Adam’s Boys (11 page)

“I'm so sorry I'm late,” she blurted guiltily as she approached. “I haven't missed check-in, have I?”

“I'm afraid so,” Adam replied, shoving his outbreak of uncertainty from his mind. “There's been a change in the schedule and the flight's left already, but never mind—we might be able to get on another flight tomorrow.”

Abbie looked at him in horror. “You're kidding?” she whispered in disbelief.

“Yes.” Adam smiled at her.

“Damn it! I believed you!” Abbie laughed in relief when she noticed the teasing glint in his eye. “Where are the boys?”

“Over there. They've gone completely insane with excitement and can't keep still.”

Abbie turned to see Henry and Pete playing chasings around a concrete pillar in a quiet corner of the terminal, squealing with laughter every now and then.

“You really need to bring your sons into line,” she laughed again as she watched them before adding in a tighter voice, “Hang on, what's that guy doing?”

Adam watched on as a man emerged from a crowd about twenty metres distant and marched over to the boys. Grabbing Henry roughly by the arm to stop him in his tracks as he tore around the pillar, he yanked the little boy upwards until he was forced to balance on tiptoe. He then hurled a serious telling-off at him.

Adam called out a loud protest and began to run towards his son, but Abbie was ahead of him and already on her way. In her usual hot-headed fashion she was going to rescue Henry and launch a major dressing down about men who manhandle children. Adam could see the scene playing out before it had even begun.

But as suddenly as she'd taken off, she stopped dead in her tracks in front of him and spun around on her heel. With a look of shocked enlightenment on her face, she muttered words that he couldn't have misunderstood in a million years: “You go.”

Adam needed no more cues. With his long stride he continued past Abbie and grabbing hold of the other man's arm, had soon released Henry's and was swinging the little boy up onto his hip. Pete then grabbed hold of a corner of his father's jacket to form a united front against the enemy.

“I'm in charge of these boys!” Adam barked furiously. “What the hell do you think you're doing?”

“Are they your children?” the man demanded to know.

“Yes, they are. What's the issue? Are you airport security?”

“No, I'm not. I'm a member of the public and this is a public place. You should keep them under control.”

“Now you listen to me, mate,” Adam growled menacingly. “In about an hour these guys will be strapped into a plane seat for twenty-two hours. They're letting off steam in a quiet corner and doing no harm at all. And even if they were, it would be no excuse for grabbing a child as you just grabbed my son. So let me give you a word of advice: if you don't want to end up in the lock-up tonight, I suggest you back off and keep your hands off other people's children in the future! Got it?”

“Well! Why don't you just …”

But Adam didn't want the boys to hear anything more from him. Instead he put an arm around Pete's shoulder and walked back to Abbie, holding her gaze for a few moments before finally mouthing the words, “thank you”.

But at that moment Pete was at Adam's side and tugging on his jacket to pull him down to his level. Adam crouched down in front of Pete with Henry taking up a perch on one of his strong thighs, his small arm still looped around his father's neck.

“Are you okay, Henry?” Pete asked gently as he watched several fat, silent tears roll down his little brother's face. “Did he hurt you?”

Henry nodded unhappily.

“Let me see,” Pete directed and Henry yanked his sleeve up to show off some red marks around his thin upper arm.”

“Does it hurt?” Pete asked and Henry shook his head slowly.

“Do you want to do our holding breath thing?”

Again Henry nodded, and on cue the two boys sucked in lungs full of breath and stopped up their mouths tightly with pressed lips to prevent any of it escaping. After a seemingly interminable period of time in which Adam was beginning to worry that Henry in particular might keel over, both the boys expelled their breath at almost the same moment with a shout of triumph.

“You won!” Pete declared.

But Adam knew that wasn't true. He knew Pete well enough to see that his older son still had a few seconds of breath left inside him. He'd deliberately given the game away just moments before Henry so that his little brother could enjoy a small victory after his upset.

