Anything for Danny

Thank God the weather was cooperating for their winter cross-country trip. The entire country was enjoying an unusually mild winter. She was willing to put up with all the ice and snow Mother Nature might cast their way in a month’s time, but she just hoped that for the next three weeks the weather remained moderate.

Leaning her head back, she sighed. She should go to bed. Danny had a big day tomorrow, and so did she. Not only did she want to give Danny the trip of his life, but she also had to figure out how on earth she was going to spend three weeks cooped up in that motor home with Luke.

Luke Morgan threw the last sweatshirt in the duffel bag and zipped it closed. He looked at his wristwatch. Ten minutes until seven. Sherri had said they should be here by seven, so he knew they’d be here any time. Sherri was never late.

He moved the duffel bag by the front door, then plopped down on the bright red futon to wait. He was dreading this trip…knew it was probably the biggest mistake he’d make in his life, and he’d made plenty.

At least he didn’t have to worry about anyone watering his plants while he was gone. He looked over in the corner where two dead plants hung in macramé hangers. He sighed and leaned back against the futon.

Sherri. She’d been a closed book in his life. He’d moved on, made a life for himself without her. He was a respected and admired photographer. He was considered a witty and charming date.

Yes, he’d managed to put Sherri in his past quite nicely. They’d worked out agreeable visitation arrangements that included Luke’s getting Danny every other weekend he wasn’t working. Even with Danny’s frequent hospitalizations over the past year, he and Sherri had managed to maintain a healthy distance and civility. They’d worked out their divorce much nicer than they’d managed their marriage.

He looked around the apartment that had been his home for the past year. The futon where he sat and a television set/stereo unit comprised the extent of his furniture.

The walls were covered with some of his best work…pictures of native children in South Africa, fatherless children who were the legacy of the Vietnam era, the despair on young faces in Belfast.

He’d given up his world travels a year ago when Danny had gotten ill, and he now photographed the young, the disillusioned, the hopeless in the United States. That way, he was always no more than a couple hours’ plane ride away should Danny need him.

He looked around him again. Sherri would hate this place. Sherri loved order and the one thing his apartment lacked was order. He felt a dull sense of dissatisfaction sweep over him. He really should invest in more furniture, perhaps an end table or two. He eyed the untidy stack of clothing in the corner of the room. A chest of drawers would be nice…maybe a maid could make some sense of his chaos.

He frowned, realizing he was viewing his apartment through her eyes. He pulled himself off the futon and glared out the window. His apartment was fine just the way it was. The futon served as his sofa by day, his bed at night. His clothes were fine in a stack in the corner, as were his magazines, his albums and his photography equipment.

Damn, this trip from hell hadn’t even begun yet and already Sherri was an intrusion into his life. He didn’t want to go. He couldn’t imagine being trapped in an R.V. for three weeks with his ex-wife. He must have been crazy when he’d agreed to the whole thing.

His mind suddenly filled with a vision of Danny. His frown automatically faded, replaced by a small smile. What a kid. He and Sherri might have failed at their marriage, but somehow, the best of both of them had joined together on the night that Danny was conceived. That’s why he had agreed to this trip. For Danny.

He stared out the window, seeing a motor home pull to a stop in the parking lot. He looked down at his watch. Bingo…seven o’clock on the nose. Some things never changed.

He grabbed his duffel bag, pulled on his jacket, locked the front door, then hurried down to meet them.

Luke felt his heart expand in his chest as Danny stuck his head out the window. “Hi, Dad,” he yelled. He opened the door and jumped down from the passenger seat and ran toward Luke. “Hey, big man,” Danny said, grinning up at him.

“Hey, little man,” Luke replied. He let the duffel bag fall to the concrete and went down to one knee as Danny threw himself into his arms.

For a moment, Luke held him tight, smelling the little-boy scent of him…a scent of sunshine and freedom, of laughter and dreams. Dreams the doctors said would probably not be fulfilled…dreams Luke would sell his soul to see come true.

“Come on, Mom is waiting.” Danny wiggled from Luke’s tight embrace. He grabbed his father’s hand and tugged Luke toward the R.V. “Wait until you see everything inside. It’s so awesome. And Mom says if it’s not too cold we can make a camp fire every night and toast marshmallows and when we get to the Grand Canyon we’re going to rent a helicopter to fly us over it.”

“Whoa,” Luke said with a laugh. “Slow down. We’ve got a lot of driving time ahead of us before we get to the Grand Canyon.”

