Welcome to Bluestone 1 - Bluestone homecoming (15 page)

“You want to sleep with her,” Max shot
back.

Leo wouldn’t have been more shocked if his
father had dived off the boat and started doing water ballet. And
he didn’t respond well in his surprise. “What—how do you know about
that?” The kid was nine, for crying out loud.

“Grandma watches
Grey’s Anatomy
, and
they kiss, then they get naked, then they sleep together. All the
guys at school said you want to sleep with Miss Madison.”

The guys at school. Yeah, he remembered that
dynamic. Leo’s face heated in anger and embarrassment at the
accuracy of the statement.

“I want to get to know her,” he said through
his teeth. “I want to know that you’re okay with me making her a
part of our lives.”

Max paled then. “You want her to come live
with us?”

Leo shook his head. “I don’t know how serious
it will be. Probably not. I’m going back to work once your summer
vacation starts—”

Something else he should have worded
differently.

Tears swam in the boy’s eyes. “Good! I want
you to go!” He picked up his fishing pole and flung it into the
lake.

Anger raced through him, making him see red.
He looked from the floating gear to his son’s defiant expression
and bent to get in the boy’s face. “What the hell do you think
you’re doing? Go!” He glanced around. Not a lot of choices. “Go
below.”

Two tears spilled down his cheeks before he
blinked them angrily back, then his face set stubbornly—just like
Liv’s had done—and he pivoted to duck below.

Leo was quivering with temper when he turned
to see his father reaching for the pole with a fishing net that was
too short.

“I’ll get that.” He took the net from his
father and leaned over the side of the boat, his thoughts
racing—regret, anger, frustration.

“You should go talk to him.”

Leo straightened, his attention on the
floating pole. “I thought you’d’ve wanted me to spank his
butt.”

“Make no mistake, I would have done that to
you, but times are different. The two of you are different. You
don’t really know the kid.”

Leo wanted to deny the fact but couldn’t. “I
don’t know what I can say to make it better.”

“Maybe it’s time to listen.”

Leo scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’ve
never yelled at him before.”

“You’ve been doing a lot of things lately
with him you’ve never done. You don’t get another chance, Leo. He’s
only a kid once. If you’re serious about this woman, well, that’s
something you need to work out with him.”

“Trinity is—she’s something special. I want a
chance to know. I thought approaching him was the best thing. I
didn’t mean to upset him. Kid’s been through enough changes.”

“Good you recognize that.”

His father walked to the motor and guided the
boat closer to the floating pole. Leo scooped it up. He held it,
looking at it for a moment, then walked to the front of the boat
and opened the doors to enter the berth.

Max sat on the edge of the bunk, sniffling,
but he didn’t look up when Leo entered.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said, leaning against the
wall, wanting to take the kid into his arms, but he never did that
and didn’t know how Max would react, especially in the mood he was
in now. “I shouldn’t have shouted at you. I don’t like that you
threw Grandpa’s fishing pole overboard, but I take responsibility
for surprising you by talking about going back to work.” There.
That was reasonable, wasn’t it? Even a nine year old could see
that. “I don’t want to change your life, not just for the sake of
change. But something’s missing in my life since your mom
died.”

Max’s breath caught, and he lifted his face
to Leo. Leo sat on the bunk beside him, keeping a bit of space
between them.

“Did I ever tell you how we met?”

Max hesitated, then shook his head.

“I was working in the States then, getting
started, and I was doing a story on ERs. Emergency rooms, you know.
Once she got pregnant, she stopped working in the ER—long hours, a
lot of stress, but that day—I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She
was the prettiest woman I’d ever seen, even though she had her hair
all knotted at the back of her head, you know, like she used to do,
and most of her make-up had come off. I remember there was this
case of this woman who came in, she had to weigh twice what I did,
and she had burned herself cooking, splattered grease on her arms
and face, and she could hardly move, she hurt so bad. Your mom
hefted her into a wheelchair and pushed her into an exam room, the
most gentle thing I’d ever seen as she tended to her wounds.” He
couldn’t tell his son how he’d watched those long tender fingers
and ached. “I watched her run beside a gurney with a man having a
heart attack, shouting orders, getting straight to work, no
question in her mind what needed to be done. I watched her lead the
team who saved the man’s life, even before the doctor arrived. And
when she finally took a break, I followed her and asked her to
dinner. She was on duty until midnight, but I wouldn’t take no for
an answer.”

