“You really don’t think my mom would be mad if I told you my name?” he asked worriedly.
“I’m pretty sure she’d tell you it was okay, since I’m a firefighter,” Sean reassured him. “You can at least tell me your first name.”
The boy’s brow knit as he considered that. “Okay,” he said at last, his expression brightening. “I suppose it would be okay if you called me Seth.”
Sean bit back a grin at the reluctant concession. “Okay then, Seth, why don’t we sit right here on the curb and watch for Ruby to come back?”
Seth regarded him eagerly. “I could go get her. She’d probably want to meet you. Ruby’s really beautiful and she’s always looking for a new boyfriend. Are you married?”
“Nope, and I think it’s best if we wait right here,” Sean said, praying for protection from the too-available Ruby and her pint-size matchmaker. “So, Seth, you haven’t told me about your dad. Is he at work?”
For the first time, the boy showed evidence of real dismay. His lower lip trembled. “I don’t have a dad,” he said sadly. “He went away a long, long time ago when I was just a baby. I’m almost six now. Well, not till next March. I know that’s a long time from now, but being six is going to be really cool, ’cause I’ll be in first grade.”
Sean struggled to follow the conversation. He wasn’t sure what to say to the announcement that the boy’s father had abandoned him, but Seth didn’t seem to notice. He kept right on chatting, spilling the details of his life.
“Mom says my dad loved me, but Ruby says he was a no-good son of a something. I’m not sure what.” He regarded Sean with hopeful eyes. “Do you think Mom’s right?”
Old emotions crowded in, and Sean bit back a string of curses. “I’m sure she is,” he reassured the boy. “What dad wouldn’t love a great kid like you?”
“Then how come he went away?” Seth asked reasonably.
“I don’t know,” Sean told him with total honesty. It certainly wasn’t something he could understand. Not in Seth’s case, not in his own, even with an adult’s perspective on it. He told Seth the same thing he’d been told on countless occasions. “Sometimes things happen that can’t be helped. And sometimes we never find out why.”
Sean sighed. He certainly hadn’t. And until Ryan had come back into his life, he had told himself he didn’t care. In fact, he’d gone out of his way not to be found, in case his folks had ever gotten around to looking. He’d stayed in Boston, but he’d maintained a deliberately low profile—an unlisted phone number, no credit cards. Anyone looking for him would have had to work hard to find him. That way, when no one had come knocking at his door, he’d been able to tell himself it was because he’d been all but impossible to find. He’d never had to deal with the possibility that no one had cared enough to look.
His brother Ryan had apparently erected the same sort of walls around his heart. Then he’d fallen in love with Maggie, who had prodded him into searching for the family he’d lost. Sean’s safeguards hadn’t been enough to stop a determined investigator from finding him, which told Sean that his parents had more than likely never bothered to try. Most of the time he could convince himself that that didn’t hurt, but there were times like this when the wounds felt as raw as they had more than twenty years ago.
Just when he was about to sink into a disgusting bout of self-pity, a dark-haired woman wearing a waitress’s uniform came racing down the street, her expression frantic. She was trailed by a sexy blonde wearing tight jeans, a bright pink tank top and spike heels.
“Mom,” Seth shouted, leaping up and racing straight for the petite, dark-haired woman.
She scooped him up, smothered his face in kisses, then held him out to examine him from head to toe. Only then did she speak. “What are you doing back here, young man?” she demanded, her expression stern. “You know you’re never supposed to go anywhere unless Ruby’s with you.”
“I came to see the fire truck,” he said, then pointed accusingly at Sean, who’d risen to join them. “He wouldn’t let me play with the siren, though.”
The woman turned toward Sean and held out a hand. “I’m Deanna Blackwell. Thanks for keeping an eye on him. I hope he wasn’t any bother.”
“Sean Devaney,” he said tightly. Looking into huge brown eyes filled with sincerity, Sean couldn’t bring himself to deliver the lecture that had been forming in his head from the moment he’d run across the kid. Before he could say anything at all, the second woman stepped forward and slid a hand provocatively up his arm. The muscle tensed at her touch, but beyond that he was pretty much immune to the invitation in her eyes.
“I’m Ruby Allen, the baby-sitter,” she said, regarding him seductively. “I’ve always wanted to meet a real, honest-to-goodness firefighter.”
Deanna rolled her eyes at the provocative come-on. “You’ll have to excuse Ruby,” she apologized. “She’s basically harmless.”
A lot of men would fall for Ruby’s sex-on-the-run attitude, but Sean wasn’t even tempted. His dates tended to be smart, independent types who weren’t looking for a future. Ruby had desperation written all over her. She might act as if she were looking for nothing more than a roll in the hay, but instinct—and Seth’s innocent remark—suggested otherwise.
Deanna Blackwell was another story entirely. With her fragile features and huge eyes emphasized by dark curls that had been cropped very short in a no-muss, no-fuss style, she looked about as innocent as her kid. The stay-out-all-night playgirl mom he’d been anticipating was, instead, an angel with smudges of exhaustion under her eyes. That was a combination
