The Parent Trap

by Lee McKenzie

  Kate and Casey quickly exchanged glances across the table. Their mutual plan to get their parents together was their secret, and they’d also sworn not to tell anyone about the kiss.

  Kate shrugged. “I don’t think it’s weird. I mean, our families live next door to each other. Our parents are both single and they were both chaperoning tonight—” Which was also something she and Casey had instigated. The best part was that it seemed to be working. Casey would almost certainly get to keep the dog. Kate’s dad had changed his mind about letting her go back to help at To the Nines, and she was sure Sarah had a lot to do with that. He let her come here tonight with her friends, something he almost certainly wouldn’t have done a week ago. If she had to guess, she’d say their parents were together right now, and the more time they spent together, the easier her life was going to be.

  Life would be even better if Henry would make the first move. Any move, aside from agreeing to share a vegetarian pizza with her.

  The pies arrived, the three huge plates taking up most of the table, so Henry had to move his arms, and the other guys needed both hands to grab slices and break the long strings of melted cheese that pulled away with them.

  As the pizzas disappeared and the soft drinks were refilled, she started to relax. During her first week at SBH she’d been homesick, missing her friends in the city like crazy. Now it was impossible to believe she’d been in Serenity Bay for less than a month, had made friends, even had an almost-boyfriend. Her dad was happier, too, and that made life easier for both of them.

  After a second slice, she wiped her hands on a paper napkin, crumpled it on her plate and let her hands drop to the seat beside her.

  “Had enough?” Henry asked.

  “I’m stuffed. Couldn’t eat another bite. Have the rest if you’d like.”

  “Thanks, but I’m done, too.” He dropped his napkin and leaned back against the seat, his shoulder touching hers.

  Alycia was snuggled under Brody’s arm again. Dex’s arm was on the back of the seat again, but the tips of his fingers had strayed to Casey’s shoulder. Lucky girls.

  She moved her hands to her lap but before she could lace her fingers together, Henry’s hand was on hers, pulling it back onto the seat between them, covering it with his. Instead of the out-in-the-open, arm-around-the-shoulder displays by the other boys, Henry’s under-the-table hand-holding was just between them. Something no else could see, which made it even more special.

  She gave him a quick sideways glance and smiled. He responded with a gentle squeeze of her hand, a slightly crooked grin and a flash of perfect white teeth. Her heart or something in her chest actually fluttered.

  Finally, she thought. Lucky me.

  * * *

  IN HER KITCHEN, Sarah brewed a pot of coffee—decaf, she decided, given the late hour—while Jonathan took the dog out to the backyard. She pulled a pair of red mugs from a cupboard, set them on the counter next to the coffeemaker, and took out cream and sugar. She hunted through cupboards for something to serve with the coffee but all she could find were half a box of soda crackers, a bag of pretzels and Casey’s stash of microwave popcorn. She was ready to give up when she remembered the box of After Eight chocolates she’d tucked away somewhere...aha. There they were. She tossed a handful into a small bowl.

  Jonathan and Petey returned via the deck doors and she closed and locked them while he unleashed the exuberant little mutt.

  Jonathan dropped the leash into the basket next to the door. “He’s quite a character.”

  “He’s that, all right. And of course Casey is completely and madly in love with him.”

  “But you’re not?” He leaned an elbow on the counter and angled his head as though wanting to see if her expression matched her reply.

  She sighed. “I’m kind of smitten, too. Stay down,” she scolded the dog when he tried to jump up on her pant leg. “Your paws are all wet from the grass.”

  “Do you have a towel for him? I can dry him off while we wait for the coffee to brew.”

  “Thanks. It should be in that basket under the leash.”

  She watched him carefully and gently wipe the dog’s paws. Petey, who seemed happy with any kind of attention anyone was willing to give him, tolerated that, then dashed through the house as soon as his feet were dry. He returned with a squeaker toy as Sarah poured coffee and handed a mug to Jonathan.

  “Let’s go sit in the living room.”

  “Sure.”

  She followed him with her coffee and the bowl of chocolates and waited while he sat at one end of the sofa and patted the seat next to him. Exactly what she’d hoped he would do. She set the bowl on the coffee table and settled next to him, liking that this felt so easy and so right.

  He held his coffee with one hand, using the other to draw her even closer.

  She fought a yawn and failed. “This has been a really long day.”

  “It sure has. I was up and out for a run by six this morning.”

  I know you were. She still watched for him, which made her completely pathetic on so many levels, but she simply couldn’t resist.

  Petey jumped onto the sofa and curled up next to her.

  “Since you and your daughter are so fond of this little guy, have you decided what you’ll do when the shelter reopens?”

  Sarah sighed. “I’m pretty sure we’re going to keep him.”

  “That’s not a surprise. Have you told Casey?”

  “Not yet. I thought I’d hold off as long as possible, in case she changes her mind.”

  Jonathan laughed. “You think there’s a chance that might happen?”

  “Not even a remote one. It’s mostly me, wanting to postpone the commitment as long as possible.”

  “I see.”