“Yeah, but with you and me and Mom all together, it will be fun. We can sing and talk and just be together.” Danny tugged impatiently on his father’s hand again. “Come on, let’s get this show on the road!”

Funny, Luke thought as he stepped into the vehicle. He’d forgotten how small Sherri was…how petite. Sitting behind the steering wheel, clad in a pair of red slacks and a red-and-white-striped long-sleeved blouse, she looked like the cute little teenager he had fallen in love with years before.

He had a sudden vision of the way she had looked on the day they had gotten married. It hadn’t been much of a ceremony, a simple civil service in city hall. She’d been eighteen years old and had gazed up at him as if he were her entire world. It wasn’t until they’d been married several months that he’d realized he was her entire world.

“Hi,” he said awkwardly.

She smiled a greeting, her big brown eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at his duffel bag. “Is that all your luggage?”

He nodded. “I travel light.” He saw her lips compress in disapproval, as if she knew he’d thrown together clothes in the bag only moments before, which of course he had.

“I’ll take it, Dad. I’ll store it with ours,” Danny said, taking the bag from him. He disappeared into the back as Sherri started the engine.

“You want me to drive?” he asked with a touch of irritation. She’d probably packed a month ago…sixteen suitcases full of useless items.

“I’ll drive until I get tired, then you can take over,” she answered, her voice pleasant, but distant.

Luke settled into the seat with a sigh. He stared out the window at the passing scenery, waiting for her to say something, anything to ease the awkward silence that grew and expanded with each passing moment.

What do you say to the woman you’d been married to for five years, and divorced from for the past five? he wondered. He could tell her about his date last Friday night, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t want to hear about it. Besides, it had been a horrible night and he was doing his best to forget it. He could tell her about his latest photography assignment, but she’d always resented his work.

They’d had little in common years ago. After five years of separation, he suspected that hadn’t changed. Maybe it was best that he just keep his mouth shut.

He sighed again. He leaned forward and turned on the radio, relaxing somewhat as the sounds of an old rock and roll song filled the motor home.

“Uh…would you mind leaving it off until we get out of this rush-hour traffic?” she asked politely.

“Okay,” he agreed reluctantly. He turned it off, remembering that she’d never liked to drive with the radio playing.

He was aware of Danny returning from the back and sitting down in the chair just behind him. Danny leaned forward and placed a hand on Luke’s arm, and his other hand on Sherri’s shoulder. “This is gonna be so much fun,” he exclaimed with all the excitement a nine-year-old could generate. “We’re going to have the greatest time in the world, aren’t we?” His words were met with silence. “Aren’t we?” he prompted, squeezing Luke’s arm.

“Sure, the greatest,” Luke replied faintly.

“The best,” Sherri added. She looked at Luke, and in her eyes he saw the same dull dread he knew was in his own.

He smiled weakly, then turned his gaze out the window. Yes, this was definitely going to be the trip from hell.

Chapter Two

Sherri feigned sleep and studied Luke beneath her lowered lashes. She’d spent the last six hours driving and after they’d stopped for lunch, had relinquished control of the vehicle to him.

She’d spent the past five years trying not to really look at him whenever they happened to run into each other. She now took the opportunity to examine the man she had once been married to, the man she had once loved above all else.

Luke had always been handsome. Sherri was honest enough to know that it had been his intense good looks that had initially attracted her to him.

He was still sinfully attractive. The passage of time had merely intensified his bold features. His chin was square and strong, his nose a Roman feature. He’s wearing his dark hair longer, she observed. She liked it. She decided it gave him a rakish look that complemented his devil-may-care personality.

He’d taken off the leather bomber jacket he’d been wearing this morning and was clad in a short-sleeved T-shirt that exposed his firmly muscled, tanned arms. He had the body of a man who worked out, but she knew Luke was too undisciplined to follow any regular workout regimen.

She looked at his hands, gripping the steering wheel competently. She’d always loved his hands. They were artist hands, slender and long-fingered, yet masculine with the dark curly hair that dotted each knuckle.

He talked with his hands, gesturing often as if they were an extension of his thought processes. They used to laugh about it. She’d teased that if his hands were tied behind his back, he would be completely tongue-tied.

“Sherri?”

His voice caused her to squeeze her eyes more tightly closed. She didn’t want him to know that she’d been looking at him. She kept her breathing even and rhythmic, feigning deep slumber.