“Please listen, Jan.” Bo’s voice was soft. “I brought him home from the zoo early, remember? You were sitting on the swing, upset about your mother. I was going to tell you what happened, but after you told me about Seth’s grandma and how much you were worried, I guess I forgot. Then by the time I remembered, I figured since you hadn’t called, Seth must have been okay. I didn’t want to upset you any more than you already were.” He paused. “I’m sorry. Please don’t take Seth away from me. I’ll keep Liz away from him. Just don’t take him away from me.”
Jan deflated. “I could never do that to Seth.” But she couldn’t look at Bo the same. “I think our family Sundays are over. You can spend the mornings with him, and he can come home before your evenings with…her. I just can’t handle this drama with my mother back in the picture, Bo. You wanted things changed. That’s how I’m changing them.”
“I didn’t want our Sundays changed—not all of them. I told you I’ll give up trying to get the two of them together. Seth needs our family Sundays.”
And there it was. “Why? We’re not even a real family, are we?”
There was a moment of silence, then, “No, I guess we’re not.”
“I have to go. My mother will be here soon. You’ll have to check with me later about ball practice Tuesday night. I don’t know what will come of her visit.” She disconnected before he could reply.
She had barely collected her thoughts when a late model, silver sedan pulled into the driveway and her mother got out. Why had she gone ahead and called Bo? She should have waited until after her mother’s visit. She would just have to push their conversation out of her mind. It didn’t matter, anyway. Like she told him, they weren’t really a family. She just wished that thought didn’t make her want to cry.
“You have a nice house, Janet,” her mother said as she walked up the steps.
“Thank you.” Jan wanted to speak with the woman before she met Seth. “Seth has high expectations, Mother. I’m asking you—please don’t let him down. He’s been let down too much in his life already. If you don’t think you can be the kind of grandmother he needs, just get in the car and drive away. I’ll tell him it was a mistake. Just please be sure you’re not going to hurt him.”
Patsy sat beside Jan on the swing. “I promise you I will be here for you and Seth through thick and thin from now on, if you let me. I’m not perfect, Janet, but I’m going to do my best to show you both I love you. I won’t ever do anything to hurt either of you. Like I told you, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Just watch me, and give me time to show you. I’m a changed woman.”
“Aunt Jan, is she…? Seth’s words petered off as he ran out the door and saw his grandmother. Then he grinned at her. “Are you my grandma?”
Jan watched as her mother stood up, tears now running down her face. “Yes, Seth. I’m your grandma. You are such a handsome young man. And so big!”
Seth beamed. “I eat a lot of food. Aunt Jan’s a good cook. Want to see my room? I just picked up my dirty clothes and made my bed. Aunt Jan bought me some Avengers posters and helped me fix my room up. She even made me some curtains with a 3-D Hulk on them.”
“I’d love to see your room, if that’s okay with Janet.” Patsy looked at her daughter questioningly.
Jan sighed and nodded. She wasn’t going to put a damper on her nephew’s enthusiasm.
She slowly followed the jabbering teenager and woman into the house and watched him lead Patsy down the hall to his room. Deciding Seth was safe enough in his own home, she went to the kitchen and started to put the toppings on the pizza crust she had left to rise. Seth wanted her homemade pizza for lunch with his grandma.
A few minutes later, the two of them walked into the kitchen. Jan’s mother was laughing at something Seth had said.
“You mean, the scientist’s pants never rip apart when he turns into that monster?” she asked.
“Nope,” Seth answered. “He loses everything but his britches!”
Jan couldn’t help but smile. She had asked Seth and Bo the very same question after they dragged her to the movie on a family Sunday. After they returned home, and while Seth was distracted for a few minutes, Bo teased her about whether or not she might have wanted the Hulk’s pants to rip off. She tossed some leftover popcorn at him and started a free-for-all food fight that took the three of them a good half-hour to clean up.
She stopped spreading the slices of pepperoni as she remembered telling Bo their family Sundays were over. How was Seth going to feel about that?
