Page 97 of Evening Shadows

Cody went from serious, to excited, and bouncing on her brown suede sofa. While she knew he’d like the secret, he probably wouldn’t keep it. Hopefully, she was able to get to Ken first. “There’s going to be a new man of the house soon. Would you like that?” Having Cody accept him sat paramount in her heart. The kid had been through a lot, and she wanted him to have a stable home where he could love and respect his parents.

Cute, little, brown eyes widened. “Is it Mr. Ken?”

Holding her breath at his next response, she could only nod.

“I can accept that.”

Relief washed through her at the boy’s acceptance of Ken. She tossed the dress still wrapped in the dress bag from the department store over an armchair.

He pointed at the dress. “Are you getting married tonight?”

Laughing, she shook her head. “No. I haven’t agreed to marry him yet.”

“But he asked, right?”

“He did. I’m going to tell him yes tonight.”

“When I get pizza?”

The short attention span of a kid made it difficult to carry on a conversation. “Yes. How about I show you your room. It’ll need decorating. We can do it together.”

The shocked look on his face when he stood nearly knocked her over. “You mean I get to choose?”

Damn Bev. She should’ve taken Cody sooner. “Yes. You think of what you want, and we’ll go to the store or shop online to fix it up.”

“Woohoo!” He took off down the hallway, Sam following at a more sedate pace.

He peeked into her room and wrinkled up his nose. “That’s too girly. I hope it’s your room and not mine.”

It appeared her life would be holding back a lot of laughs. “It is. Yours is over there.” She nodded to the only other bedroom.

“My other bedroom was yellow.”

Her breath caught. That’d been the first time he’d mentioned anything about his life before now. She knew she had to be prepared for it, but it still burned. “Do you want it yellow?” She hoped not. Before Bev learned the sex of her baby, the two of them had painted that room yellow and she’d planned to repaint it with Adam when he returned.

Sorrow gripped her again at the loss they’d both suffered. At what Cody’d suffered without a father figure. Well, he’d sure have one now.

“No, I’d like blue. Can I have blue?”

“You sure may. There’s a lot of shades of blue to choose from.”

“I just want blue.” He turned back to survey the room with its double bed and dresser.

Maybe she’d change it out for a single bed for more room. She’d find a kid’s desk for him and some sort of computer. Having a TV in the room wasn’t happening.

Bouncing his butt on the bed, he gave her his approval. “I like the room.”

If he’d said he didn’t like it, she wouldn’t have known what to do or say. “Okay, I’m going to shower and get ready for dinner.”

“Are you going to wear that dress Miss Megan got for you?”

Megan—AJ’s wife—had arrived at Kate’s to help out. The women got their heads together, listened to Sam and told her not to worry. Besides what she’d found as sexy lavender underthings, they’d bought her the red dress she’d promised Ken she’d wear when they returned. Not usually a dress person, they had to purchase heels too. Even though everything was her size, she hoped it all fit since sometimes sizes were off.

It hadn’t been the same dress she’d worn when they met, but styles changed.

After a quick shower, she looked around for Cody and found him at the table. With a pencil, he drew on a pad that she expected Jesse had purchased for him.

“What’re you drawing?”

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