Page 47 of A Return For Ren

He’d noticed that too. “He’s more so than he was at home.”

“All good signs,” Zara said.

“Did you feed him dinner?” Ren asked. His mother had texted him thirty minutes ago that Max was finally waking up and it was past his dinnertime now.

“No. I didn’t know what you had planned. I thought I could throw something together for us, but it’s fine.”

“Maybe we can come to dinner another time,” Zara offered.

Ren saw the excited look in his mother’s eyes. “We can do that if you want, Mom.”

“Would it be too forward of me to ask if tomorrow is a good day? I know you are going back to work on Monday and Zara is busy with her business too. I’ll be at the marina.”

“Deep breath again, Mom,” he said, laughing. He never remembered his mother being like this in the past. “Tomorrow works for me if it does for Zara. If not for Zara, Max and I can still come if you want to cook.”

“Tomorrow is fine,” Zara said.

“Perfect,” his mother said. “Then I’ll get Max’s things together so you can go feed him and I’ll be content that I’ll see him tomorrow.”

They were in his car five minutes later and driving back to his rented house. It felt odd to him to go in it after being at his home two hours away.

Nothing here felt like home to him. He hadn’t thought his house felt like a home until Max was in it. He was trying to make this temporary place comfortable but didn’t think it was happening.

He wasn’t so much concerned for him but for Max and he had to stop that. It seemed as if his son was adapting more than he was.

“Do you want me to run his bath while you get his dinner ready and feed him?” she asked. “I know this is normally his bath time, then a bottle after. Or are you going to push everything back an hour? Or I can go. I don’t mean to be making myself at home here.”

“Don’t go,” he said quickly. He felt like it was his mother when she was talking fast. “His bath is good. I’m going to try to keep him on the schedule and see how he does. He got up later than normal too, but he is rubbing his eyes already.”

“Then let’s try to keep him on his schedule so you both get some sleep tonight.”

He put Max in his chair at the table and got his food out, deciding not to give him as much for dinner since he’d get a bottle and a little cereal after his bath.

Max got half a bottle, then ate a jar of carrots and a few meat sticks he was picking up and mashing in his mouth himself. His kid needed a bath after dinner half the time because he’d made such a mess.

When dinner was cleaned up, Ren went into the bathroom and saw Zara sitting on the floor playing with Max, who was in the tub in his bath seat and had a sponge in his hand squeezing water out of it onto himself.

His son’s hair was wet, so he’d been washed also.

“He sure does love the tub,” she said.

“He’d stay in it all day if I’d let him. I wasn’t one for the water even though I lived on it.”

“I love the water,” she said. “I enjoy the beach and being on a boat. But we know that isn’t your thing.”

“Oh,” he said, “you mean like turning as green as that toy sponge in Max’s hand and throwing up over the edge?”

“It is funny that your parents owned a marina and you couldn’t be on a boat.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Real funny. My father pointed out how ironic it was more than once.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

“No,” he said. “I’m the one that is sorry. That is my fault. I’ve got to let that shit go.”

“No one says you have to,” she said. “Or have to this fast. You need to do what works for you but also know that those feelings are there and won’t go away.”

“Like the feelings you have from what I did to you?” he asked.