He’d gotten her home at four in the morning,
and left at eight for his next assignment. Couldn’t tell Max that
either. But he’d gone back to Saint Paul as often as he could over
the next months, unable to get her out of his head, and proposed to
her during a particularly aerobic lovemaking. She’d said yes, but
made him propose again more properly so she could one day tell
their kids.

“I proposed to her on the carousel at the
park,” he said to Max. “Where we used to take you when you were
little?” Before his career had taken off and he’d hardly been home,
had missed so much.

“She took me there after we’d go to the
doctor.” Max’s voice was rough with unshed tears. “We’d eat lunch
and ride on the carousel.”

“She liked to make things special. She was
good at making things special.” Like the night she’d told him she
was pregnant, the dinner she’d prepared. He’d known something was
up when he’d walked in the door of their apartment and seen the
table set like something from a magazine. When she’d ushered him to
his seat, a tiny gift had been on his plate. He’d opened it under
her watchful gaze, and pulled out a pair of baby booties.

They hadn’t eaten her carefully prepared
dinner, at least not then. He’d carried her to bed and made love to
her over and over.

“She made me happy.” Tears blurred his own
vision and his heart ached, as it had every day since she’d died.
“I want to see if I can be happy again.”

“I want to be happy, but I don’t remember
how,” Max said, his voice choked, and this time Leo didn’t
hesitate. He grabbed his son, pulled him close and they both
cried.

***

Trinity didn’t see Leo all weekend, and Max
was absent on Monday. Despite the paperwork piled on her desk, she
couldn’t stop herself from watching out the window Tuesday morning
as the students were dropped off. Her heart bumped when the sporty
SUV pulled into the drop-off line. Max jumped out with a smile. The
rare sight took her aback, and made him look just like his father.
She looked past him to see Leo, leaning over, grinning. He said
something to Max, who laughed—laughed!—and closed the door before
Leo drove away.

Every ounce of self-control kept her from
hurrying into the main part of the office to find out why Max had
been absent.

She hadn’t thought she’d miss Leo so much
when she pushed him away. She hadn’t thought she knew him well
enough to miss looking forward to seeing him, to him paying
attention to her, but seeing that grin sent longing pulsing through
her. She’d been the one to put the brakes on. She didn’t know what
to do to roll forward, and even if she did, she wasn’t sure she
should.

She encountered Max in the cafeteria as she
was collecting her lunch tray. “Hi, Max. Missed you yesterday.”

He looked at her in a way that made her
wonder what Leo had talked to him about, too knowing for a
nine-year-old. “My dad and I went to Saint Paul this weekend. We
went to the park and out to eat, things he and my mom used to
do.”

Her heart squeezed. Leo had taken her advice
and talked to him. So where did that leave her? Well, wasn’t that a
selfish thought?

“That sounds nice. Did you spend the
night?”

“Two nights in a really nice hotel, where
they got married. And we went to the hospital where she used to
work when they met. Some of the nurses remembered her and told me
stories about her.”

Tears burned the backs of her eyes. “That’s
great, Max what a great way to remember her.”

Max gave her a quick hug and went to eat with
his friends.

Trinity considered meeting Leo out front but
after the way they’d parted, she didn’t think speaking so publicly
was the best option. Instead, she went home to change and headed to
the baseball diamond. She stood behind the bleachers and watched
him wrangle the kids into groups, set them up to work on different
skills. A couple of other parents worked with him, one with each
group, some kids grounding, some catching pop flies, some batting,
and Leo circled among the groups, offering advice, demonstrating,
looking good enough to eat in his stretched-out gray Twins T-shirt
and Levis, his dark hair flipping from beneath his battered Twins
cap.

Showing up here was a mistake. He would be
leaving soon. Before she could bolt, he looked up and saw her. For
a moment, no expression registered on his face, then he smiled,
excused himself from the fielders, and trotted over.

