Mine

“Which is weird.” Right when she was about to ask what the hell he meant by that, Gabe turned back to Brandon. “So, a party? Was that the plan?”

“No.”

“Money . . . oh, wait.” Gabe started nodding. “The car.”

That fast, Brandon switched from seemingly mature and in control to babbling. “Look, it’s no big deal. It really isn’t.” He was pleading now. “I just want it for a few days.”

She took in the byplay and tried to figure out what Gabe had said to trigger this reaction. The side of Brandon that was not quite adult and more focused on his needs came roaring to life. Natalie liked the reaction, because it made the kid, who up until then had come off as almost too perfect, seem pretty normal. Whining she understood. Didn’t love the sound and she never got away with it as a kid, but it fit.

But Gabe was having none of it. “No.”

“I’ll bring it back next weekend.” Brandon’s voice got a bit more singsongy.

“Still no. College freshmen don’t have cars.”

The math still astonished her. She couldn’t imagine Gabe at Brandon’s age, with a baby and no wife. She tried to image what kind of life that must have been then gave up and went with a question that had to be easier to answer.

Gabe didn’t ask so she did. “Why do you need one?”

He snorted. “I’m guessing a female is involved.”

“I didn’t want to go to the movies by bus,” Brandon said in full whine voice.

“If you knew how little sympathy I had for you on this issue.” Gabe smiled as he said it. “How did you get here?”

Brandon sighed and his shoulders dropped. He wore the look of defeat. “A few friends were going to D.C. this weekend. They swung by and left me off about a half mile away. I walked the rest.”

“A half mile?” She thought about the snow and tried to remember if there was any on the ground here. “How big is this spread?”

Brandon held his arms out wide. “Big.”

“Okay.” Gabe shook his head as he reached for the coffeepot again.

“I get to take the car?” Brandon asked, almost painfully hopeful.

“No, you get to live.”

“Fu

“Don’t push it.”

But she didn’t sense any tension. They weren’t fighting. They were discussing. Gabe handled most of it with a firm hand and a bit of humor, something that must have felt familiar to Brandon because he didn’t balk. Didn’t make a scene. Natalie found the whole thing fascinating . . . except for the part where they talked about her and she still wasn’t wearing any underwear.

“Let me go make a call about needing a ride back tomorrow.” Brandon rounded the edge of the counter then stopped before smiling at her. “Nice meeting you.”

“You, too.” Strangely, she meant it. The insight into Gabe’s home life provided a pretty big window into Gabe, the man. She scowled at him anyway.

He peeked at her over the rim of his mug. “What’s that look?”

“You’re kidding, right?” This guy could win an award for subterfuge.

Gabe shrugged. “You assumed he was younger.”

Oh, no. She was not letting him bury the truth under a pile of that crap. “You let me think that.”

“In my defense, you’ve only known I even have a son for about six days. It’s not like I’ve been hiding his identity from you for years.”

“Is that really the argument you’re going with?”

“You seemed determined to think the worst of me.”

Fair enough, but still. “I wonder why.”

“It ticked me off that you thought I could abandon my kid.”

“Apparently, I was wrong.” And the relief nearly crushed her. Leaving Brandon off somewhere was the one piece of Gabe’s personality that didn’t fit. Now she knew why.

Gabe set his mug down against the counter with a click. He followed Brandon’s route and rounded the long counter. Stopped when he got right in front of her. “So, that’s Brandon.”

And she liked him. Liked the kid and liked the dad. Too much. “Not a little kid.”

Gabe shook his head. “Not little at all.”

“You know what I think?”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m afraid to ask.”

It was the one thought that kept ru

A smile broke across Gabe’s face. “That deserves breakfast.” He tilted his head to the side. “Oatmeal?”

That was enough to kill her hunger. “Never again.”

“I knew I liked you.”

EIGHTEEN

Gabe adjusted the photos on the fireplace mantel. No question Natalie had been looking through them. He’d watched her earlier from his position on the stairs. She’d pick one up and smile, then move on to the next. Sometimes she’d trace a finger over something she saw in a picture.

It struck him as such a private moment that he didn’t intrude. True, the photos documented his life with Brandon, but he understood that for someone who knew so little about true family ties, the photos might mean even more.

Somewhere after a shower and a long lunch where Brandon regaled them with campus stories, some of which made Gabe want to call the administration or at least stop payment on the tuition check, maybe get in touch with a few parents, she slipped away. He knew she needed alone time and gave it to her. Now he wanted to know where she’d run off to. Maybe fit in a round or two of touching.

“So, you brought a woman home.” Brandon made the comment as he slumped down on the oversized sectional. He put his feet up on the coffee table and knocked the remote to the floor.

From experience Gabe knew it would sit there until Christmas unless he picked it up. His kid was smart but could be so lazy.

“Careful,” he said, both about the coffee table and the subject matter.

“What?” Brandon shrugged but overplayed it a bit. “I’m just saying.”

“Right.” Not one to ignore a father-son talk when the kid looked for one, Gabe sat down on the end of the couch and waited.

“It’s not normal. You know, for you.”

There it was. Didn’t take Brandon long to weigh in on his private life. Gabe guessed he’d already texted Andy to ask about Natalie. That’s how the communication string worked in the house. Nothing stayed private for long within the i

Brandon’s smile fell. “I’m good on the safe sex chat. Please don’t launch into it again.”

But it was so much fun to see the kid’s face. “You sure?”

“I’m talking about the fact that you brought a woman to our house. That never happens unless it’s a woman from work and it’s only for a work thing.”

Gabe toyed with how much to say. He wanted to be honest but not scare his son. They’d been playing this game since he was a kid. First came deployments then in-the-field assignments. Finally Gabe transitioned to the role of boss and kept to the administrative side, mostly for Brandon’s sake.

“We had some trouble on the assignment.” Compared to others, this one had gone well, but there were issues.

Brandon sat up straighter. “Are you okay?”

“I’m good. I promise.” Gabe reached across the top of the couch and let his hand rest near Brandon’s shoulder. “You know these days I mostly sit at a desk. No danger there.”

Seemingly satisfied with that explanation, interest flared in Brandon’s eyes again. He liked the strategy part of the job. Putting pieces together. He’d gone to school to become an engineer but could switch at any time. “Well, what happened?”

“Your uncle showed up.”

Brandon groaned as he dropped his head back against the cushions. “Rick, right?”

Gabe blamed himself for that reaction. There was no good way to hide the internal fighting from Brandon. He’d been there when Rick left a holiday di