Читать книгу Love one Another - Valerie Hansen - Страница 8

Tina Braddock bent over a low table, up to her elbows in green and yellow finger paint and up to her knees in preschool tots. It was fortunate the colors blended with her floral print skirt because Sissy Smith had a handful of the fabric and was tugging vigorously.

“Miss Tina! Miss Tina!”

“What is it, Sissy? Is your picture finished?”

The little blond girl ignored the question. “Miss Tina, look! A stranger.” She used both gooey hands to gather up the loose edge of her teacher’s apron and try to hide behind it.

Straightening, Tina looked toward the door. Her breath caught. Sissy was right. The man standing there was a stranger. The best-looking one she’d seen in longer than she could remember. His hair was brown and his eyes were so dark they were almost black. As if that weren’t enough, the good Lord had blessed him with about six feet of height and a stature that insisted he could pick up a small automobile all by himself and fling it across the room without even breaking a sweat.

Tina blinked herself back to reality as she smiled a greeting. “Hello. Can I help you?”

“I didn’t mean to scare the kids,” he said soberly. “I just came to look the place over before I enroll my son.”

She extricated herself from Sissy’s grasp, tossed her long light brown hair back over her shoulders without touching it, and crossed to him while wiping her hands on her apron. “I’m Tina Braddock.”

As he eyed her greenish-yellow fingers he hesitated, so she withdrew the offer to shake hands. “Oops. Sorry. I tend to forget. Not everyone gets as involved in all this as I do.”

“I can believe that.”

When he smiled down at Tina, the whole room suddenly seemed a hundred times brighter. “I’ll be glad to put your son on our waiting list. How old is he, Mr….?”

“I’m Zac Frazier,” the man said. “Justin’s just turned four.”

“Oh, good. We should have several openings in the four-year-old group in a month or so, as soon as school starts and some of my Picassos-in-training go on to kindergarten.”

“That’s not soon enough.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I just moved here and I need a place for my son right away. I thought you understood that.”

Tina remained firm. “Our rules are for the good of all the children here. Perhaps a private baby-sitter?”

“I can’t do that.” Frustrated, Zac raked the fingers of both hands through his thick, wavy hair. “Justin gets panicky if I leave him alone with adults. He’s better when he’s with kids his age.”

That’s odd, Tina thought. Children usually got upset when they were thrust into a group of unfamiliar kids, not when they were privy to an adult’s undivided attention.

“The more distractions, the better he seems to do,” Zac said. “That’s why I thought…”

The handsome daddy seemed to be having trouble deciding whether or not to explain further, so she encouraged him. “Why don’t you tell me a little about your son’s background, Mr. Frazier?”

“There’s not much to tell. Like I said, he’s only four.” Zac cleared his throat. “His mother died last year, when we lived up in Illinois. Since then, he hasn’t wanted to let me out of his sight.”

“Ah, I see.” Tina quelled the urge to reach out and comfort him with a sympathetic touch. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well…” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and struck a casual pose. “So, will you take him?”

“I can ask my boss. I suppose one more—”

Across the room, Sissy yowled. Tina whirled just in time to see redheaded Tommy McArthur upend a dish of yellow poster paint over her head. The thick goo pooled in her curls, then began to ooze over her forehead and trickle down her face.

“Tommy!” Racing back to the art table, Tina held out cupped hands to try to catch the worst of the mess.

Sissy chose that moment to shake her head like a kitten whose nose had been dunked into a saucer of milk. Globs of yellow pigment flew. Several caught Tina in the face. She was sure she could feel others clinging to her long hair.

The rest of the children backed away, wide-eyed and uncertain. Except for Sissy’s ongoing wails, silence reigned. The boy who had caused the ruckus dropped the empty paint dish as his lower lip began to tremble.

“Hold still, Sissy,” Tina said firmly. “You’re just making things worse.”

“My dress!” the little girl howled, looking down at her skirt. “My mama sewed it for meeee…”

“I’ll wash it out for you and it’ll be good as new. I promise. Just stop shaking your head!” Tina had momentarily forgotten Zac Frazier. Then she heard him start to laugh. The sound was warm and full. It filled the room and made the hairs at her nape tickle. Goose bumps stood up on her arms.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “There are towels in that cabinet up there,” she said, cocking her head to indicate. “Top left. Mind handing me one?”

“You sure one will be enough?” Zac was still chuckling as he moved to comply.

“Let’s hope so.” Tina was trying to keep from bursting into giggles and upsetting Sissy even more. “I’d get it myself but I seem to have my hands full.”

“No kidding.” He stopped behind her and passed the towel over her shoulder. “Here you go. Anything else I can do for you while I’m handy?”

