Page 45 of Until August

I raised my hand to bang on the door when it swung open, leaving me with my fist in the air. I dropped it to my side, my eyes on my son, who stood before me in a hoodie and basketball shorts. For a few moments, I stared at him and said absolutely nothing.

Until finally, I cleared my throat and spoke. “Hey, Sage. Thanks for agreeing to see me.”

He nodded and chewed on his lip, his brows furrowed like he was thinking hard. I glanced at Sasha, standing behind him with her hands on his shoulders. Protective. Worried about sending her son into the world with the man she no longer trusted.

“You’re the guy from the beach,” Sage said, drawing my attention back to him.

“Yeah, same guy. I hope I didn’t scare you that day.”

He shook his head. “I just thought you looked….” I waited for him to say ‘familiar’ or ‘like the guy I used to call Dad,’ but he didn’t. “Sad.”

He looked up at Sasha, whose grip on his shoulders had tightened like she never wanted to let go. Sage gave her a little smile as if to say it was okay. It was the same smile I remembered from when he was a toddler.

And now I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t been able to pick him out when I saw him on the beach. Because it was so obvious to me now that this was my son.

“You can let go now, Mom. I’m ready to go.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Okay, baby.” She leaned down and hugged him, then kissed the top of his head, her eyes on me as she straightened up and released Sage. “I want him home by seven.”

“I know.”

“Okay.” She forced a smile for Sage, but it looked fake as hell, and her voice sounded tight when she spoke. “Have fun.”

I opened the passenger side door for Sage, and he climbed in, bouncing on the seat a little. “This is a cool truck.”

I laughed. “You think so?”

He nodded, and I pulled his seat belt out of the holder, ready to belt him in. “I can do it,” he said. It took a couple tries, but when it clicked into place, I closed the door and rounded the hood.

“Drive safely,” Sasha called.

I gave her the Boy Scout salute, and even though I wasn’t looking at her face, I could almostfeelher eye roll. She used to hate it when I did that. We both knew I’d never been a Boy Scout.

Sage was quiet as I drove out of the gated community. When I got onto the road, I glanced over at him. He kept rolling the window up and down like it was a fun game. Guess he’d never seen a manual one before. Finally, he got tired of the game and leaned back with a sigh.

I glanced at him. “Do you have a favorite place?” I had a few ideas of what we could do with our two hours, but I wanted to make sure we went somewhere special to him.

“I have a lot of favorite places, like the ocean and Hawaii. It’s really cool. We go on vacation there. It’s Travis’ favorite place in the world.”

Travis. I didn’t give a shit about what Travis liked. “I’m more interested in what you love.”

He thought about it for a minute. “Boats. I love boats. And tacos.”

“Boats and tacos. Good choice.”

“I can tell you where my special place is….” He side-eyed me. “If you want.”

“Tell me.”

“Okay, it’s not like a secret or anything. It’s the place where all the boats are. They have really good tacos there too.”

I wracked my brain. Where would they have boatsandtacos? “Are you talking about the marina?”

“Yep.” He settled back in his seat with a satisfied smile. I felt like I’d just passed a grueling test and earned a gold star.

“Then that’s where we’ll go.” As soon as I figured out where the hell the marina was. When I stopped at a light, I pulled up the map on my phone, telling me I was headed in the wrong direction.

Fifteen minutes later, I parked in a lot near the marina, and we crossed the street to the docks. Sage knew where he wanted to go, so I followed his lead.