  After that they sipped their coffee in silence and Sarah let herself relax against his solid warmth. At some point she was vaguely aware of him removing the mug from her hand and setting it on the end table. Coffee and calm, she thought. Exactly what she needed, except now it was just calm. Even better.

  “Sarah?”

  She jolted awake, instantly aware of him next to her, stroking her hair.

  “Oh! Did I fall asleep?”

  “Yes, you did.”

  She sat up, straightening her clothes as she did. “I’m so sorry. You should have woken me up.”

  He smiled down at her. “I just did.”

  “Oh. What time is it? How long was I asleep?”

  “Maybe twenty minutes. Now it’s time to pick up the kids.”

  “Right.” She jumped up, feeling disoriented, a little wobbly even.

  He stood, too, and held her steady. “Take it easy,” he said. “We have plenty of time.”

  They did? Oh, yes they did, she thought, realizing he was going to kiss her. Falling asleep on his shoulder might have been what she needed, but this was what she wanted. His hands holding her face, his lips on hers, firm, warm, with a hint of coffee and mint.

  “Thank you,” he said when he released her.

  “For what?”

  “For tonight, the dance, the coffee...this.” He kissed her again, lightly this time.

  “Oh. You’re welcome.”

  “We should go.”

  “We should.”

  But they didn’t. She leaned against him instead and they wrapped their arms around each other and for a full minute, maybe more, she simply let herself be. If they continued like this, would he eventually expect more? Probably. Of course he would. They enjoyed each other’s company and they definitely had chemistry, but for now that was enough for her and it would have to be enough for him, too.

  She tipped her head up to look at him. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For taking it slow, not being annoyed that I fell a
sleep on you, not pressuring me into something I’m not ready for.”

  “My pleasure.” There was a good-humored sparkle in his eyes and in his smile. “And now we really should go.”

  They went through the foyer and put on the boots, shoes and jackets they’d shed when they came in. By the time she stepped out into the cool nighttime air, she was fully awake. They still needed both cars since neither could accommodate all six teens. Again, Jonathan let her go ahead, and again seeing his headlights behind her made her feel watched over, safe.

  “Slow down,” she said to her reflection. And she wasn’t referring to the speed limit. In the past she’d made the mistake of rushing into something that had felt right but wasn’t. This time she would do things her way, and at her own pace.

  * * *

  THE MORNING AFTER the school dance, Jonathan was up at his usual early hour. Sometime overnight the fog had rolled in. From the deck he could barely make out the rooftops of the houses one street below, and he already knew from experience that it was even denser by the water. He would postpone his run, he decided, and do some things around the house instead. There were still a few boxes in the garage that needed to be unpacked, bathrooms to clean—he and Kate took turns with those and he was on deck for that—and the kitchen floor wasn’t going to mop itself.

  He also needed to figure out what to make for dinner that night. Better question, should they invite Sarah and Casey to join them? Saturday night pizza was a tradition of theirs, but since the girls had pizza last night, maybe they’d prefer something else. They had eaten dinner before the dance here, though. Maybe two nights in a row was too much? Or...

  He could fix something for the girls to have at home and take Sarah out for dinner. Most of the time they’d spent together had been with the girls or out looking for the girls. A real date sounded like a good idea. Not that he had any expectations.

  Last night, her comment about not wanting to make a commitment to the dog had hit its mark, even though he was sure she hadn’t intended it that way. But he was smart enough to know that if she wasn’t ready to commit to a dog, she sure wasn’t going to commit to him after just a few weeks. Then she’d settled next to him on the sofa and within minutes she had relaxed and fallen asleep. He would never forget the feeling of holding her, listening to the soft sound of her breathing, shallow and even. He could have stayed there forever, or at least until his arm fell asleep, and when it was time to pick up the girls and their friends, he had hated to wake her.

  And then, after they’d kissed, when she’d leaned in for a hug before they’d left to pick up the kids, he knew. This was it. This time it was really real. She was the one. She had thanked him for taking it slow and he’d decided right then and there that she could have all the time she needed because this time, for her, he had all the time in the world.

  He had cleaned the upstairs bathrooms and the downstairs powder room and was about to start on the kitchen floor when the doorbell rang. It was just after nine on a Saturday morning.

  “Who could this be?” he wondered, making his way through the house. Kate was still asleep and he would hazard a guess that all of her friends were, too. Maybe it was Sarah?

  He whipped the door open and was surprised to see a courier.

  “I have a package for Jonathan Marshall.”

  “That’s me.”

  “Sign here, sir.”

  He scrawled his signature on the handheld screen and returned the stylus to the driver, who handed over the envelope in exchange.

  Puzzling over who would send him something by courier, he shut the door and studied the package on his way back to the kitchen. It was from a law firm in Vancouver.

  The law firm that had represented Georgette during the divorce.

  A sick feeling pooled in his gut.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  JONATHAN TOSSED THE envelope onto the kitchen island, poured himself a cup of coffee and sat sipping it while he studied the return address some more.

  “Maybe it’s not that bad.”

