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.”The next morning, as planned, once they all three had their food and were seated at the table, Lori began explaining to her son that he had a father he didn’t know about.Before she actually got to the part about who that father was, her son set down his cereal spoon.“Wait a minute.I had another dad…before Dad?”From the chair opposite Lori at the round breakfast table, Tucker shot her a look, one that warned, Don’t blow this or there will be hell to pay.Lori gave her son’s father a wide smile.She was going for perky, for I-know-what-I’m-doing-here.But it didn’t come off.Either Tucker didn’t get the message or he simply didn’t buy it; his dark expression didn’t change.She turned Brody’s way again.Her son had not picked up his spoon.His wide brown eyes asked a thousand questions.She plowed ahead.“I guess maybe you don’t remember the time before Henry, when it was just you and me?”Brody frowned.“I don’t know.I don’t think so.”“Well, you were very little.I started dating Henry when you were two and we got married when you were barely three.But before I married him, you and I had a talk about your, er, natural father…”Brody sat back in his chair.He was still frowning.“Mom.You just said I was hardly even three.I don’t remember much from when I was three.”“That’s fine.That’s okay.But the truth is, a long time before Henry, there was someone…special.Someone I really, um, loved, and one night he took me to a dance and, well, we made you.”“At the dance?”She blinked.“No.Later, actually.”“Oh.”“But where that happened isn’t the point.”“It’s not.”“No, the point is that we did make you.And then he had to go away and he never knew about you and I couldn’t find him to tell him about you and then I met Henry and—”“Mom.”“Um, yeah?”“You don’t look so good.Are you okay?”“Yeah.Oh, yeah.It’s just…this is hard, you know?” She could not look at Tucker.She knew if she did, she would burst into tears.Oh, she’d been so sure she would know how to do this.Wrong.Brody’s frown deepened.“Are you saying that Dad wasn’t really my dad?”“Well, I—”“Wait!” Brody’s frown had vanished.He sat forward, shoulders curved to the table edge, chin jutting over his heaping bowl of Cheerios, suddenly eager, eyes alight.“I get it.It’s like Dustin.He has his first dad.And then his mom got married again and that’s his second dad, his stepdad.Two dads.So you’re saying I’m, like, a twodad kid?”Thank God for smart children.“Yes.Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”The bright eyes narrowed.“But then, what about my first dad?”And Tucker spoke at last, low and a little bit raggedly.“That would be me.”There was a silence the like of which Lori had never known.And then her son looked at Tucker sideways.“You, Tucker? You’re my first dad?”Tucker’s Adam’s apple bounced as he swallowed.“That’s right.I’m your first dad.”Brody picked up his spoon.“Well.” He paused, considered—and finally asked, “Should I call you that, then? Dad?”Tucker wore the pained, stunned expression of a man in way over his head and not likely to be rising above adversity soon.“Uh.Call me Dad?”“Yeah.Should I?”“Do you want to?”More considering on Brody’s part.Then, “Yeah.I guess so.A dad should be called Dad.That’s what I think.”Tucker gulped again.“Then you should.You should call me Dad.”“Okay, Dad.” Brody nodded, a slow nod, as if, after careful reflection, he was certain that the right decision had been made.Then he shoveled up a big spoonful of cereal and stuck it in his mouth.Chapter Fifteen“Telling him went pretty well, I thought,” Tucker said that afternoon.They sat at the edge of the pool in their swimsuits, with their feet in the water.Brody had already been dropped off at Peter’s house.Lori slid off the edge, kicking lazily, turning and bracing her forearms on the smooth tiles that rimmed the water.She rested her chin on her folded hands, felt her hair fan out and float around her.“I have to admit, though, it was touch-and-go there at the first.”He looked down at her, flashes of sunlight reflecting off the water’s surface, gleaming in his eyes.“You should have seen your face when he asked you if we made him at the prom.”“Ouch.Big oops on putting my foot right in that one.”“But you managed to slide on by it.”“Yes, I did.” She gave him her cockiest smile.“And aside from that—and a few other slightly rocky moments, it did go well.Which I said it would, if you remember…”“How could I forget, with you right here to rub it in?”She moved her elbow enough to nudge his bright orange board shorts—and the rock—hard thigh beneath them.“Just admit it.I know what I’m talking about.”He tipped his head to the side and looked at her through lazy-lidded eyes.“Maybe.Sometimes…”“Sometimes? Hah!” She pushed back off the edge with one hand—and then splashed him a good one with the other.“Hey!”“Not sometimes.Most times, and don’t you forget it—and there’s water dripping off your nose.”“That does it.”“Don’t even try it.” Laughing, she shoved off with both feet as he fell forward, diving from where he sat.She wasn’t fast enough.He shot to the surface beside her, put his big hand on her head and pushed.She shrieked—an ear-piercing sound, cut off by necessity as she sucked in a breath before going under.When she broke the surface, laughing and splashing, he grabbed for her.She shrieked some more and fanned up a hard blast of water to keep him at bay.It didn’t work.He caught her by the wrist.“Stop that.Let me go.”“Not a chance.” He dragged her to him, hooked an arm around her and headed for the shallow end.She found her feet.“Okay, okay.You win.Let me go.”“Uh-uh
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