Redeem

by Janice M. Whiteaker

  Jerry nodded. “I’ll have the guys keep their ears out. Try to keep an eye on the situation.” He slid his phone in his pocket as Autumn joined them.

  “Did you hear anything from the county?”

  Beth blew out a frustrated breath. “They said the best thing to do was become a foster parent but they only offer classes on Saturdays and the whole process will take six weeks.”

  Autumn’s eyebrows came together. “Aren’t Saturdays a good thing?”

  “I can’t ask Nancy to watch the girls any more than she already does. I know she wouldn’t mind, but it wouldn’t be fair of me. She already does so much for me.” Beth’s own parents were too far away to be able to help and poor Mina was still struggling with unbearable morning sickness. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Autumn was already halfway back to the kitchen. “I do.” She returned seconds later, phone in hand. “I found a great girl who watches the boys for us sometimes. She’s at the community college working on a degree in early childhood education.”

  Autumn rattled off the babysitter’s name and phone number as Beth typed it into her own phone. “You don’t think she’ll mind me calling?”

  “Nope, she’s always telling me to send my friend’s her way.”

  Beth noticed the time on her phone. “Holy cow. I didn’t realize it was so late.” She stepped into the living room where her two and Autumn’s three kiddos were playing a heated game of Candyland, the only board game all five could understand. “Girls, help clean up. We need to get going.”

  Beth collected her coat and purse. “Thanks for letting us come over.”

  Jerry gave her a grin. “From what I hear we might be double dating soon.”

  Autumn slapped his arm without looking, her eyes wide and a tight smile plastered on her face. “Make sure you call my girl. You’ll love her.”

  ****

  “Where are we going?” Liza started to roll as Beth struggled to strap on her winter boot.

  “Nowhere if you don’t let me get your shoe on.” Beth finally managed to get the velcro fastener wrapped across her smallest and spunkiest daughter’s ankle and stood up giving him a questioning look. “Are you really sure you want to do this?”

  “Absolutely.” Unquestionably and completely. Beth was doing something so selfless and he was ready to do whatever it took to help. And not just for her sake. “We’ll have fun.”

  She looked unconvinced. “If you have any problems just take their hineys to Nancy.”

  Don shook his head and walked toward her until he could rest his hands on her shoulders. Each time he saw her, saw more of the kind of woman she was, it became more and more difficult to keep his hands to himself. But this morning it wasn’t just about needing to touch her. Don also wanted to put her mind at ease. “We will be just fine. Better than fine even.” He looked at Liza and Kate. “Right girls?”

  “Yes, but you still didn’t say where we were going.” Liza slumped against the stair banister.

  “It’s a surprise.” Don gave her a wink then turned back to her mother. He wanted to give Beth so much more than a wink but two sets of little eyes were plastered to his every move. He gently squeezed her shoulders, letting his thumbs run over the worn fabric of her loose fitting sweatshirt. The drape of the neckline let him feel just a bit of the smooth skin covering her collarbone. “You go do what you need to do and call us when you’re done.”

  Us. He and the girls were an us. Now he just had to figure out how to make he and Beth an us.

  “Okay.” She gave him a smile and her eyes drifted to his mouth for just a second before snapping to her girls. “Please be good.”

  “Ugh, we will.” Liza’s cheeks were as pink as her puffy coat. “Can we go? I’m so hot.”

  “Well come on then.” Don opened the door and held it for the three women who were quickly carving out a sizeable spot for themselves in his life. Beth helped him buckle the girls into the car seats he’d moved from her van to his car and kissed each one goodbye before closing the door. She stood close, hesitating.

  “You better go or you’ll be late.” He slipped his fingers around hers, wishing he could have the same goodbye kiss she’d given the rest of the ‘us’.

  Maybe soon.

  She squeezed his hand and nodded. Giving the girls a wave, she went to her car and climbed in. He waved as she backed down the driveway and disappeared down the road.

  “Mister Don we are ready to go. Our seatbelts are on.” Liza leaned forward in her seat eyeing him through the open driver’s door.

  He slid into the well-worn seat and started to back down the driveway of Beth’s farmhouse. “You girls hungry for breakfast?”

  ****

  A half hour later Liza was asking if they were almost there. For the five-hundredth time.

  “Almost.” He looked up in the rearview, still adjusting to having someone look back.

  “You said that hours ago.” Kate flopped her head back against the seat.

  “I mean it this time.” Don pulled into the parking lot of a little place he liked to go when he didn’t want to worry about the dirty looks or wagging tongues that had a habit of showing up around him in McCordsville. “How do you feel about waffles?”

  By the time they were halfway through their peanut butter covered waffles with a side of French fries, both girls decided it was worth the drive. “I never had French fries for breakfast.” Kate swiped a crinkle cut fry through a pile of ketchup.

  “It’s not an everyday kind of thing, but sometimes it’s okay.” At least he hoped it was. People ate fried potatoes for breakfast and wasn’t a French fry basically the same thing? “How’s your waffle?”

  “It’s better than Nana’s.” Kate licked at a smudge of peanut butter stubbornly clinging to her upper lip as she eyed his plate. “What’re you eating?”

  “Biscuits and gravy.” Don cut a little wedge off one of the fluffy homemade buttermilk biscuits and stabbed it with his fork. He held it out. “Want to try some?”

  The offer barely cleared his lips before the bite was gone.

  “Like it?”

  Kate nodded, her eyes glued to the sizeable amount still left on his plate. It took all his attention to get the girls situated putting him behind on eating his own breakfast.

  “Can I try some too?” Liza crawled up on her knees and leaned her palms onto the table.

