Just Practicing (Hearts for Ransom Book 2)

by Georgia Evans

  So, she called in and took the day off—something else she would rather have not done. She had nearly a month of vacation time saved for a very special trip to Florida next summer. Neither she nor Seth had been there; they had never even been on a real vacation before. She hated to use even one of those days.

  Then she called Vanessa and had her make the arrangements with her mother to meet at Butlers. It was a nice restaurant, right there in Ransom, with an environment that would give her the security of knowing she wasn’t alone with her mother and a modicum of privacy for what they needed to discuss.

  She told Seth only that she had some personal things she needed to take care of, and he happily went about his normal daily routine with Mrs. Harper. She wanted him to bring some boxes out of the attic for her, and promised him there were some things he would like to see in some of them.

  The drive from her house to the restaurant didn’t take long enough. Jan really dreaded this meeting. The only “mom” she could envision was the one passed out cold on whichever piece of furniture happened to be nearest, or more often than not, the floor.

  After the hostess seated her at a table in the corner, she nervously scanned people as they walked in. It wasn’t until the woman with the chin-length, auburn hair and sparkling green eyes stopped at her table that she realized she was looking at her mother.

  She was beautiful. Her hair was just a shade lighter than Jan’s dark—nearly brown—tresses, and she was possibly an inch taller, but otherwise, she looked how Jan couldn’t help but hope she would in thirty years.

  “Janet, I’m so happy to see you.” Her mother greeted her warmly as she sat down. At least she hadn’t tried to hug her or act like long-lost lovesick relatives.

  “Mother.”

  The older woman’s face crumpled for a moment, but then a trembling smile appeared. “You haven’t forgiven me, have you?”

  Jan could barely contain herself. She waited until the server left with their orders for iced tea, and then she let her mother have it.

  “How can I have forgiven you? They tell me you’ve been sober for four years. Where have you been? Oh, wait. You were never there for me during the first eighteen years of my life. Why on earth would I think the last four should have been any different?” She glared at her mother. “And you think I should have forgiven you? Lady, you’ve got a lot of nerve.”

  “I didn’t say I thought you should have.” Her mother’s voice shook. “I have no right to expect you to…to even ask you to. That’s the reason I haven’t been here. I was too ashamed.”

  “You know what, Mother? You should be.” Jan was about three seconds from getting up and leaving.

  “Please, Janet.” A tear ran down the older woman’s face. “I’m so, so sorry for how I lived. The choices I made. Please, just try and find it in your heart to give me a chance. I want to be in your life more than you can imagine.”

  “I bet you do.” Jan had heard just about enough. She waited until their tea was served and they told the waitress neither of them wanted anything else. “It’s awfully convenient that you want to be in my life right after you found out about Seth.”

  “You don’t understand,” her mother said, more tears chasing the first one. “I was already coming to find you. That’s how I found out what your sister did—what you were doing for her son. He’s just the icing, sweetheart. I want to be your mother…the one you deserve. You have to believe me.”

  Out of sheer curiosity, Jan had to ask, “Why? What has changed to bring about your great epiphany?”

  Her mother managed a shaky smile. “It wasn’t long after you left that I hit rock bottom. I almost killed myself…passed out and…if the neighbor hadn’t found me...” She folded her hands in her lap. “It was while I was in the hospital, I realized I had thrown my life away. Your father skipped the country. I had no idea where your sister was, or what shape she was in. And I didn’t know what had become of you. I had nobody…and it was of my own doing. Your father broke my heart when he left, but it was my choice alone when I picked up that bottle and took my first drink.” She looked into Jan’s eyes. “The day I was released from the hospital, I checked myself into rehab. I promise you I haven’t touched a single drop of alcohol since.”

  Janet sat and stared at her mother, waiting.

  “I met a man right after I got out of rehab.” Her smile was stronger. “Larry Edwards was the kindest human being on the face of the earth, and he loved me. We were married, and I can’t tell you how happy he made me.” She placed her hand on the table and reached toward Jan. “But I never stopped missing my girls.” Her smile faltered. “Larry passed away—a massive heart attack—six months ago. I just couldn’t live alone any longer. I had…I have to get my family back. They tell me it’s too late for your sister, but I’m hoping it’s not too late for you. And Seth.”

