A Flicker of Hope - Chapter 5

I looked at John, waiting for explanations.

He gave me a nervous smile. "You are tired, and I think you should rest for awhile, and we can talk later."

Not a chance. "I am perfectly fine, and I want to know everything and now." No matter how tired, or hungry I was, I wasn’t about to leave John without hearing his explanations.

"Fine." He muttered seeing that I wasn’t going to leave him alone. I was stubborn at times, and especially around him. "Let’s go for a walk." He turned to look at Tanner, who just shrugged, without even looking at me. But as we started walking, I felt like he was watching me, and the feeling was making me nervous.

"So what’s the story?"

"Tanner is my son."

I rolled my eyes. "I think I figured that."

He signed, knowing that he had to finally tell me the whole thing. "After the divorce, Cindy wanted to keep Caleb, and I couldn’t say no to her, and-"

"Wait a sec." I interrupted. "You never told me that you had a son."

"That was something that I didn’t really want to talk about." Okay, I can understand that.

"Go on,"

"He has been through some hard times, and near death experience, and I though his mom couldn’t see him being unhappy so she talked to me and decided to send him to me, for a change."

I was confused.

"Emily, I am sorry that he was acting like that with you there."

"John," This was really annoying me. "You don’t have to apologize for that. Just because he is here, you don’t need to make our relationship awkward. Can’t it be the way it was before?"

John smiled. "You are still the same."

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Even during the dinner, he was avoiding me. I tried to ignore him but how could I when he was standing right in front of me? He actually did look like John, but the difference was that he was taller and more handsome. I smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" I was surprised that the voice was coming from him.

"You can actually talk?!" I mocked horror.

He just rolled his eyes. "You didn’t answer my question." Why was he suddenly so curious about why I was smiling? What was the big deal?

"Well, you didn’t answer mine." I had no idea why I was making such a big deal over answering a simple question. "And the last time I check, it was free to smile in this country."

He actually looked at me. He didn’t even say a word, but just looked at me.

"You know that’s rude," I said.

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"To stare at a stranger like that," I was still teasing him. I just couldn’t help it. "Is there something in my face?" I pretended to be worried.

He bit his lower lip, and I think he was actually fighting back a smile. And looking at him, from his eyes to his lip, made me feel something. I couldn’t really tell what exactly it was but it sure was something I have never felt before.

I hadn’t realized that I was staring at him.

"Don’t you know that it’s kind of rude to stare at a stranger?" He teased, and I blushed. Those were my own words, and I was doing that same thing.

"It’s not rude if I am staring at someone and the person is staring right back at me," I defended. I wasn’t entirely sure that he was staring at me, but that was the only thing I could say to defend myself.

After dinner, his words were still on my mind, and I was thinking about him. When he ignored me I thought he didn’t like me, but when he started talking to me, I realized that I liked him. I already liked him, and I was looking forward to talk to him some more.

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