Chapter 72

It was a risk, bringing people from his past to work with him in the present. It made everything more complicated. He had to do it. For Dylan.

He met Dylan when George bailed him out after he was arrested for shoplifting, not more than a week after arriving in George and Glenda’s home. George needed a ride because Glenda had the car, and as George’s boss and a manager at the country club, he felt it was his duty. Plus, he wanted to meet the boy he’d heard about.

And Dylan didn’t disappoint. He was as sulky, foul-mouthed, and disrespectful as George had described. He had nowhere to go but to them, and Glenda was determined to show him all the love her brother lacked. Even she was no match for Dylan. It took the both of them to keep him in at night, to force the youth to and from school each day. George confided all this to him as they drove to the jail.

He’d left the country club a few weeks after Christmas, his work there complete, another two girls free of their battling parents. He changed his name, bought the resort and settled into a new life. He’d also done this when he divorced his wife and left San Antonio. He was looking forward to staying put for a while.

He saw George only once after his heart attack, but he sent get well cards and got letters from Glenda in return. He was able to keep up on Dylan. He heard that Dylan had stopped speaking to them completely, and that he missed more school than he attended.

Then Glenda wrote that she couldn’t do it, she didn’t know if she could manage both Dylan and George, that Dylan was just too much. She was going to send him back to that father. That father who didn’t know how to be a father.

He knew he had to act. It was his call to arms.

He invited them all to Paradise Cove, said he needed skills only George possessed, take as long as he needed to recuperate, Dylan could help out, too, get him away from the bad influences of the city.

He told them he changed his name to honor the uncle whose inheritance bought the resort. The truth was he’d already honored his uncle. When he worked at the country club, his name was Morris Allen.

Within a few months, they were all there together. Dylan was in the loving hands of Glenda and George, but he also had fresh air and new surroundings and work.

He even shared with the boy that his own parents had been alcoholic. It was the first time he shared that with anybody.

In any case, he brought Glenda and George to Paradise Cove understanding the danger that one of his past lives could catch up with his present. His own jobs had always been low profile. No one remembered a middle manager.

He took a calculated risk. He did it for Dylan. He would do the same again.