The Switch

by Heather Justesen

  “Thanks.” Tia opened the book and began paging through it.

  “So what degree did you get?”

  “What?” Tia hadn’t been listening.

  “In school, to get your reporting job. What degree did you get? And how did you get hired on?”

  “I went to The Culinary Center of Kansas City. I do the cooking segment every weekday.” She stopped at yet another list of birth announcements and grinned when she hit pay dirt.

  “You’re a cook? You aren’t a news reporter?” Disappointment filled her voice.

  “Right.” Tia pulled out her notebook even as she scanned the page to her birth date, then sighed when she found six other couples who had given birth to a girl that day. Seriously? Then, only remembering her mother had stated she was born in the middle of the night, and not remembering what time, she wrote down the parents who were listed for the day before and the day after. Fourteen possible names, but some of them would be eliminated, most likely, depending on when she was born.

  “So how did you get the job?” The intern eyed her warily.

  “I applied and got a lucky break.” Tia snapped her notebook shut. “Thanks for your help.” As she left, her mind buzzed with everything she needed to do, the searches she would have to make. Would any of these people still live in the area? And how many duplicate names would she have to pick through?

  Tia wasn’t even out to her car before she speed dialed her mother.

  “Hey, Mom, what time of day was I born?”

  When she got off the phone a few minutes later, she crossed all of the births the day after hers off the list. Down to ten.

  Fifteen

  A few hours later Tia answered the phone to find Danny on the line. “That was a nice mention of our cook-off today,” he said after they exchanged greetings.

  “I’m glad you liked it. Did it bring any attention? Any sign-ups? My boss loved the idea of featuring the winner and their recipe on the show.” She pulled into the parking lot at Samantha’s school. Sometimes she thought she didn’t do anything but cook and chase kids all day.

  “About ten more teams signed up. We now have eighteen.”

  “Great! I had the web gal add a note about it on the web page where they feature my recipes. It’ll run until the competition. The station is behind you guys, one-hundred percent!”

  “And we appreciate it.” There was a small pause. “I wondered if I could take you out to say thank you.”

  “I know Samantha would love to see you again,” Tia maneuvered into a prime spot and did a little dance in her seat at the location. Her mind was still half on her search and what lay ahead of her.

  “Actually, I meant just you.”

  Tia turned her full attention on him as she processed what he’d said. Though she was cautious, she also felt a little trill of excitement at his invitation. “You mean like a date?”

  “Yes, exactly like a date. I thought you might talk Nichole into taking the girls for a couple of hours. We can grab some dinner where the conversation doesn’t revolve around what the other kids did on the playground.”

  “I thought you liked my girls.” Had his interest in them been feigned? Had they been obnoxious? Samantha did have a habit of monopolizing him.

  “I do like them. Samantha has me completely wrapped around her finger and Tristi’s a joy, but I still want to spend more time alone with their mother.” Loud beeping came over the line and he muttered something. “Sorry, I’ve got to go. Ambulance pager. I’ll call back later. Will you think about it?”

  “Yeah. I will.” She sighed as he hung up. There was no question of what she wanted—she wanted to get to know him better. So why was she hesitating? It wasn’t like they hadn’t been alone before. Some of their time together had been very date-like.

  She smiled and waved when she caught sight of Samantha barreling toward her car. There would be time to worry about Danny’s invitation later, and she had no good reason not to take a chance with him. She thought the excitement of the relationship might be worth any trouble or struggles it brought her.

  * * *

  A few days rushed by as Tia tried to keep up with her normal life. Danny called and they set a date for Saturday night. Samantha had dance classes and piano lessons and Tia let the information she’d gathered from her visit to the newspaper collate in her mind before rushing out to do anything with it.

  Thursday after the kids went down for bed, Tia turned on her computer and began a search on the other families. She had ten families to research, and she wasn’t sure how much she could find online. She didn’t have any of the names of the other women who were born when she was, so she would have to start with the parents. The question was whether or not she’d be able to narrow down the possibilities. She may come up with multiple couples with the same names, or she might find nothing at all on some of them. If the parents had been divorced like hers, that would add even more difficulties to the search.

  The first names were Robert and Janice Monroe. She pulled out a notebook and began taking notes. After an hour she’d verified there were three couples with those names. One couple was too old to be a likely choice, and Janice had passed away the previous year.

  Another couple had only boys—according to a short bio on Robert. She couldn’t completely rule them out. If their daughter had died young, she wasn’t likely to be mentioned in the bio. The third one actually brought up a family picture—they and their two children all had very dark hair, and shared a remarkable family resemblance. With a little more digging she was able to find the names of the daughters. An hour later she verified one of them was born in Kansas City the same year as Tia.

  Though she couldn’t cross the other names off the list entirely, she put a note next to the family’s info, marked them as unlikely swaps, and closed up for the night.

  * * *

  “So how’s the search going?” Danny asked Tia as they sat across from each other in the Mexican restaurant. He had started to wonder if he’d ever get her there, between haggling over a night they could both go, and the list of do’s and don’t’s for the babysitter.

