CHAPTER 16

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

—luke 2:14

Gunnar was sitting on the stoop when Jeremy got home twenty minutes after saying goodbye to Bethany. As usual, Gunnar was wearing faded jeans, scuffed brown Timberlands, a flannel shirt, his black Gor-Tex jacket, and a ball cap. He was also wearing a frown.

That was kind of new.

When he saw his foster parent’s expression, all the huge, optimistic feelings that had been spinning around inside him died. The guy was pissed.

Really pissed. Jeremy knew why too. He’d ignored Gunnar’s text when he was talking to Bethany and then had forgotten about it. It was like Bethany was all that mattered to him anymore.

Of course, that wasn’t true. But it was pretty hard to think of anyone but Bethany right now. Her saying yes to the dance made him feel like he’d accomplished something pretty big.

But now he had to face the fact that while he might have gotten Bethany to say yes, he’d also managed to make Gunnar mad. With his luck, Gunnar would probably be so mad that he’d ground him from the dance or something.

His steps slowed as he tried to think of something to say. But even though he tried his best, his mind went blank. He honestly couldn’t think of a thing to say. Gunnar hadn’t given him a ton of rules to follow, but the main one was to always let him know when he wasn’t going to follow his usual schedule.

Since he’d ignored that rule big time and he didn’t have any sort of decent-sounding excuse, Jeremy decided to just stand there and let Gunnar have his say. As he tried to look anywhere but at Gunnar, the cold air seeped into his clothes.

Funny, it was the first time in hours that he’d noticed just how cold the temperature actually was.

After another minute passed—which felt close to an hour—Gunnar stood up, his hazel eyes cool under the brim of his ball cap. “Looks like you took your time getting home today.”

He swallowed. “I know.”

“You know?” A line formed between his brows. “I gave you a cell phone for a reason, Jeremy Widmer. Is it working . . . ? Or did it break for some reason and you didn’t think to tell me?”

Oh, boy. “It’s not broken. I mean, it’s working just fine.” It had sure worked fine a couple of minutes ago when he’d texted Bethany and she’d texted him right back.

“We had some rules we agreed to.” His voice deepened. “Did you forget what they were?”

“No, sir. I didn’t forget.”

Gunnar’s expression became even more confused. “I’m trying to keep my patience here, but you’re starting to make it real difficult. You going to give me a reason for being late and not calling? Maybe even apologize for making me worry? Because I’m beginning to get pretty tired of hearing your short, pat answers to my questions.”

“I’m sorry.”

Gunnar still didn’t look impressed. “Is that it?”

“I mean it. I really am sorry I didn’t call.”

He cracked his knuckles. “I’m waiting, boy.”

It didn’t look like Gunnar was getting ready to hit him or anything, but he did look like he was barely holding it together.

Okay. It was time to start talking even though he might really regret sharing so much. “First, I thought you were going to still be at that house working. I didn’t think you’d notice if I came home on time or not.”

When he saw Gunnar’s expression tighten further, he winced. That had absolutely not been the right thing to say. Like, at all. “I mean—”

“Boy, if I’ve been staying there working, it was because I trusted you to be here. Part of me even thought you might need some time to relax and watch TV or whatever without me watching over you like you were a little kid.”

Jeremy had never thought about it like that. “Um . . .”

Gunnar cut him off again. Looking at him directly in the eye, he blurted, “Have I been wrong? Have you been doing this a lot?”

“This?”

“Going out after school?” He waved a hand. “Have you been doing your own thing and lying to me?”

“What? No.” When Gunnar’s eyes narrowed, Jeremy tacked on another word. “I mean, no, sir. This was the first time. I promise it was . . . and I had a good reason. I really did.”

He sighed. “I sure hope so.” Gunnar stuffed his hands in the pockets of his down vest, as if he’d suddenly noticed the temperature outside. “You know what? Come on in. Let’s go sit down. I’m too old for twenty questions and it’s getting real cold out here.”

The sun had started slipping down and the wind had picked up. He was no weatherman, but it sure looked like more snow was on the way. Jeremy followed Gunnar inside, closing the door behind him and kicking off his tennis shoes. Gunnar had gone into the living room and lit the fireplace. When the flame roared to life, he stood for a moment facing it, warming his hands in front of the fire.

Watching him, Jeremy thought about how Gunnar did a lot of things like that. He did a lot of things in an adept, concise way, without a lot of fuss or worry. He also did a lot of them for Jeremy’s sake, so he would feel secure and happy. Yep, what had used to feel foreign and new was now expected. He’d begun to take a lot of Gunnar’s mannerisms and habits for granted.

Which was kind of amazing.

Glad of the few moments’ reprieve, Jeremy sat down on the couch. He wondered if he should try to think of something to say but elected to stay quiet.

At last, Gunnar broke the silence. “Jeremy, this is where you start talking, yeah?” He turned at last. “And don’t even think about giving me a bunch of ‘I don’t knows.’ That’s not going to cut it.”

“Fine. I was walking Bethany Seevers home.”

Gunnar blinked and he looked kind of taken aback. Then his eyes lit up. “Huh. I guess you can tell I’m surprised. I don’t know why, though.” He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his cheeks. “I guess I should’ve realized there was a girl involved.”

Figuring he might as well get the rest of his news over with, he said, “I walked Bethany home because it took me all that time to work up the nerve to ask her to go to the Christmas dance with me.”