“I didn’t think I’d see you today.” He tapped
the brim of her pink cap.

“I wondered if maybe you needed help.”

“Did you?” His gaze was too knowing, much
like the one Max had given her earlier, and again she was jolted by
the resemblance to his son.

She lifted her chin and let a smile curve her
lips. “I did. Put me to work, Coach.”

He made a sexy little growl in his throat at
the title. “Okay, go hit some pop flies for my catchers over
there.” He motioned to the fence with his gloved hand and started
walking away backwards. “We’re meeting at Quinn’s later. Can you
make it?”

Shaking all over with relief at the ease of
the exchange, she nodded. Okay, so she’d had the courage to come
here. Now she just had to find the courage to tell him about her
past.

***

The school was buzzing with energy the
following day. At first Trinity thought it was just her, but she
heard parents, children, teachers, all talking about the upcoming
baseball game, their plans to drive to Wilson to watch it. Pride
fizzed through her even though her involvement was peripheral.

That afternoon the school emptied out earlier
than usual, since the game was at five and Wilson was twenty miles
down the road. She had time enough to run home and change.

“Where are you going?” her mother asked,
stepping out of the kitchen as Trinity headed for the door.

“I told you. The baseball game in
Wilson.”

Her mother’s lips tightened. “Because of Leo
Erickson.”

“Because my students are playing.” She didn’t
want to have this conversation now. “I’ll be home late.”

“Chasing after that man is only going to make
you look foolish.”

Eight years she’d followed every rule, trying
to regain the relationship she’d had with her parents before her
pregnancy. Eight years, and still no trust. “Good night, Mother.
I’ll see you in the morning.” Because no doubt her mother would be
up at the crack of dawn to make sure.

She didn’t let the tension roll from her
shoulders until she pulled into the parking lot at the park in
Wilson. It was already crowded with cars, many she recognized. Lily
waved at her from a group of folding chairs. Trinity grabbed her
own chair from the trunk and approached. She noticed Quinn wasn’t
among the group, but a glance about revealed him sitting on the
aluminum bleachers, his intent gaze on the game.

She unfolded her chair by Lily’s and inclined
her head questioningly in Quinn’s direction. Lily just shrugged,
but Trinity recognized the anxiety lining her friend’s mouth. She
turned her attention to the field, where Leo was throwing some
grounders to his second-baseman and another parent, John Evans, was
throwing fly balls to the first baseman. Every time Leo bent over
to retrieve a ball, Trinity had to hold back a sigh of appreciation
for the way his jeans fit.

“You’re shaking,” Lily pointed out. “Are
things better between the two of you?”

“I don’t know. Why can’t it just be
simple?”

Lily cast a glance at Quinn. “God only
knows.”

Leo straightened and scanned the crowd. His
grin widened when he saw them. Waving his team to the dugout, he
trotted over, tossing the ball into his glove.

“You made it.”

“I said I would.”

He inclined his head, accepting that. “We’re
going to take the team to get pizza after, win or lose, then the
grown-ups are going to Quinn’s.”

“Where are you going to get pizza?” Bluestone
didn’t have a pizza place.

“Here in town.”

“Where the other team will likely be?”

He lifted a shoulder. “It’ll teach them good
sportsmanship. Maybe when Bluestone gets on its feet, someone will
see the need to build a pizza place. I have some leads on some
bands who’d like to play at our summer music festival—we need to
talk about that.” He included Lily in the statement, then backed
toward the field, tossing the ball, eyes bright with anticipation.
“Come to Quinn’s, all right?”

She nodded, and he pivoted and trotted over
to the umpire, who signaled for the game to begin.

The Bluestone team had shirts, blue, of
course. She’d heard only that day that they’d named themselves the
Bluestone Bulldogs, and they fielded first. Trinity noticed Max was
the catcher, and he did an admirable job on the few pitches that
made it through the batter. By the time the Bulldogs got their
first out, the other team—bigger, in full uniforms, not T-shirts
and jeans—had eight runs. That was going to be hard to come back
from. She should have known the balance would be skewed when she
saw even the Wilson parents had team shirts.