Read Online Temporary Father (Welcome To Honesty 1) by Anna Adams - Free Book Online Page B

wanted to cry for her son’s old, old soul, but she wouldn’t. “I don’t mean to smother you.”
    “I’m all you have.”
    “No, Eli. I have a life—and so do you. You have years to go to the Olympics or become a physicist—or cure cancer. Can’t you look forward to them?”
    After a steady, staring second, he shook his head and a new flood of tears slid, unheeded, down his face. Beth rocked back and forth on her heels.
    “Can I hug you?”
    He nodded, and she wrapped her arms aroundhim. She held him loosely until he grabbed her so tight she wheezed as the air left her lungs.
    “Can we go see Dr. Brent?” she asked.
    He nodded against her T-shirt. “If you change clothes so no one will see I was crying on you.”
    “I’ll be right back.”
    In her room, she peeled her shirt over her head and held it to her cheek. She kissed the moist spot where her son had cried. She’d fight hell and all its demons for him. He might as well get used to it.
     
    “M R . N IKOLAS ? Can you hear me?” Ron, the IT guy, all but shouted in Aidan’s ear.
    “Sorry.” Focused on the lighted windows up at Van’s house, he’d forgotten his top secret help on the phone. “What did I do?”
    “You’ve installed the remote access software incorrectly. I can’t see you.”
    He looked down at his brand-new, so far useless laptop. “It’s worse than that. I forgot to hit Return so the machine would log me onto the network.”
    “You need to do that.”
    He jabbed the key.
    He’d glimpsed Eli and Beth in town. They’d been crossing the parking lot to visit the Honesty Medical Center while he returned to his car from buying the remote login software from the SuperComputer across the street. How long had they stayed? What had they done?
    Would that little boy be okay?
    Aidan didn’t want to care. But who could turn his back on a child?
    “Hold on, sir. I’m in.” On the monitor, screens began flashing up and down.
    “You haven’t mentioned doing this for me, have you?”
    “No, sir.”
    “It’s not that I’m afraid of my mother.”
    “I am, sir.”
    Aidan laughed. It felt odd after so much seriousness. “She can’t fire me.”
    “She’ll definitely fire me if anyone tells her or your father I’ve been setting you up.”
    “I’ll call at night again if I have to speak to you. My parents must have gone home hours ago.” The screens kept coming up and closing. “Imagine how you’d feel if you couldn’t get to your computer, Ron. You’re setting me up to access everything I have at the office?”
    “I’ll be a few more minutes. When I’m finished, you’ll need to change your password.”
    “I’m making a note.” He stood, his cell phone to his ear. Someone passed in front of a window up on the hill. “Ron?”
    “Sir?”
    “You don’t need me to do this?”
    “No. I can check everything when I finish because I have your login.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Call me back if you have any problems—but don’t leave a message.”
    “No,” Aidan said by way of agreement.
    “I’ll give you my private e-mail. Use that if you need me.”
    “Thanks,” Aidan said. “Seriously.” He flipped the phone shut. He was outside before he considered the consequences of butting in again. He climbed the hill before he could stop himself. And he rang the doorbell only as he realized he might be imposing on a family in distress.
    Footsteps came down the stairs inside. Aidan slipped the phone he was still holding into his back pocket. Beth opened the door. Her face paled, but she smiled and came out, shutting it at her back.
    “I’m glad you came,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for telling me about…” She turned around and looked up at the skylight over the door. “But I didn’t want to leave Eli alone.”
    “He’s in there?”
    “Upstairs, not speaking to me, but he went to the doctor.”
    “The tests,” Aidan said.
    “You know about those? How do you survive while you wait for the results?”
    He