  “Okay. You can see for yourself I’m fine. And you have to know protective services wouldn’t leave Seth with me if I wasn’t providing him with a stable home. You don’t have to take my word for it; you can check with them, or whoever you hired to find us. He’s a healthy, happy, well-loved teenager. He doesn’t want, or need, anything I can’t give him.”

  “Is there ever such a thing as too much love?” Her mother sat straighter, somehow more confident. “I understand his father did…atrocious…things to him. He’s well-loved now, but is the love of his grandmother really a bad thing? I have enough love to give both you and my grandson, if you’ll only let me.”

  Intentionally or not, she had found Jan’s weak spot. Helping make up for all his father had done. “What exactly do you want?” she asked warily.

  “I just want to meet him and be like any grandma. Spend time with him, take him places, buy him things…Larry left me very well off. But most of all, I want to know him.” Her smile was becoming stronger.

  Jan still didn’t know. “How…how can I trust you? I won’t have him go through what I did.”

  The other woman’s smile faded, but then came back stronger. “You can’t yet. You’ll have to be with us all the time, until you see for yourself the kind of person I am now. Then you’ll see…I’m a trustworthy parent and grandparent. Please, Janet Marie, give me the chance.”

  Jan was overwhelmed. “I have to think about all this. It’s too much…you’re asking me for too much. Let me think.” She looked at her mother. Patsy really did seem like a different person than the woman Jan had spent the majority of her life with. And could Jan justify keeping Seth away from somebody who could offer him even more love?

  “Give me your phone number. I’ll call you later this evening. I just need time.”

  Patsy Sellers Edwards, Jan’s mother’s new name, smiled at her. “The fact you’re considering it is more than I deserve. Thank you.” She pulled out a small notepad from her purse and wrote down her phone number before tearing the page out and handing it to Jan.

  Jan started to stand up, but Patsy reached out to stop her. “I want you to know something, Janet. The fact that you’re only twenty-three years old and have been given the responsibility of raising a teenager, only reinforces my belief in the kind of person you are—the kind of person you’ve always been. I know it means absolutely nothing to you right now, but I’m very proud of you.”

  “I’ll call you,” was all Jan could say before she walked around the table and out of the dining room.

  Even before Jan had made it to her car, she knew she had no choice—not when it came right down to it. She had to give her mother a chance. It wasn’t for her benefit, or that of her mother. It was for Seth. And Jan would be there, to watch her mother and make sure she really was the person she claimed to be. If she wasn’t…Jan would protect Seth at any cost.

  For the first time in his playing history, Bo had called a buddy and asked him to fill in at first base during that morning’s game. His mind was too occupied with the mess his life had become to focus on fast-pitch, and he didn’t want to play without his heart being in it.
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br />   After making sure Logan would let Seth know Bo just had something else he needed to do, Bo focused on his house. He could put siding on without having to think too much. At least he was fairly certain he would notice if he started putting the long, gray aluminum strips sideways.

  Liz. How did he feel about her? Their last two “dates” were blue ribbon disasters. He still hadn’t come to terms with not being able to…follow through…with sex after the dinner party. And he hadn’t been the least bit tempted to stay and try again later. He was a robust man with a healthy, sexual appetite that, thanks to his repeated habit of falling asleep during their dates, hadn’t been satisfied in quite a while. It just didn’t make sense.

  Then the zoo. How could she talk to anybody in that tone of voice? Especially an innocent thirteen-year-old boy? He shuddered to think of what else she might have said to Seth if Bo hadn’t returned at that point.

  Maybe he and Liz weren’t working anymore. Maybe he didn’t really know her. Maybe he didn’t even want to.