  “Slow.” Tia dipped a tortilla chip into the salsa in front of her, playing with it. “I’ve researched a couple names. I’m fairly certain I found the right family for the Monroes, but the Ibsons are more elusive.”

  “It’s not easy, is it?”

  “No. I hadn’t thought of all the MySpace and Facebook accounts I’d have to sort through. Then there are the death notices, news articles, and school athletics scores.” She ate the chip and swallowed before going on. “Every name has to be followed until I verify whether or not they could possibly be right. Thankfully Ibson isn’t very common, but I still can’t pin down one group of names as the most likely family.”

  “You need some help?”

  “If I had some idea what I was going to do once I found the answers, I’d be in a hurry to find them.” She shrugged apologetically. “Since I don’t, I’ll handle it myself for a little longer.”

  He took her hand, stopping it halfway to the bowl of chips so he could get her full attention. “You know I’m happy to help if you’d like some company.” She looked tired, vulnerable, and as usual, his instinct was to comfort.

  “I appreciate the offer. Really.” She turned her hand over in his and gave it a squeeze. “Mostly I’m glad to have someone to talk to who isn’t going to freak out on me.”

  He threaded their fingers together, loving how soft her skin was. “Are your parents making things difficult?”

  Tia sighed. “My dad’s trying to be understanding and supportive. Whatever happens, I’m sure things between us will work out fine in the end. My mom is another issue. She’s always been high strung and demanding, but is making an art form out of it now.”

  He chuckled. “I know people like that. I’m sure she’s uncertain of her place in your life now. Stand by her and eventually she’ll stop freaking out.”

  “Easy for you to say.” She used her fre
e hand to pick up another chip. “And then there’s my brother, Wes. I still haven’t talked to him about everything, but he didn’t seem amazed about the reason for the divorce or that I might not have been my father’s child. He was so detached. I’m not sure if he doesn’t care, or if he’s trying to protect himself.”

  Danny squeezed her hand, sensing she just needed him to listen. A few seconds passed before he brought up the other issue plaguing him. “Do you mind if I ask what happened to your husband? Tristi’s not very old.”

  The frustration in her eyes melted into sadness. “I got pregnant just before he shipped out. I didn’t even know until after he left.” She brushed the hair back from her face, and kept her eyes glued to the food in front of them. “It’s been nearly two years since he was killed in Afghanistan. A car bomb went off as he and some of the other soldiers walked past. He was the only American death, but five Afghanis died in the blast as well. I heard about the bombing on television the day before the military caught up with me.” She wet her lips.

  “It must have been an awful couple of years.”

  “It’s been tough.” She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “But things are going well for me. It’s not easy being a single parent, but my girls are pretty good and I have Nichole to help out and talk with. Lee’s family’s been great, as well. They love the girls and make every effort to spend time with them.”

  “That’s good. We all need support when we lose a loved one.” He felt his throat close off and heard his voice go husky on the end of his statement. He had not planned to bring Laura up, and hoped Tia didn’t comment on what he’d said.

  She must have noticed, because she looked up at him as the server brought their meals. “Are you speaking from personal experience, then?”

  Danny waited until the waitress left. “It’s not the same, but I’m sure you heard about the bus crash a couple months back.”

  “The women’s retreat?” Though it was a question, Tia nodded in acknowledgement. “It would be hard to miss considering where I work.”

  “Of course.” Danny tried to smile, but knew he failed miserably. “One of my childhood friends was on the bus.” He cleared his throat, trying to dislodge the lump in it. “She didn’t make it home.”

  Sympathy softened her expression. “Were you close?”

  “The closest. She’d been over to my place for dinner only days before the accident. We’d made plans to go home and see our parents—our moms were both hassling us about not visiting often enough.” And now it was too late for her to visit her family.

  Tia squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too.” But he couldn’t talk about it right now without getting too emotional, so he pushed back the pain. “Now, maybe we should both eat, and find an easier subject.”

  She smiled and withdrew her hand. “Okay. Do you suppose they have any hot sauce around here?”

  Danny thought it was precisely the sort of question Laura would have asked. He smiled and motioned to the waitress to request a bottle.

  Sixteen

  With the upcoming chili cook-off, Thanksgiving, and life in general, Tia only had time to search for two more families the next week. Luckily she was able to find couples who were the likely parents, and cross them off her list. Thanks to Facebook, she was even able to verify one of the women was born the same day she was, but again, there was no family resemblance to Mona or Ron, and plenty with the woman’s parents. That one got marked as an unlikely swap.

  Tia reached the firehouse early on Saturday, grateful Lee’s brother had agreed to take the girls for a few hours, and to bring them by for some chili after the judging was over. She was amazed to see how organized everything was. There was a school next door to the firehouse and the guys had gotten permission to set up in the parking lot, to keep their emergency vehicles unimpeded for quick response.

  There were tents and tables, plenty of chairs, and everything was roped off so people who wanted to shell out a donation for the charity had to come past the entrance.

