"Teresa!! Wait!!"
When she didn't stop, he ran to catch up with her and got in front of her, stopping her. "Teresa?"
"What do you want?" she shouted, eyes closed trying to hold back tears. Others who were standing nearby paused only briefly to see what the yelling was about before walking on.
"Teresa, is this…"
"That's none of your damn business," she said through gritted teeth.
"It is if he's mine," Taylor said in a low voice.
Her eyes opened and looked at him with ire and hate. "He's not anybody's but mine."
Taylor stepped back from her.
The little boy piped up, "Who's he, Mom?"
"Um, this is Taylor. Just someone I knew a long time ago," she told him.
"Hi, I'm Casey," the boy said, sticking his hand out. Taylor shook it. "Nice to meet you."
"Hi. Nice to meet you too," Taylor said, smiling at him.
Teresa shook her head. "This isn't fair. You can't do this."
"You could do it," he said. "You could do anything, including…"
"I WAS A SCARED LITTLE GIRL," she said. "I've made a lot of changes since then. Now we've got to go. I've got to get back to work…" She stepped around him and quickly walked down the road.
"Where are you taking Casey?" Taylor asked, following her.
"With me," she said.
"To work?" Taylor asked. She shot him a look over her shoulder. "Look, I can watch him. Teresa…"
She turned. "Stay back, Taylor. Just stay where you are. We're fine. We'll be fine. Just go back wherever it is you came from and forget us again. It wasn't that hard the first time."
"I…"
"Stop," she said. "I don't want to know how you did it. I don't want to have to think about it anymore."
He watched as she all but ran up the road. He would have followed her, but then he remembered that he had to meet his brothers soon. He chewed on his bottom lip, then tucked his chin and walked against the wind. He decided to keep his new information to himself. After all, he'd never told anyone about his secret.