Always You

by Denise Grover Swank

  He tossed his half-finished lukewarm beer in the trash and headed toward the kids, who had since moved on to the whack-a-mole game.

  “Ethan, we need to leave in a few minutes. Uncle Kevin and Uncle Tyler are coming over to cook out.” When the boy didn’t look as excited as Matt had hoped, he added, “And Uncle Tyler’s probably bringing his little brother, Eric.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Does he play soccer or Legos?”

  Toby watched his friend and wrapped his arm around his mother’s leg.

  Great. Now he was upsetting Toby. “Eric’s in high school so he’s a big kid, but Uncle Tyler says he likes little kids.”

  Anna put a hand on her son’s shoulder. “We have to go, too. I forgot to tell you. We’re going to eat dinner with my friend Ashley.”

  Toby looked confused then his eyes widened. “The one who hangs out with animals?”

  “Yep.”

  “What kind of animals?” Ethan asked.

  “All kinds,” Toby said, getting excited. “Frogs. And rabbits. And even lions.”

  “No way.” Ethan looked up at Matt. “I’d rather go with Toby.”

  “Sorry, big guy, that’s not possible. But we’ll see Toby at practice tomorrow afternoon.” Oh, crap. He hadn’t asked Anna if they were coming. “Well, if he comes.”

  “We’ll be there,” Anna said, keeping her eyes on Ethan.

  Ethan looked down at the floor. “Okay…”

  Anna dug into her pockets and pulled out a wad of tickets. “But right now you get to pick a prize. Look at all the tickets you won!”

  His face lit up and Matt was amazed at how easily he was distracted. But hadn’t Matt been doing the same thing with him over the last few months? Distracting him from his mother’s absence?

  “Do I get a prize, too?” Toby asked, looking excited.

  She smiled at him. “Of course you do. It’s one of the best parts of going to Chuck E. Cheese.” Then she handed him another wad. “Let’s go count them up.”

  Matt went to a ticket machine and let Ethan feed the ribbons into the slot while he gave surreptitious glances toward Anna. She was patient with Toby, far more patient than he’d seen a lot of mothers here at the handful of birthday parties Ethan had attended. There was no doubt that she and her son were close and that he adored her.

  Neither boy had accumulated many tickets, but it still took them several minutes to decide what to get. Standing so close to Anna was torture. His mind remembered how she’d broken his heart, but his body insisted that was firmly in the past. The sooner he got away from her, the better.

  Ethan picked a couple of pieces of candy and a plastic spider ring and Matt turned to Anna. “Thanks again for watching him. We’ll see you tomorrow,” he said in a cold tone that made him sound like a dick. So be it.

  He turned to leave without waiting for a good-bye, when he heard her say. “You’re forgetting something.”

  He turned to face her.

  “Ethan’s booster.”

  Dammit.

  He scrubbed a hand over his head, looking obviously frustrated. He dropped his hand when he realized Ethan was watching him with a frown.

  He glanced back up at Anna and the sadness in her eyes sent a stab of pain to his chest. Why? Why did he care how she felt? She hadn’t cared about how he’d felt twelve years ago, but something deep down told him that was a lie. Believing the lie had just made the rejection easier to deal with.

  “Toby’s almost done.”

  Toby looked up at his mother. “I have to go to the toilet.”

  “Can you wait?”

  He crossed his legs and cupped the front of his jeans. “No, Mummy.”

  Anna gave Matt a worried look then dug her keys out of her pocket. “Why don’t you get the booster seat, and we’ll hurry and meet you outside.”

  “Okay, but don’t rush him.” Then he grabbed Ethan’s hand and led him to the exit.

  “I don’t want to go, Uncle Matt,” Ethan whined, tugging on his hand. “I want to stay with Toby.”

  “We’ll play with Toby another day. We need to go get ready for our cookout.”

  “Why can’t Toby come?”

  “You heard his mom. Toby has plans.”

  Ethan didn’t seem convinced, and Matt had to drag him the last ten feet to the door, stopping in front of the roped-off exit.

  Matt started to unhook the chain, but a teenage boy rushed over. “I have to check your stamps.”

  “What?” Matt asked.

  “The stamps you got when you came in.”