She was concentrating on wiping Sissy’s face and sopping up the worst of the paint in her hair. “Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Hose the place down, maybe?” He crouched beside Tina and solemnly eyed the red-haired boy who’d started the trouble. “Or maybe you’d like me to dunk this guy in a different color for you?”

Tina gave Tommy a stern glance, then smiled at Zac. “Sorry. As tempting as it sounds, I’m afraid they don’t let me paint naughty children, even if they do deserve it.”

“What a shame,” Zac said, straight-faced. “He’d look great in purple.”

“We’ll have to settle for an apology, instead,” Tina said, playing along. “Tommy, what do you have to say to Sissy?”

“She started it!” the boy wailed. “She splashed green on my shirt.”

“Okay. That does it. Painting time is over,” Tina ordered. She straightened and wiped her hands on a relatively clean corner of the towel. “Everybody to the sink to wash. Sissy first. March.”

Zac stood, too. “You sure you’ve got a handle on them?”

“As good as I ever do,” she answered, smiling fondly as her small charges headed for the low sink in one corner of the room. “They’re really good kids. They just have a lot to learn about getting along with others.”

“So do the kids I work with…and they’re considerably older.”

“Oh? Where do you work?”

“Over at the high school, starting next week,” Zac said. “I’m going to substitute teach when I’m needed but I’ll mostly be a guidance counselor.”

“Well,” Tina said, grinning up at him, “that sure will simplify things around here.”

“It will?”

“Uh-huh. Once you get established in your job at Serenity High, all we’ll have to do to spot the teenage troublemakers is look for the ones you’ve painted purple.”

Tina was glad her boss, Mavis Martin, was the kind of woman who listened to reasonable suggestions. She’d waited until all the children had gone home before approaching her and explaining about wanting to add Justin to her class.

“I suppose it’s okay, if you’re sure you can cope,” Mavis said, nodding her graying head soberly. “If it was me, I’d probably do the same thing. The poor man obviously needs help. Might as well come from us, don’t you think?”

Smiling broadly, Tina nodded. “Absolutely. Bless you. You’re a dear.” She reached into the pocket of her apron for the card with the phone number of the motel where Zac and Justin were staying. “I’ll call Mr. Frazier and tell him his son can start tomorrow.”

“Okay. I just hope you aren’t biting off more than you can chew. What kind of kid is he?”

“I don’t really know much about him, other than what I was told. He’s supposed to be overly attached to his father but adjusts better when he has other children as a distraction.”

Mavis’s forehead puckered in a frown. “You mean you didn’t meet him today?”

“No. His daddy came by alone.”

“Hmm. What do you suppose he did with Justin when he came to look us over?”

Tina was beginning to see why her boss seemed troubled. “That’s a good question. Let’s use the phone in your office so I can put it on speaker and you can hear, too.”

“That’s not necessary. I trust your judgment.”

I wish I could say the same, Tina thought. But she couldn’t. Being too trusting, too gullible, had cost her plenty in the past and would have ruined her future, too, if she hadn’t left everything behind and started over where no one knew her.

Mavis followed her into the cluttered office. “Push aside my stuff and make yourself a place to sit down, honey. I keep meaning to get this place straightened up. I just never seem to find enough time. One look at all this and I give up because I know it’ll take too long.”

“My mother used to say cleaning up a big mess was like eating an elephant. It can’t all be done at once. You have to take it one bite at a time.”

“Well, well, well,” the thin, middle-aged woman drawled, staring at Tina in amazement. “You’ve worked for me for over a year and that’s the first time you’ve mentioned your family. How is your mama?”

“She passed away a long time ago,” Tina said softly. Thoughts of the past had obviously caused her to let down her guard. That mustn’t happen again. Once she started telling her story she’d run too great a risk of inadvertently revealing her secret shame.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Mavis said. “Is your daddy still living?”

“No.” The answer sounded crisp and off-putting, much to Tina’s distress. She didn’t want to be unkind, especially not to a friend and mentor like Mavis Martin, but she didn’t intend to discuss any aspect of her prior family life. Not now. Not ever.

Looking for a distraction, she quickly dialed the motel and asked for Zac’s room. He answered on the first ring.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Tina Braddock, Mr. Frazier. I’ve talked it over with my boss, and I’m calling to invite you to bring Justin to meet me and the other children. Is tomorrow morning too soon?”

She was sure she heard a relieved sigh.

“No. That will be fine. What time?”

“If you come around ten, he can start by having milk and cookies with us.”

“Good. We’ll be there.”

Mavis was waving at her and making hand signals from across the desk. Tina got the idea. “One question, if you don’t mind?”

“Sure. Shoot.”

