“Glad to hear it.” Reaching into his deep pocket, Leon drew out a handful of game tokens for the arcade. “Here, win yourself some tickets. Maybe you’ll get a good prize.”
Clutching the tokens in both hands, Simon gasped in pleasure. “Thank you, Mr. Leon!”
The older man patted his head. “You’re welcome. Have a good time. Come back and see us again.”
Fortunately Simon was so excited about the free game tokens that he didn’t mention Leon’s comment about how much Simon looked like Adam. Still, the encounter had brought home to Joanna—and probably to Adam—that the more time she and Simon spent with him, the more likely it became that the bright little boy would figure out the truth on his own. And that was something neither of them wanted—especially, apparently, Adam.
* * *
WORN OUT FROM his busy day, Simon was sound asleep in his booster seat by the time Joanna parked at the resort. She unbuckled him, and Adam reached around her to pick him up. “I’ll carry him.”
She moved out of the way, letting him take the boy out of the car. She noticed that Adam shifted Simon quickly to his left side, grimacing just a bit when he put the weight on his right arm.
“Do your injuries still bother you?” she asked him, hoping he wouldn’t mind the question.
He seemed annoyed with himself for letting the discomfort show, but he answered honestly. “There’s still some weakness in the right arm. Can’t really lift it higher than my ear. It doesn’t bother me too badly. I can still use it for most of what I need to do.”
Reminded again of what he’d endured, she bit her lip as she led the way to her suite. She didn’t even want to think about how he’d sustained those injuries. All those months of her pregnancy, she’d pictured him being a carefree bachelor who maybe thought of her occasionally. If only she’d known he was in a war zone, then in a hospital...well, she didn’t know what she’d have done differently.
She unlocked the door and held it open while Adam carried Simon in. Simon didn’t even stir, his limbs loose, his sweet face flushed with sleep. Nor did he rouse when Adam asked, “Where do you want him?”
She motioned toward the bedroom where Simon slept. “Just carry him in there. I’ll get him into his pajamas.”
Adam lowered the boy gently to the bed, then stepped back. “I’ll wait for you on the balcony.”
&nb
sp; She should have known he wouldn’t slip quietly out now. “I won’t be long.”
He nodded and turned to leave the room.
She joined him on the balcony fifteen minutes later. He leaned against the rail, gazing out over the resort as she had done the evening before. He hadn’t turned on the lights, so he stood in deep shadow. Her heart fluttered foolishly at the sight of him there, all dark and brooding and tousled from an evening of playing with their son.
She moistened her lips. “He’s out cold. He pretty much sleepwalked through changing into pajamas and brushing his teeth.”
“Ran out of fuel, huh? Wish I had half the energy he’s got when he’s awake.”
Laughing softly, she said, “No kidding. Think how much we’d get done in a day.”
“You, uh, don’t think he read anything into Leon’s comment, do you? About looking like me, I mean.”
She stopped smiling. “I don’t think so. Too much else was going on at the time. And then Leon gave him the free tokens, and that tickled him so much he forgot about it.”
“He does look a lot like me, doesn’t he?”
“As Leon said—your spitting image,” Joanna murmured.
“Did you remember?”
She was confused for a moment, but then understood what he was asking. “Did I remember what you looked like? Yes, of course. For one thing, I had a living reminder.”
He let a few moments pass, then spoke again without turning to look at her. “What was it like for you? Going back home to find yourself pregnant, I mean.”
“It was...” She hesitated, trying to sum up the past six years in one word. She finally settled on, “...challenging.”
After mulling over that response, he asked, “Did it affect your career? Make things difficult for you in that respect?”
She shrugged. “There were some adjustments in my career, of course. I had to arrange maternity leave, and after I went back to working full-time, I had to plan for sick days and school meetings and programs. I was only able to take ten weeks for maternity leave, but I was fortunate enough to find Rose, Simon’s nanny, who is a treasure. She took care of him full-time while I worked until he was three, when I enrolled him in a preschool because I could already tell he needed more intellectual stimulation. Now she watches him after school and on school breaks when I have work obligations. He considers her his second grandmother.”