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“Tell me more about Sam,” I de the best doctors to treat Sa the travel arrangements to pick him up that I haven’t had the presence of

Wariness creeps into her expression She’s expecting a fight from me “What do you want to know?”

I shrug, giving her a wide sht tell a father who has missed out on nine years of his kid’s life”

My jab ive her credit for taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, refusing to be shamed

“He looks just like you Same color hair and eyes Except my nose… he has that, but you’ll see He’s smart Science is his favorite subject But, oddly, he has a real artistic side and loves to draw He’s a quiet boy Introspective I suspect it’s because of the life we live Since he was a toddler, he’s known about keeping secrets and having to be careful to never divulge too ust He learned sarcasot it fro He’ll just snap out these one-liners that’ll etables…”

She talks for a solid half an hour about Sa interesting to say about him If I let her, I bet she’d talk for hours

It’s clear she loves hi else in her life I know she places him first, as she should

“…and his favorite tea recreational football, but he’s a good baseball player, too”

I interrupt her, not because I don’t want to hear more about him I do I want to know him inside and out, front and back, upside down and all around

But we’re getting close to landing, and we need to have an important conversation “You said he knows aboutwith you today?”

She shakes her head “He still doesn’t knohere I’ve been My dad just told hi, which he’ll never buy He’s too smart for that”

“How do you want this to play out? I mean… how should he meet me?”

She wrings her hands, her gaze dropping as she considers this When she lifts her eyes to mine, she says, “I think I should talk to hi to be incredibly happy toto do is to just let you have soether”