Free Bound to You by Vanessa Holland

truck?” She’d only been looking for Ethan but felt she would have noticed his big green truck parked on the street.
    “ I wasn’t skulking,” he said, giving her a defensive frown. “After I left the box I went on down the road and turned around and that was when I saw him running right at me in the middle of the street. He took off into the woods when I went to catch him.” He thumbed back over his shoulder. “I left my truck down there. Where I got out. This kid has some legs on him.”
    Jenna couldn’t stop shaking despite the heat of the day. She’d been so focused on the present from Sam she hadn’t even noticed Ethan running past her – right out into the street. That was twice Sam had come to Ethan’s rescue. First, when he’d fallen on the steps, and now this. When he could have been run over by a car.
    “ Thank you, for catching him.”
    “ I wasn’t planning on bothering you today,” he said. “I mean, I was gonna call later. I have to fly back to Texas tomorrow morning. But now that I’m here….”
    “ You’re going back home?” she asked, suddenly worried this would be the last time she’d see him. The last time Ethan would see ever him.
    “ Just for a few days,” he said. “I’ll be back in a week or so.” His words were spoken to her but his eyes focused on Ethan, narrowing to a squint as he leaned in to look the baby over carefully. “Damn, Jenna, he’s the best-looking kid I’ve ever seen. And I’m not just saying that. This is really one good-looking kid.”
    “ Thank you.” He was a beautiful baby. Everyone said so.
    Sam looked deep into Ethan’s eyes until Ethan gasped and buried his head against his mother’s neck.
    “ You’re embarrassing him,” she told Sam, flicking perspiration from her forehead, bouncing Ethan for some air between them. He was like a little heating pad, leaving her soaking wet if she held him very long. The temperature was already in the mid-nineties and promised a steamy afternoon.
    She began the walk back to the house. Sam tousled Ethan’s hair and chuckled, falling in beside her. Then to her surprise, he gripped her around the shoulders and gave her a kiss on the temple. His hand fell, trailing down her back before moving away.
    She glanced at him, shivering from her scalp to her toes, wondering what the kiss had meant, but he was looking around at the scenery. “Nice private place you have here,” he said. “You could use some fencing, though. How much land?”
    “ About five acres.”
    “ No kidding, that’s all?”
    “ That’s all? We barely had a yard when we lived on the other side of town.”
    “ No, it just seems bigger.” He slapped one of the lampposts that lined the edge of the drive. “The house, it’s not very old is it?”
    She looked at the ‘manor’ her father had built. Not that it was anywhere close to the size of an actual mansion. But it had the appearance of an old Southern mansion, with the wide front porch and four stately columns.
    “ My father built it about ten years ago. It was his dream house.”
    “ No kidding,” he said, as if not really listening. He nodded to the rattle she was trying to keep out of Ethan’s sight. “You weren’t supposed to find that till tomorrow.”
    “ I forgot to get the mail yesterday.”
    He held up the handful of envelopes in his hand, probably all bills. “I saw. Think he’ll like it?”
    She glanced at the cheap toy in her hand and tried to think of a diplomatic answer. “He loves all his toys at first. I wanted to thank you for the clock you gave him. It was really a very special gift. He’ll appreciate it when he’s older.”
    “ Oh, that,” he said as if he’d forgotten. “I made that for my little nephew’s birthday, but I can get him something else. I wanted to give Ethan something and that was all I had on hand last night.”
    Well, now she felt bad. “If it’s for your nephew, you should give it to him. Ethan’s too young to appreciate it