Full Contact. Tara Quinn Taylor
be a good boy and have fun, okay?” Shelley said, nose to nose with Josh.
Josh, arms wrapped tightly around Shelley’s neck, rubbed noses with his aunt. “I get to go fishing in the Colorado River,” the little boy said.
“I know, pal. And you better call me if you catch anything.” Shelley let Josh’s thin body slide to the ground.
“I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Shelley nodded at Ellen, climbed behind the wheel and drove off to the call lot where she could wait until Ellen was ready to be picked up.
With a roller bar in each hand, and Josh’s hand next to hers on one handle, Ellen pulled the bags to the curbside check-in station. Josh didn’t need a special-needs tag because, while he was checking in alone, he wouldn’t be flying alone.
Then they were in the terminal, Josh’s hand in hers whether he liked it or not, and Ellen swore to herself that the smile would stay pasted on her lips if it killed her.
It wouldn’t kill her. She was a survivor.
The squeeze of her son’s fingers around her own made her own angst seem selfish and petty.
“You’re going to have a blast,” she promised him.
“Why can’t Daddy and I have a blast right here?”
“Because he doesn’t live here. His job is in Colorado. And he has a room all ready for you in his new house and you’re going to love it.”
The terminal was bustling, with as many families as businesspeople hurrying around them in spite of the fact that it was a Monday morning.
“Then why can’t you come?”
“Because my job is here. Besides, Jaime is there and is looking forward to hanging out with you. You like Jaime, remember?” The beautiful model her ex-husband Aaron had chosen as a replacement for his damaged wife loved Josh and had taken off the entire month of August to care for him.
As far as Ellen was concerned, Josh was all that mattered.
“Yeah.”
She couldn’t really blame Aaron for choosing someone who oozed feminine perfection and sexuality. He’d been far too young to handle the emotional and physical backlash that had consumed Ellen after her attack. Too young to handle her physical rejection of him.
She would have opted out, too, if she’d had that choice.
Aaron had needed to get out of Shelter Valley, to start a new life away from the tragedy, and Ellen couldn’t imagine ever leaving Shelter Valley. There was no future in that kind of standoff.
Josh’s grasp did not loosen even a little bit as they approached the bustling rotunda where they’d arranged to meet Aaron. There was less than an hour’s turnaround between his arriving flight and his departing one with Josh. Aaron and Ellen had both decided whisking Josh off quickly was the best plan.
She was searching the crowd for the familiar dark hair of her ex when Josh stopped suddenly.
“What’s up?” she asked, gazing into his solemn face.
“I don’t want to go.”
“But you miss your daddy, Josh. You say so a lot.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to have such a great time with him. You always do.”
“But he always comed here.”
“Came here. You’re older now, bud. And Daddy wants to have time with you in his house, too. He bought you your own bed and it has Cars sheets and everything.”
Josh stared at her then his lower lip started to tremble.
Kneeling in front of her son, Ellen held him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “Josh? What’s going on?”
His eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to leave you here by yourself. You’ll be sad.”
“Ah, buddy, I’m going to miss you for sure. Remember the list we went over last night? The one on the refrigerator?”
He nodded.
“Those are all the things I’m going to be doing after work while you’re gone. And that list is so big, I won’t have a chance to get too sad.”
He didn’t look convinced.
“Name some of them for me,” Ellen said. “What am I going to be doing today after work?”
“Going running. Every day.”
“And then what?”
“You’re going to help Sophie make the nursery in their new house.”
He’d paid attention—and hopefully had pictures in his head of her busy and happy.
“What else was on the list?”
“Babysitting for Aunt Caro and Uncle John when they’re in Kentucky at their farm. Do I ever get to go to their farm like you said?”
“I’m house-sitting,” Ellen corrected him. “They’re taking the kids with them.” Caroline had moved to Shelter Valley, alone and pregnant, at a time when Ellen had been lost as well, and the two, though more than ten years apart in age, had formed a bond that Ellen cherished. “And yes, we’ll go to Kentucky. Maybe next summer.”
Which gave her another year to work up the desire to leave Shelter Valley for a few weeks.
Ellen took a seat on a bench with a clear view of the entrances to the A boarding gates, pulling Josh, backpack and all, in between her legs, keeping her arms linked loosely around him.
“And you’re going to put junk in jars,” he said.
“Canning tomatoes and peaches and corn and green beans to send to the food pantry in Phoenix,” she said, knowing he probably wouldn’t remember that part. A group of older ladies from the three churches in Shelter Valley met every year for the service project. They had lost a couple of members of their group during the past year and needed extra hands. Ellen was good in the kitchen—and eager to learn how to can.
Aaron still hadn’t appeared. Josh was shifting weight from one foot to the other and picking at a thread from the flowered embroidery on the front of Ellen’s T-shirt.
“What else?” she asked. “What am I going to be doing for you?”
“Painting my room.”
“Painting what in your room?”
He grinned. “Trains.”
“That’s right. What colors?”
“The engine is black, of course.”
“Of course.”
“And the caboose is red so the trains coming behind it will see it.”
“Okay.”
“And blue for my favorite color.”
“And purple for mine.”
“And—” Josh stopped when Ellen stood.
“Daddy’s coming,” she said.
Please, heart, don’t make it difficult for me to breathe. Don’t let me need anything from Aaron Hanaran. With her son’s hand in hers, she approached the man she’d once vowed to love, honor and cherish—and sleep with—until death did them part.
“Hey, sport!” Aaron’s grin was huge as he sped up the last few steps and scooped his son into his arms, hugging him tight. “I’ve missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” Josh said.
Ellen