Page 92 of Welcome to Forever
Chapter 23
The next morning, Ben was already dressed and seated at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him when Micah emerged from his bedroom.
Micah glanced around, half expecting Aunt Clara to be nearby. She wasn’t.
“I did it myself, Dad,” Ben said, seeming to read his thoughts. “It wasn’t that hard.”
Micah smiled. “When did you get to be so big?”
Ben shrugged, scooping Frosted Flakes cereal into his mouth. “You said it would be just you and me today. What’re we doing?” His eyes were wide with excitement, no doubt expecting nothing less than the grandest of adventures.
Micah hadn’t even thought this far ahead. He scratched his chin, then rubbed a hand over his unshaven face. The fresh growth was definitely against military regulations, but it was his day off.
“Dad? We are having a father-son day, right?” Ben asked, concern lowering his shaggy brows.
“Yeah, buddy. Of course we are. We’re, uh, going fishing.”
Ben’s expression dimmed as he clutched his spoon. “Fishing?”
In all their time together, they’d never been fishing. And fishing was the one thing that Micah’s father had ever done with him that hadn’t involved preparing him for the military.
“How am I supposed to go fishing? My chair—”
“If you can get yourself dressed and fed, you can go fishing,” Micah said, convincing even himself. It’d be easy. Ben’s chair had locks on the brakes. They’d settle down on the banks of one of the creeks and toss their lines in. He could adapt the pole to hook onto Ben’s chair, that way he only needed one hand to reel when he got a nibble. “It’ll be great.” Just thinking about it made his chest lighten. He hadn’t been fishing in one of North Carolina’s spindly creeks in ages.
Ben bounced in his chair. “Cool. Can we eat what we catch?”
“Well, what would be the fun of catching if we couldn’t eat ’em?”
Ben squealed with delight, making Micah’s heart lift a little higher. He’d do anything for this kid. Including getting out of the Marines and breaking his own father’s heart. Not that he was fully convinced that the elder Peterson actually had a heart to break.
Micah gestured toward the laundry room. “Let me go get the supplies and we’ll be on our way.” He squeezed his son’s shoulder as he walked past, resisting the urge to tell him to take smaller mouthfuls. Ben was growing up and needing less supervision, which meant that Micah would have to start stepping back.
Half an hour later, father and son were in the Jeep and heading toward a spot that Lawson had told them about. A secret, magic spot, Micah told Ben, adding to the spirit of adventure. He scoped out the flattest area of the creek’s bank and settled there to prevent Ben’s chair from rolling toward the water. It was shaded by pine trees, and a gentle breeze carried around them, reminding Micah of his childhood days. Not all of his memories with his father were bad. There were times when he’d actually looked up to the man. The memories ached in Micah’s chest.
He rigged up Ben’s wheelchair with the reel positioned right beside his good arm, and gave a thumbs-up sign. “Let’s catch us a big one.” Then Micah tossed his own line in the water and smiled to himself as he watched Ben from the corner of his eye. Ben’s eyes were wide and his little body leaned slightly forward, as if he was sure that something was going to launch out of the water and swallow his line any minute. They watched and waited for nearly half an hour before Ben said anything.
“Dad?”
“Yeah, bud?” Micah started to reel his line in, deciding to toss it in a different location.
“Why hasn’t Mom called me since she’s been gone?”
Micah paused for a long second, then continued reeling his line and tossed it further out. “I’m sure she’s been busy, little man.” He offered what he hoped was a relaxed smile. Ben didn’t need to worry that Jessica couldn’t take care of herself out there. She damn well could. It was taking care of others that was her weakness.
“Don’t you guys get phone calls over there? You were able to call me all the time when you were deployed last year.”
Micah nodded. Yeah. He’d made Ben a priority, whereas Jess had never considered her son anything more than a burden. There was no good answer to give. “She’ll be home in eight months.” This was just a guess, because she’d never actually told him when she was coming back. Or if she intended to see them at all when she did.
There was another long beat of silence. “Dad?”
“Yeah?” Micah focused on the red and white bobber in the water, praying for a distraction.
Grab the bait, little bastards.
“Do you think Principal Chandler will stick around?”
Micah’s eyes slid over, as he remembered his discussion with Clara earlier in the week. Kat was loyal. He could trust her with his son’s heart. “I’m not sure, son. But if she doesn’t, it means your dad screwed something up. Dads do that from time to time.”
