Chapter Thirty-Five

 

 

 

 

“Why does Jimmy keep saying ‘my boat’ over and over?” Lydia asked her the next morning over breakfast as they were getting him ready for his first day of school.

“Obviously, John’s boat made a big impression on him,” Kate answered. Truth be told, it had made an impression on her, too, with its spotless deck and a snug galley that he’d assured her was more than enough room to cook a gourmet meal.

“So he still has it then?”

“Still? You mean you knew about it?”

Lydia shrugged. “I assumed he sold it when he started his tree business.” Boats took a lot of time, she pointed out, time that she couldn’t imagine he had a lot of, especially considering everything else he was doing.

To Kate’s surprise, her mother had asked very little about how her date the previous evening had gone. Is it that obvious from my face, she wondered. The memory of the second soul-drenching kiss when he’d brought them back home still lingered. A kiss that she was pretty sure wouldn’t be the last.

Self-conscious that she was probably starting to blush, Kate steered the conversation away from John and started speculating aloud how busy Cliff planned to keep her with her new duties at the paper. “Still weird to me how he just jumped in and made a decision without even telling me,” she said.

Lydia opined that it was no stranger than her former boss calling to tell her she no longer had a job.

Kate let the purposeful snub slide and replied instead, “Yeah, but isn’t it kind of over-the-top putting the announcement on the front page? Must have been a pretty slow news week that he could move everything around the day before and make a space for it.” She tried to remember what her old yearbook photo even looked like and hoped that her dated hairdo and makeup didn’t look too ridiculous. Would it have killed him, she thought, to just take a new one?

Lydia predicted that the phone would probably be ringing off the hook with anyone and everyone in Avalon Bay wanting her to write feature stories about them once they found out who the new editor was. “You’ll be lucky to even find the time to breathe.”

With a pang of guilt, Kate realized that the rest of Cassy’s boxes were still awaiting her attention.

 

 

“I think Jimmy could make a great first mate,” John remarked as he filled a thermos with coffee.

Abby smiled. “I would have thought you’d want a certain young lady to have that title.”

“First things first,” he replied. “She’s got to get Jimmy situated in school and figure out how busy Cliff’s going to keep her. Speaking of which,”

Abby listened thoughtfully while he explained how it might take some juggling of schedules. “Things won’t be squared away with her new office until Monday, but I was thinking maybe I could bring Jimmy by for a little while when I get off work today and he could meet you and Dad.”

“And Shelby,” Abby added. “Does he like dogs?”

John smiled. “What kid doesn’t?” Shelby happily thumped her tale as she gnawed on a rawhide bone under the kitchen table. “And what better dog to be his first than Shelby?”

 

 

“I swear you could have knocked me over with a feather,” Yvette was gushing.

“You ‘n’ me both,” Kate agreed. She had stopped by the newspaper after dropping Jimmy off at the school in order to fill out forms that would officially put her on the payroll.

“Well, that’s our Cliff for you. And wasn’t it just the funniest thing about that mix-up with your resume?”

“Hilarious.” Kate paused a second as she came to the line about who to notify in case of emergency, realizing she had just been about to write in John’s name without even thinking about it. She listed her mother instead.

“I’m so happy for you,” Yvette continued. “Who’d have thought you’d come back to us after all this time and rescue a sinking ship!”

“Excuse me?”

“That came out wrong, didn’t it? Not that it’s really sinking per se, of course, but that chucklehead of an editor we had last time sure didn’t do it any favors running it into the ground.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t that bad,” Kate said, though in truth she’d heard very little lately to suggest otherwise about her predecessor.

“Well, I’m just glad you’re here to give the ol’ place some fresh ideas and a woman’s point of view!”

Kate smirked. “To the extent your boss will let me.” She glanced at the front page, as perturbed by the sight of her high school graduation picture as she was about the uninspired caption that conjured déjà vu.

“You mean our boss!” Yvette said in chirpy prelude to tripping down memory lane and reminding her of how much she’d always enjoyed the candy Kate used to bring in when she was still a student.

Note to self, Kate told herself. Bring in candy.

She returned to filling out forms but was interrupted yet again by the arrival of the last person in the world she wanted to see.

“Well, well,” Brad remarked, “if it isn’t Wonder Girl”. He was holding a copy of the latest edition in his hand and now unfolded it as if to compare her to the black and white headshot. “You don’t look a day over seventeen!”