  And the kiss. He didn’t understand why he kissed Jan like that. They had been working closely together for over a year to make things right for Seth and never acted anything but friendly toward each other. Okay. She was a beautiful woman, and any guy with breath in his lungs would be attracted to her, but that just wasn’t how the two of them were.

  He also couldn’t get his mind off Jan’s mother re-entering the scene. What kind of havoc could the person Jan described wreak on Seth’s life? And what, if anything, could Bo do to help with the situation? There had to be something.

  Bo stewed about his problems all morning as he worked. He was just getting ready to go inside and fix himself a sandwich when he heard pickup trucks roaring down the asphalt road in front of his house. After a familiar, blue pickup came to a stop in Bo’s driveway, Logan and Emily slid out of the driver’s door, and Mason hopped out on the passenger side. Within a few minutes, all eight of his teammates and their girlfriends or wives were there.

  “Heard you might need a little help with your house if you want to live in it before you’re fifty,” Brody Gaines commented. Brody was Jake Landon’s partner in their own law firm and played second base for the Slammers. His fiancée, Abby Michaels, was Emily’s best friend and the woman responsible for setting the chain of events into motion which brought Seth to Jan. She was, therefore, one of Bo’s favorite people.

  “We brought food,” Emily announced, going to the back of Brody’s pickup and pulling down the tailgate. The other women crowded around her, and they were soon busily setting up buckets of chicken and bowls of fixings on the tailgates of a couple of trucks.

  Within minutes, Bo found himself sitting on a stack of concrete blocks, with a plateful of food on his lap and talkative woman on each side of him.

  “So, how’s your Liz and Seth project going?” Emily asked cheerfully.

  “It bites,” he told her candidly.

  “You really have to stop talking to my wife like that,” Logan said as he sat on another stack of blocks. “She’s gonna think you’re coming on to her.”

  “I’m sorry.” Emily ignored her husband’s teasing and focused on Bo. “What happened?”

  Bo shrugged. “Liz just doesn’t like him. And I don’t think there’s anything I can do to change that.”

  “That may very well be true,” Abby observed. “Sometimes, two people just don’t hit it off. You can’t force emotions to develop.”

  “Want some iced tea?” Logan asked the three of them. They all nodded. He stood up and headed back toward the trucks.

  “So, how is Seth?” Emily asked.

  Bo’s brow furrowed. “Jan’s mom has come back into her life after being out of it for quite a while. And I guess when she was in it, things were bad. Now, she’s here because she found out about Seth. Jan was pretty worked up about it last weekend.”

  Abby gave Bo a concerned look. “What’s the story on Grandma?”

  He shook his head and answered. “I don’t know much. She used to drink a lot, but now the agency says she’s been sober for four years. I think Vanessa must have encouraged Jan to accept her mom being back. It has her scared half to death.”

  “She has every right to be worried.” Abby absent-mindedly pushed a stray, blonde curl out of her eyes. “Not because of the drinking. If the agency approved her, you can bet she’s sober. But since Jan’s mother was proven fit, if she can provide a stable home for Seth, she could possibly take him away from Jan.”

  “Take him away from Jan?” Bo couldn’t believe it.

  “Jan’s young age could very well work against her. She might want to be careful how she handles the situation. Having Seth’s grandma visit would be a lot easier than losing him altogether.”

  Bo’s heart had sank to the pit of his stomach at Abby’s words. Jan losing Seth? It couldn’t happen. He would do whatever he had to. He just couldn’t let that happen.

  “So, she’s really my grandma?” Seth asked, his green eyes wide open. “Not like Mrs. Harper?”

  Jan sighed. Since Seth’s mother chose drugs over him when he was barely a toddler, he had no real memories of Peggy. And he just accepted Jan as his aunt from day one, never really asking about his mother. But now, with Patsy in the picture, the whole thing was becoming more and more complicated for the teenager.

  “She is your real grandmother. Just like I’m your real aunt,” she patiently explained.

  “When will she be here?” Seth was definitely excited about meeting Jan’s mother. Patsy better not let him down.

  “In about half an hour.”

  “What does she look like? Is she like you?” he asked. “I mean, nice and funny.” He suddenly sobered. “Will she love me like you do?”

