Seth sucked in a breath that was too close to a sob to suit either of them. ‘‘I razzed Cam until he brought me home for my ball glove. And when I . . . I sawyou in there, it made me think of how I would come back to wherever Gloria was living, and she’d be doing it with some guy.’’

Where sex was a business, Ethan thought, both ugly and mean. ‘‘It’s hard to put those things aside, or let yourself believe there’s a different way.’’ Since he was still working on it himself, Ethan spoke carefully. ‘‘That making love, when you care, when it matters, when things are right, it’s clean.’’

Seth sniffled, wiped at his eyes. ‘‘Gnats,’’ he muttered.

‘‘Yeah, they’re a bitch out here.’’

‘‘You should’ve slugged me, for saying that shit.’’

‘‘You’re right,’’ Ethan decided after a moment. ‘‘I’ll slug you next time. Now, let’s go home.’’

He rose, brushed off his pants, then held out a hand. Seth stared up at him, saw kindness, patience, compassion. Qualities in a man he might have sneered at once because he’d found so little of them in anyone who had touched his life.

He put his hand in Ethan’s and, without realizing it, left it there as they walked down the path. ‘‘How come you didn’t hit me back even once?’’

Little boy, Ethan thought, you’ve had too many hands raised against you in your short life. ‘‘Maybe I was afraid you could take me.’’

Seth snorted, blinking furiously at tears that still wanted to come. ‘‘Shit.’’

‘‘Well, you’re small,’’ Ethan said, taking the cap from Seth’s back pocket and snugging it down on Seth’s head. ‘‘But you’re a wiry little bastard.’’

Seth had to take long breaths as they came close to where the sunlight struck the edge of the woods, slanting white light.

He saw Grace, as Ethan had predicted, in the yard, hugging her arms as if she were chilled. She dropped them, took a quick step forward, then stopped.

Ethan felt Seth’s hand flex in his and gave it a quick encouraging squeeze. ‘‘It’d go a long way to making things up to her,’’ Ethan murmured, ‘‘if you were to run up and hug her. Grace is big on hugs.’’

It was what he’d wanted to do, what he was afraid to risk. He looked up at Ethan, jerked a shoulder, cleared his throat. ‘‘I guess I could, if it’d make her feel better.’’

Ethan stood back, watched the boy race across the lawn, watched Grace’s face light with a smile as she threw open her arms to take him in.

THIRTEEN