Joanna, on the other hand, was quiet on her equally placid mount beside them. Adam could tell she was making an effort to participate for Simon’s sake. She smiled and nodded when Simon pointed out sights, laughed at the boy’s running jokes, snapped pictures of Simon and Adam on the horse.
Adam was going to want one of those pictures.
Simon clutched Adam’s belt on both sides as though the leather was a second set of reins. Sometimes he got a little excited and gripped too tightly, giving Adam the sensation of being almost squeezed in half, but h
e didn’t mind. Let the boy have his fun.
The ridiculousness of the whole situation struck him, making him chuckle. When he’d woken up that morning in his bed, groggy and a little hungover, he couldn’t have imagined he’d end up on a horse with a kid—his kid—clinging to his belt. He still wasn’t sure what would be best for the boy after the vacation ended, still doubted that having a father he barely knew living on the opposite coast would be a particularly healthy, but he’d figured the least he owed him was a few hours of fun and then a proper goodbye.
“What’s so funny?” Joanna’s mount, Teenie, had drifted close enough that Joanna had heard Adam’s laugh.
He looked at her. “Everything. And nothing.”
Somehow she seemed to understand.
Because the well-seasoned horse needed no guidance, Adam let his gaze linger on the woman next to him rather than the path ahead. Everything about her appealed to him. The sunlight on her face, warming her skin, bringing out the green in her eyes. The hair that escaped her ponytail, lifting and dancing in the ocean breeze, caressing her cheeks in a manner he’d have enjoyed doing himself. The thin cotton blouse rippling in that same breeze, hugging her breasts. Her slender hips and long legs wrapped around that poky nag, making him have to turn his eyes away before he reacted in a way that was inappropriate under the circumstances.
The ride ended eventually, of course. Chip, one of the guides Adam knew in passing, swung Simon out of his saddle, then turned to assist Joanna while Adam dismounted. Simon wasn’t quite ready to call an end to the outing. While Chip moved on to help others, the boy stood stroking the silky skin of the horse’s muzzle, and Dez seemed to enjoy the attention.
“Mom, take a picture of me and Adam with Dez,” Simon suggested, looking over his shoulder at her. “I don’t think you got a picture of Dez’s face.”
Adam moved into position beside the horse, who bobbed his head as if he knew the moment was being memorialized. Simon grinned up at him, and Adam felt the increasingly familiar lump develop in his throat.
One of the other riders, a middle-aged tourist in a sun visor, souvenir T-shirt, plaid shorts and sneakers, moved forward quickly. “Why don’t you get in the picture, too, ma’am?” he suggested in what might have been a Tennessee drawl. “I’ll take a family shot.”
Joanna’s hesitation was so brief it might not have been noticeable to anyone but Adam. But Simon’s enthusiastic nod was enough to make her hand her phone to the friendly man and move into place. She chose to stand behind Simon, her hands on his shoulders with the horse’s face separating her and Adam.
“All right, now, everyone say ‘ride ’em, cowboy,’” their photographer instructed, making Simon laugh while Adam tried his best to look relaxed and untroubled.
The man returned the phone to Joanna with a motion of his other hand toward Simon. “Y’know, I’ve got a son who looks a lot like me. But these two have us beat. I guess everyone says you look just like your daddy, don’t they, young man?”
And this, Adam thought with a wince, was one of the reasons he’d tried to put some distance between himself and the boy. The more time they spent together, the more likely it was that something would happen to confuse Simon.
But the boy merely nodded, suddenly as adept as his parents at keeping his thoughts to himself. “Thank you for taking the picture, sir,” he said.
The man nodded in approval. “Polite kid you’ve got there,” he said to Adam as he moved to rejoin his waiting wife. “Testament to his upbringing.”
“Yes,” Adam murmured. “It is.”
An upbringing he’d had no part of.
Simon slipped one hand into his mother’s, the other into Adam’s as they walked away from the stables. Maybe the boy was getting tired. He wasn’t as garrulous as usual, though he still looked happy enough. Adam glanced over his son’s head to Joanna, who was staring back at him. Probably trying to figure out what the hell he was doing, what he wanted from her. From the future.
He wished he knew the answer.
* * *
DECIDING HE LOOKED FATIGUED, Joanna insisted on Simon getting some rest before dinner and the promised night game of minigolf on the illuminated course. He claimed to be too old for naps these days, but she agreed to let him sit quietly in the suite and watch a video. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if he nodded off.
Adam left them in the courtyard, saying he had some things he needed to tend to for work.
“You’ll still have dinner with us, won’t you?” Simon asked him.
Joanna frowned in response to her son’s tone. He sounded unnaturally subdued, almost pensive. Either he was even more tired than she’d realized or perhaps he had become aware of how little time remained of this vacation that had been so much more momentous than either of them could have expected. Perhaps Simon had just discovered that he shared Adam’s aversion to goodbyes.
Adam sent Joanna a searching glance before answering, proving she wasn’t the only one to have noticed a change in the boy’s mood. “Sure, Skipper. If it’s okay with your mom.”
She nodded, not even attempting a smile since Simon wasn’t looking at her. “Of course. Simon would like that.”