"You're a little man." Then he looked up at Maggie, still standing in the middle of the scattered greens. "Hey, Maggie." She didn't answer. She shifted Jesse on her hip.
Travis walked over slowly, his eyes on the baby. "Is that Jesse?" "It is." He held out a finger, and the baby grabbed it. Travis's eyes filled with tears, and it looked real.
He was meeting his son for the first time, months after the boy was born. That made everything harder. If he'd been cold, it would have been easy to send him packing. But here was a father moved to tears, and she had two boys who deserved one. "I messed up, Maggie," Travis said, still looking at the baby.
Charlotte wasn't what I thought it would be. I bounced from job to job, lost money, got myself in a hole, and it took me way too long to admit the right place was here. She didn't welcome him with open arms, but she didn't send him away either. You want to come in? She asked, her voice dry.
You came all this way. That was when Travis noticed across the yard. A man standing up on the porch with a hammer in his hand stopped watching. Travis's smile disappeared. Who's that?
Maggie told him the basics. The storm, the bridge, the baby, the deal. Huh? Was all Travis said. Good thing somebody showed up to help.
Isaac came down off the porch, gave Travis a small nod from across the yard, and disappeared into the shed. He didn't want to be in the way. Over the next few days, Travis started coming around all the time. He brought a toy truck for Sam, little outfits for Jesse, groceries for the house. He'd sit on the floor and play with the boys for hours.
Sam was glowing, showing his father every corner of the house. Look, Daddy. Isaac taught me how to sand. Feel how smooth it is. Travis looked at the board and gave a tight little smile.
That's real nice, bud. Isaac saw all of it, and little by little he pulled back. He stopped having his morning coffee on the porch and spent his free time in the shed with his daughter. One afternoon Maggie walked out there. "Are you avoiding me?"
She asked, half joking and half not. Isaac set his tools aside. "Travis is your boy's daddy, Miss Maggie. If he came back to make things right, it's not my place to get in the middle of that." That answer, so polite and reasonable, made Maggie angrier than it should have.