Carrie stood up. “Okay, then. Ice cream and cupcakes coming up.”
“I’ll help you get them,” Sam said, standing to follow her.
Inside, he moved close, turned her around and tilted her chin, then claimed her lips. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you got here,” he said, even as he reluctantly took a step back. “But that’s probably going to have to hold me. Given Bobby’s impatience, he could walk in here any second.”
“Good thinking,” Carrie said. “But just so you know, it’s been on my mind, too.”
“That’s encouraging.” When she turned and would have reached out to open the freezer door, he put his hand over hers. “Carrie, are we crazy?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re in the middle of this life-altering career change. I’m an overnight single dad. Are either of us in any position to make our lives more complicated?”
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “But I know what my grandmother would say.”
“What’s that?”
“That love doesn’t always come along when it’s convenient.” No sooner had the words left her lips than she blushed. “Not that we’re talking about love, of course. This is lust, right? That’s all it is.”
She sounded so desperate, Sam barely resisted laughing. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
“I honestly don’t know. How about you? What do you think is going on?”
Before Sam could answer, Bobby burst into the kitchen. “What’s taking so long?”
Sam drew in a deep breath. “We’ll be there in a minute. Why don’t you get the balloons from the dining room. Hang on tight, though, and I’ll tie them to something outside as soon as I get there.”
“Hurry up!” Bobby commanded excitedly. “It’s gonna be too dark to see ’em float away pretty soon.”
As he ran off, Sam once again turned Carrie to face him. “To be continued,” he assured her, then touched her cheek with a quick caress. “That’s a promise.”
“Agreed.”
Bobby chose that moment to race back through, the balloons clutched tightly in his hand. Sam and Carrie followed with bowls, plates, ice cream, cupcakes and candles. Sam pulled out his cell phone, ready to record the impromptu party.
As Bobby had reminded them, the sun was sinking toward the horizon in a final burst of color. Carrie quickly lit the candles on the cupcakes and they all made wishes and blew them out, then Bobby solemnly released the balloons into the air.
“Happy birthday, Dad!” he said, his head tilted up to follow the path of the balloons as they drifted away, bright spots of red, blue, green and purple dotting the last streaks of orange-tinted sky.
Carrie started singing “Happy Birthday” and Bobby and Sam chimed in. Nearly overwhelmed by the sweet poignance of the moment, Sam recorded it all with his cell phone, then shut it off as the final notes of the song and the last balloon drifted away on the evening breeze.
“That was the best birthday party ever!” Carrie said, giving Bobby’s shoulder a squeeze. “I know your dad is so happy you thought of it.”
“I miss him,” Bobby whispered, then reached out for Sam’s hand. “But now I have you.”
“That’s right,” Sam said, his voice oddly choked. “Now you have me.”
For better or worse. And every single day, he intended to pray like crazy that it would be for the best for this little boy who’d lost so much.
The call from the school the morning after the birthday celebration caught Sam completely off guard. He was up to his eyeballs with trying to correct a serious glitch on the paper’s website when the counselor called to tell him Bobby had been in a fight on the playground. He’d gotten a split lip, which the school nurse thought might need stitches.
“What’s wrong?” Mack asked when he hung up the phone, obviously shaken.
Sam filled him in. “I can’t imagine Bobby in a fight. I have to go. He needs to see a doctor.”
“Go,” Mack said at once.
“Or I could get him,” Susie offered. She had brought in lunch for them since correcting the tech problem had both Mack and Sam tearing their hair out. Sam had discovered that Susie was convinced that Mack forgot to eat far too often. “Just call the school back and tell them I have permission to pick him up, then call Noah’s office and tell them it’s okay to treat him. I’ll bring him by here after that, so you can see for yourself how he’s doing.”
Sam was sorely tempted to let her go. “I don’t know...” He hesitated, thinking of the boundaries that had barely been put into place. Relying on Susie, even in an emergency like this one, seemed risky. Still, this web problem needed to be resolved.