Page 70 of Confessions

“Lighten up about the homework,” Hayden suggested.

“So now you’re telling me how to be a parent?” she asked, though she wasn’t angry. “What makes you such an expert?”

“I was a kid. A kid who was expected to get straight A’s, a kid who was supposed to be the best football player, baseball player, chess player and leader of the debate team. My folks wanted—no, make that expected—me to be the smartest kid in my class.”

“Were you?” she asked.

His grin turned devilish. “Until about seventh grade. Then I became the biggest hellion.”

“I bet your parents were proud,” she teased, before she saw the storm clouds gathering in his eyes.

“I doubt that was the word my father would have used to describe anything I did.”

Before she could say anything else, the boys had thundered out of the house. They all piled into Hayden’s Jeep and he drove into town.

Hayden took them to a small restaurant in the mall near the tricinemas. For the first time in their lives the boys, seated on one side of the booth, were encouraged to order anything off the menu as Hayden insisted this night was his treat. Nadine tried to protest, but he wouldn’t hear of it, and in the end, John and Hayden each ordered a steak, Bobby stuck with a hamburger and Nadine chose grilled salmon. The boys were in heaven.

“Why can’t we do this all the time?” John asked as he struggled to cut his steak.

“Because it’s not practical,” Nadine replied.

On the seat of the booth between them, Hayden folded his hand over hers. “Sometimes it’s better not to be practical.” His fingers fit into the grooves between her own and she tingled a little.

“Everyone should keep his head,” she said. “And think of the consequences of what they’re doing.”

“We’re just eating,” John pointed out. “That’s no crime.”

“But we can’t do it all the time because we can’t afford it.”

“He can!” Bobby said, pointing a fork at Hayden.

“That’s right,” John chimed in, focusing on Hayden. “Katie Osgood says you’re the richest man in Gold Creek. But Mike Katcher thinks it’s Mr. Fitzgerald.”

Nadine was horrified. “John, it’s not polite to—”

Hayden held up a hand. “I don’t know about my local status and I really don’t care. My father was a very wealthy man. I inherited a lot from him, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot to me.”

“Well, it should,” John said. “Money talks. That’s what my dad says.”

Nadine wanted to drop through the floorboards of the restaurant.

“He does. Dad is always talking about money,” Bobby added as the waitress approached. Luckily the subject was dropped.

Hayden let the boys order dessert and the conversation stayed light as John plowed into apple pie with ice cream and Bobby picked at a huge piece of six-layer chocolate cake.

Upon instruction, both boys thanked Hayden and he made a point of telling them to call him by his first name.

This is going much too fast, Nadine thought, and realized that it wasn’t just her heart that would be broken when Hayden left. The boys, too, would miss him. For their own sakes, she had to make sure they didn’t get too emotionally attached to a man who would soon return to his life in the city.

Later that night, as she was tucking Bobby into bed, she smoothed his hair from his forehead and gave him a kiss. “See ya in the morning,” she said before turning out the light.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?” She looked over her shoulder at the top of the stairs.

“Are you going to marry Mr. Mon—Hayden?”

She froze, hoping that Hayden, in the living room below, hadn’t heard her youngest son’s question. John leaned over from the top bunk and stared at his mom, waiting for her answer. Her throat felt like sandpaper, but she shook her head.