Free A Mother's Secret by Janice Kay Johnson Page A

pants,” Malcolm informed him. “But I just pretend she’s got on jeans like me.”
    “Yeah, they have flowers all over them,” Rebecca murmured. “Big flowers.”
    “I can see the temptation to say yuck.”
    “ She thinks they’re pretty,” Mal said around a mouthful of roll and cheese.
    They discussed why people had different tastes and why some men wore turbans and some women covered their faces and how Malcolm wished he never had to put on shoes. It was obvious by the time he’d nibbled at a quarter of one of the giant cookies that he was getting sleepy.
    “Time to get home?” Daniel asked.
    He was lounging on his side on one edge of the blanket, his head braced on his hand as they’d talked, his gaze often lingering on Rebecca’s face. Sometimes that gaze was unreadable, but a couple of times she’d seen him look from Malcolm to her, anger sparking. She hated knowing how difficult this pretense of friendship must be to him.
    “Probably,” she agreed.
    She packed up the basket with Daniel’s help, then wrapped Mal’s wet shoes and socks and the towel in the blanket while Daniel lifted the boy to his shoulders again. Then they started up the path, turning at the top to see how far the tide had come in. Their car was the last one here.
    The drive was far quieter than the outbound trip had been. Mal was asleep within minutes.
    Rebecca groped desperately for something to talk about but came up lacking. She was just conscious enough of Daniel in the enclosed confines of the car for her thoughts to be scattered. She couldn’t seem to resist sneaking glances at his big, tanned hands, wrapped around the steering wheel.
    What popped out was, “You had freckles when you were a kid, didn’t you?”
    He shot her a look. “Uh…yeah. On my shoulders and my nose.” He glanced at himself in the rearview mirror. “I guess they faded away at some point. I don’t remember when.”
    “Malcolm has them.”
    “I noticed.” His voice was uninflected.
    She swallowed. “He looks so much like you.”
    “I noticed that, too.” He was quiet for a moment. Then, with suppressed violence in his voice, he said, “God, Rebecca…!”
    “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her head bowed. “You’re a natural with him.”
    “And of course you thought I wouldn’t be.”
    “I…didn’t know.”
    Several miles passed before he said, more calmly, “We’re not gaining anything here.”
    “No. It just hit me today, watching you with him, that…” She closed her eyes but made herself say it. “That having his dad will matter to him.”
    “Should I be flattered?” he asked with less heat than she’d expected.
    “I’m just trying to…”
    “Say you’re sorry. I get it.” He slowed to turn into Half Moon Bay. “I’ve missed four and a half years of his life, Rebecca.”
    “I know.” Four and a half years she’d clutched greedily to herself.
    Daniel didn’t say anything else until he pulled into her driveway and turned off the car. Then he asked, “Can we plan on dinner some night this week? I’ll be down here at least a couple of days.”
    That was it? They’d just go on the same way?
    Grateful that she’d have the chance, Rebecca nodded. “Any night…no. I have a parent open house at school Tuesday night. Any other night.”
    They settled on Wednesday. He let her carry Malcolminside while he followed with the car seat, which he set just inside the front door. Then he waited until she reappeared from her son’s room.
    “Wednesday works for me.” His gaze rested on her face. “You got some sun today.”
    “Sun? Oh!” She pressed hands to her cheeks. “I should have put lotion on. I did put it on Mal. I just wasn’t thinking. I burn so easily.”
    “I remember,” he said, his voice husky and oddly intimate.
    She couldn’t seem to look away from him. His eyes were intent, darker than usual. The air seemed to have been sucked from the room although the front door stood wide-open.
    He was the one