Page 64 of Sweet Surrender

He nodded.

“Why were you looking at your brother’s paper?” Becca asked him, her tone serious now.

“I was copying,” Nick admitted, looking ashamed.

“Whatwere you copying?” Becca asked.

“The problems,” he said, staring down at the table miserably.

“And the answers?” Becca asked him.

“No,” Nick said right away. “Just the problems. I like doing math.”

“That makes sense,” Becca said, nodding. “Because you got one of the problems right that your brother got wrong.”

Nick glanced over at Cal, as if worried how he would take that info.

“Nick is super good at math,” Cal said proudly with a big grin, making Zane’s heart ache with love. “We always work on our homework together.”

“So was it easier to see the problems when they were close to you, Nick?” Becca asked him. “Like on the paper here, and on Cal’s desk right next to yours?”

Nick nodded, looking deeply ashamed.

“But they’ve had vision tests,” Zane heard himself say. “His vision is perfect.”

“Nick, do you remember taking the eye test in kindergarten?” Becca asked.

He nodded.

“When you took your test, did Cal go right before you?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“They normally line up alphabetically,” she explained, turning to the principal. “And as we’ve seen, Nick is averybright child. If he heard his brother give the answers thirty seconds before he was tested, then he already knew what he was supposed to be seeing when it was his turn. It would have had a big impact on the results. And Nick being bright enough to get by in class and at home most of the time is exactly the reason none of us ever noticed.”

Younoticed,Zane thought to himself with wonder.

Denise looked slightly scandalized, but Principal Chittenden was nodding right along. Was it possible they had all missed something so simple?

“I think it’s time for another eye test,” Zane heard himself say.

22

ZANE

Half an hour later, Zane and the boys walked through the town as snow flurries danced and drifted peacefully onto the already snowy park.

Since Becca had revealed her incredible discovery, Zane had been working his way through disbelief and into acceptance and amazement.

But now all he felt was guilt. How had Becca picked up on Nick’s visual impairment in a few weeks, when Zane had lived with the boy since he was born?

He glanced over at him. Nick was looking awfully glum for a kid who had just been let off the hook. The teachers and principal had actually apologized to him. Zane had certainly never seen anything like that back in his days there.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I still cheated,” Nick said quietly.

Zane felt a rush of surprise. But if he’d learned one thing from Becca, it was to ask his son more questions.

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