The Last Single Garrett

by Brenda Harlen

  “Uh uh,” he denied. “Those were precoital, midcoital and postcoital kisses.”

  She was smiling as she shook her head. “It will probably be quicker for me to give you a good-night kiss than to debate your categorizations, won’t it?”

  “Probably,” he agreed.

  So she kissed him good-night, and by the time she eased her lips from his, she was tempted to break her own rule and invite him to spend the night in her bed. But she was afraid that breaking one rule would set a precedent that encouraged her to disregard others. And if she did that, she might foolishly open up her heart and fall in love with him—and that was a risk she wasn’t willing to take.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Of the three sisters, Emily was usually the first awake. In the mornings, while Tristyn sat outside enjoying a cup of coffee, the five-year-old was often there to keep her company. The first morning in Pennsylvania, she’d barely taken a sip from her cup when the little girl said, “Look, Tristyn—my tooth is really wiggly now.”

  “Wow,” she said, trying to sound more impressed than repulsed when Emily managed to push the tooth with her tongue so that it was practically horizontal in her mouth. “I don’t think it’s going to be much longer before that comes out.”

  “An’ then the tooth fairy comes,” the little girl announced.

  “Does she?” Tristyn said, wondering if there were guidelines as to what the tooth fairy was supposed to give in exchange for a tooth. “And what does the tooth fairy do?”

  “She gives money!”

  “Like an ATM?”

  Emily giggled. “Not that much money. Just a dollar.”

  “Still, a dollar for a tooth—that seems like a pretty good deal to me.”

  The child’s smile slipped. “Do you think the tooth fairy will be able to find me here?”

  “I’m sure she’ll be able to find you, wherever you are,” Tristyn assured her.

  * * *

  Emily’s tooth came out when she was brushing her teeth before bed that night. The gentle pressure of her brush was all it took to set it free. As a result, there was hardly any blood, for which Tristyn was extremely grateful.

  “Do you have a dollar for the tooth fairy?” she asked Josh, after the girls had all fallen asleep.

  “Isn’t she supposed to leave the money?”

  Tristyn rolled her eyes as Josh opened his wallet.

  “The smallest bill I have is a ten,” he said.

  “You can’t give her ten dollars for losing a tooth,” Tristyn protested. “Or Charlotte and Hanna will be trying to pull out their teeth, too.”

  “I’m guessing you don’t have a dollar?”

  She nipped the ten out of his fingers as she shook her head. “I used the last of my cash to buy ice-cream cones for the girls this afternoon.”

  “So what are you going to do with that?”

  “I’ll go to the little store beside registration and ask for change.”

  She came back less than ten minutes later with a package of candy in her hand.

  He shook his head, as if disappointed. “You traded the cow for magic beans?”

  “You read Jack and the Beanstalk to Hanna tonight, didn’t you?” she guessed.

  “Last night,” he admitted.

  “Gummy bears not magic beans,” she said, showing him the package.

  He made a face. “Gummy bears?”

  “You have something against gummy bears?”

  “The last time I had gummy bears, they got stuck in my braces,” he told her.

  “I knew that perfect smile had to have orthodontic help,” she mused.

  “You didn’t have braces?”

  She shook her head and leaned close to whisper, “Everything about me is au naturel.”

  “Except the tattoo,” he said, pulling her down into his lap. “Did you get a dollar for the tooth fairy?”

  She drew the change out of her pocket and set it on the table, then tore open her package of candy. “Do you want to share my gummy bears?”

  “No, thanks. I’ll have my treat later—in accordance with the amended agreement.”

  She nibbled on a piece of candy. “When I said as much sex as often as possible, I didn’t realize you were insatiable,” she teased.

  “Are you growing bored with me already?”

  “Not quite yet,” she said. But the truth was just the opposite. The more time she spent with Josh, the more she wanted to be with him. As phenomenal as the sex was, it wasn’t all about the sex. They would often snuggle together in her bed for hours afterward, talking about all manner of things and nothing in particular. She’d known Josh for a lot of years, but there were a lot of things she still didn’t know about him and she was enjoying the discovery process. She definitely wasn’t bored, and she suspected that she could spend a lifetime with him and not tire of his company and companionship.

  For now, not forever, she reminded herself.

  And focused on enjoying the now.

  * * *

  Emily woke up in the morning, panicked and crying. “It’s gone! It’s gone!”

  Tristyn rushed into her room, wondering what could have put the little girl into such a state of distress. “What’s gone?”

  Tears streamed down the child’s face. “My tooth.”

  She exhaled a slow breath, confident the crisis would pass when Emily found the payment she’d received in exchange for the tooth. “Well, the tooth fairy must have come to get it,” she said, attempting to soothe her. “Is there any money in its place?”

  Emily nodded and held up the crumpled bill, but the tears continued to fall. “The tooth fairy isn’t s’posed to take it.”

  Josh—standing in the doorway after being awakened by the little girl’s cries along with everyone else—exchanged a look with Tristyn. “She’s not?”

  The distraught child shook her head. “Not the first one. Only the ones that come after.”

  The adults exchanged another look.