“You said Justin didn’t like to be away from you, right?”

“Right.”

“So where was he today when you came by the day care center? Why didn’t you bring him with you?”

“Ah.” Zac let out his breath in a whoosh. “I guess that might seem odd if you didn’t know the whole story. We’d been awake most of the night. He was sound asleep when I left. I figured it would be better to be by myself when I scouted out places for him to stay, so I let him sleep.”

“You didn’t leave him in a motel room all alone?” She couldn’t believe a father who had seemed so concerned would have done such a thing.

“Of course not. I paid one of the maids to babysit. Justin never even knew I was gone.”

“Oh. Thank goodness. I thought…”

“Look, Ms. Braddock,” Zac said tightly. “I’m doing the best I can under the circumstances. I’d like to spend every minute with my son, but I can’t. I have to work. That’s why I need a place like yours to take care of him during the day. The rest of the time he’s my responsibility. One I take very seriously.”

Instead of attempting to justify her position, Tina fell back on her professional demeanor. “I’m sure you do. I certainly didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”

“Sorry.” Pausing, he muttered to himself before continuing. “It’s not your fault. I know I get defensive sometimes. It just galls me that so many people don’t think fathers are capable of taking good care of their kids by themselves.”

“All anyone can do is try,” Tina told him. “No two children are alike. Sometimes, even a person’s best efforts aren’t good enough without the help of divine intervention.” Like she’d gotten with Craig.

“You sound like an expert,” Zac said. “Do you have children?”

Touched by the irony of his question, she gave a soft, self-deprecating chuckle. “Dozens. All other people’s. And I’m certainly no expert. At least, not once they get older than about six. I’d rather face an unruly gang of twenty preschoolers than try to figure out one teenager.”

“Boy, not me,” he countered. “I don’t envy you your job one bit. Give me a reasonable teen any time.”

“There is no such thing as a reasonable teen,” Tina argued amiably. “Believe me, I know.”

“That sounds like the voice of experience. We’ll have to compare notes sometime. Maybe I can give you a few pointers and you can do the same for me.”

“I’ll be glad to help you and Justin in any way I can. See you tomorrow, then. Bye.”

Curiosity filled Mavis’s expression as Tina hung up the phone. “I thought your specialty was little tykes. You never mentioned that you’d worked with teenagers.”

“I haven’t.” Tina busied herself straightening piles of paper on the desk rather than continue to meet her boss’s inquisitive gaze. She’d slipped again. That was twice in one day, which was two times too many. “I was just making polite conversation.”

“Oh.” The older woman reached out and stilled Tina’s fluttering hands. “If you don’t stop rearranging my papers, I won’t be able to find a thing. Go on home. I’ll lock up.”

“You’re sure?” Tina was eager to leave, to be alone where she could sort out her thoughts and gain better control of her tongue.

“I’m positive.” With a motherly smile, Mavis looked her up and down. “You deserve a break. You’ve either had a particularly rough day or a truck full of raw eggs crashed into you while I was busy in the other room.”

Tina laughed lightly. “The yellow spots are from finger paint, not egg yolk. Tommy got mad at Sissy, and the rest is history. I was kind of caught in the middle.” Recalling the funny incident, she shook her head. “To make matters worse, it happened exactly when Zac decided to drop in to look the place over.”

Mavis’s left eyebrow arched. “Zac?”

“I meant Mr. Frazier,” Tina said, blushing.

All her boss said was “Of course you did.”

Justin Frazier was a miniature version of his daddy. The minute she saw the lonely little boy, clinging tightly to his father’s hand, Tina’s heart belonged to him.

She made sure all the other children had their cookies and milk, then approached father and son. “Hello, Justin. My name is Miss Tina. I have an extra cookie that really wants to be eaten. Do you suppose you could help me with that?”

He buried his face against his father’s pant leg.

“Okay,” Tina said casually. “I guess I can give it to one of the other boys if you don’t want it. That wouldn’t be really fair, though. They’ve already had theirs. I saved this cookie specially for you.”

Justin rolled his head just far enough to reveal one dark eye, and peeked out at her.

“It’s chocolate chip. Of course, if you don’t like that kind…”

One pudgy hand reached out. Tina quickly handed him the cookie and turned to rejoin the class, subtly motioning Zac to follow. “How about a carton of milk to go with that?”

Without looking back, she proceeded to get the milk, insert a straw and set the carton at an empty place at the low table as if she fully expected Justin to agree to sit there. “Here you go. Nice and cold.”

For a moment it looked as if he was going to continue to hang on to Zac in spite of Tina’s assured manner. At the last second he let go and slid into the scaled-down plastic chair. None of the other children said a word. They were all too busy studying the new arrival and his daddy.