“And you don’t act a day over twelve,” she glibly countered.

He laughed but his eyes held no humor. “Did I mention I’m one of this rag’s biggest advertisers?”

His nasty insinuation of power, Kate thought, couldn’t have been bigger if it were in neon and hung on the Ferris wheel. “How nice for you,” she said and went back to studying her paperwork.

Sensing building friction between them, Yvette interjected herself into the conversation to exclaim how wonderful it was that Kate was going to be their new editor starting on Monday.

“So, I heard. I don’t suppose I could talk you into a celebration dinner?” he offered with a cavalier wink. “My treat?”

“You never give up, do you, Brad?”

“Why should I? It’s what’s made me a success.”

Kate and Yvette exchanged a glance, each mildly daring the other to be the one to point out that he’d only succeeded his father and that the large sums of money he bragged about managing all belonged to the bank.

Cliff chose that moment to open his office door. “Brad! What a surprise! I thought I heard your voice out here.”

“You also have a meeting with him,” Yvette said, tapping the face of her watch. “It’s on your calendar.”

“Have you said hello yet to our new editor?” Cliff asked him. As he opened his mouth to make introductions, Brad informed him that they’d gone to school together. “Kate,” he arrogantly lied, “is the one who got away.”

Kate couldn’t resist facetiously quipping, “Can’t say that about many girls in our class.”

A silken thread of warning rippled through Brad’s chuckle as he feigned admiration for Kate’s joining the staff. “Threw me for quite a loop, though,” he said. “I mean, isn’t being a full-timer going to take away from your being on the mommy-track?”

“What mommy-track?” Cliff sputtered.

Yvette gasped in astonishment. “Oh my, Katie! Does that mean that you’re…”

Brad’s mouth lifted in a sarcastic smile.

 

 

“Just when you think you know how low a person can go,” Kate told John on the phone, “they always surprise you and dive even lower.” She had called him on his cell after giving herself some time to cool down. “Leave it to Brad to try to screw up a good thing.”

“Are you talking about the job or about us?” John asked in concern. “‘Cause frankly I don’t think Brad has that much influence either way.”

“Well, he did make things pretty embarrassing for me.” She explained that she hadn’t said anything earlier to Cliff or Yvette about her situation with Jimmy simply because she didn’t think it was any of their business. “Although the way everybody likes to talk around here, I’m kinda surprised they didn’t already know.”

“It’s not like he can fire you,” John said. “There are laws against that.”

“Technically, though, the ink’s not even dry yet on my hiring papers. I suppose he could just say he changed his mind.”

“After he already ran the announcement on the front page of his own paper?”

“Yeah, you got a point. Listen, I’m taking you away from work. I was just so mad.”

John changed the subject and asked her how Jimmy had fared when she dropped him off that morning.

She asked him if he remembered the red-headed girl with the picture book. “She and her mom were already there when I arrived and he seemed pretty excited to see her. Of course, he panicked a little bit when he saw that I was leaving but I suspect he’s doing just fine.” Gabrielle and Susan, she added, were very thorough in explaining the various tests they’d be scheduling with the developmental pediatrician that worked with the school. “I don’t want to get my hopes up,” she said, “but they told me that a lot of times symptoms can get misdiagnosed and turn out to be something like a hearing problem or some kind of chemical imbalance that can be treated.”

Cassy would be at peace, Kate thought, to know her son would finally be getting some consistency in his medical care instead of being shuffled through free clinics that dealt in seeing as many people in as little time as possible.

“So here’s a thought,” John proposed. “What if I pick you guys up after work and we take him over to meet my parents?”

Kate was dubious. “Wouldn’t that be an imposition?”

“Nah, my mom’s crazy about kids. And my dad, well, it might do my dad good to see a new face.”

“I’m not sure,” she replied, remembering the awkwardness of communicating with Sean at the front door. “Sometimes Jimmy can be, well, you know, unpredictable.”

“Not that much different from my dad, then. I have a feeling they’ll get along just fine.”

Kate remembered that she’d promised Maria a beer when the latter got off work at the factory. “Mom was going to watch Jimmy.”

John insisted that Lydia needed a break just as much as her daughter. “You’ve both been doing a lot of heavy lifting lately. What do you say we both take him over, you go have some fun and then come back and get him?” He even tossed in the bonus that she could borrow his truck to go meet Maria.