Adam looked at Abbie who met his eyes and smiled. She'd noticed Pete's gesture, too.

“How are you, Henry?” she asked, crouching down to join their huddle on the floor of the airport terminal. “How's that arm?”

“It's okay, Mum,” he replied in a shaky voice. “The man didn't hurt it that much. And I liked being taller than him up in the air with Adam. It was like being on top of a castle—I wish I'd had my bow and arrow. I'd have shot him!” Henry finished decidedly.

“Thank goodness you didn't have it!” Abbie shot back in horror and then added with a wink at Adam, “I don't think Sydney Airport is quite ready for the lawlessness of Sherwood Forest yet. Are you ready to climb down from Adam's castle now?”

It was then that Henry gave Adam a long, heavy look as though assessing whether it was safe to leave the battlements of his father's arms. Then the little boy's mouth twisted into an almost-smile directed straight at him, exactly like Abbie's when she was making a concession and didn't really mind doing it.

But with that one smile Adam's heart leapt in his chest. It was the smallest of breakthroughs with his younger son, but it was a first step in his new life as a father to him—it gave him reason to hope.

“Dad, can we go and get on the plane now?” Pete interrupted Adam's reverie as he began to jump up and down on the spot in excitement as Henry joined him. “And don't forget, Henry and I want to sit next to each other.”

Adam's eyes rose questioningly as he stood up and shifted his look back to Abbie again. “That okay with you? It means you're stuck next to me for the whole flight.”

Abbie shrugged but a warm flush filled her cheeks.

There was no doubt about it. Those feelings she'd harboured for Adam all those years were tough to get rid of. But a wiser part of her warned that one plane trip would never bridge the gulf between them.

Sure, they'd once shared three incredibly intimate weeks together, hardly emerging from Adam's hotel room for the entire time he was in Sydney. But since then there'd been nothing but distance, deceit and disappointment.

And the truth was, as Abbie knew all too well, McCarthy women keeping the men in their lives was as likely as painting the wind. A couple of peaceful days under an agreed truce was no foundation upon which to build hope when the truth was she was nothing to Adam beyond his younger son's mother—he'd announced that with cutting brevity not two weeks ago.

But she didn't have an opportunity to contemplate Adam's feelings for long.

They were soon fully occupied juggling hand luggage, passports and boarding passes and keeping a careful watch on the boys. It wasn't until she finally sank back into her comfortable airline seat after they'd been served dinner that she realised how exhausted she was.

“Do you suppose we'll hear from them again?” Adam asked as he unbuckled his belt and leant on the armrest towards her. He nodded at the boys across the aisle. They had headphones on and were immersed in the inflight entertainment.

“I doubt it. They'll probably be asleep in a couple of hours anyway. They've had it.”

“They're not the only ones,” Adam sighed, sitting back in his seat and stretching his long legs out in front of himself.

“Thank you for organising this trip,” Abbie said. “You need to let me know how much the tickets were so that I can pay you back.”

Adam shot a quizzical blue-eyed look at her before shaking his head and replying shortly, “My treat and no arguments.”

And with that he turned to the flight attendant who'd appeared at his side with two glasses of champagne on a tray.

“I ordered these for us,” he explained as he handed her a glass with a conciliatory smile. “I think we could both do with it, given the week we've had.”

Abbie accepted it thankfully.

“Did you get held up at work?” he asked, turning to her again.

She nodded. “An injunction application came in an hour before I was due to leave—always the way, isn't it? Jackie has it under control now. And Justin said he'd keep an eye on it for me when I'm in the air.”

“That's what I like about flying,” Adam declared. “The whole world could be coming to an end below and you'd never know it. I always get off the plane feeling incredibly calm.”

“You're always calm. And I wish I had half your self-control,” Abbie finished ruefully, the champagne bubbles working their magic as her tired, taut muscles began to relax.