  Ethan tried to pull loose and Matt tightened his grip as he lifted his free left arm.

  The teen shined a black light flashlight on the back of his hand then said. “Now your son’s.”

  “He’s not my dad!” Ethan shouted, still trying to pull loose.

  The teen looked alarmed.

  Matt clenched his jaw. “Ethan, show the boy your hand.”

  “You can’t make me!” he shouted. “You can’t make me go with you!”

  Matt looked down at him in shock. Ethan had had a few uncharacteristic outbursts over the last month or two, but never like this.

  “I’m sorry,” Matt said as he tugged Ethan’s hand closer to the worker. “I think he’s overtired.”

  “I’m not going with you! I want my mom!” Ethan shouted, digging in his feet and leaning backward.

  The teen’s eyes widened, and as he shined the light on the back of Ethan’s hand, he shouted. “Code Teddy Bear! Code Teddy Bear! This is not a drill!”

  Oh, shit.

  Lights began to flash from the ceiling and a siren sounded.

  Ethan had fallen to his butt, and Matt was bent over trying to get him to his feet.

  “Sir. I need you to let go of the child,” a man said behind him.

  Fuck. Matt let go of Ethan’s hand and stood, turning to face the middle-aged man behind him.

  Matt lifted his hands in surrender. “I know this looks bad.”

  “Their stamps don’t match,” the teen boy said in a rush. “And the boy says he’s not his dad.”

  “I can explain,” Matt said. “I’m his uncle.”

  The middle-aged man looked even more on edge. “Sir, I need you to move away from the exit while we wait for the police.”

  “Police?” Matt asked in dismay. “That’s really not necessary. I’ll show you my I.D.” He dug into his pocket to pull out his wallet, but his pocket knife fell out on the floor.

  The teen boy let out a shriek Matt challenged any teen girl to top, then stumbled backward, tripping on a child behind him. “He has a weapon! Repeat! He has a weapon!”

  “No!” Matt shouted, lifting his hands again. “It’s not a weapon!”

  Ethan got to his feet then took off running past the middle-aged man.

  “Ethan!” He started to run after him but the manager’s eyes widened even more as he blocked his path.

  “Sir, you can’t go back there.”

  “That’s my nephew! I’m not letting him go back there all alone!”

  What if Ethan ran out the back door?

  Dammit.

  He wasn’t waiting. He tried to dart around the manager, but the man tried to block his path again. Adrenaline raced through Matt’s blood, and he bumped into the man’s shoulder harder than he’d intended.

  As the manager stumbled, his foot slipped and he fell to the floor.

  The teen and the children who had gathered around him began to scream, but Matt’s sole focus was on Ethan.

  Please, God, don’t let him run out the back door.

  “Stranger danger!” a girl shouted, pointing to him as he ran past. “Stranger danger!”

  “I’m not a stranger. I promise,” Matt said as he ran past her, bolting for the back of the restaurant. “Ethan!”

  “I don’t want to go with you!” Ethan shouted and Matt spotted him in the party room area.

  Thank God. “Ethan! Just come here, and we can talk about it.”

  Th
e boy stopped and stared at him then began to scream.

  What the hell?

  Something big and hard slammed into Matt’s back and he fell forward, face planting onto the carpet. The heavy object remained on top of him, and something bony pressed into his shoulder blade.

  “I caught him!” a muffled voice shouted. “I get the reward!”

  Matt turned to his side with a jerk, throwing the guy off balance. His captor fell forward, and Matt found himself staring into a giant plastic mouse face.

  Ethan had run over, but continued screaming at the top of his lungs, “Chuck E. Cheese is killing my Uncle Matt!” Then he started to kick the mascot’s side repeatedly. “Leave my Uncle Matt alone!”

  The mascot fell off Matt and rolled into a ball, shouting, “Help! Somebody save me!”

  Matt pushed himself into a sitting position and grabbed Ethan around the waist and pulled him onto his lap, burying the sobbing boy’s face into his chest.

  He took a moment to let the last twenty seconds seep in and found himself staring up into Anna’s stunned face. Toby clung to her legs with tears in his eyes.

