A Father's Name(30)

Mr. Keller was talking to a man who Angelina had introduced as Colm. She’d told Tyler that Colm was special, and from the rapt attention Mr. Keller was giving him, he thought so, too. Mrs. Keller was chatting to a young girl with buzz cut hair, and more piercings than he’d ever seen on a kid. But it didn’t seem as if Mrs. Keller saw the goth looking clothes, or the piercings. She simply listened and smiled at what the kid was saying, giving the girl her undivided attention.

He checked on Jace, who was sitting next to him on the grass, batting at a branch on the hedge.



“Penny for your thoughts.”

He turned and saw Eli Keller behind him. She plopped down on the grass next to him, seemingly unconcerned about stains on her light tan shorts.

He didn’t know how to respond, and before he could formulate something, she continued, “Being Kellerized can be a bit overwhelming.”

“Kellerized?”

“Tucker came up with it. It’s how she describes being absorbed by the family and counted as one of their own. When you’re accustomed to a more solitary existence, it can be even harder to adjust to the Kellerization.”

“How can you tell I lead a solitary existence?”

She laughed. “You’re over here with Jace, and everyone else is over there. That was my first hint.”

He smiled. “So you’re a detective as well as a teacher?”

“I think that both jobs require the same sort of observation.”

Jace stood and toddled over to Eli and flopped in her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, as if it were second nature. “Tucker said you’re going to be raising Jace?”

“Yes.” He still wasn’t sure how it had happened. He wasn’t even sure if it was wise.

“She told me she was going to use that as a way to lure you into our clutches.” Eli chuckled. “If you have any questions, we’re here. You’re lucky you have Tucker. She’s one of the best parents I’ve ever met. I worked with teen parents for years, but when it’s your own baby, you second guess everything.”

“She was young when she had Bart,” he said. “And I look at him, and I’m amazed at what a phenomenal kid she raised. If I can do half the job she did with him…”

His sentence died when Jace skooted off Eli’s lap and said, “Eye,” then toddled in his direction and sat on his lap with a decided thump.

“He said your name.”

Tyler looked down at Jace who started chanting, “Eye, Eye, Eye…”

Tyler laughed. “I think we have a future sailor on our hands.”



TUCKER GLANCED OVER at Tyler, Eli and Jace. Whatever they were talking about, Tyler was happy.

Seeing him relaxed made something in her ease.

“Eli will bring him around,” their friend Laura said. “She’s impossible to resist. I remember.”

“She is a force to be reckoned with,” Tucker agreed. One of the best things she’d ever done was to go to Eli then-Cartwright at school and tell her about the pregnancy. Eli had come with her when she told her father, and she’d stayed with her throughout the pregnancy, offering advice, finding programs that could help. “Yeah, a force of nature.”

Laura nodded her agreement. “So, how long have you been hung up on him?”

“Huh?” Tucker asked, surprised by the question.



“Tyler,” Laura said. “How long have you been hung up on Tyler?”

Tucker scoffed. “I’m not hung up on him.”

Laura laughed. “If you say so.”

Laura obviously didn’t believe her denial, so she said it more forcefully. “I’m not.”

“You don’t have to argue the point with me. If you say you’re not, you’re not. I know what it’s like to come to terms with falling for someone. You have to figure things out for yourself. Remember, when you’re ready, I’m here.”

“Wow, you marry into the Keller family and next thing you know, you’re as mushy as the rest of them. They make you go soft in the head.”

“No, they make you go soft in the heart.”

Tucker rolled her eyes, but Laura only laughed more. “Just don’t forget, we’re all here. I remember a woman showing up in a snowstorm, wearing only a hoodie, bringing me food after I’d had Jamie.”

“You’re exaggerating. There was snow, but not a storm.” Tucker had simply shown up with Eli.