  She hadn’t known what to expect, but not having asked about the sign-ups lately, Tia found nearly thirty competitors for the title of best chili recipe. She didn’t know how she was going to manage. Even if she only took a bite of each dish she’d be sick by the time she reached the end.

  Danny met her at the entrance to the roped off area. “Hey, Tia!” He slung an arm around her shoulder and led her back to the tents where the contestants were set up. They had spoken on the phone several times during the week, and she had brought over a few pies to the firehouse for the guys’ thanksgiving dinner, since he had been working. “All set to test these recipes? We have thirty-two.”

  “How did we ever manage to get so many contestants?” It was terrific, a great show of support for the fire department, but way more than she had expected.

  “Are you kidding? We had another three people call yesterday and ask if they could still sign up. We had to turn them away.”

  “Holy crow.” She liked chili as well as the next person, but that was a whole lot of chili. “The camera crew should be here any minute.”

  “Good. James is collecting samples from each of the pots now. As you asked, each bowl will have an index card attached with the list of ingredients and an entry number on it.” He led her into a smaller tent with its side flaps down.

  On the table inside, she found nearly two dozen Styrofoam bowls lined up side by side. “All right. First we need to see if there are different categories.” She glanced at all of the ingredient lists and started sorting them by traditional and white bean. There weren’t enough other variations to make subgroups.

  James brought in another tray full and announced it was the last of them.

  Another minute of sorting and she was done.

  “You’re not going to sort out the turkey from the beef too?” Danny teased her.

  “No.” She bumped him with her elbow. “This will be fine.” She had opted not to meet the chefs until after she tasted the chili—she didn’t want some cute kid or grumpy old man’s attitude to influence the scores on their food.

  The camera crew arrived and took a shot at the bowls lined up on the table before she started to taste them. The reporter asked Tia a few questions about the event, the charity, and how she got involved. She put on her camera persona and gave the requisite sound bites, but was relieved when the crew left her tent so she could begin the judging. The other judges, a local restaurant owner and the fire chief, approved of her organizational efforts and they began their taste tests.

  They didn’t agree on the merits of all of the dishes, but they checked their score sheets, taking time to discuss why they each preferred their top three. Another taste test of the best dishes and they were able to narrow down a winner in each of the categories, plus a grand master. Another three people judged the corn bread competition, and had nearly as much trouble with their selections—though they weren’t nearly as numerous.

  Finally Tia was able to go out and meet the chefs. It took nearly two hours to make the rounds, stopping to answer questions and shake hands, and she didn’t get to speak with any of them for long. They stopped midway through her rounds to announce the contest winners, then continued meeting the chefs.

  The crowds who came to eat the chili and support the burn center and burn camp swelled to over five hundred at noon, and stayed steady until nearly two o’clock. Tia was glad everyone brought gigantic vats of their chili and huge trays of cornbread. They ran out of food before people stopped coming, but the donations continued to pour in.

  Samantha and Tristi arrived with their uncle and spent an hour wandering around, sampling the various dishes, and Samantha chattered with school friends.

  Six hours after Tia had reached the firehouse, she sat with the guys in the tiny kitchen. The tents were down, the chairs and tables put away, and Danny and James were counting donations. In addition to the forty-three blankets they had collected for the burn center patients, the cash donat
ions came out to over eight-thousand dollars.

  “Wow. That was seriously impressive!” Danny said when the last of the money had been double checked.

  “You guys put on a mean party,” Tia said. She was exhausted, but felt good about what they’d accomplished. No doubt Lee’s brother was more than ready for her to pick up the girls, but Tia wasn’t sure she had the strength to get them through their evening routines.

  Danny grinned. “Unless someone else has seriously good luck, this should easily put us in first place for fundraising in the city.”

  “You guys and your competitiveness. It’s not about winning; it’s about the kids—isn’t it?” Tia asked, lifting her brows.

  “Of course it is,” James rushed to agree. “Winning the competition is icing on the cake.”

  Tia shook her head and held back a chuckle. She was a big believer in healthy competition, as long as it didn’t turn cutthroat. Seeing the merriment in Danny’s eyes told her it was all in good fun. And how could that be bad? “I ought to be going. The girls have to be getting on Garrett’s nerves by now. Besides, I need to take them shopping so Samantha can get a couple of Christmas presents.”

  Danny reached over and took her hand, standing and helping her onto her feet. “Let me walk you to your car.”

  It was nice having a man hold her hand and feeling comfortable with him. The tiny thrill of excitement when she saw the tenderness in his gaze was an extra bonus. She thought for a minute that he might ask to join them in their shopping trip, but he didn’t. Instead he brought up the fire station’s annual Christmas party. “It’s the sixteenth. Do you think you can come?”

  She gave him a sideways glance. “You mean as a date?”

  He turned her as they reached her car and backed her against her door. “Yeah. And I’d like to see you before then, too.” He leaned toward her.

  Tia allowed herself to show the flirty smile she felt blossoming inside. “You’re seeing me now.”

  “Tomorrow,” he said. “Come to dinner tomorrow. You can bring dessert again. I’ll throw something together for the meal.” He tugged away a lock of hair that had blown in her face. “It’ll be nice.”