  “That’s a new one to me,” Tristyn admitted.

  “Maybe the tooth fairy didn’t realize it was your first one,” Josh said, as Charlotte looked at the adults suspiciously.

  “Mommy kept Charlotte’s first tooth in a special box,” Emily said. “An’ she has boxes for me an’ Hanna, too. An’ now my box is always gonna be empty.”

  Desperate for a solution to the dilemma, Tristyn impulsively said, “Maybe we can get your tooth back.”

  Emily sniffled. “How?”

  “We can write a note to the tooth fairy.”

  Charlotte immediately shook her head. “That won’t work—the tooth fairy only comes when someone loses a tooth, so she wouldn’t be here to see the note.”

  Emily started to cry harder.

  “There’s got to be some way we can get her attention,” Tristyn said, looking desperately at Josh for help.

  “Smoke signals,” he suggested.

  Emily lifted her head and wiped her tear-streaked cheeks.

  “What are smoke signals?” Charlotte asked suspiciously.

  “It’s an ancient way of communicating over great distances, developed long before cell phones.”

  His eldest niece still looked skeptical.

  “That’s a great idea,” Tristyn declared, though she wasn’t at all convinced that his plan would satisfy the girls—or that Josh knew the first thing about creating smoke signals.

  “How do you make smoke signals?” Charlotte asked.

  “First, you build a fire,” he said.

  Emily stopped sniffling long enough to ask, “Can we make s’mores at the fire?”

  He glanced at Tristyn. She nodded, mentally adding the necessary ingredients to her shopping list.

  “Sure,
” he said. “But only after we summon the tooth fairy.”

  “How will we know if she got the message?” Emily asked worriedly.

  “We won’t know for sure until tomorrow,” Josh admitted. “But if it doesn’t work tonight, we’ll try again and again until it does.”

  Worried that he might set the camp on fire in his effort to generate smoke signals, Tristyn offered an alternate suggestion. “Maybe the tooth fairy’s on Twitter.”

  “That would certainly be easier,” he agreed.

  “Why don’t you come into the kitchen and we’ll see if we can figure this out after we’ve had breakfast?” Tristyn suggested.

  The girls immediately complied, and when everyone had eaten, Tristyn opened her tablet and linked to the social media site, then searched for “tooth fairy.” The screen filled with potential matches.

  Emily, sitting up on her knees now, peered at the screen, her brow furrowed. “But which one’s the real tooth fairy?”

  “The real tooth fairy will find our message,” Tristyn assured her.

  “What should we say?”

  “Maybe something like ‘recall requested hashtag tooth fairy’?” she suggested.

  “But that doesn’t tell her who or where,” Charlotte pointed out.

  Which was true, because Tristyn had hoped to keep the message deliberately vague. “What if we add ‘by Emily at Pocono Mountain RV Park’?”

  Emily nodded her approval; her older sister still looked dubious.

  “Let’s give it a shot,” Tristyn urged. “If it doesn’t work, we can try the smoke signals tomorrow, okay?”

  “Can we still have s’mores tonight?” Emily asked.

  “We can still have s’mores tonight,” she confirmed. “If you all get washed up and dressed and come shopping with me.”

  “But you haven’t hit Send,” Charlotte pointed out.

  “Oh, right.” With the three girls and their uncle looking on, Tristyn tapped the button and the message went out into the world.

  * * *

  Lucy called while Tristyn was out shopping with the girls, which gave Josh an opportunity to fill her in on the tooth fairy fiasco. She laughed when he told her about the tweet, then she sighed wistfully.

  “I didn’t realize she had a loose tooth, or I would have told you about the tooth fairy.”

  “That would have been good,” Josh agreed. “I’m just glad that I actually did keep the tooth for you rather than tossing it in the trash.”

  “Her first tooth,” Lucy said, with a little sniffle.

  “She’ll lose a lot more before she’s through,” he pointed out.

  “I know,” she admitted.

  “How are things going there?” he asked, in an effort to divert a complete meltdown.

  “Good,” she said. “We’re actually a little bit ahead of schedule.”

  “I guess that means you haven’t taken much time to see the sights.”

  “There’s nothing here that I want to see as much as my girls,” his sister said.

  “It won’t be too long before you’re home again,” he soothed. “And then I’ll finally get my life back.”

  Except that the life he had before embarking on this road trip with Tristyn didn’t hold the same appeal anymore. Because in that life, he crossed paths with Tristyn at the office and Garrett family events, but he didn’t have the right to drag her into a corner to steal a kiss, or sneak into her bedroom at night, or even just sit out under the stars and talk about anything and everything.

  “I know I didn’t really give you a choice about any of this,” Lucy admitted, drawing his attention back to their conversation. “But I appreciate everything you’re doing.”

  “I’m enjoying spending time with them,” he admitted, no longer surprised to realize it was true.

  “And how are things going with Tristyn?” she prompted.

  “Even from another country and across an ocean, you can’t resist meddling in my life, can you?” he muttered.

  “I just want you to find someone and be happy.”

  “Why don’t you focus on your own life?” he suggested.