  That did it. Jan would kill her mother if she hurt this boy. “Seth, there is no way on earth anybody could ever know you and not love you. Of course your grandmother will.”

  Seth looked at his feet. “Miss Zimmers doesn’t like me.”

  “Miss Zimmers?” The name sounded familiar to Jan, but she couldn’t quite place it. “Who’s that?”

  He looked up, but didn’t quite make eye contact with her. “Bo’s girlfriend. She doesn’t like me.”

  “Of course she does,” Jan insisted. “What would make you think that?”

  His eyes warily met hers. “Last week at the zoo, she got really mad at me when Bo was getting our drinks. She…she sounded like my dad used to when he…when…”

  Jan hid the sudden fury coursing through her blood. Bo’s girlfriend had been verbally abusive toward Seth?

  “What did Bo do?” she asked, barely able to maintain an even voice.

  “He got mad and brought me home. We’re gonna go again sometime. He said this week, but now my grandma’s coming.” If Liz Zimmers had been within spitting distance, she would have been the recipient of a furious aunt’s unpent anger. Instead, Jan walked over and reached up to frame her nephew’s face and pull him down to her eye level.

  “I wish you had told me about this before, Seth. It’s never okay for anybody—I don’t care who—to speak to you like that. You need to tell me if it happens so I can take care of it. Taking care of you is my job now, remember?”

  He gave her a hug before standing straight. “It was my fault, though.”

  “How could it ever be your fault?” They should have had this talk last Sunday.

  “She was mad ‘cause I talked about you too much. If I’d have talked about other stuff, or just kept my mouth shut, she wouldn’t have got mad. Then Bo wouldn’t have had to bring me home early.” Seth looked heartbroken.

  Praying for the right words and ability to hold her temper in check, she spoke as calmly as she could. “Seth, you have the right to say whatever you want unless it’s intentionally hurting somebody else’s feelings. Even then, she could have asked you nicely for an apology or to stop. She…nobody is allowed to hurt you with words—ever again. Do you understand me?”

  His smile slowly returned. “I love
you, Aunt Jan.”

  “I love you more, Seth.” She reached out and gave him a quick hug. “Now, why don’t you go make sure your room looks nice so you can show it to your grandma when she gets here? I have a phone call to make.”

  “Okay.” The mere mention of his grandmother’s visit was enough to bring his grin back in full force. She stood there and watched as his long legs carried him down the hall to his room.

  She picked up her cell phone and carried it to the front porch, where there wasn’t a chance of Seth overhearing her conversation. Even though she managed to hide it from her nephew, she was still very angry.

  She pressed speed dial three. He answered on the second ring.

  “So, Seth tells me your girlfriend was less than friendly with him last Sunday. I’d like to know why I’m just now hearing about this, Bo.” She could hear her barely contained anger.

  “I took care of it.” He spoke in a placating voice. “It won’t happen again.”

  It took every ounce of her strength not to fall back on an old habit, but she managed to spit the words out. “You bet your behind it won’t happen again! He told me she sounded like his dad! Did you know that? She reminded him of his father, Bo! How could you not have told me about something that important? And he was still upset about it today! So I don’t think you handled it as well as you thought you did, do you?” She had never lost her temper with Bo before, but he had gone too far this time. When all was said and done, this was her nephew they were speaking about.

  He didn’t say anything for a few moments before he answered.

  “I didn’t have any idea he felt like that. I only heard a little of what she said, and I didn’t like it. I took her home and brought him to you. I thought he knew I was on his side. I’d never let anybody hurt him.” Bo sounded miserable.

  It did little to calm Jan’s anger. “There is no excuse—no excuse—for not telling me. I could have talked to him last Sunday right after it happened. Do you realize it’s been bothering him all week? He thought it was his own fault because he dared to talk about me too much in her royal majesty’s presence! And I know it won’t ever happen again, because the day I let you take him with her will be the day the sun sets in the east!” She was as close to tears as she had been the week before.