"Can you?"
Jared looked down, and for the first time saw the worry in the boy's eyes. "She's not really mad at you, Bry. She's mad at me."
"Yeah, I know. Can you make her not mad at you anymore?"
"I hope so. When you tick her off, does she stay that way long?"
"Nah. She can't, 'cause..." There was no way to explain it. "She just can't. But she's never let a guy hang around like you, so maybe she can stay mad at you."
"She's never..." He stopped himself. It was wrong to ask the child. "Maybe you should give me some pointers."
"Well." Bryan pursed his lips as he thought about it. "She really digs the flowers you bring her. No one ever did that before, except once I brought her some little ones for her birthday. She got all mushy about it."
"No one ever brought her flowers," Jared murmured. He wasn't just an idiot. He was a champion idiot.
"Nuh-uh," Bryan continued, warming up. "No one ever took us out to ball games or for pizza, and she likes that, too."
This time he could ask, because it was for the boy. "No one ever took you to ball games or for pizza?"
"Nah. I mean, Mom and me went, sure, but not with a guy who like set it up and stuff." Bryan was thinking that over, how much he liked it, when inspiration struck. "Oh, yeah. And when you're going to take her out, like on a date, she sings in the shower. She went out on dates before and all, but she never sang when she was getting ready. So maybe you should take her on a date. Girls like that stuff."
Jared determined there were going to be lots of ball games, lots of pizza, lots of dates and lots of flowers in Savannah and Bryan's future. "Yeah, they do."
"Have you got any love words?"
"Excuse me?"
"Like in the movies," Bryan explained. "You know how the woman gets all moon-eyed when the guy says love words. Only the guy has to be kind of moon-eyed, too, to make it work. She might like that."
"She might."
Bryan sighed at the thought. "It's probably embarrassing."
"Not if you mean them. Here's the thing, Bryan." Jared scooted away just enough that he could face the boy fully. "I figure I ought to run this by you, since you've been the man of the house for so long. I'm in love with your mother."
As his stomach clutched and jittered, Bryan lowered his gaze. "I kind of figured you were stuck on her."
"No, I'm in love with her. Moon-eyed. I'm going to ask her to marry me."
Bryan's gaze whipped back up, and this time it held steady and searching. "For real?"
"For very real. How does that fly with you?"
He wasn't ready to commit. Though he liked the strong weight of the arm on his shoulders, his stomach was still jumping. "Would you, like, live with us?"
"Not like. I would live with you, and you'd live with me. But there's a catch."
That was what he'd been afraid of. He braced himself, kept his eyes level. "Yeah? What?"
"I'm going to ask you to take my name, Bryan. And to take me on, as your father. I don't just want your mother, you see. I want both of you, so you both have to want me."
There was an odd pressure on his chest, as if someone had just sat on him. "You want to be my father?"
"Yes, very much. I know you've gotten along just fine without one up till now, and maybe I need you more than you need me, but I think I'd be good at it."
Bryan's eyes goggled. "You need to be my father?"
"I do," Jared murmured, realized he'd rarely spoken truer words. "I really do."