  Then Anna’s shock faded, and she gave him a hesitant grin. “I guess you never made it out to the car.”

  Chapter Nine

  Do I want to ask?” Anna asked. She’d laugh if Ethan hadn’t been so upset. The sirens and lights had started blaring and flashing while she was in the restroom with Toby, so she knew something had happened, but she’d never imagined that Matt could be in the thick of it.

  “I’m not sure.”

  A balding man in a uniform walked up behind her. He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her back while jabbing a pair of silver salad tongs at Matt. “Ma’am, you need to get away from the dangerous criminal.”

  “Dangerous criminal?” she asked, tugging free then squatting in front of Matt. “What did you do?”

  Matt opened his mouth to answer then shook his head.

  “I’m sorry, Uncle Matt,” Ethan sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

  Matt held him tighter. “It’s okay, big guy. It’s going to be okay.”

  A giant mouse lay on the floor rocking back and forth, saying, “Please, don’t hurt me. I want to live. I haven’t even been to Comic Con.”

  “You can get up now,” a teenage girl said in a disgusted tone, standing behind the manager. “The toddler stopped kicking you.”

  “Ethan kicked Chuck E. Cheese?” Toby asked, sounding distressed.

  Ethan stopped sobbing and shot him a defensive look. “He was going to kill Uncle Matt. Wesley said Chuck E. Cheese is a murderer.”

  Matt rolled his eyes and helped Ethan to his feet. “Wesley is wrong. Chuck E. Cheese isn’t capable of murdering anyone.”

  “That’s not true,” the mouse said, holding up his arms and trying to flex. “I’ve been working out. I knocked you flat on your ass, and if you’d just held still, I could have wrapped my legs around your neck and snapped you in two.”

  Several children watching them began to scream.

  “Chuck E. Cheese said a bad word!”

  “Chuck E. Cheese is a killer!”

  “Wesley’s right!” Ethan shouted then pointed to the mouse. “He is a murderer.”

  “He’s not a murderer.” Matt got to his feet and shot the mascot a look of disgust. “He got in a lucky potshot.” He picked the still crying Ethan up and set him on his hip. The boy wrapped his legs around Matt’s waist and buried his face into the curve of his neck.

  The man behind Anna leaped forward and jabbed toward Matt with the salad tongs. “Get back on the floor. The police are on their way.”

  “Police?” Anna gasped.

  “He was kidnapping that boy.”

  “His nephew?” she asked in disbelief.

  The balding man blinked. “What?”

  “That’s his nephew.”

  “But their numbers didn’t match.” He turned to a teenage boy wearing a uniform. “You said the numbers didn’t match.”

  “They didn’t match,” he said defensively.

  “See?” the manager said with attitude. “They didn’t match.”

  “Of course they didn’t match. Ethan came with Toby and me and his uncle came later. I was watching Ethan until Matt came to pick him up.”

  “But the boy said he wasn’t his dad!” the teen boy shouted.

  Anna put her hands on her hips. “Because Matt is his uncle.”

  “But,” the boy said, sounding less sure of himself. “He said he didn’t want to go with him.”

  Anna dropped her hands to her sides. “Because Ethan was having fun and didn’t want to leave. I assure you nothing underhanded was going on. You’ll see that his stamp matches mine.”

  “But he ran past me,” the manager said. “Why’d he do that if he wasn’t guilty?”

  Matt sighed. “Ethan was scared and mad and no one was watching him when he took off. I was terrified he’d run out the back door.”

  “See?” Anna said. “It’s just a huge misunderstanding. So cancel the police and let the man take his traumatized nephew home.”

  The manager’s face waffled between determination and concession until he finally said, “If the boy’s numbers match yours, he can take him home, but”—his voice turned stern—“tell your nephew we take safety seriously around here so he can’t make us think he’s being kidnapped.”

  Anna offered him a warm smile. “And we very much appreciate that you do, don’t we, Matt?”

  Matt didn’t look totally convinced, probably because of the giant knot that was growing on his forehead, but he said, “Yes. Thank for your diligence.”

  Anna pried her terrified son from her legs and took his hand. “Let’s go, Toby.”

  His feet remained in place. “Is the giant rat going to tackle me, too?”

