A Memory Away Read Online Free PDF Page A

face, evidently having given up on trying to avoid it altogether. “I was hoping that would help tire him out but he went down for a half hour nap when we got home and he was good to go again.”
Kyle finally gave up on getting Shea any cleaner than just a tentative ‘grimy’ and set his son down on his still slightly wobbly legs. He watched with a fond expression as Shea fell over Ga-Ga still trying to get the banana off Kyle’s pants before picking himself up and toddling over to where Louise was cooking at the stove. He stopped at her heels and stared upwards with an intense expression of concentration on his face. Louise looked down at him and grinned. “In a minute. It’ll be ready soon.” Shea stared up at her fixedly and moments later was joined by the dog. Louise laughed. “Like two peas in a pod.” She glanced over her shoulder at Kyle. “I’m not sure which one is the bad influence over the other.” She frowned when she saw him staring at Shea with a stricken expression. “Hey, just kidding, I’m pretty sure this is just a phase. He’s going to grow out of begging for food eventually.” She laughed again. “I mean, he’s going to learn to cook for himself sometime, right?”
Kyle forced a laugh. “I certainly hope so. There’s no way I’m paying for him to have a cook of his very own when he grows up.” He turned away and busied himself opening a drawer and getting the knives and forks out to lay the table for dinner. “Will dinner be long?”
Distracted once more by the child and the dog, Louise shook her head. “About ten minutes, just waiting on the pasta.” She giggled, knowing after nearly two years how her employer thought. “You’ve got time to go and take off your pants and sponge them off if you want.”
Making himself smile, Kyle pressed a grateful kiss to her cheek as he walked out of the kitchen and patted Shea’s head when he squawked in alarm, obviously thinking his daddy was making a play for the food. “Relax, little man, there’s going to be plenty for you.”
He waited until he had closed the bedroom door behind himself before he let the smile fall from his face. He hadn’t given much thought to Shea’s other father since making the decision to go through with his pregnancy knowing he would be raising his child alone. Aside from the odd pinch of regret whenever Shea did something especially cute or reached a landmark in his development that he had no one to share it with, he had never regretted his choices.
Megan , Louise and even his dad did their best, but they couldn’t really understand just how proud and filled with joy and gratitude Kyle was when his perfect little boy smiled at him or said his name and now that Jonah had come so unexpectedly back into his life he didn’t know how to react. Logically he knew every time he looked at Shea with his curly black hair and olive coloured skin and the deep brown eyes that were so different in shape to his own that his son didn’t bear much resemblance to him. He had Kyle’s delicate shape of face and his sharp chin, but every other feature seemed to come straight from Jonah and, more shocking to Kyle, he seemed to have inherited expressions and mannerisms too.
The look on Shea’s face when he was watching Louise like a hawk as she cooked dinner was eerily reminiscent of the look on Jonah’s when he had been studying Kyle in his office that morning – hungry, focused and just a little obsessive. Shea also had a way of slyly looking up from under his eyelashes that he had inherited from Jonah as he attempted to look casual and nonchalant when he was really studying the best way to get his own way and bend the recipient of the look to his will.
Kyle sagged down on the end of his bed and stared blankly down at his banana and dog drool smeared pants. He brought a weary hand to his eyes and prayed very hard that he would never have to see Detective Goldman again.
Then he remembered the blatantly heated looks Jonah had