  She sighed. “You’re right—I have no business telling you how to live your life when I’ve screwed up mine.”

  “You haven’t screwed up anything,” he denied. “You’re a wonderful mother to three fabulous kids.”

  “It’s hard to believe that when I’m almost four thousand miles away from them,” she acknowledged.

  “Then get back to work so you can come home,” he advised.

  “I’ll do that,” she agreed. “Give my girls big hugs and kisses from me and tell them that I love them.”

  “Every day,” he promised.

  * * *

  Tristyn could recall listening to her aunt Ellen and aunt Jane talk about how much food teenage boys could put away at a meal. Over the past few weeks, she’d begun to suspect that active little girls could probably give teenage boys a run for their money.

  When they got back to the RV after shopping, Josh was there to help them carry the bags inside and put the groceries away. Though she wouldn’t ever comment aloud, she couldn’t help but notice that Josh had stepped up in a big way—not just with the girls, but tackling his share of the domestic chores. And though she knew it was sometimes difficult for him to juggle the responsibilities of his job with the demands of his nieces, he never balked at spending time with them. And Charlotte, Emily and Hanna had all thrived as a result of his attention.

  “We’re gonna make s’mores, Unca Josh.”

  “It looks like you’re going to make a lot of s’mores,” he noted, holding an enormous bag of marshmallows.

  “The big bag was on sale,” Charlotte told him.

  “And then, of course, we needed enough chocolate and graham crackers to go with the marshmallows,” Tristyn said.

  “Of course,” he agreed drily, as he continued to unpack. “You even bought sticks?”

  She nodded. “They were conveniently located beside the other ingredients.”

  He shook his head. “Real s’mores are made with marshmallows toasted on the end of sticks hunted up in the woods and sharpened with a knife.”

  “I wanna make real s’mores,” Emily announced.

  “Me, too,” Hanna chimed in.

  “They will be real s’mores,” Charlotte assured her sisters. “They just won’t have real bugs in them that might crawl out of sticks picked up off the ground.”

  Hanna wrinkled her nose. “I don’ ’ike bugs.”

  “There are no bugs in these sticks,” Tristyn promised. “Plus, there are two prongs, so you can roast two marshmallows at the same time—or cook hot dogs.”

  “But we’re havin’ s’ghetti tonight,” Emily reminded her.

  “I meant we could use them to cook hot dogs at another time,” Tristyn clarified.

  “Are we having meatballs or meat sauce?” Charlotte asked, more interested in what they would be eating today than in the future.

  Tristyn had taken the meat out of the freezer but hadn’t decided what she was going to do with it, so she was surprised when Josh responded to his niece’s question.

  “Both,” he said. In response to Tristyn’s questioning look, he shrugged. “You were out with the girls, so I thought I’d take care of dinner tonight.”

  “Mom usually just throws the meat into the sauce,” Charlotte said. “She says it’s too much trouble to make both.”

  “Well, since I don’t have to do it all the time, I don’t mind,” he said.

  “Are we gonna have garlic bread, too?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, we’ll have garlic bread, too,” he confirmed.

  “With or without cheese?”

  “Half with and half without,” he sa
id, because over the past few weeks he’d learned that they had very different preferences about such things.

  Tristyn held back a smile.

  When it was time for dinner, he dished up Charlotte’s pasta, added sauce and meatballs, and a slice of plain garlic bread; Emily got pasta and meat sauce and garlic bread with cheese; Hanna had her noodles with butter and parmesan and plain garlic bread.

  “What do you prefer?” Josh asked Tristyn. “Meatballs or meat sauce?”

  “I’ll let the chef decide,” she told him.

  He served up a plate of pasta with meatballs and a side of garlic bread with cheese for her, then took his own to his seat at the table.

  “This is really good, Uncle Josh,” Charlotte said.

  “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t live on frozen dinners and fast food,” he said.

  “What can you make besides spaghetti?” Tristyn asked.

  “Penne, rigatoni, ravioli, tortellini—basically anything that cooks in boiling water.”

  Charlotte and Emily giggled. Hanna probably didn’t understand why her sisters were laughing, but she joined in.

  “You make hamburgers, too,” Emily pointed out.

  “Well, yes, I can grill,” he acknowledged. “But most women don’t consider that cooking.”

  “Anything that puts food on the table is cooking in my book,” Tristyn assured him.

  Emily finished her pasta and reached for another slice of garlic bread. She nibbled on the corner, then looked at Tristyn and tentatively asked, “Do you think the tooth fairy got your message?”

  “I think she probably did,” Tristyn told her.

  “But how do you know?” she persisted, obviously worried that her first tooth might be lost forever.

  “Because the tweet Tristyn sent out has been retweeted two hundred and eighteen times,” Josh said.

  Tristyn looked at him, stunned. “No kidding?”

  “No kidding,” he confirmed. “Of course, that’s probably because Ren D’Alesio was one of the first to retweet the message, with a plea to his fans to spread it far and wide. Which they’ve apparently done.” Josh ruffled Emily’s hair. “So I think the odds are pretty good that the tooth fairy got your message.”