“Can I do anything to help with lunch?” her mother politely asked.
“No, thank you,” she responded. “Seth asked me to make a pizza, and since it’s one of his favorites, I can just about do it in my sleep.”
Patsy smiled warmly at her. “He seems happy,” she quietly commented.
Jan looked at Seth, who was getting himself a glass of milk, and nodded. “He is.”
“Seth, have you shown your grandmother your brothers?” she asked.
“Brothers?” That surprised her mother.
Seth’s grin spread from ear to ear. “I have special brothers!” he exclaimed. “Just a minute, Grandma.” He ran from the room.
“Did you hear that?” Patsy put her hand over her heart. “He just called me grandma.” Tears were once more running down her face as she sank onto a chair.
“He wants to love you, and he needs you to love him. I told you that,” Jan reminded her just as Seth ran back into the room.
“Here, Grandma. Look!” He held out an eleven by thirteen framed photograph of twelve boys and twelve men as he plopped onto the chair next to hers. “These are all my brothers.” He indicated each one of them as he told her who they were. “This one here with the blonde buzz cut is Kaleb. He just moved to Michigan. His big brother is Paul Findley, that guy with the brown hair. Paul’s a derma…how do you say that, Aunt Jan?”
“Dermatologist,” she supplied.
“Yeah, he’s one of those.” Seth went on. “And this big boy here with the black hair is Emmett. His big brother is the guy with the blonde ponytail. Ain’t he big? His name is Fletcher Danning. Kent is the one who…Aunt Jan says likes to eat a lot.” He grinned. Jan had told him it wasn’t nice to call Kent chubby. “His big brother is Pastor Rhinehart.” He then indicated another boy. “This guy is Andy. Mrs. Taylor says he’s the poster boy for attending school or somethin’.” Jan bit back a grin. Bo told her Andy was a sweet kid, but not exactly a genius. “His big brother is Colton Rennard. He works with Bo at Taylor, and plays shortstop for the Slammers.”
“Slammers?” his grandmother asked.
“Simpson’s Slammers is the best fast-pitch softball team in the state,” Seth proudly proclaimed.
“Oh.”
Seth happily went back to the picture. “This is Duncan. His big brother is Jake Landon. Jake’s a lawyer, and he plays right field for the Slammers. I get to cover his spot for him sometimes at practice when he’s busy at work.” As far as Jan knew, he’d only covered for Jake a couple of times, but Seth loved it. “Danny here is Matt Newman’s little brother. Matt owns Newman’s Hardware store. Right, Aunt Jan?” Jan nodded as she continued spreading mushrooms on the pizza. “He plays center field for the Slammers. Then there’s Austin. That tall, skinny guy with red hair like mine is Jesse Rogers. He’s the tallest guy on the team, and Bo says I might mess around and get as tall as him before I stop growin’. He’s six-five. He works at the hardware store and plays left field. They even call him Stringbean. I think it would be cool to have a nickname like that.”
“Stringbean?” Patsy asked. “He certainly is a skinny enough man.”
“That little bitty guy is Ryan. His big brother is Cooper Grayson. Coop works with Bo at Taylor, and he plays third base. Can you see his hair, Grandma? It looks white, but it’s really yellow. It just looks like that cause he keeps it so short.” He snickered. “See the great big African-American boy with the blonde man?” Patsy nodded. “That
’s Luke and his little ‘big brother’ Brody Gaines. Brody is a lawyer with Jake, and he plays second base. His finance…fi.”
“Fiancée,” Jan supplied.
“Yeah, that…her name is Abby, and she has to watch real careful at games ‘cause women like Brody. They try to touch him, but he doesn’t let them, and she gets mad and calls them names like—”
“Go on with the picture, please, Seth. We’ve talked about Abby and Brody before. Those women who bother him aren’t very nice, and it’s none of our business when Brody or Abby has to act mean.” Jan found it more than a little uncomfortable to explain why the women wanted to flock around a very happily engaged Brody Gaines, and why neither he nor his fiancée, Abby Michaels, appreciated it. Since Bo had been busy in the dugout, he wasn’t there to answer the awkward questions that time.