“Don't ever wish that,” he replied with cryptic brevity before adding, “And thank you again for this afternoon. I know how hard it was for you to stand back and let me take over when Henry was in trouble.”

Abbie looked at Adam but couldn't speak for a few moments. She'd noticed for a couple of days that the suspension of cold war activities between them had softened their manner towards each other.

And sure, that was precisely what she'd wanted so that she could help Henry find his way towards trusting Adam. But it was also throwing up an unwanted side-effect, because they were going way beyond the resumption of diplomatic talks and were actually being nice to each other. At that moment Abbie was seriously struggling to absorb the intimacy of their conversation when from the night of the Incipio ball their lives had been little more than traffic jams of tight schedules and strained conversations.

“You don't need to thank me,” she answered eventually. “You have as much right to deal with those situations as I do. And how dare that creep grab Henry like that!” she added in an outburst of fresh outrage as she thought again about the incident. “Did you see how tightly he was holding onto him? He'll have a bruise on that arm tomorrow!”

“The thing that amazed me most was that Pete held it together,” Adam murmured thoughtfully. “Just weeks ago something like that would have sent him into an emotional tail-spin for hours. Yet there he was, not only keeping his cool, but taking care of Henry too.”

“Pete always finds his inner strength when Henry's in trouble. At the playground yesterday Henry's leg got caught up in the wooden swing bridge and Pete held him up until I could reach him to get it out. He's a great kid, Adam. He's going to be okay with time, I'm sure of it.”

“You're already growing fond of him, aren't you?”

Abbie nodded readily.

“I know his confidence issues will take time to sort out, but already he seems better since you and Henry came along. Tonight was just another example.”

Abbie turned away to take another sip of champagne, unsure what she might have done or said if their gazes hadn't unlocked in short order. But Adam wasn't of like mind. She could feel the weight of his heavy look upon her before she finally turned back to him.

“What is it?” she asked.

“What would happen to the boys if something were to happen to one of us?”

“I know what you're getting at and I have to sort that out,” Abbie confessed readily. “We need to get you on Henry's birth certificate and have court orders made for shared custody as soon as possible.”

“Of course. But what if something happens to me? Where will Pete go?”

“Wouldn't his grandparents …”

“My parents are in their seventies,” Adam interrupted. “I couldn't leave them with that responsibility. Anyway, I want Pete to go to someone who will look after him as I would want him looked after.”

Abbie stared at Adam in stunned incredulity before asking, “Would you like me to be Pete's guardian if something happens to you? Is that what you're trying to say?”

Surely he couldn't have that much faith in her after what she'd done to him over Henry?

He looked at her in silence before speaking. “Would you be prepared to do that?”

“Yes, of course, but what about Ellen's family? Wouldn't they want him?”

“They might, but I'd prefer him to be with you and Henry. I know that's where he'd be happiest.”

“Then I'd be honoured,” she replied, her heart thundering in her chest. “So would Henry.”

And then he gave her one of those heart-melting smiles with his eyes that she hadn't felt the full one hundred volt wattage of in four-and-a-half years.

“Are you sure you would want him in a family where there's no man around?” Abbie asked doubtfully.

“You managed without a father, didn't you?”

“I suppose you can't miss what you never knew. I was only six when he left so I barely remember him.”

“Why did your father leave?” Adam asked gently.

“The note he left said he couldn't cope with my mother's illness, let alone look after me. He'd left me with neighbours, saying he was going to the shops, only he never came back. My parents hadn't told their families that Mum was sick so when she died a few days later, all alone, I ended up in foster care. It took two months for social services to find Maeve in Ireland.”

“God, no wonder you're so fiercely independent. It's a wonder you have faith in men at all.”

“What makes you think I do?” Abbie threw back at him, but then flushed. For she was talking to a man who was a good father and who'd stood by his wife to the end as she'd suffered the very ordeal her own mother had gone through.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean you. You're a wonderful father, and I know you stood by Ellen …”