“You’re already going to take a girl to a dance? You’re moving fast, buddy.”

Gunnar was sounding a whole lot nicer. “Not that fast. All the guys were asking. It’s in a couple of weeks. On December twenty-third.”

He slowly smiled. “You don’t mess around.”

“I’m not really doing anything different than anyone else. All the guys I know are asking girls to the dance now. Phillip told me that if you wait too long all the girls like Bethany get asked up.”

“Girls like Bethany?”

“You know, the special girls.”

“So . . . don’t keep me in suspense. What did she say?”

“Yes.” Unable to help himself, Jeremy grinned.

“She did, huh?”

“Gunnar, it was so great, because Bethany didn’t even make me wait. All she did say was that I was going to have to meet her parents before that night.”

“Sounds like she’s got parents who care.”

“Yeah. I hope it goes okay.”

“It will. Don’t you worry about that.” He chuckled. “Well, I’m real pleased for you, Jeremy. That’s great news. I’ve had my share of asking-out-girls horror stories.”

“No way.”

“Yeah. Well, not every girl I liked felt the same way. A couple weren’t shy about letting me know that either.”

Jeremy didn’t even want to think about that. “I was nervous, Gunnar. I didn’t know what I was doing, and some guys were going all out, making banners and putting bouquets of flowers on girls’ cars and shit.”

“Don’t say shit.”

“Fine. But they were doing a lot, and I wasn’t doing any of that. And Bethany’s really pretty. She could have been asked out by any guy in the school.”

“But she said yes to you. Maybe she didn’t need all that other stuff.”

“Phillip said that she liked me. He could’ve been messing with me, though.”

“If she said yes, he might have been right.”

“Maybe. That’s why I asked her out today. I couldn’t do it at school though. I mean, if she told me no, then everyone would know and I’d have to deal with it all day. It would have been embarrassing.”

Gunnar nodded. “I reckon that would be bad.”

“I asked her if I could walk her home and finally asked her when we were standing in front of her house.”

“Even though you should’ve let me know what you were doing, that sounds like a good way to go. I’m glad she said yes.”

Suddenly, a thought rushed forth. “Hey, I am going to be here at Christmas, aren’t I?”

Gunnar frowned. “Jeremy, we filled out the papers together. I mean, you sat there with me when I did.”

“I know, but . . .” His voice dropped off. How could he say what he was thinking without sounding dumber than he already felt?

Gunnar turned to face him more fully. “Look, we still have our rules to talk about, but this is more important. Are you really thinking that I would change my mind after working on that paperwork together . . . and that I’d do it right before Christmas?”

He shrugged. What could he say? He’d learned from a couple of those foster kids that foster parents could do a lot of stuff that didn’t make sense.

“Jeremy, I know this is hard, but if we’re going to have a partnership, then we need to be able to tell each other things. So come on now. Talk to me. Do you want to wait longer to finish the paperwork? Have you changed your mind about living here with me?” He paused. “Or, maybe you aren’t ready to have me as your ‘real’ dad?”

“No! I mean, that’s not it at all.”

“Okay, then what are you thinking?”

“I thought maybe if you were mad at me you might have changed your mind.”

His eyebrows rose again. “You mean because of me being upset about you coming home late tonight?”

‘Well, yeah.”

“I’m not going to change my mind.”

“Okay.”

Gunnar shook his head. “Boy, this is normal stuff that all adults and kids go through. Kids sometimes bend or break rules and parents have to figure out how to make sure the kids know that they’re loved but that they still have to mind.” He shook his head. “Shoot. That sounded like a jumbled mess, didn’t it? My mom and dad made it all sound so good. I guess all I’m trying to say is that if we’ve got problems and we’re talking about it, then I think it’s kind of a good sign. It means we’re moving forward.”

Jeremy smiled. “It’s like we’ve moved into a new phase of our relationship or something.”

Gunnar chuckled. “I’d say that too.”

“Hey, that’s great.” He grinned.

“I think so too, kid. I mean . . . it would be . . . if you would’ve called or texted to tell me that you were going to be late.”

“Yes, sir. I really am sorry.”

“Good.” He paused. “I’m new to parenting and all, but I believe this is where you tell me that you won’t do that anymore.”

“I won’t.” He was so relieved, he smiled. “I promise.”

“Good.” He slapped his hands on his thighs as he stood up. “Now that’s settled, I’m going to go see about our supper. My sister Darcy sent me a foolproof recipe for chicken and rice soup. I’m going to give it a try and surprise my mom. She’s been out running errands for hours.”

Jeremy stood up too. But the shock of what had just happened held him still. “Wait. That’s it?” Gunnar was just going to go make soup?

Gunnar turned back around. “I think so. Why? Do you want it to be something more?”

“No, I just thought you were going to ground me or something.”

“For forgetting to call because you were fixated on asking a girl to a Christmas dance? I think that would be pretty harsh. Don’t you?”

“Yeah. I guess. I mean, I think it would be really harsh.” Especially since he didn’t want to be grounded.

Gunnar chuckled. “I tell you what, boy. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come into my life. You make things good.”

The warm feeling of acceptance settled inside Jeremy, catching him off guard. “I’m glad,” he said just as he realized that Gunnar probably hadn’t expected an answer.

His feeling was confirmed when Gunnar chuckled again.

The sound was good.

It was almost as good as the sound of the text he received four hours later from Bethany, telling him that he could walk her home again on Friday.