“Growth spurt, I expect,” Erin answered. “I’d hoped to delay it, but I think I’m going to have to start him on solids soon.”
“You think putting him on solids is bad, just wait until you have to let him go to school.” Sasha patted Erin’s hand, clearly understanding her reluctance to embrace this next stage of Riley’s development. “Now, give me the details. What did the lawyer say?”
Erin skirted over the basics of the discussion she’d had. “She’s going to do more research for me but feels it’s important to first establish that James was Riley’s father. So now I have to find something with a trace of James’s DNA on it.”
“It’s all very CSI, isn’t it?” Sasha said, her forehead wrinkling into a frown of concentration. “You gave most of his stuff away, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, although I did keep the important things for Riley for when he’s old enough to understand. There’s an old coat brush in amongst those things that might hold a hair. Aside from that I have no idea how I’m going to find anything.”
Sasha reached across and gave Erin’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’ll come up with something. Probably where you least expect it. Have a little faith. I’d better go. Call me when you find what you’re looking for, okay?”
Thinking she needed more than a little faith Erin saw her friend out, thanking her for caring for Riley.
“It’s no problem,” Sasha insisted. “You know I love spending time with your little guy.”
After Sasha had gone Erin put a quick lunch on a tray for Sam and took it upstairs. She knocked gently on the door to the room she’d given him as an office and went inside. He was staring intently at his laptop screen.
“Lunch,” she said quietly. “Where would you like me to put it?”
Sam gestured to a clear patch at the edge of the desk, without so much as lifting his gaze from the computer. Erin did as he bade and turned to leave him to his own devices. She was on the verge of closing the door behind her when his voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Erin, can you come back a moment?”
She turned and came back into the room. “Is there a problem?”
“Yeah,” he said, his cool gray eyes lifting to meet hers. “I’m sorry I was short with you. It was rude of me.”
“No problem,” she hastened to reassure him. After all, he hadn’t come here for her company, had he? Even so, his apology soothed a bit of the sting of his earlier abruptness.
“It is a problem. I’m not usually so impolite. Something you said reminded me of someone. It upset me and I let that affect my manners.”
“Something I said?” Erin repeated, confused.
“At the coffee shop, you said something my wife used to say. My late wife.”
“Oh,” she breathed on a sigh of understanding. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” he said, rising from his seat. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. If it’s okay with you, could I still eat dinner with you in the kitchen tonight? I…I’d rather not eat alone.”
Compassion flooded her. She’d been lucky to have Riley to keep her thoughts occupied at mealtimes but she well knew, and understood, the loneliness that came after the loss of a spouse, especially in the everyday things that you’d always taken for granted. She managed a tremulous smile. “Sure, that’s no problem. Dinner at six, then?”
Sam nodded. “Thanks, that’ll be great.”
An awkward silence opened between them. Erin looked at the printer now installed on the desk. “You got the printer hooked up okay?”
“Yeah, it’s all doing what it’s supposed to.”
“Good. I’ll see you downstairs at dinner, then.”
Erin left the room feeling a little better than she’d felt earlier. Sam’s sudden shift in temperament was now explained, which left her with only one more problem. Where the heck was she going to find something with James’s DNA?
Five
Sam heard the door close quietly behind him and bracketed his head with his hands. This entire exercise was proving harder than he’d anticipated. He’d thought it would be simple. Come to Tahoe, stay at Connell Lodge.
See his son.
He hadn’t expected for a moment to feel drawn to the baby’s mother, nor had he expected her to remind him so viscerally of his late wife. It wasn’t so much in a physical sense—the two women looked nothing alike. Laura’s porcelain skin and dark red hair had been nothing like the glow of summer-kissed skin and short black hair that Erin sported so effortlessly. But it was in their natures, their nurturing instincts—no matter who walked within their spheres. And it attracted and repelled him at the same time.