SuAnn couldn’t believe it. For once, she’d done the right thing, and it had cost her the whole competition. She knew she should’ve told Henrietta Bankston to kiss her hindquarters when she asked to borrow that vanilla extract.
“I told you not to do it,” Darcy said, as they cleaned up the cooking area.
“Stop being a know-it-all. It’s not becoming.” SuAnn threw the rest of her ingredients into her basket. “Let’s get out of here before I smack somebody.”
She and Darcy started walking toward the large set of double glass doors leading to the parking lot, but not before Henrietta could make one more jab.
“Better luck next time, ladies,” she said with a big fake smile on her face. “Hard to beat a twelve-time champion.”
SuAnn rolled her eyes. “Congratulations, Hen. Enjoy that spa day. I recommend anything that will help with wrinkles.”
Without missing a beat, she turned and walked out the door with Darcy hot on her heels.
“Gosh, I love you,” Darcy said when they got to the car.
“I swear, that woman is infuriating. I helped her win, and she just acted like a horse’s ass. Who does that? Obviously, her momma never swatted her legs with a switch.”
Darcy giggled. “You’re all riled up, aren’t you?”
“I feel like drinking an entire bottle of cheap wine and eating every poundcake in the bakery.”
“Well, then, let’s get to it!” Darcy said, taking the keys from her.
“I wasn’t being serious.”
“You deserve it. You did a great job, and I tasted those other pies. None of them had a thing on you. That whole thing was rigged.”
SuAnn looked at her. “You think so?”
“Absolutely. Her pie tasted like crap. Excuse my language, but it did.”
SuAnn wasn’t sure if she was just trying to make her feel better or if she really meant it. Either way, the idea of drinking some wine and filling up on sugary carbs had grabbed her attention. She’d have to think about the pie bakeoff conspiracy later.
“I’m telling you, it was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen in my life, Dixie. My heart melted and then broke.”
Dixie opened the roll of quarters and dumped them into the register. “Dawson has a heart of gold. He wants to help everyone in need.”
“True,” Julie said as she straightened a new shelf display of gardening books. “But, this was more than that. He’s developed a strong bond with that little boy, and I worry how they’re both going to feel when camp is over tomorrow.”
“You think he’s interested in being a foster parent or something?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“How would you feel about that?”
Julie thought for a moment. “I have no idea. I’ve never considered something like that, honestly. I raised my girls, but it never occurred to me to take in more kids. I suppose that’s selfish.”
Dixie chuckled. “No, darlin’, that’s not selfish. Not everyone is in a position to foster children.”
“But, I was, Dixie. I had money. I had a nice home, access to great schools. Michael and I were in good health. We could’ve done it, but it just never dawned on me. I was living in this little suburban bubble that included mostly vapid women playing bunco and taking tennis lessons.”
Dixie stared at her for a moment. “Boy, it’s hard to imagine you in that life. You fit in here like a duck on water.”
Julie considered that a high compliment. “I can’t relate to it anymore either. I guess when you have your life all set up and things are easy, you just keep doing the same thing day after day. I had a housekeeper, Agnes, who I loved. Aside from that, I had a bunch of ‘friends’ that weren’t really friends.”
“This life is the only one I’ve known,” Dixie said, shrugging her shoulders.
Julie smiled. “Trust me, this life is a real life. What I was living was just a facade. Fake friends. Fake marriage. Fake happiness.”
“And now?”
She sat with that question for a moment and then grinned. “Just a beautiful, real, simple little life. I love it.”
“So, what about the whole thing with Dawson?”
“I don’t even know what he’s considering, if anything. I might just be over-thinking the whole thing.”
Dixie pointed to Julie’s chest. “I think your heart is telling you something. I’ve always found it’s best to listen.”
She knew Dixie was right. She always was. But, Julie didn’t know what Dawson wanted. She didn’t even know what she wanted. As usual, her life seemed to be taking another strange turn.
William had never been more nervous in his life. He sat on his newly refurbished boat and waited for what he hoped would be his first group of charter customers. They had called the day before wanting a trip out to the marsh for a guy’s bachelor party. Apparently, this group wasn’t into drinking and strippers. They had fishing on their minds, and that was fine with William.
“Pssttt…” he heard from the bushes near the dock. Janine poked her head up, all of that curly hair flopping around in the breeze. He loved her hair, even though it ended up everywhere, like a calling card that she left behind to let people know she’d been there.
“What are you doing over there?” he asked, laughing. She popped up and held out a brown paper bag.
“I brought you a sandwich, some chips and a water for your first trip!” She walked onto the boat and handed it to him.
“You made me a sandwich?” Janine wasn’t exactly an expert in the kitchen. She could fold her body into a million yoga poses, and she was one of the kindest people he’d ever met. But food preparation? No.
“Fine. Julie made it for me, but I got the ingredients out of the fridge for her.”