Seth resumed his identification of the people in the photograph. “That boy right there is Spencer. The man with the beard is his big brother, Mason Wright. He’s the foreman at Taylor, where Bo works, and he catches for the Slammers. He’s kind of Bo’s boss, but he’s more a buddy to Bo than anything else. This boy here is my best friend, Trevor Ryman.” He proudly pointed to the tall young man with long, black hair. “His big brother is Bo’s real boss, Logan Taylor. He’s the pitcher, and he’s great. He gets together with Bo, and we all go fishin’ sometimes.”
“Bo?” his grandma asked. “You keep talking about Bo. Who is he?”
“Oh!” Seth’s grin could have split his face. “He’s mine and Aunt Jan’s, ain’t he, Aunt Jan?” He pointed to the big man he adored. “He takes me lots of places, and we have family days on Sundays, when we go to the movies, or the park, or play games. He’s the best first baseman in the world. He’s the best at everything, and I want to be just like him when I grow up!”
“Is that so?” Patsy looked from the picture of Bo to her daughter. Jan felt her face flush. What did her mother think after listening to Seth sing Bo’s praises?
The phone rang.
“Seth, will you answer that, please?” Jan asked. “I need to put the pizza in the oven.”
Seth ran into the living room, and was back before Jan had barely opened the oven door.
“Aunt Jan, I need to run over to Mrs. Harper’s for a minute. She wants a box of letters carried down from the attic real quick. I’ll be right back.” He leaned over and gave his grandmother a kiss on the cheek, leaving her stunned, before giving Jan a quick hug and heading out the back door.
Jan slid the pizza into the oven and turned to look at her mother. Patsy was sitting at the table with her hand over the spot Seth had kissed.
“He loves that easily?” she asked disbelievingly.
Janet gravely nodded. “That’s why I told you not to hurt him. Surely you can see how easy it would be to do that now that you’ve met him. He opens his heart.”
“What a gift you have in him.” Her mother seemed awed. Then she looked at Jan, an earnest expression on her face. “I have to confess something to you, Janet.”
And there it was. Jan had known this was all too good to be true. “What?”
“I…when I came here, I expected…well, I don’t know what I expected, but I just didn’t see how you could be providing Seth with everything he needs.”
Jan started to object, her temper close at hand.
“Wait a minute,” Patsy insisted. “You surprised me. You’re meeting all of his needs. And even the one thing I was the most worried about—a male role model—you’ve given him that.”
Jan breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t going to have to argue over whether she could provide for Seth. “Bo is great with Seth.”
“And from the sound of things, he loves you both very much.”
“What?” It was Jan’s turn to be surprised.
“If you didn’t have a steady boyfriend, I’d be worried about a woman your age trying to raise a teenager.” Her mother looked at the photo, undoubtedly studying Bo. “But I can tell just from what Seth said, the two of you are pretty serious. Family days? And here I am, causing you to miss one. Why isn’t he here?”
Jan’s mind raced. How much trouble could her mother actually make for her if she decided to? Yet, here she was, giving her an easy out. If Bo was her boyfriend—if her mother thought Bo was her boyfriend, she would be satisfied. Jan would have to give in and go back to family Sundays again, but nothing else would really have to change. Bo wouldn’t even have to know. Her mother would see Bo interact with Seth and be content.
“He wanted to give the three of us some time to get to know each other before he was added to the mix.” A twinge of guilt struck her. Jan wasn’t by nature a liar, and it didn’t sit well with her at all to tell one. But even the slightest possibility of losing Seth was a risk she just wasn’t willing to take.
“I can’t wait to meet him.” Her mother was enthused. “He’s obviously already had a positive impact on Seth’s life.”
“Just be sure you do…please,” Jan requested.
“I promise you, I will.”
“I’m back. Want to see my baseball pictures, Grandma?” Seth had walked in through the back door, already talking a mile a minute.
