Page 7 of The Spy Ring

THREE

Tiffany

“David John Blackburn!” I yelled down the hallway.

Nothing. No sound. No movement.

“Okay, I guess I have to come find you,” I said in an even louder tone.

That’s when I heard his voice and some banging.

“Mom. Wait. Getting dressed,” David said with a crack in his voice.

I stood about twenty feet from his room and smiled. It was just six months ago that he couldn’t speak more than fifty words, often garbled so that only I could understand. Though he had trouble speaking the words, he understood tens of thousands, which was typical for a twelve-year-old.

Earlier this year, he also wouldn’t have been able to dress himself or walk to me. It may take him longer than other boys his age to do all those things, but he could accomplish them by himself now. And I couldn’t help the large grin on my face every time I witnessed him doing the most mundane tasks on his own.

“Hurry up because your new physical therapist is going to be here any minute,” I said and placed my hands on my cheeks trying to will back the tears.

For it’s those mundane things that brought me the most joy. David always had a smile on his face and loved life, appreciating everything. But, there were times when he didn’t think I was looking, when I saw him stare at his friend Matt.

Matt could walk.

They met at the therapy center several years ago. Matt had difficulty with communication and issues with social skills. They both had different speech therapists but the same appointment time. Sometimes they were in the same room, working on tasks together. Their therapists quickly learned that Matt and David challenged each other to work harder.

Though they went to different schools and Matt lived in a different neighborhood, those two were inseparable. That was, until last year when Matt moved to Virginia. He hasn’t seen David since before the operation.

Matt had never seen David walk.

“I think I heard the buzzer. That should be the therapist,” I said and turned toward the front door.

I pressed the intercom. “Hello?”

There was some crackling and static but I heard a male voice say Blackburn, so I pushed the open button for the front door of the building. I made a mental note to contact the landlord again about fixing the intercom so I could hear the visitors more clearly.

Just this morning I read in the paper about a thief pretending to be a visitor of a residential building nearby, but the intercom was broken so he was easily buzzed inside. Luckily, the tenant was unharmed, but the thief did steal some valuables.

What if that happened while David was here? We lived in a high-rise that overlooked Lake Michigan because we needed a building with an elevator. How quickly could we escape from someone out to do us harm?

The rent in this building was pricey enough despite the iffy neighborhood. The landlord needed to stay on top of safety. I was thankful my good friend and David’s godfather, Henrik Payne, helped me out with the rent, but I refused to take more than was necessary.

We met the night of the accident. The same accident that killed my husband and left my son disabled, killed Henrik’s parents and sister. Henrik blamed himself for the accident, but how could he have known that his mother was too drunk to drive that night? He wasn’t anywhere near his parents that night.

We grew close in our grief. In a way, he had helped David not just by making sure he got the best care but being the father figure that David craved.

But now that Henrik’s getting married I feared he wouldn’t be in David’s life as much. That made me more determined to find a man who could be a good father to David.

I walked over to the door when I heard a knock and glanced through the peephole. My breath caught at what I saw.

The man on the other side of my door didn’t appear to be a robber, but he also didn’t seem like a physical therapist, either.

Once I opened the door my eyes swept his long, muscular body. Something seized in my chest, and I rubbed at the spot wondering if it was disappointment or something much different causing the ache. Logically I knew that it required strength to help a twelve-year-old boy that had some difficulty with walking and bending and lifting. But my mind wasn’t going there. It was on the opposite side of the logical planet.

All my thoughts involved heat and touching and groping. As if I left stable Earth to land on the steamy, sexy party planet of Venus.

I frowned and shook my head trying to focus on the reason this guy was in my doorway. But when he smiled and the twinkle of his jade eyes sent a shiver throughout my body to my fingertips, I had to hold onto the door to steady myself.

The only thing that brought me back down to earth was his clothing. Particularly, his white button-up shirt, navy dress pants, and dress shoes. If this were a meeting in an office, he would be dressed appropriately, but it’s a physical therapy session.

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