William chuckled and kissed her nose. “It’s the thought that counts. Thank you for bringing this to me because I did forget to eat this morning. Don’t you have class soon?”
“I do. But, I couldn’t let this momentous day pass without telling you how incredibly proud I am of you, Will.” She leaned against the railing. “You took a leap of faith, and I know how hard that is to do. You’re going to be successful with this, but, more importantly, you’re going to be happy. And that’s all that counts. The rest will fall into place.”
He hugged her tightly. “I love you, Janine.”
“Even though I can’t cook, can barely boil an egg and I had to ask Julie where we kept the bread?”
He chuckled. “Especially because of those things.” He looked up and saw his charter group walking down the dock.
“Looks like you’re on!” Janine whispered before climbing out of the boat and walking toward the road. She turned around one last time to give him a thumbs up sign and blow him a kiss before disappearing.
“You the charter captain?” one of the men asked. William paused for a moment.
“Yes, sir, I am. Welcome aboard.”
Dawson sat there, his hands on the picnic table. “So, you're telling me the process for adopting one of these kids wouldn't really be that hard?”
Amy nodded. “Most of these kids don't really have any options. They've been in the foster care system for a long time, and their situations aren't likely to change anytime soon. As you can tell, most of them are older, and we see a lot of people wanting to adopt out of the system but they usually want babies or maybe toddlers.”
“What about…”
“Dylan?” Amy asked, smiling slightly.
“Yeah.”
“He's been in the system for several months now, as you know. We've tried to reach out to his birth mother, but she hasn't responded and she lost her rights a long time ago. Unfortunately, even Dylan's extended family has a lot of turmoil. Drugs, prison. He's had a very difficult start in his life.”
Dawson shook his head and felt his jaw clench. If there was anything that upset him, it was when children were mistreated. Having lost his own child, he couldn't imagine how anyone could mistreat theirs. Of course, he also understood addiction. He had friends with that very problem, and he certainly didn't want Dylan to be put in that situation.
“I’ll have to give it some thought. It would be life-changing.”
“For both of you,” she said with a wink. “Look, I am never interested in pushing anyone to adopt a child. But I've seen you with Dylan this last week, and there's been a change in him. He's smiling more. Much more interactive. Eating again.”
“Eating?”
“His foster parents were having a lot of trouble getting him to eat. I think he's just been really sad about losing his father. Even though his dad was a complete screwup, that was all Dylan ever knew. They were having to give him nutritional shakes to keep him from going into starvation.”
“Wow. I had no idea. I saw him eat three hotdogs yesterday.”
Amy laughed. “Because he's happy here. He likes you. He likes this place. He lived in a single wide trailer on the outskirts of town. This must be like a mansion for him.”
“Nothing wrong with living in a trailer.”
“Of course not. But there is something wrong with living in one in a drug infested neighborhood and having no heat or air. When we picked him up, he was wearing dirty clothes and had no running water either.”
“Oh my goodness. Please don't tell me anymore.” Dawson didn’t think his heart could take it. And the fact that there were thousands of children out there in the same situation made him feel helpless. He wanted to help them all, but it was impossible. The system was so broken that it was hard to imagine anyone could ever fix it.
“Am I interrupting?” Julie asked as she walked over to the picnic table. Dawson quickly looked at his watch.
“Hey. I didn't expect you until this evening.”
“Well, Meg got out of class early so I thought I'd come and see if I could lend a helping hand.”
“Hi. I’m Amy.” She reached up and shook Julie’s hand.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Amy is the director of the foster care system. We were just talking about some of the kids and their situations.”
“You do good work. I'm not sure I could know about all of these sad stories without it breaking my heart.”
Amy nodded. “It breaks my heart every day, but I feel like God called me to do this work so I continue on. The best part of my life is when I see one of these kids get adopted into a good home.”
“That must be very rewarding.”
“It certainly is. Well, I’d better go and see how the kids are doing on their craft project. Colleen and Tucker should be finishing up soon, and then we will go down to the beach for a little free time.”
“I’ll be over in a little bit,” Dawson said, waving as Amy walked away.
“I can't believe tomorrow is the last day. I'm sure you'll be excited to get a little downtime.”
Dawson nodded. “It's been pretty exhausting, for sure. But I've enjoyed every minute of it. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything, honestly.”
Julie looked like she wanted to say something. “Listen, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Are you thinking about adopting one of these kids?”
He swallowed hard. “I… don't know.”
Her face softened and she reached over, putting her hand on top of his. “Dawson, you would make a fantastic father. You deserve to have that kind of unconditional love from a child in your life. If that's what you want to do, I support you, fully.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Really? You'd be okay with that?”
“Of course. I mean, being a single dad is going to have its challenges.”
Single dad. She wasn't saying that she wanted to be Dylan's mother. She was saying that she would continue dating him even if he adopted Dylan.
