Free Bound to You by Vanessa Holland Page A

right now.”
    But he shook his head. “Actually, it was to replace one he threw across the room and broke last year. He’s only five. I was going to get him a toy or something fun, anyway. I don’t know why I keep making clocks for kids that can’t even tell time yet.” He glanced at her, an affectionate glint in his eyes. “It’s more for their mothers, I guess. They like it.”
    She didn’t want to tell him that Ethan had dropped the owl clock on the floor when she’d shown it to him. Thankfully, the clock was sturdy and hadn’t broken. “Well, if you’re sure. I thought it was very nice. Something he’ll appreciate later. What do you do with your clocks? Do you sell them?”
    He sent her a curious glance. “No, it’s just a hobby. Something I like to do. That was mine,” he said, nodding at the rattle. “When I was a baby. It’s not really for him to play with, I just thought… I’d like for him to have it. I don’t keep much stuff here anymore. I did a little digging in Mom’s hope chest this morning.”
    Sam’s actual baby rattle? Instantly ashamed that she’d assumed the worst, Jenna looked at the rattle again, and smiled at him. “Are these your teeth marks?”
    “ Probably,” he said with a laugh. “Mom said I used to gnaw on the furniture like a puppy when I was teething. And look at this.” He slid a photograph from his back pocket and handed it to her. “Look at that. Tell me that’s not the spit’n image.”
    She looked at the face of a little boy of about three with shaggy dark blond hair. He stood on a dirt surface, his feet bare and covered in mud, and he was holding out a toy horse in one hand. His hair went every-which-way, but somewhere inside that bright little face she could see Sam’s grin, the slight downward slant at the corner of his eyes, the high cheekbones.
    “ This was you?” she asked, slightly confused by a strange urge to steal the picture and keep it for herself. Perhaps sleep with it under her pillow….
    “ So it says on the back,” he replied, grinning. He took the rattle from her hand and handed it to Ethan. “I was a little hellion, Mom says. Must’ve been into the mud puddles that day. She said she used to have to spray me down with the garden hose before she’d let me in the house.” He tousled Ethan’s hair. “There were lots of pictures, but I thought this one looked just like him.”
    Jenna smiled imagining a mud-covered little Sam dodging the spray of a hose. But her eyes drifted back to the picture. He’d been beautiful even then, even as a child running wild. Even covered in mud. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could also see hints of Ethan’s face there, especially around the eyes. And a little at the cheekbones. Ethan had the Morgan mouth, but the resemblance to Sam was there, and grew stronger the longer she stared at the picture.
    She was glad for the resemblance. She’d always hoped Ethan would inherit something of Sam’s magnificence.
    Flinching inwardly, she worked up the nerve to ask the question weighing heavily on her mind. “Why are you being so nice about all this?”
    “ Nice?” he repeated. “I’m just trying to hold up my end here.” His eyes stilled and he swallowed hard. “Truth is, I’m all over the place. One minute I want to see him, and you, and the next I want to run away. I won’t,” he said, stopping to meet her gaze. “I won’t. But…. I need time to get used to all this.”
    She nodded, but the dread was back. “Thanks for telling me.” This time . “And decide what you want before Ethan gets used to you. He won’t understand it if you decide you can’t deal with this.”
    “ No, I’m dealing,” Sam said, staring at Ethan again. “Think he’d let me hold him?”
    “ I don’t know.” She tilted her head to speak to her son. “Want Sam to hold you, sweetie?”
    “ No!” He shook his head and squirmed from her arms, running ahead with his new toy as soon as his feet touched the