Free About the Boy by Sharon De Vita Page A

better than Patience to mother a newborn, motherless puppy. “I think that’s a great idea,” Katie said. She watched Patience scoot into the mayor’s booth. “She’s gone on to greener pastures, so maybe we’d better make a run for it,” Katie suggested, and Lucas nodded.
    “Let’s.” He pushed out of the booth, keeping a watchful eye on Patience. “Why don’t you grab Rusty and I’ll meet you both outside? That way no one can say we left together.”
    “Good idea.” With a smile, Katie went to find her son, realizing that for the first time in a long time she’d honestly been having fun.

    “It’s a beautiful night,” Katie said with a contented sigh as she walked next to Lucas. Even though it was early September, the temperature was still in the mid sixties with a slight breeze. The leaves were just beginning to change colors, perfuming everything with the distinctive scent of fall.
    Rusty didn’t want to be seen walking home with his mother, so he’d darted on ahead, but was still in Kate’s sight.
    Katie took a deep breath and glanced around the familiar town that she loved so much.
    “Can you smell the leaves?” she asked with a contented sigh. It was one of her favorite memories from childhood.
    Lucas sniffed the air. “Yeah, that’s one of the things I loved most about living in the cabin on the lake, the smells of the seasons.”
    She turned to look at him, silhouetted by the moon and the old-fashioned gas streetlamps. He had such an incredible face—handsome, and yet so full of character. “That’s right, you said you had a cabin at the lake. Is that where you grew up?” she asked carefully, wondering if she was somehow stepping onto dangerous ground again.
    He shook his head. “No, I grew up in Chicago,” he said surprising her. “Born and raised there. My father was a Chicago police officer for his entire career, but my family has owned a cabin on Cooper’s Cove Lake for as long as I can remember, and every summer right after school ended, my dad would load us all up—”
    “Us?”
    He smiled, bumped his hand against hers as they walked and then absently reached for it, holding her hand in his. He liked the way her hand fit in his, liked the way her touch warmed him. “I have four brothers,” he said, laughing at the look of horror that crossed her face. “Yeah, I know, scary, isn’t it?”
    Katie couldn’t help but smile up at Lucas. She could hear the love in his voice, see it on his face when he talked of his family. She understood that kind of deep, committed love toward family since it had always been such a vital and necessary part of her life. She couldn’t help but feel attracted by Lucas’s devotion to his own family.
    Chuckling, Katie shook her head. “Your poor mother. Raising one boy has practically given me gray hairs, I can’t imagine raising five.” She shuddered. “That would definitely give me gray hairs and nightmares.”
    “I’m sure my mother had a few of her own, considering some of our antics. She’d stay up at the cabin all summer alone with us. My dad would come up every weekend and during his vacation, but most of the time it was just Mom and us boys.” Lucas laughed suddenly. “Not that we didn’t give her some moments, but she had a firm hand and a calm personality, and we knew just how far we could push her.”
    “It sounds like you were a close family.”
    “We were,” he admitted, realizing it had been a long time since he’d talked about his parents or brothers. Or anything else about his personal life. “We lost both my parents a few years back.”
    “I’m so sorry,” Katie said, giving his hand a squeeze of comfort as they turned down the quiet street where her house was.
    “My dad retired from the force, and planned to move up to the cabin, but then my mom got sick. Cancer. She was gone less than a year later, and then a heart attack took my father less than a year after that.” Lucas glanced down at Katie. “They’d