"Think about having a little faith in your dad. Give him a chance. He may not always say what you want to hear, but you can trust he's going to be there for you."
Shelby snorted. "When he's not thirty thousand feet in the air."
The whirring of an electric wheelchair cut off Julia's reply. Fourteen-year-old Nathan zipped past, circling with a devilish twinkle in his killer baby-blues.
"Hey, Shelby," he exhaled the last of her name with the ventilator whoosh. The flexible tracheotomy tube trailed from his throat to the back of his wheelchair into a ventilator the size of a laptop computer.
Such a small machine, but without it Nathan couldn't breathe. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia, BPD, had left him with chronic respiratory problems after he'd inhaled meconium at birth.
The kid also had a razor-sharp mind—and a wicked wit. "What do ya say we blow this place, Shelby? Me and you? Hop on and I'll drive you around the base."
He sounded so much like Zach angling for a Harley ride Julia couldn't suppress a smile.
Shelby winked at Nathan and slapped a hand to her chest. "Ah, Nathan, you'd just dump me when somebody new came along."
"Prob'ly right." He winked back. "There's this hot new babe in my rehab class. Can't keep her eyes off me."
"Go get her, big guy." Shelby hefted Patrick off the ball, placing him on the mat while she continued talking to Nathan. "Help me set up the snacks?"
"Only if you show me," exhale, "that belly-button ring of yours."
Shelby swatted his arm with her overlong sweater sleeve. "You are so bad."
Julia rested her chin on her knees and watched the two teens move to the refreshment table. She loved moments like these best in the meetings, times when the universality of human nature transcended disabilities and birth defects. The way she wanted it always to be for her son.
The door swung open, rain sheeting inside and startling Patrick. She patted his tummy and wished someone would close the door soon. Zach sprinted through, slamming the door shut.
Zach? What was he doing here? He'd attended Patrick's doctor and therapy appointments when in town, but he'd never gone to the family support groups.
Until now.
He must be trying to tell her again how he wasn't giving up in his quest to build a family together. Heaven help her, he was making progress.
Zach whipped his hat off and swiped water from his flight suit while he looked around the room.
Finding her.
How could he make her body come alive with just the sweep of his eyes?
Zach paused to speak with Rena, before stepping around the playing children on his way to Julia. "Sorry I'm late, Jules. Mission planning ran long."
He scooped Patrick from the mat and held him high overhead. Patrick squealed, then chortled through his wide-open smile.
"Howdy, Bruiser. What did you do today? Huh? Win a bottle-chug contest with your pals over there? Play a little ball? Watch some cartoons?"
As Zach rambled on with nonsensical chitchat to Patrick, realization seeped into her.
Genuine affection for Patrick shone from Zach's eyes. Pure adulation radiated back from Patrick's smile. There was a bond between the two of them that had nothing to do with her.
Julia's throat closed as the meaning of that simple, so beautiful shared smile swept over her. Zach hadn't come to the meeting for her at all. He'd come for Patrick, and the spontaneous gesture proved far more tempting than a calculated buy-out of a hardware store.
If only she could follow her own advice to Shelby about trusting that Zach would always be there for her.
If only she could be content with nothing more from him than friendship and awesome sex.
If only she didn't love him.
Chapter 14