“I’d like to see anything you want to show me,” his grandmother assured him. “As long as your aunt doesn’t mind.”
“Is it okay, Aunt Jan?”
Jan looked from her nephew’s face to her mother’s equally excited expression. What could she do? They were already bonding. “You know where the photo albums are,” she told him.
She turned to the refrigerator and opened it. She was going to pull the makings of a lettuce salad out as soon as her eyes cleared enough for her to see what she was picking up. It was already too late. Seth had opened his heart to his grandmother.
Was this what Sundays were going to be like from now on? Bo was listless. It was one o’clock in the afternoon. Right around this time, he and Jan would normally be taking Seth to the movies or arcade. He planned to take both of them to the zoo this week, but even if Jan hadn’t just ended their family Sundays, her mother was there.
The truth hit him square in the face. Intentional or not, the three of them had become a family of sorts, at least in his eyes. And he had taken Jan and Seth for granted during the past year.
He really overstepped his bounds by not telling Jan about Liz’s actions, though. When Jan told him how badly Seth was hurt, it made Bo angry at Liz all over again. Her words, or maybe just her tone of voice, reminded the teenager of the horror his father put him through. No wonder Jan was furious with him.
He should have called her first thing Monday morning. He had only needed to contact her at work a few times during the past year, but she never minded because it was always something to do with Seth. She would have undoubtedly taken off early and gone home to deal with it. Seth wouldn’t have held his pain back all week. Jan was right. He should have told her, plain and simple. Now he was going to pay the price by losing their “family.”
A familiar red convertible pulled into Bo’s driveway. He ignored Liz and lifted another stack of flooring to carry in. He was finishing the hardwood floor in his dining room.
“Bo?” She was suddenly beside him. “I haven’t heard from you all week. Please forgive me. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”
Bo slowly set his bundle down and turned to face her. “It isn’t me you need to make it up to. And I don’t think you can say or do anything that would make it right with Seth. You hurt an innocent, thirteen-year-old boy with your cruel words, Liz.”
“I know I hurt his feelings, but surely you can see my side,” she whimpered. “You already spend so much time with that boy and his aunt, I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to him carry on about her all day. I was just asking him to stop.”
“Honey, if that was your way of asking, I’d sure hate to hear you demand anything.” Bo felt only disgust for the simpering woman’s excuse. “And if you wanted to be mad at somebody for carrying on about Jan, I believe
I mentioned her a time or two, myself.”
She reached out and tried to take his arm, but he shook her off. “You made me lose something mighty important to me.”
“But don’t you see, Bo? You don’t have to lose us. We can still make this work.”
He looked at her with disbelief. “Believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve around Liz Zimmers. I wasn’t talking about losing us. I’m not sure there’s even an ‘us’ to lose. I’m not sure if there ever really was.”
Liz shook her head. “I don’t understand, then. What did I cause you to lose?”
“Because of what you did and what I didn’t do about it, I’ve lost time spent with Seth and Jan. What do you think I’m doin’ here working on my house, when I should be taking them somewhere and enjoying myself?”
Her confusion turned to anger. “You’re mad at me because I caused you to lose time with another woman?”
He shook his head and leaned down to pick up the flooring. “You just don’t get it, do you? It’s not about Jan. It’s not just about Seth. It’s about the three of us—this one day a week. We were a family for one measly day a week—for a boy who grew up without one. You’ve destroyed that. Are you happy?”
She immediately began cajoling him. “If your Sundays are free, you and I can have more time together. Why don’t we go into your trailer, and I’ll make sure you’re really happy?” She dropped her hand from his arm to the front of his pants.
Bo jerked away from her. “Like I said, you just don’t get it. And I mean that in more than one way.” He turned and walked away from her.
“You’ll change your mind, Bo. You’ll want me back. I know it, and you know it. You can be angry with me for a while, but you’ll call me later. I know you will.”
Just Practicing (Hearts for Ransom Book 2) Page 6
