He put the phone away.
“What do you want me to do?”
The question surprised me.
Ethan Brooks had once made decisions faster than most people formed opinions.
Now he was asking.
“I want us to leave through the kitchen.”
“Why?”
“Because everyone in the diner is listening.”
A faint, sad smile appeared.
“They are trying not to.”
“They are failing.”
“I noticed.”
“We take Theo home. Rosie comes with us.”
“Do you trust her?”
“With my life.”
“And his?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will trust her too.”
That mattered.
More than it should have.
We opened the storage-room door.
Every conversation in the kitchen stopped.
Rosie stood beside the counter with Theo on her hip despite the fact that he was much too large to be carried.
Her silver hair had escaped its bun.
She looked from me to Ethan.
“Well?” she said.
Theo pointed at him.
“He knows my other-name mommy.”
Rosie’s eyes sharpened.
“I gathered.”
I crossed the room and took Theo into my arms.
He touched my cheek.
“Are you sad?”
“A little.”
“Did he make you sad?”
Ethan went still.
I looked at my son.
“No, sweetheart. Not today.”
Theo considered that.
Then he looked at Ethan.
“Are you my uncle?”
The question landed quietly.
Ethan’s face changed.
He crouched so they were eye level.
“No.”
“Are you Mommy’s friend?”
“I used to be.”
“Did you stop?”
Ethan looked at me.
“Something happened.”
Theo nodded with the solemn understanding of a child who had accepted many adult answers without truly believing them.
“Are you my dad?”
No one breathed.
I had planned this conversation a hundred times.
In every version, I chose the moment.
A sunny day.
A safe room.
Words prepared carefully.
Instead, it happened in a diner kitchen beside sacks of potatoes and a broken freezer.
Ethan did not answer until I nodded.
“Yes,” he said.
Theo studied his face.
Then touched the corner of his own eye.
“That’s why.”
Ethan smiled.
It was the first real smile I had seen from him.
“Yes.”
“Where were you?”
The smile disappeared.
Ethan looked at me.
I shook my head slightly.
Not the whole truth.
Not now.
“I did not know where to find you,” he said.
Theo frowned.
“We live behind the blue mailbox.”
Rosie turned away, pressing one hand against her mouth.
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“I know that now.”