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hadn’t noticed before, she glanced at his legs. “Gray, I don’t know what to say.” Her eyes clouded over, her lower lip trembled.
    “Don’t pity me. For God’s sake, don’t. I can’t stand it, not from my son’s mother.”
    She looked genuinely surprised. “Pity? Why would I pity you? You’ve survived horrors I imagine would kill most people. You’ve stepped into a job with a top law firm. Besides, you’d probably survive quite nicely even if you decided to become a beach bum. I’d say you’re fairly lucky, on balance.”
    Did she mean it? Gray saw no evidence to the contrary. “Speaking of money, I want to make things right, reimburse you for the child support I haven’t been paying all along.”
    “I’ve been looking out for Brett all his life. I don’t want your money.” She set a plate down in front of him, not quite hard enough for it to bounce, then handed him a napkin wrapped around some silverware. Glaring, she set down her own plate and silverware and sat at the other side of the table.
    “You’ll get it anyhow,” he muttered, making a mental note to see someone in the family law division of the firm and arrange to provide financially for his son.
    Andi hardly ate a bite, but he wolfed down everything on his plate. The food tasted great, despite the tension he’d unwittingly caused by bringing up the subject of his son’s support. Gray enjoyed the sweetened iced tea, its contrast with the tangy flavors in the salad. Not so different from the conflicting emotions he read in her.
    His meal finished, he watched her push food around on her plate. When she set her fork down, he cleared his throat. “That was good. Now tell me what’s on your mind?”
    Andi looked at him the way he imagined she’d zero in on a juror. “As I said before, I don’t hold you responsible for Brett. I made the decision to have him, so he’s my responsibility. You aren’t obligated to do anything unless you want to.”
    When he leaned forward to put those wants and fears into words, pain pierced the side of his head without warning. Nauseating in its intensity, the pain radiated from the mass of scar tissue beneath his eye patch. A reminder that there were activities beyond his ability to handle now. He reached up and rubbed the tortured flesh.
    “Gray, are you all right?”
    “No, damn it. I’m nowhere near all right, although they tell me this is about as good as I’m likely to get. I owe you the truth. I want my son. I want to be his father. I’m just not sure my being here’s what’s best for Brett.”

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
    “Look at me. I’m half blind. I can barely drag my legs around. A kid deserves a dad who can play ball with him, traipse around Disney World, take him fishing. I can’t. Not now. Probably not ever. Maybe Brett would be better off not knowing me.”
    “Don’t talk like that.”
    When her eyelids fluttered, he wondered if she was blinking back tears. God, but he hated that the strongest emotion he seemed to elicit from women was pity.
    Still, he owed Andi the whole truth. “There’s something else. I’m in no condition to take responsibility for a kid. Pain hits me without warning, and sometimes I can’t function. If Brett were alone with me when it hits me the way it just did, he could…”
    He closed his eye against the picture of an active boy being left to his own devices in all kinds of dangerous situations. “He could get hurt. It’s up to you, whether you want Brett to have me in his life.”
    She reached over, took his hand. “You can give our son all the fathering he needs. No, you can’t run, and you can’t play rough games with him. You may need to have another adult around when he’s with you. But Brett needs his father, and there’s a lot you two can do together, including fishing. I bet you could manage Disney World, too, if you’d use a wheelchair the way you were doing last night.”
    Gray hated that damn chair and all it stood for. Hated the