A Memory Away by Taylor Lewis Page B

opened, his heart thumping into overdrive in reflex thanks to Jonah randomly appearing whenever he seemed to least expect it. His face broke into a brilliant smile when Louise pushed Shea’s stroller onto the shop floor. “Hi, this is a nice surprise. Everything okay?” He hurried out from behind the counter and waved at his son when Shea crowed delightedly and began to wriggle against his restraints and lift his arms for his daddy to pick him up. “To what to I owe the honour?”
Louise smiled and waved at Megan when she appeared from out back. “No reason. We were meeting some friends at the park and thought we’d walk past the bakery and pick up some onion bread to go with dinner.” She grinned when Kyle freed Shea from his stroller and lifted him into his arms and the baby squealed with delight. “I was gonna try and sneak him past, but....” She shrugged and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “He spotted the shop and started to stage a break out so I thought five minutes of daddy time was a pretty fair trade off against the two hour tantrum if I didn’t bring him into see you. That’s okay, right?”
Kyle beamed and pressed a smacking kiss to his son’s smiling face, laughing when Shea flung his arms around his neck to hug him. “More than okay.” He turned when Megan joined them and bounced his son in his arms. “Look who came to visit. Are you going to say hi to Auntie Megan, baby? Can you say hi?”
Shea , a boy who knew which side his croissant was buttered and thoroughly approved of Megan and her addiction to anything sugary and technically bad for him, obligingly tried to fling himself out of Kyle’s arms and into his honorary auntie’s with a happy cry of, “Da!”
Megan laughed and accepted the gesture as it was meant. “Hey there, white boy. How’s the Gerritsen prince doing today? You good?” She settled Shea’s squirming body against her comfortable bosom and chucked him under his chin. “You been having fun with Louise at the park?”
“No!” Shea yelled the only other word he could really say with any clarity and patted her grinning face. “No! Da!”
Kyle squinted suspiciously at Louise. “Has he had sugar? Have you given him candy?”
Laughing, Louise licked her forefinger and sketched a cross over her heart, deadpanning, “Just high on life, I swear.” She grinned at Shea when he wrapped his fingers around the chunky oversized necklace Megan was wearing and leaned back in her embrace to shake them like reins on a horse. “He hit the ground running this morning and hasn’t stopped since.”
Kyle skated a loving hand over Shea’s messy mop of dark curls and laughed ruefully. “Doesn’t he always?” He bent to the floor when Shea managed to kick off one of his baby Nikes and busied himself trying to recapture the foot and re-shoe his child. “What have you got planned for the rest of the day? I thought I might....” He turned his head when the shop door opened again and then snapped upright, his eyes going wide like a trapped animal’s and unintentionally yanking on Shea’s foot hard enough to make him squawk with surprise. “Oh God.”
“Jesus,” breathed Megan, clutching Shea to her like she was trying to protect him from an invading horde. “I...” She stared wide-eyed at Jonah and Lopez walking into the shop and then at Kyle, whispering frantically, “Should I get him out of here?”
Kyle looked, horrified, at Jonah, and then back at his teeny-tiny clone still bouncing in Megan arms. Aside from the mop of curls and the Bert and Ernie t-shirt, Shea could have passed for Jonah’s Mini-Me. He licked dry lips and opened his mouth to say something -anything- and tried to ignore the puzzled look on Louise’s face but Jonah beat him to the punch.
“Hey.” Jonah sauntered across the floor towards the little group and nodded politely at Louise in greeting. “Got some news on your case and thought you might appreciate a head’s up.” He smiled at