A Wedding In the Family by Kathryn Alexander Page A

seem as out of sorts today as he was last weekend.” Adam didn’t want it to be just his imagination. Things had seemed better, hadn’t they?
    Angela smiled. “He’ll come around. He needs time to learn he can trust you.”
    Trust. There was a subject Adam wasn’t ready to delve into. Nathan needed to trust him, Angela needed to trust him…everyone needed to trust him a lot. Now. Before he had to ask them to trust him later.
    “I hope he warms up to the idea of having me around. Soon, ” Adam emphasized the word. “It’s important to me. And I know it’s important to his mother.”
    “I’m hoping that day comes soon, too.” She squeezed his arm and watched him climb, slowly, into his truck and shut the door. He didn’t want to leave; she could see it in his every movement. And it only made her love him more.
    “Hey, Adam!” Heather called as she rushed up to the truck. “When I get my award for swimming this year, will you be there? All of us want you to come.”
    Angela and Adam both laughed a little. “Honey,Adam is the director of the center. Of course, he’ll be there.”
    “But, Mom, I don’t mean will he ‘be there.’ I mean will he ‘be there?’ You know, to see me? ”
    “Yes, I will be,” he answered. “And are you going to dive so you can move up to the next class?”
    Heather shrugged. “I might, if you help me.”
    “When you’re ready, I’ll be there,” Adam promised.
    “And come to the ceremony for Mom, so she won’t be lonely,” Heather added. Then she threw a quick “See you later” over her shoulder as she took off to rejoin her brothers.
    “Think you’ll get lonely sitting in those bleachers all by yourself?” he asked.
    “Actually, I should be used to it. I’ve gone to plenty of their programs alone over the years. And this time the boys will be with me.”
    Adam was quiet for a moment, thinking of the parts of life he and Angela had both missed, but each for different reasons. “I’ll go with you to the children’s programs as much as my schedule allows, if you like.”
    She tilted her head to the side slightly, studying the look of concern she saw in his eyes. “I’d like that very much.”
    He hadn’t even left the driveway, and yet he was wondering when he would see her again. “Tomorrow would be too soon, I think,” he said as he started the engine.
    She nodded. “They’re used to having me to themselveson Sunday. I don’t think they’re ready to give that up yet. What about lunch on Monday?”
    “Can’t. I have to be at the center. And Monday night I have a meeting to attend downtown. How about Tuesday?”
    “Nope,” she responded, crossing her arms and leaning in through the window he’d rolled down so she could kiss him lightly near his ear. “I have a luncheon to attend. Let me check my schedule for the week. Then I’ll call you.”
    He put the vehicle in gear to pull away. “And that wasn’t the kind of kiss I had in mind.” Not even close.
    “I know. Me neither,” she replied and moved away from the door. A gust of autumn wind blew swirling leaves of various colors across the driveway and around her feet as he left.
    “Do you want to rake leaves, guys?” she asked. They all had too much energy to go inside now, so they may as well have some fun and get some work accomplished at the same time.
    “Yes!” the three replied enthusiastically. They headed toward the garage to gather up a couple of rakes and a push broom, and Angela joined them in creating a huge pile of leaves that Heather and David immediately dove into.
    “I wish we had a dog like we used to,” Nathan said to his mother when she pulled a few stray leaves from his windblown brown hair. Last fall, when they had raked the yard at their own house, Max had been there jumping into the piles of leaves with them.
    She looked into Nathan’s eyes—blue like her own—feeling a pang of guilt. “We can’t, honey. Not in this apartment.” She looked up at the four-unit