also trying to convince Tyler to take Sam to a child shrink.
She turned the key in the lock and shoved the door open.
“Hello, Becca.”
It was Tyler, standing there, Sam in his arms, smiling really big. “We
decided to wait for you here. I left the car just down the road. We
wanted to surprise you. I’ve got champagne for us and some lemonade
for Sam. I even bought a carrot cake; I remembered that you liked
it. Come in.” He set Sam down, and Sam stood there staring at her.
Tyler walked to her and wrapped his arms around her back. He
kissed the top of her head. “I like your hair. It’s natural again. God,
you’re beautiful, Becca.” He kissed her again, pulled her more
tightly against him. “I thought you were beautiful in college, but
you’re even more beautiful now.”
She tried to ease away from him, but he didn’t let her go.
He gently pushed her chin up with his thumb and kissed her. It
was a deep kiss, and he wanted to make it deeper, he wanted her to
open her mouth. Sam was standing there saying nothing just looking
at them.
“No, Tyler, please, no.” She shoved hard against his chest and he
quickly stepped back.
He was still smiling, breathing hard, his eyes bright with excitement,
with sex, lust. “You’re right. Sam is standing right here. He’s
four, not a baby anymore. We shouldn’t do this in front of him.” He
turned to smile down at his son. “Well, Sam, here’s Becca. What do
you have to say to her?”
Sam didn’t have anything to say. He just stood there, his small
face blank of all expression. It scared her to her toes. She walked
slowly to him and went down on her knees in front of him. “Hello,
Sam,” she said, and lightly touched her fingertips to his cheek.
“How are you, sweetie? I want you to listen to me now. And believe
me because I wouldn’t lie to you. That bad man who kidnapped you, who tied you up and put you in the basement, I swear
to you that he’s gone now, forever. He’ll never come back, ever, I
can promise you that. I took care of him.”
Sam didn’t say anything, just suffered her touching his face.
Slowly, she brought him against her even though his small body
was stiff, resistant.
“I’ve missed you, Sam. I would have come sooner, but my father
and Adam–you remember Adam, don’t you?–they were both
hurt and I had to stay with them in the hospital. But now I’m here.”
“Adam.”
One word, but it was enough. “Yes,” she said, delighted, “Adam.”
She turned her head when she heard Tyler say something, but he
shook his head at her. “Sam’s okay, Becca. I also brought some barbecue
from Errol Flynn’s for our dinner. All the fixings, too. Would
you like to have dinner now?”
And so they drank champagne, Sam drank his lemonade, and
everyone ate barbecue pork ribs, baked beans, and coleslaw in Jacob
Marley’s kitchen. The carrot cake from Myrtle’s Sweet Tooth
on Venus Fly Trap Boulevard stood on the kitchen counter.
After she’d answered countless questions about Krimakov, she
said, “What about the skeleton, Tyler? Have the DNA results come
in yet? Is it Melissa Katzen?”
Tyler shrugged. “No word yet that I know of. Everyone believes
it is. But that’s not important now. What’s important is us. When
do you want to move up here, Becca?”
Becca was handing Sam another rib. Her hand stilled. “Move
back here? No,Tyler. I’m here to see Sam and pack up my things.”
He nodded and tore meat off the rib he was holding. He
chewed, then said, “Well, that’s all right. You’ve just reconnected
with your dad, so you need to make sure he’s okay, get to know
him and all that, but we need to set our -wedding date before you
go back to see him. Do you think he’ll want to move up to be near
you after we’re married?”
She set down her fork near the coleslaw. Something had gone
terribly wrong. She didn’t want this, but there was no hiding from