A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [42]
Matt nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I get it. I’m gifted, remember?”
Steven laughed. “There’s no forgetting that,” he said.
“Are you mad at me?”
An ache went through Steven, like a sharp pole jabbed down through the top of his heart to lodge at the bottom. “No,” he said. “If I straighten you out about something, it doesn’t mean I’m angry. It just means I want you to think things through a little better the next time.”
Matt let out a long sigh, back there in the peanut gallery, one of his arms wrapped around Zeke, who was panting and, incredibly, managing to keep his canine head from blocking the rearview mirror.
“It’s kind of weird, calling you Steven,” Matt said, after a long time. He was looking out the window by then, but even with just a glance at the boy’s reflection to go on, Steven could see the tension he was trying to hide.
“Who says so?” Steven asked carefully. Conversations like this one always made his stomach clench.
“I do,” Matt told him. His voice was small.
The turn onto their road was just ahead; Steven flipped the signal lever and slowed to make a dusty left. “What would you like to call me?” he asked.
“Dad,” Matt said simply.
Steven’s eyes scalded, and his vision blurred.
“But that doesn’t seem right, because I used to have another dad,” Matt went on. “Do you think it would hurt my first daddy’s feelings if I went around calling somebody else ‘Dad’?”
“I think your dad would want you to be happy,” Steven said. It was almost a croak, that statement, but, fortunately, Matt didn’t seem to notice. They’d reached the top of the driveway, so Steven pulled up beside the old two-tone truck and shifted out of gear. Shut the motor off. And just sat there, not knowing what to say. Or do.
“If he was Daddy,” Matt reasoned, “then I guess it would be all right if you were Dad.”
Steven’s throat constricted. He literally couldn’t speak just then, so he shoved open the truck door and got out. Stood staring off toward the foothills and the mountains beyond for a few moments, until he’d recovered some measure of control.
When he turned around again, both Matt and Zeke had their faces pressed to the window, gumming it up big-time with their breaths.
He laughed and carefully opened the door, so Zeke wouldn’t plunge right over Matt and his safety seat and take a header onto the ground.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Steven said.
“So I can call you Dad?” Matt asked.
“Yeah,” Steven replied, ducking his head slightly while he undid the snaps and buckles. “You can call me Dad.”
“That’s good,” Matt said. A pause. “Dad?” He said the word softly, like he was trying it on for size.
“What?” Steven ground out, hoisting the little boy to the ground, and then the dog.
“How come your eyes are all red?”
Steven sniffled, ran a forearm across his face. “I guess it’s the dust,” he said. He pretended to assess the sky, sprawling blue from horizon to horizon. “A good rain would help.”
“HELLO?” Melissa rapped lightly at her sister’s kitchen door, though she’d already opened it and stuck her head inside. “Anybody home?”
There was no answer, but she could hear voices coming from the dining room.
Melissa hadn’t seen a car parked outside, so she’d hoped the lively group had gone out, maybe to play miniature golf or take in a movie. She would have loved to raid the freezer and duck out again, unnoticed, but she was afraid one of the oldsters would wander in, be startled and collapse from a massive coronary.
So she moved to the middle of the floor and tried again. “Hello?”
This time, they heard her. “Melissa, is that you?” a woman’s voice called cheerfully.
“Yes,” she answered. Then she drew a deep breath, proceeded to the inside door and drew another deep breath before pushing it open.
The guests were gathered at one end of the formal dining table, playing cards. And they were all wearing clothes.
Melissa was so profoundly relieved that she gave a nervous, high-pitched giggle and put one hand to her heart.
How amused Ashley and Olivia and Brad would be if they could see her now. In her family, she did not have