Free Sean's Reckoning by Sherryl Woods Page A

spot in her son’s life. Still, she had to caution him against expecting too much.
    “Honey, you can’t expect Sean to come around. He has his own life.”
    “But he likes me. He said so.”
    “He’s also a very busy man. He has an importantjob, and I’m sure he has his own grown-up friends that he likes to spend time with when he’s off. I don’t think he’s staying away because we live with Ruby.”
    “But I’m his friend, too,” Kevin said reasonably. “And if we had our own place, I could invite him to dinner. He’d come. I know he would, especially if you fixed spaghetti like Joey’s.”
    “Then he did like it?” Deanna asked. She’d wondered about that. She’d intended to ask him, but they’d gotten sidetracked in the kitchen. She nearly groaned at the understatement. They’d gotten more than sidetracked. Every rational thought in her head had flown straight out the window when he’d kissed her. Even now, just thinking about the way his mouth had felt on hers, she had to drag her attention back to Kevin.
    “Uh-huh,” he said. “Sean said it was the best spaghetti he’d had since he was a little kid. So if you promised to fix it, I know he’d come for dinner.”
    Deanna sighed. “Kevin, you know that I’m not even home for dinner most nights. That wouldn’t be any different if we had our own place.”
    His expression turned mulish. “You never want me to have my friends over.”
    A headache was beginning to pound at his relentless complaining. “Sweetie, that’s not true,” she said, trying to keep her voice even.
    “It is so true,” he insisted. “You always say I can have them over when you’re here, but you’re never here.”
    Deanna considered the accusation and realized it was possible Kevin had gotten it exactly right. She always meant to let him invite his friends over, but there were simply too few free hours in her week, and she didn’t want Ruby to have to baby-sit Kevin’sfriends. It was enough that she was willing to look after Kevin.
    “Why don’t you go call them right now and ask them to come over?” she suggested. “We can order a pizza.”
    “I don’t want a pizza. I want Sean to come over,” Kevin said, clearly impatient that she’d missed his point.
    “Not today,” she said flatly.
    “Then can I go see him at the fire station again?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?” he asked, clearly warming to this new idea. “I could call first and ask if it’s okay. If you can’t go, Ruby would probably take me. She probably wants to see Hank, anyway.” His expression turned serious. “I still don’t get why they fight so much, but I think she really, really likes Hank, don’t you? And he’s kinda cool, not as cool as Sean, but okay.”
    Deanna wished she could be as sure of Ruby’s feelings as Kevin seemed to be, but Ruby never mentioned the man’s name. That might be a dead giveaway that she cared…or it might mean the opposite, that she hadn’t given him a thought. It wasn’t as if he was hanging around, at least not while Deanna was around. And since Ruby didn’t have a phone at the apartment, the two of them couldn’t be spending hours on the phone talking, either.
    When she didn’t respond to Kevin’s question, he slid his chair closer. “So, is it okay? Can I call Sean?”
    Deanna knew she ought to nip this whole thing in the bud, but the hopeful expression in Kevin’s eyes kept her from saying no outright. After all, Sean was a grown man. If Kevin was making a nuisance of himself, Sean could find some way to tell him not to comeby the station. And Ruby knew how to protect herself if she wanted to steer clear of Hank. She certainly hadn’t seemed all that upset that he’d joined her after dinner the other night at Joey’s. Every time Deanna had glanced their way, the two of them had been laughing.
    She reached over and brushed Kevin’s hair off his forehead. He needed a haircut, but he’d refused, telling her he wanted his hair to be as