Page 33 of False Start

“It’s nice to meet you, buddy,” I said. Then, I offered him the black velvet bag in my hand. “I heard you like rocks.”

His eyes shot wide again, and then he took the bag and ripped at the strings tying it closed.

“Wow!” He gasped, showing it to his mom next. “Look! Calcite, topaz, obsidian...”

It was my turn to have my eyes grow twice their size, because the fact that he knew those words and could pronounce them nearly perfectly shocked the shit out of me.

He shook his little head, looking back at me next. “Thank you.”

“Of course. There’s a magnifying glass in there, too. And some seashell fossils.”

“Whoa!” He dragged the word out, digging in the bag. “Do you wanna come to our house and look at them with me?”

I peeked up at Madelyn, who smiled and petted her son’s hair again. “Maybe another time. For now, why don’t you hand those to me and I’ll hold them while you play.”

“Okay,” Sebastian said. I didn’t know why, but that shocked me, too. He didn’t whine, didn’t throw a fit. He trusted Madelyn, trusted that when she said later, that meant it would happen. And for now, he was content to do what she asked. “Can Kyle play, too?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” she answered.

I stood, dusting off my hands. “Oh, I don’t know...” Then, I gave him a grin. “Last one to the merry-go-round has to push!”

I took off on a slow jog, and Sebastian froze before all but throwing the bag of rocks at Madelyn and sprinting after me. I made him work until we were almost there, then I pulled back a little, letting him beat me. He flew onto the merry-go-round andjumped up and down in victory before holding onto the safety bars as I grabbed the outside edge and gave it an easy spin.

“Faster, faster!” he called.

And then he laughed, and my stomach hollowed out again.

His laugh reminded me so much of the way Madelyn used to laugh, it was like going back in time.

Almost an hour passed like that, me chasing Sebastian all around the park while he made up games for us to play at each and every piece of equipment on the playground. Our only breaks were to run over to Madelyn long enough for him to have a snack or a drink of water, and then we were off again.

Madelyn watched from a blanket she’d laid out under a tree, something between joy and terror marking her face.

Eventually, Sebastian begged his mom to play with his rocks, and she let him take them over to a sand pit and pretend to dig for them. I sank down next to her on the blanket with a grunt.

“Tired already?” she teased. “Maybe he’s all you need to get your stamina up for the season.”

I shook my head. “I wish I remembered what it was like, to have endless energy like that.”

She smiled. “He’s a good kid.”

“He is,” I agreed. “And you’re a good mom.”

Madelyn’s smile softened a bit at that, her eyes flicking between mine before she looked down at where her feet were at the edge of the blanket.

“He looks like you,” I added. “Laughs like you, too.”

“Poor kid,” she joked, shaking her head. “That laugh got me made fun of a lot in middle school.”

“Well, by high school, I assure you — there was nothing to make fun of.”

She cocked a brow, and I shrugged.

“It was one of my favorite sounds. I loved how you’d hold it back until you had no choice but to let it free, like you’d try to be annoyed by me but then I’d somehow win.”

Madelyn rolled her eyes. “I was mostly laughingatyou, not because you said something funny.”

“Didn’t matter, not when I got what I wanted. That laugh… all smoky and sexy without you even trying.”