A Father's Pledge. Eleanor Jones
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NEVER HAD LUKE TRAVIS felt such guilt before—guilt that sat so heavy on his heart it weighed down his every movement. Waiting there for Ben, his Ben, the nine-year-old boy he had abandoned so many years ago, to arrive at Flight—the special school where Luke worked—was both the best and worst experience of his life. He’d never expected and was totally unprepared for this. And the sad thing was that he had no excuse to give his son. Luke had just been young and selfish and irresponsible, simple as that.
He sat rigid on the wooden chair, drowning in memories. Ben’s mum, Carly, so wild and so beautiful. When you’re young and impulsive, he told himself, sometimes you make crazy decisions, blame other people and just walk away. He knew he had and he wasn’t proud of it. But now he’d been given a chance to make amends, to prove that he could be a good dad. He intended, despite the self-doubt that haunted him, to do the very best that he could for his son.
Luke glanced at the clock again and again as the time crept nearer, three thirty on a sunny afternoon. At any moment his son, the son he barely knew, the son he had left behind by persuading himself that it was the best decision for the child, would walk through the office door. And Luke had no idea what to say to him.
Then the door opened, and there he was, walking determinedly behind his grandma, Mollie, his smooth, young face an echo of Luke’s own, but was filled with anger and aggression.
“Hi,” Luke said awkwardly, offering his hand.
Ben just stared straight through him, as if he wasn’t there. The boy was right to hate him because that was what he deserved.
And then for one solitary, fleeting moment, Ben’s mask of anger slipped. His jaw quivered as his head dropped forward, revealing his vulnerability, and Luke swore to himself that from this moment forward his son would come first. It was time to make amends, to come to know him and to earn his love, no matter how hard it would be.
Luke understood now, without a shadow of a doubt, that walking away from his son had been the worst mistake of his life.
A LOUD SCREAM took Kat Molloy’s attention and she ran across to where Tammy Nelson was rolling on the ground, clutching her knee. Huge tears rolled down the little girl’s cheeks as Kat gave her a hug. “It’ll be okay in a minute,” she promised. “Look, it isn’t even red.”
Tammy carefully stood up, testing her weight on her injured joint. “See,” Kat said. “It’s better already.”
Tammy smiled happily, rubbing away her tears. Then she pointed in horror toward the sea, her blue eyes wide beneath their frame of ginger curls. “Miss!” she cried. “Ben’s gone right out into the water!”
Kat’s heart leaped into her throat.
“Ben!” she yelled, spotting the boy’s slight figure heading out into the waves. “Get back here...now!”
Tammy and the two other children in Kat’s care, nine-year-old Johnny Cartwright and seven-year-old Angel Dunn, stood ankle-deep in the rushing foam that shimmered onto the sand, watching in awe as the blond boy with a wicked grin waded out until the water was to his waist.
Ben had been at Flight for only a couple of weeks, arriving just a week after Kat herself, but he had always been in some kind of trouble since day one. Unfortunately, it had made him quite a hero to the younger ones. With a sigh, Kat stepped deeper into the water, dragging her legs against the current as the boy waded out even farther, waving cheekily. A prickle of alarm set in. The cool water might look enticing, but the undercurrents here were strong, and beneath the waves lurked quicksands, which could catch waders unaware.
Ben splashed around, grinning mischievously as he lowered his shoulders into the rushing tide. “It’s okay, Miss. I can swim,” he called, his voice blowing away on the wind. “It’s easy—watch!”
Kat struggled toward him. “No, the current is way too strong. Get back here, Ben! Just paddling, I said.”
For a moment, the boy defied her, propelling himself through the water with flailing arms as the other children looked on in awe. Kat waded deeper into the rippling foam, calling his name with as much authority as she could muster, ignoring the icy water soaking her jeans.
When a tall figure splashed by her, she was surprised to see Luke Travis making a beeline for Ben. The waves he made as he passed knocked Kat off balance, and suddenly the sand seemed to give way beneath her feet. The water closed over her head, taking her breath, and she felt a rush of raw panic before she lurched back up into the sunlight, swallowing seawater and coughing.
Luke had grabbed hold of Ben and was dragging him back to shore. The boy struggled angrily as Luke dumped him on the sand, and Kat hurried across to check him over, ignoring her wet clothes. Her relief quickly turned to indignation when she realized that Ben was okay.
“I could have drowned,” she yelled at Luke. “And I had everything under control.”
Her voice was lost amid the cries of the gulls that circled above them. This wasn’t the first time Luke had intervened in one of her sessions. He seemed to show up at every one of her sea-or nature-therapy outings, watching her with the kids and butting in at every opportunity. Yes, he was Ben’s dad, and the assistant general manager at Flight, but she was the child therapist, and she knew what she was doing. Just because Luke was struggling to be a proper father to Ben didn’t mean he had a right to keep questioning her ability to look after his son.
And now, of course, he could justify his hypervigilance with this incident. It was just what he’d been looking for. Luke Travis didn’t believe she was capable of doing her job, and today had given him even more fuel to fire that belief.
Kat pushed her wet hair back from her face and headed toward Ben and Luke. Even though Ben seemed all right, she needed to check on him. She had no excuses; this was her fault. She was in charge of the children and she should have been watching them all more closely.
Luke was standing slightly apart from the small group of excited children, his arms crossed. She