Free A Memory Away by Taylor Lewis Page B

feel a bit guilty about not going straight home. It feels like I’m being neglectful if I’m not going back to the baby.” He shrugged awkwardly. “I’m really out of practise at this, sorry.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Jonah got the door as they reached the door to the deli and pulled it open to let Kyle go in first. “It’s all good.” He waved to Mrs Abretti when she beamed at him in recognition from behind the counter and said, “You want to go grab us a table and I’ll order? You want anything to eat?”
Kyle gave Mrs Abretti his own wave and shook his head, not sure he could stomach anything to eat at the moment – or at least keep it down for any length of time. “No, thank you. Could I get a strawberry and mango tea though instead of coffee?” He smiled ruefully. “I always take the early shift with Shea if I can and I don’t want to stay up too late tonight if I can help it.”
Jonah managed to control his wince at having to order such a froufrou drink in public and nodded. “Coming up.” He strolled through the produce section of the deli keeping an eye on Kyle as he settled himself into the back corner of the cafe half of the room and then gave his full attention to the array of food before him. “Mrs Abretti, good to see you again. What’s good?”
When Jonah joined him at their table any last lingering doubts Kyle had that Shea had only inherited his looks from his other father evaporated in an instant. “Are you going to eat all of that?” He raked disbelieving eyes over the laden tray that Jonah was carefully putting down on the table. “Seriously?”
Jonah looked in confusion at his food. “What? I didn’t get much for lunch.” He handed Kyle his requested tea and then pulled the small mountain of meatball sub and apple strudel towards him protectively. “Hey, I asked you if you wanted anything.” Eyeing the cheese dripping out of the side of his sub with satisfaction he added, “Now this is a foot long worth writing home about. This looks awesome.”
Looking faintly ill, Kyle muttered, “It looks like a heart attack on a plate is what it looks like.” and buried his face in his mug of tea when Jonah glared at him.
Jonah was content to attack his sandwich for the first few minutes, pointedly ignoring Kyle’s look of fascinated horror as he decimated the meal, and it was only when it had been decreased by half that he realised if there was any conversation to be had then he’d be have to be the one to start it. “So, you’re not from New York originally, right? I think it said in your file that you come from Wichita or something?”
Kyle ’s eyes snapped up from Jonah’s plate and his expression went from mildly nauseous to closed off in second. “I beg your pardon? My file?”
Wincing, Jonah said hurriedly, “Hey, not my idea, okay? That was all Lopez.” He picked up his gigantic mug of steaming black coffee and took a sip before putting it back down. “You gotta admit, dude, you and Queen of the Amazons were behaving pretty fucking weirdly for a while there. You can’t blame us for being suspicious.” He shrugged semi-apologetically when Kyle’s face coloured a brilliant red and added, “Looking at all the angles is pretty much our job.”
Reminding himself that throwing his tea over Jonah’s head and swishing out the door in a display of queenly outrage would probably be detrimental to his eventual goal of reaching a cordial relationship with his son’s other father, Kyle restrained himself to a grim murmur of “Hmm.”.
Jonah cleared his throat and picked up his sandwich again. “So, Wichita?”
“Yes, Black Falls to be exact .” Kyle made himself smile when he looked up. “Have you heard of it?” He laughed a little bitterly when Jonah shook his head. “Well I’m not surprised, it’s like another planet compared to New York.”
“Yeah?” Jonah swallowed the last of his mouthful and looked intently at Kyle for a moment before his face cleared in