Across the table, little blond Emily began to giggle, when Justin bit into his cookie and half of it crumbled and fell on the floor. Tina was about to offer him another, when she saw Tommy McArthur carefully break his own cookie in half and lean closer to hand the piece to Justin. She was too far away to hear what the boy said, but she figured it had to be funny because Zac had his lips pressed tightly together and was struggling not to laugh.

To her relief, Justin accepted the gift and whispered something back to Tommy before stuffing the whole half of the cookie into his mouth at once.

Zac stepped back quietly. As soon as he was far enough away, Tina joined him. “What did Tommy say?” she asked.

Shaking his head for a moment to compose himself, he said, “I think my son just took his first bribe. He promised Tommy he’d see that I didn’t dunk him in any paint.”

“No wonder you looked like you were about to burst!”

“I was surprised he even remembered me. I told you I didn’t understand little kids.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Nobody really does. They don’t even understand themselves.”

“You sure seem to know how to handle them, though. I was worried Justin would pitch a fit when I tried to let go of him. It was amazing he didn’t.”

“I think sometimes we underestimate the adaptability of children. All I did was act like sitting at the table with the others was the most natural choice for him to make, and he made it. It’s that simple.”

“For you, maybe. When I told him he was going to day care this morning, he threw a terrible tantrum. It’s a wonder the folks at the motel didn’t hear him and call the police.”

“Have you found a house, yet?” Tina asked, keeping watch on the children as she talked.

“No. And I’m getting pretty frustrated.”

“Well, as long as you don’t throw a tantrum…”

“Very funny. Although I did feel like it yesterday when we drove seven miles out of town to look at a place and found out it was already rented.”

“In a close-knit area like Serenity, most of the best places never get advertised. People just hear they’re going to be for rent or for sale, and tell their friends.”

“Terrific.”

“It has its advantages. For instance, I happen to know that the house two doors north of me is going to be vacant soon. It’s in a nice neighborhood and only about a quarter-mile from the high school. Would you be interested?”

“Interested? At this point I’d practically kill for a decent place to live.”

Tina laughed. “I don’t think you’ll have to do anything quite that drastic. I’ll talk to the folks who are moving as soon as I get home tonight and find out all the details for you. Hopefully, there won’t be too long a wait.”

“You’d go to all that trouble for me? Why?”

Looking up into his eyes, she saw how much her kindness had affected him. This was a man who apparently wasn’t used to experiencing the honestly offered concern of strangers. Or accepting their help. He was never going to fit in around here if somebody didn’t set him straight. Tina immediately decided it was her duty to be that person.

“In small communities like this one, Mr. Frazier, folks help each other all the time. It’s how we are. We don’t need specific reasons to look out for one another. We just do it. A lot of us behave that way because Christians are supposed to, but we aren’t the only ones who show kindness. Pretty much everybody does. It’s one of the blessings of living here.”

“I see.”

Tina decided to press ahead. “Do you have a church home? If not, you can’t beat the one I go to,” she said enthusiastically. “We’d love to have you visit this Sunday. At nine-thirty I teach a Sunday School class of children Justin’s age. He should be comfortable enough with me by then to enjoy it. Regular church starts at eleven.”

“We’ll see.” He glanced at Justin. “I guess I might as well try to get out of here. I do have a lot to do.”

Tina scanned the table where her charges sat. “I think you’re wise to leave him with us right away, instead of getting him used to having you stick around. He’ll be fine. Just go over and tell him goodbye as if you’ve done it that way a thousand times. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“What if he cries?”

“Then, I’ll give him a hug and comfort him until he stops, the same as you’d do,” she said. To her dismay she noticed that the man seemed a bit put off by her comment. Surely he didn’t expect a motherless child to do without a lot of cuddling, even if his father didn’t view it as a natural masculine response.

“You do whatever you think is right,” Zac said. “You can reach me at the high school all afternoon if you need me. What time should I come back for Justin?”

“We like to lock up and be out of here by six-thirty. Will that work for you?”

“I’ll make it work,” he said.

Tina watched him walk stiffly across the room and bend over his son. The boy didn’t seem at all upset when he bid Zac goodbye. Funny. She’d dealt with lots of little ones in the past and she’d expected at least a mild protest, especially since Justin hadn’t had time to make friends yet.

Hanging back, she waited for the boy’s reaction rather than anticipating difficulties and telegraphing her own concern. If he accepted his father’s departure, there would be no reason to treat it as anything but routine.

Zac straightened and headed for the door. He never hesitated, never looked back. If Tina hadn’t spotted the moisture glistening in his eyes as he passed, she might have believed he wasn’t concerned about leaving Justin at all.