Free Gideon's Redemption by Maddie Taylor Page A

watched Gideon closely, hanging on his every word. When his new hero called him ‘bud’, he grinned from ear to ear as if a great gift had been bestowed upon him. Shannon had a feeling no matter what Gideon called him, Eli would think it was cool. She was amazed he was so taken with a man he’d just met, but it showed how much he’d needed a man in his life. She had mixed feelings about all this. Having been the only one in his life for the past nine years, she was jealous of losing a piece of him, but at the same time, hopeful that they could establish a strong father/son bond that all boys need so desperately.
    The pizza went in the oven and they had fifteen minutes to wait. She decided it was time to rip off the Band-Aid.
    “Eli, come sit next to me for a minute. I need to tell you something.”
    After he’d settled, sipping on the one soda he was allowed that day, he looked at her expectantly.
    “I have to tell you something about your dad.” Seeing the expectation in her son’s eyes, she looked toward Gideon for support. He was standing nearby, leaning against the kitchen counter with arms crossed. He was letting her handle it in her own way, but he gave her a slight nod of encouragement as if to say, “You can do this.”
    Clearing her throat, she started again, “You see, honey, your dad is really—”
    “Gideon. I know, Mom. After he came by that night, I was going through that scrapbook you kept on Northern Exposure. You had my birth certificate stuck in it.”
    Shannon’s mouth hung open. Gape-mouthed was becoming a common facial expression these days. “Why didn’t you say something? Weren’t you surprised? Don’t you have questions?”
    He shrugged, taking another sip of his Coke. “I didn’t want to mess things up. You told me he was dead for some reason. I was afraid if you knew I knew, he might leave again.”
    Gideon moved to the table, pulled a chair out across from them, and sat. “I’m not going anywhere, Eli. I promise.”
    “Why didn’t you come around until now?”
    Gid looked at her and she knew she had to take ownership of this one. “We knew each other a long time ago, Eli. We were in love and planning a future together, but there was a big misunderstanding. I saw him doing something wrong and I got mad. I ran away and didn’t want to see him or talk to him again. Then when I found out about you, I went looking for him and was trying to make things right, but a bad man ruined it and your dad never knew about you. Please don’t think he didn’t want you.”
    Eli looked at Gideon for confirmation. “What did you do that made Mom so mad?”
    Shannon jumped in right away. This was her fault and she wanted to make sure Eli didn’t blame Gideon for any of it. Other than bad choices in managers, none of this was on him. “He didn’t do anything. None of this was Gideon’s fault, I promise.”
    She struggled against tears and gave Gid a desperate look as he reached across to take her hand. He stepped in at that point. “Eli, I have a cousin who looks just like me. We could be twins we look so much alike. Except for my tattoo, no one can tell us apart. Your mom saw him kissing another girl, and she thought it was me.”
    “Oh yeah! Something like that would really tick Mom off.”
    She smiled weakly. Her precocious child knew her better than anyone. She’d often spouted off about TV character’s betrayals and it must have made an impression on Eli.
    Gid patted her hand before he continued with the explanation, keeping it at a PG rating. “The bad man was my band’s manager. He wanted to break your mom and me up. He lied to her and even forged my name on a letter that said I didn’t want to see her again. He did such a good job of convincing her that he was able to keep us apart for all this time. I didn’t know about you until the other night.”
    “Can’t you call the police on this bad man? Shouldn’t they put him in jail or something?”
    “He didn’t really