the hospital. I forced a smile and he
turned back to Aunt Sara to tell her to open the
window a little more.
At the supermarket, we split up the list, giving
May a half dozen items to fetch herself. As Cary and I
walked down the aisle pushing our cart, he grinned at
me, his eyes glittering impishly.
"What's with that look you have on your face,
Cary Logan?" I asked him.
"I was just pretending you and I were married
and shopping together, pretending May was our little
girl."
"We're kind of young to have a daughter as old
as May, aren't we?"
"I just pretended she was much younger," he
said with a shrug. If everything was as easy as
pretending, we would all be forever happy, I thought. "Suppose she was that young? Do you think I
would let her go off by herself like this, Cary Logan?
What sort of a mother do you think I would be?" "A perfect one," he responded. "Don't you think
I'll be a good father?"
"Maybe," I teased.
"Maybe? Why--" He stopped when the man in
front of us turned around. It was Adam Jackson's
father.
"Well, we meet again," he said, fixing his soft
blue eyes on me. He wore a pair of jeans, a heather