Later, Dominique breathed a sigh of satisfaction as she entered the master suite. She and Justin had spent the entire afternoon and evening together. Before going home, they’d stopped by the grocer and then by Justin’s favorite ice-cream store, where he readily ignored his coach’s healthy eating rhetoric for a quart of his favorite vanilla ice cream loaded with chunks of real candy bars. Using the salad fixings that had gone uneaten the day before, Dominique had impressed her son with the ground turkey–based taco salad she’d prepared. He hadn’t minded at all that the seasonings were from a package and the sauce was from ajar. “It’s good, Mom,” he’d said simply after the first bite. Dominique’s heart had bloomed with joy. After helping Justin with his homework, something that Tessa normally did, he and Dominique had danced with Michael Jackson on the Wii and laughed more than they had in years. And then, in the quiet of his bedroom with him all tucked in, she’d begun “the conversation.”

“Honey, I want to talk with you about something.” Justin turned to Dominique with questioning eyes. “It’s about the comment you made the other day when you were angry. About wishing that Jake was your dad.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I—”

“It’s okay, Justin. You don’t have to apologize; especially if that is really how you feel.”

Silence.

Dominique’s voice was low, soft. “Is it?” Still no answer. “Do you think about how things might be if Jake were your father?”

Justin’s nod was almost imperceptible. “Travis and his dad are always doing things: going fishing, golfing, stuff like that. And so do some of my other friends with dads in the house.”

“You do those types of things with Michael and Uncle Aaron.”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same.”

Dominique sighed softly. “I know.” And then, “Your father called yesterday. How would you like to spend Thanksgiving in Dallas?”

Justin shrugged.

“You could spend time with your brother and sister, get to know them better?”

Justin snorted. “It doesn’t even feel like they’re my family. Leland Clark is more like a stranger on the street.”

“Leland?” Dominique repeated. “Don’t you mean Dad?” While she agreed with her son, she would not allow him to be disrespectful.

“Travis said he wasn’t a dad, he was a sperm donor.”

Dominique inwardly cringed as she answered, “Sounds like Travis has a lot to say.”

“But he knows!”

“How?”

“Because Ian, the guy who comes to the games?”

“Yes, Kathy’s husband.”

“Uh huh. He’s not Travis’s biological father. But Ian adopted him when Travis was like one year old. So when Travis asked about his real dad, they say that Ian was his real dad and that the other man was just a sperm donor.”