One of the times when Kurt had been badly beaten up, he came running to her, and she’d fixed his nose and some of the bruises and cuts on his arms. “You were always telling me back then how you would be a doctor,” he murmured.
“Well, I did get caught that night by my parents,” she said. “I was grounded for weeks afterward.”
“Right. I came to your bedroom.” He shook his head. “If I should ever have a daughter, I’ll be horrified at the thought of all those men out there, ready to prey on her.”
“Yet you weren’t preying on me,” she said. “You were coming home.”
He looked at her in surprise and then nodded slowly. “I was,” he said, “and that makes it all the sadder.”
“Yes, and no,” she said. “It also is very enlightening.”
“Maybe. Did you have a good thirteen years?” he asked, his gaze still searching, still curious as he pulled his t-shirt on.
She turned away and busied herself, cleaning up. She didn’t know what to say.
“Or not, I gather?”
“Well, I had some absolutely incredible moments,” she said, thinking about the birth of her son. “And then some really tough moments. School was difficult. I did get through med school though. As you’re well aware, I’m a pediatrician, and I had a child, so I have those two things I really wanted out of my life.”
“Absolutely. So where’s your child? Is it a boy or a girl?”
She turned, smiled, took a deep breath, and said, “A boy. His name is Jeremy.”
“That’s a good solid name,” he said. “How old is he?”
Just then Jeremy and Frank dashed through the front door. “Hey, Mom. Who’s here?”
As her hand came up, the two lanky teens came to a stop in the kitchen. Kurt looked on, as she didn’t even know what to say to him. And then proper manners took over. “Jeremy, this is a friend of mine, Kurt. This is Jeremy, my son, and his friend, Frank.”
Kurt looked at them both, pulling his shirt over the bandage, and smiled at the boys. “Hey, nice to meet you guys. Your mom and I are old friends. I left after graduation.”
“Yeah, I don’t remember meeting you before,” Jeremy said, his focus completely on Kurt.
She looked at her son, wondering what was going through his mind. “We were in school together.”
He looked at her and frowned and said, “Really?”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s in town looking for a missing War Dog.”
“Oh, wow,” Frank said. “What does that mean?”
And then Kurt explained the reason he was in town.
“I heard about that dog,” Jeremy said. “I think it attacked some of those kids in the gang,” he said, turning to Frank.
“Yeah, well, they’re not much of a gang. They’re just bullies.”
“Five of them?” Kurt asked. The two boys looked at him in surprise. “I think I met them.”
“Yeah, there’s five of them.”
“Or is there a sixth?” Kurt asked. “They rode off in a vehicle, but someone else was driving.”
The two teens shrugged. Jeremy added, “An older guy hangs around with them a lot. Maybe they do stuff for him. I’m not sure.” Jeremy lifted his eyebrows. “Did you see them?”
“Yeah, I met them at the truck stop,” he said, with a sideways look at Laurie Ann.
She shook her head slightly, a plea in her gaze, hoping that Kurt wouldn’t say anything more about who shot him.
“Yeah, they tend to hang around there a lot.” Jeremy walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass of water.
“So the dog might have had a good reason for attacking them, huh?”
“Are you kidding? Absolutely would have a reason. Nothing good about those kids.”
“That’s too bad,” Kurt said. “I’ve heard that a time or two about other young men.”
“Some of them are salvageable,” Jeremy said, “but not these ones.”
She stepped in at that point. “What are you two guys up to?”
“We want to get soda pop,” he said, “please.”
She groaned, reached for her purse, and handed over a twenty-dollar bill. “Bring me back the change.”
They grabbed the twenty and raced out. She shook her head. “He just gets so big every day.”
“He is big,” Kurt said, eyeing her intently.
“I know. It’s a bit of a shock all the time,” she said with a smile.
“He also looks familiar,” Kurt said in an odd voice.
She looked at him, hesitant. “In what way?”
“Well, he’s definitely got your hair and your eyes,” he said, his voice hardening. “But then he’s also got my nose, my jaw, and my size,” he said in a frigid voice. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
She just stared at him, too shocked to even answer it.
He stood, the chair screeching, almost falling over, and turned toward her. “Were you going to tell me that I had a son?”
She shook her head mutely. She hadn’t expected him to recognize his son so fast, so soon. And how would she answer him now?
“No?” he asked in outrage.
She held up her hand. “Yes, I planned to tell you,” she said, “but, after you left, I didn’t know how to. As soon as I realized that you were here in town, I thought it was a perfect opportunity—one I’ve been thinking about for a couple years.”
“You’ve been thinking. For two years,” he said, “but did you know that you were pregnant before I left?”
She took a slow deep breath, knowing that whatever chance at friendship they might have had was about to die right now, and she nodded. “Yes, but you were leaving in two weeks. What did you want me to do? Tell you that I was carrying your child and have you tell me to get an abortion? Or have you stay behind, that same angry young man who hated his life here and who would hate me for chaining him to this life? I let you go, and I had Jeremy,” she said, “and it was the best decision of my life.”
He stared at her, as if not knowing what to say.
“And, if you think it was an easy yes-or-no decision, you’re right. It was. However, it wasn’t an easy choice to then deal with the day-to-day living,” she said. “Although I would have done anything to have Jeremy, yet raising him on my own, without my parents, was not easy.”
Kurt stared at her in shock, and, at the same time, a part of him wanted to throw his arms around her and hold her close. He exhaled a long breath and took a step back.
Laurie Ann winced at that movement more than anything. “I didn’t know what to do,” she said, “but I refused to give up my child.”
He shook his head, not knowing what to say.
“There’s no way,” she said, “that you wouldn’t have hated your life, if forced to stay here, when you were so eager to go.”
“I was a mess back then,” he said, sitting down on the chair hard. All he could see was the tall, strapping young man who had been in the kitchen just moments before, knowing instinctively that he was his. “My God,” he said as he looked at her. “I don’t mean to besmirch your honor or anything else, but is there any doubt?”