Kate smiled. “That’s a lot to ask.”

He reminded her that he was the one who had volunteered it. “So is that a ‘yes’?”

“In the meantime, what should I do about Brad?”

John chuckled. “Brad is all talk and no action. There’s nothing that buffoon can do that you and I can’t handle.”

 

 

 

Jimmy was exhausted but happy when Kate picked him up.

“He was a little shy at first about participating,” Susan said, “but he’s very good-natured.”

“You haven’t seen his stubborn side,” Kate warned.

Gabrielle laughed. “And you’ve seen five-year-olds who aren’t from time to time?”

They both asked a few more questions about Jimmy’s father. “Naturally,” said Susan, “we try to get as complete a health picture about both parents as we can. If, for instance, there’s a genetic history in the family or if, and I do have to put this bluntly, any substance abuse issues or addictions that may have contributed to Jimmy’s development while your sister was carrying him.”

“I never knew much about Luke’s family,” Kate said, “but I can tell you he was a loose cannon in his lifestyle. In fact, my sister had almost called off the wedding because he was doing drugs.”

“And your sister,” Gabrielle gently asked, “was she part of that, too?”

“I want to say ‘no’, but I’m really not sure,” Kate replied. “During the time they were together, we just weren’t as close as we should have been. After she got pregnant, though, I know she wouldn’t have done anything to endanger the baby or herself.” She could feel her eyes starting to moisten. “She was the best mom she knew how to be under the circumstances.”

 

 

“Looks like somebody had a good day,” John remarked when he came to collect them.

“He’s been Mr. Giggles ever since I brought him home,” Kate said, adding in a wistful postscript that she wished he had the words to tell her all about it. “Want to help me look for his other shoe?”

“Comes at a price,” he teased. His arms encircled her, one hand in the small of her back, his lips feather-touching hers with a tantalizing persuasion. It was a kiss for her tired soul to melt into and just enough to make her almost forget they were standing in the foyer of her mother’s house.

Lydia cleared her throat. “Children and mothers in the room!” she announced, though there was no trace of the censure that had marked her earlier assessment of their relationship. She was also holding up Jimmy’s missing shoe. “Looking for this?”

“I think she’s warming up to me,” John remarked as he helped his two favorite people into the front seat of the truck.

Kate had to ask again whether it wasn’t too much trouble to keep Jimmy awhile. “I’m sure Maria would understand if I moved this off until next week.”

“By next week,” he replied, “she’ll have circulated a rumor that I’ve kidnapped you. As I said, Mom’s just fine with it and it’ll give Jimmy a chance to play with Shelby. Besides,” he added, “I have it on good authority somebody’s making tacos tonight.”

“Sure that’s not a recipe for disaster?” She reminded him of her nephew’s uninhibited zeal at their harbor picnic. “He’s probably going to be wearing it if you don’t watch him.”

“Trust me.”

I do. I really, really do.

She squeezed his free hand in response, her pulse quickening in the realization that happily-ever-after didn’t get much better than this.

 

 

“I had Mom put Shelby upstairs with Dad so Jimmy could meet everybody one at a time,” John explained as they approached the back door.

“Probably a good idea,” Kate agreed, recalling how her encounter with Shelby had sent her ungracefully sprawling. She glanced down at Jimmy who was taking in the surroundings of a new backyard in between huge yawns. A good sign, she thought, that he’d be a manageable guest during the short time she was away. She was also relieved he hadn’t grabbed the omnipresent Mr. Ollie to bring with him. As docile as Shelby was, John told her, it had taken him quite a while to train his pooch that not everything was her personal chew toy.

“We’re home,” John called out as they stepped into the kitchen.

Home. Kate repeated it in her mind, liking the warm sound of it.

Abby didn’t see Jimmy at first, his small body hidden by the counter as she emerged from the living room. She had a big smile of greeting for Kate. “Bet you didn’t recognize me without all the face goop,” she joked.

Kate reached for Jimmy’s hand. “Come on, honey. Let’s say ‘hi’ to Mrs. Neal.”

Jimmy suddenly decided to be shy and flattened himself out face-first against the wall beneath the counter.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Abby said, coming around the corner. “Sometimes when children are in a strange place.” A look of surprise and a soft gasp escaped her lips when he turned at the sound of her voice, his eyes bright with defiance at a slight that, in his young mind, was either real or imagined.