  Right. When had Georgette’s lawyer ever delivered good news? That would be never. One thing was clear, though. He wouldn’t know until he opened it.

  “Like ripping off a bandage,” he muttered to himself, as he tore the tab off the packet and pulled out a thin sheaf of documents. The top sheet was an application to change an existing court order. In the case between Georgette Ogilvie and Jonathan Marshall...

  She had filed an application to the court, asking to have the existing custody agreement canceled—a copy of which was attached—and grant full custody to her. He slammed the pages onto the counter.

  What was she thinking?

  When she’d moved to Europe, she hadn’t wanted to have Kate with her. She and Xavier had a busy schedule, traveling from country to country. At the time she had agreed that her lifestyle didn’t provide a stable environment for a young teen. So now...what? Had she had a change of heart? Was she punishing him? Trying to ruin Kate’s life because the kid had made one stupid mistake?

  And what had he been thinking that night?

  He never should have called Georgette, plain and simple. He understood where Sarah had been coming from, but he should have gone with his gut. Sarah didn’t know Georgette. He did.

  He grabbed his phone and brought up Georgette’s number. “We’ll just see about this.”

  “Hello, Jon. Or should I say buongiorno. Is everything okay?” She’d put on her old news anchor voice, smooth as silk and sticky as a spider’s web.

  “I was going to ask you the same thing. I just received a package from your lawyer.”

  “Oh, you have it already. Good. I asked him if I should call you, let you know it was on its way, but he advised against that.”

  Of course he did. Much better for Jon to be completely blindsided.

  He stood at the sliding doors, stared into the distance without fully registering the fog-draped trees and rooftops below. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because you’re obviously not up to the task of raising a rebellious teenager.”

  “She’s not rebellious. She’s fitting in well, she’s already made new friends, her grades are good.” What more could either of them ask?

  “Jon, you’re not being reasonable. Just the other day she ran away and had to be picked up by the police. Can you imagine how I felt, knowing that my daughter was sitting in a jail cell?”

  And here comes the drama. “Our daughter was not in a cell. Kate and her friend were sitting in an office drinking sodas when we arrived.”

  “How wonderful for them. Sounds like a real party. The bottom line is that she’s obviously not getting the supervision she needs. So we—Xavier and I—talked it over and decided the best thing for everyone is for Kate to come over here to go to school.”

  He nearly dropped the phone on the floor, which was right about where his jaw was. “Last weekend you said you were in London.” Judging by the way she’d answered his call, this week it was Milan. “Where are you this week? Italy? How’s she supposed to attend school on that kind of schedule?”

  “She won’t be traveling with us, except on holidays. There are lots of excellent English-speaking boarding schools over here. Italy, France, Switzerland, they all have them. She’ll meet interesting people, learn new languages. She’ll be better prepared for a successful career and she’ll certainly see more of the world than if she stays in some poky little west coast town no one’s ever heard of.”

  Boarding school? Boarding school? Now he wanted to throw the phone against the wall.

  “There’s nothing wrong with Serenity Bay. And lots of kids raised in small towns go on to have successful careers.” He stopped himself before he pointed out that she was one of them.

  “At least this way I’ll be able to see her once in a while since she�
�s stopped taking my calls.”

  That was news to him. Kate habitually checked her phone to see if her mother had called or sent a text message. Although now that he thought about it, he hadn’t noticed so much of that this week.

  “When did you call? Maybe she was in class.”

  “I’m perfectly well aware of the time difference and I can figure out when she’s at school. I’ve called three or four times—mornings and evenings—and she never picks up.”

  Huh. Kate hadn’t mentioned that, but after their heart-to-heart on Monday evening, he had a better understanding of how she felt about her relationship with her mother.

  “I wish you had called me. I would have talked to her.”

  “Really? It seemed pretty obvious that you were behind this.”

  She knew very well he’d never done anything of the sort, and now she was trying to use this against him? Heaven help him keep his cool.

  “I have never done that, Georgette. I’ve always encouraged you to call anytime you like, and there’ve been times—” No. He wouldn’t say it. There had been times when Kate had waited to hear from her mother and he had gone out of his way to reassure her. Georgette had a lot of nerve trying to turn the tables on this, but that didn’t mean he needed to lower himself to her level.

  “Well, whatever,” she said. “We shouldn’t be talking about this anyway. My lawyer told me to let him handle it.”

  “We’re her parents. Of course we need to talk about this, and we should talk to Kate, too. Find out what she wants.” And they should be able to discuss this like rational human beings instead of paying lawyers money that could be better spent. Like on Kate’s college tuition.

  “These are adult decisions. Kate is too young to be dragged into this.”

  Seriously? Right now Kate seemed more like an adult than her mother. “You don’t think a judge will want to talk to her?”

  Judges did do that, didn’t they? It hadn’t been an issue the first time because Georgette had willingly signed over full custody to him.

  “I believe any judge will think I have the best solution to this problem. I can easily afford the best boarding school where she’ll be monitored twenty-four/seven instead of being left unsupervised and getting into trouble with the law.”