  “No,” she said, trying not to laugh. “And if he did, I think Matt would take him out for you.”

  Matt met Toby’s gaze. “I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  While he might be doing it to protect Toby, Anna was sure there was a bit of vindictiveness in his declaration.

  “Let’s go,” Anna said. Matt nodded and she lowered her voice. “There are a couple of ways we can take this walk of shame. We can hang our heads and walk out with our tails between our legs, or we can go out with style.” She grinned. “Personally, I prefer the second, but it takes a lot of attitude. Which do you prefer?”

  “This isn’t a walk of shame, so the attitude for sure.”

  She bent at the knees and picked up Toby, setting him on her hip. “Good. Then let’s do it.”

  Something in Matt’s eyes shifted, and they started walking to the exit while Toby clung to Anna and Ethan remained firmly attached to Matt’s side. She leaned closer to Matt and whispered, “Are you ready to make a run for it when my number doesn’t match Ethan’s?”

  Matt stopped in is tracks, terror filling his eyes.

  She grinned. “I’m teasing. Too soon?”

  He started to protest then amusement filled his eyes. “You always knew how to make a terrible experience better.”

  “I’m not sure about that,” she said, lifting a hand and giving a parade wave to the crowd. “But I’ll be sure to let you know when I figure it out.”

  He grinned and his eyes lit up like they had back when they were together, and she realized how much she missed him.

  They reached the rope blocking their escape, the lights still flashing and the sirens still screeching. Anna lifted her hand, waiting for one of the employees to catch up. The manager reluctantly picked up the black light and shined it on Anna’s hand and then on Ethan’s and Toby’s. He unhooked the rope and said, “It might be best if you don’t come back for a while.”

  “That won’t be a problem,” Matt said gruffly as he headed for the exit. Anna followed then gave one last wave before she walked out the open door.

  Anna tried to put Toby down when they reached the parking lot, but he locked his ankles around her waist and refused to bud
ge.

  “My car’s over there,” she said, pointing to it.

  “I know. My truck’s next to it. It seemed easier that way.” He grinned. “In theory.”

  “Best-laid plans…” she said. “Life never works out as you planned.”

  He stopped next to her car and looked down at her, his nephew wrapped tight around him. “No. It doesn’t.”

  She regretted saying it, reminding him of what she’d done, but his anger seemed to have faded, and melancholy had taken its place. Could he sense her sadness, too?

  “Matt, when I showed up early to your house…”

  He glanced down at Toby as if to remind her they had an audience.

  “I’d still like to meet with you next week. I’d like to explain some things.”

  His body tensed and Ethan shifted. “You don’t owe me anything.”

  “Actually, I do, but it’s not out of obligation.” She looked up into his guarded brown eyes. “You have every right to tell me no, and I won’t press you on it. But I hope you say yes.” She paused. “I’m not looking for anything from you. Your only job is to listen to my reasoning back then and ask questions. I just want to try to make this whole situation with the kids easier.”

  “Ask questions?”

  She nodded. “I’ll answer anything.”

  His chest expanded as he sucked in a breath, and she remembered what it was like to snuggle into him and have him hold her, but she reminded herself that wasn’t what this was about. She wanted to help him see that he hadn’t misunderstood her. That she’d given him mixed signals.

  “Okay,” he said quietly. “My mom takes Ethan to church on Wednesday nights. Can you get away then?”

  She’d have to figure out what do to with Toby, but that was her problem. “I can make it work.”

  Matt handed her the car keys, and she unlocked the passenger door. “Old school,” he said, pulling Ethan free and setting him on the pavement in front of Anna.

  “It’s my dad’s car.”

  “What happened to your old PT Cruiser?” he asked as he opened the back door and climbed in to grab the booster.

  “My dad sold it.”

  “You loved that car.”

  She shrugged and gave him a pained smile. “We both know it was a piece of crap. It was always breaking down.” She’d been upset because at that point she’d still planned on coming back. She’d paid for the used car herself with money she’d earned working at McDonald’s during high school. She’d scraped together every penny she could until she could pay cash, and then the stupid thing had broken down more times than she could count. But if she were honest, she knew part of her was upset because it was where she and Matt had their first kiss.