Genuine Lies

she’d only frighten him. And it was over. All over. “Nothing, I’m just glad to see you.”
    “You saw me this morning.” His puzzled look changed toastonishment when she. Released him to give Paul the same fierce, possessive hug.
    “Both of you,” she managed to say, and Paul could feel her heart thundering against his chest. “I’m just glad to see both of you.”
    In silence, Paul cupped her chin to study her face. He recognized the signs of shock, of stress, of tears. He gave her a long, soft kiss and felt her lips tremble against his. “Close your mouth, Brandon,” he said mildly, bringing Julia’s head to his shoulder to stroke her hair. “You’ll have to get used to me kissing your mother.”
    Over Julia’s shoulder he saw the boy’s eyes change— wariness, suspicion. Disappointment. With a sigh, Paul wondered if he had the ability to handle both mother and son.
    “Why don’t you go inside, Jules? Get yourself something cold and sit down. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
    “Yes.” She needed to be alone. If she wasn’t going to fall apart, she needed a few moments to herself to scrape together those flimsy rags of control. “I’ll see if I can come up with some lemonade. You both look like you could use some.”
    Paul waited until she was well on her way before he turned back to the boy. Brandon’s hands were stuffed into the pockets of his shorts. He was staring hard at the toes of his scuffed Nikes.
    “Problem?”
    The boy only shrugged his shoulders.
    Paul mirrored the gesture before he walked over the shirt he’d tossed off during the heat of battle. He took out a cigar then fought a brief battle with damp matches.
    “I don’t figure I have to explain to you the man-woman sort of thing,” Paul mused aloud. “Or why kissing’s so popular.”
    Brandon stared so hard at his shoes, his eyes nearly crossed.
    “Nope. I didn’t think so.” Stalling, Paul drew in smoke, then exhaled. “I guess you should know how I feel about your mother.” Brandon still said nothing, trapped in the silence of his own confusion. “I love her, very much.” That statement atleast had Brandon lifting his head to make eye contact. It wasn’t, Paul noted, a particularly friendly look. “It might take you some time to get used to that. That’s okay, because I’m not going to change my mind.”
    “Mom doesn’t go out with guys and stuff very much.”
    “No. I guess that makes me pretty lucky.” Christ, was there anything harder to face than a child’s direct, unblinking stare? Paul blew out a long breath and wished he had something stronger than lemonade to look forward to. “Listen, you’re probably wondering if I’m going to mess up and hurt her. I can’t promise I won’t, but I can promise I’ll try not to.”
    Brandon was having a hard time even thinking about his mother in the way Paul was describing. She was, after all, first and last, his mother. It had never occurred to him that anything could hurt her. The possibility had the inside of his stomach jittering. To compensate, his chin shot out, much the way Julia’s did. “If you hit her, I’d—”
    “No.” Paul was instantly in a crouch so that they were eye to eye. “I don’t mean like that. Not ever like that. That is a promise. I mean hurt her feelings, make her unhappy.”
    The thought cued into something nearly forgotten that made Brandon’s throat hurt and his eyes water. He remembered the way she had looked when his grandparents had died. And before, sometime in that misty before, when he’d been too little to understand.
    “Like my father did,” he said shakily. “He must have.”
    There the ground was too soft and unsteady for him to tread on. “That’s something you’ll have to talk to her about when you’re both ready.”
    “I guess he didn’t want us.”
    The man’s hand cupped the boy’s shoulder. “I do.”
    Brandon looked away again, over Paul’s right shoulder. A bird zipped into the garden in a bright flash of blue. “I guess you’ve been fooling around, hanging around with me because of Mom.”
    “That’s part of it.” Paul took a chance and turned Brandon’s face back to his. “Not all of it. Maybe I thought it’d go a little easier for me with Julia if you and I got along. If youdidn’t like me, I wouldn’t have a shot. The thing is, I like hanging around you. Even if you are short and ugly and beat me at basketball.”
    He was a quiet child, and by nature an observant