In that moment a swirl of emotions welled up inside of Dawson. Was she planning on just dating him forever? Did he want to adopt a child and be a single dad for the rest of his life? No. He wanted Dylan to have everything, including a mother who loved him. A mother who would teach him how to treat women. A mother who would bake him cookies and smile as he gave her a homemade Mother's Day card.
But Julie was already a mother of two grown daughters. It wasn't fair to ask her to start all over and parent somebody else's child that she didn't even know.
Was he going to have to make a choice? He didn't know what to think, so he just kept a fake smile on his face.
“Yeah. I'm sure it will be hard. Listen, I really need to get over there and help corral these kids so we can take them down to the beach. Do you mind?”
“Oh,” she said, looking surprised. “I thought maybe I could help out?”
“I’m not really sure what to tell you to do. Maybe check with Colleen?”
There was a tension between them, and he knew that Julie didn't understand it. Maybe she would just think he was tired, and that was okay. He didn't want to have a big emotional conversation right now. He wanted to clear his mind and figure out what to do next, but he couldn't seem to do it. It seemed like he had nothing but questions in his head with no answers.
“Okay. I'll do that. See you later?”
He nodded as she stood up. “Sure.”
As he watched her walk away, he wondered how he was ever going to live without her if it came to that. Or should he make the choice to live without Dylan? Could he ever forgive himself now that he knew how much Dylan needed him? Right now, he wanted to walk far out into the ocean until his mind cleared.
Julie stood at the table handing out snacks with Colleen before they were going down to the beach for some free time with the kids. So far, she’d met two sisters, ages ten and twelve, who had been in separate foster homes for eighteen months. Another little boy, who was just about to turn seven, had been in the system since he was five years old. The stories were breaking her heart. How had she not seen this before? Had she been so focused on her own bubble of a world that she didn’t think about kids without parents?
“You okay?” Colleen asked as she handed out the last bag of baby carrots. The kids walked over to sit at some temporary picnic tables they’d assembled in Dawson’s side yard.
“Yeah, I’m fine. These stories are just killing me.”
“I know. All week, I’ve thought about nothing else. I hope that I can become a foster parent one day.”
Julie smiled. “Really? That makes me proud of you, my beautiful daughter.”
“You know, Dawson and Dylan really have a bond.”
She nodded. “I know. I honestly think he’s considering adoption,” she whispered.
“Really? That would be amazing for both of them.”
“It would.” Julie wiped down the table and stacked the rest of the snacks into a cooler for next time.
“Mom?”
“What?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Why would something be wrong?” Julie said in a voice several octaves higher than her normal one.
“Do you not want Dawson to adopt Dylan?”
She sighed. “I would love that, Colleen. What kind of person wouldn’t?”
Colleen put her hands on Julie’s shoulders and turned her around. “Then what’s going on?”
“It’s silly.”
“Just spit it out,” Colleen said.
“It’s just that I feel like he’s moving on without me. I mean, he’ll become a single dad and be busier than ever, and then maybe we won’t be together anymore. How incredibly self-centered is that thought?”
Colleen took her hand and walked her beside the barn where they were out of sight and out of earshot. “Mom, you know that Dawson isn’t Dad, right?”
“Of course.”
“He would never just leave you like that. If he decides to adopt Dylan, you know it would be after he thought about it long and hard, and he’d want you to be a part of that.”
“I’m smart enough to know that Dawson wants the whole white picket fence life. Once he has a son to raise, he’s going to want a wife too.”
“Why can’t that wife be you?”
Julie shrugged her shoulders. “Well, he hasn’t asked, has he?”
Colleen’s eyes widened. “Come on now, Mom! You know he’s hinted and you’ve shot that idea down before. Why would he ask?”
“I wasn’t ready then. Your father… Nevermind. Let’s not rehash that.”
“Does Dawson know you’re ready now?”
“I don’t even know if I’m ready now.”
Colleen threw her hands up. “Stop overthinking everything! You love him, he loves you.”
“Didn’t you turn Tucker down?” Julie pointed out, her eyebrows raised.
“Not because I didn’t want to marry him. He asked me way too early in our relationship. But, one day, I will say yes if he asks again.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but we’re heading down to the beach and could really use a couple of extra hands,” Tucker said, poking his head around the side of the barn.
“We’ll be right there,” Colleen said. Tucker trotted away, gathering up a couple of stray kids as he ushered them toward the shoreline. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”
Julie smiled. “Don’t worry about me, honey. I’ll be fine. You just enjoy the success of this wonderful camp and let me figure out my own relationship problems.”
“Fine, but consider one thing.”
“What?”
“You might just be your only relationship problem, Mom.”
As she watched Colleen walk away, she wondered if her daughter was right. Was she the one causing her own issues by living in the past and being afraid of the future?