  It wasn’t like he could tell her no. Or would.

  And then his breakfast was confiscated, leaving him to enjoy the discarded waffle ‘crusts’ both girls refused to eat even though they were exactly the same as the rest of the waffle.

  He didn’t even get a French fry.

  “Where are we going now?” Kate held one hand and Liza the other as they crossed the parking lot.

  He dropped Kate’s hand to open Liza’s door, giving her a boost up into her seat. “We are going to a place I always wanted to go when I was your age.”

  Liza flopped back in her seat. “Is it close? I’m tired of driving.”

  “Five minutes.” He held up five fingers with one hand and closed her door with the other.

  Don helped Kate in and as promised, they were pulling into the parking garage five minutes later.

  “What is this place?” Kate unbuckled and leaned forward, looking out the windshield at the sprawling building across the street in front of them. She squinted. “Is that a dinosaur climbing on the wall?”

  Don turned in his seat. “We are at a museum just for kids.”

  He should’ve waited to tell them because the car immediately erupted in chaos. Kate opened her car door and nearly slammed it into the brand new SUV beside her. Liza frantically yanked at her seatbelt trying to release the buckle. When it wouldn’t unlock she resorted to squirming around like a contortionist. By the time Don got to her, the little girl had one arm and shoulder free but it was sticking straight up.

  “Mister Don I’m stuck.”

  “I can see that.” It was amazing how quickly things
could go sideways with these two. The sound of a car zipping through the garage and the realization that only one of the girls was safely in the car made his stomach flip as his eyes scanned wildly for Kate.

  Just as he started to run to the other side of the car, her head popped up. “I found a piece of candy.”

  It was like herding cats. And this was only a small bite of what Beth had to chew on every day, all day.

  “Kate honey put that back where you found it and get back in the car and close the door. Liza you need to hold still.” All her yanking and pulling must have hitched up the latch and it took him a couple minutes to finally get her loose. Don hauled Liza out and went to Kate’s side, double checking his neighbor to be sure she didn’t actually make contact.

  He opened the door and Kate jumped out. “Sorry. I was just real excited.”

  He held his hand out for her to grab. “I know, but parking garages are dangerous because it’s hard to see and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Why not?” Kate looked up at him as they waited for the elevator to reach their floor.

  Her question surprised him and he wasn’t sure how to respond. “Because I like you. You’re one of my favorite people.”

  She gave him a toothy grin. “I like you too.”

  Liza yanked on his hand. “Am I your favorite too?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “What about our mommy?”

  If Kate’s first question was a surprise, this one was a shock. The elevator doors opened, buying Don a small reprieve and he took full advantage, taking his time looking at the buttons before pressing the one designated as ground floor. He looked back to find both girls looking at him expectantly.

  “Well, your mommy is…” Don tried to come up with a good way to explain what Beth was to him. “She’s…”

  He cleared his throat and gave them the only thing he could come up with to explain what Beth meant to him. “Your mommy is very important to me.”

  He braced for more questions but the parking garage elevator doors sprung open revealing a three-story brown and green dinosaur and the brightly colored entrance to the museum. The girls squealed in excitement, their conversation all but forgotten. He held their hands firmly, struggling to keep up as the girls took off across the expanse of painted concrete leading to the museum.

  “Run Mister Don.” Liza pulled at his hand as she tried to hasten his pace, rushing to get to the doors.

  They bounced and danced around his legs as he bought their tickets and folded their coats, tucking them into one of the metal boxes in a line of lockers painted to look like building blocks. When it was finally time to go exploring the girls looked like they were ready to explode.

  As silly as it was, he was a little excited about the place too. “I think we should start at the top.” He led them to the escalators that ran up the center of a soaring, glass topped atrium in the middle of the museum. “The top floor is a playground that looks like a forest.”

  If it was half as cool as it looked on their website, the girls would lose their minds. Don stepped off the escalator, watching to be sure no one lost their footing on the dismount. When he looked up his jaw dropped.

  With trees that looked so real you would swear they needed water and swinging netted tunnels running through the branches from platform to platform, it was everything he would have wanted to experience when he was a kid. But that wasn’t the childhood he was dealt. No one took him to the playground. No one brought him to a museum. No one cared if he got to see anything besides the inside of a shitty trailer.

  He looked down at the girls, their jaws hanging and blatant wonder holding their eyes open wide.

  But maybe that wouldn’t have been the best way for him to experience something like this for the first time.

  Don squeezed the little hands still grasped in his. “What are you looking at? Let’s go play.”

  For the next four hours they explored every corner of the place, climbing the rock wall, riding the indoor carousel, covering their eyes in the mummy’s tomb, before finally collapsing in the food court for ice cream.

  Don finished his cone and was wiping up the line of vanilla trickling down Liza’s hand when an older woman stopped beside their glass topped table.

  “Your girls are just beautiful.” She patted his shoulder and gave him a kindly smile. “And what a good father you are to bring them here all by yourself.”

  “Oh, no. They’re not mine.” The words stung in an odd way as he said them, like a mosquito bite. Not enough to hurt, but plenty enough to aggravate the hell out of you.

  Because no matter what he did or how much he cared about them, these girls could never be his.

  He looked back to find Liza giving him an odd look, her brow wrinkled and one brow higher than the other.

  “What?”

  She took a mouthful of ice cream and continued to stare at him, her expression unchanged. “Nothin’.”

  She was probably tired. They’d played hard for hours. He checked his watch. It was after two even if they left right now Beth would probably beat them home. “You guys ready to go home?”

  Dragging two tired girls back to the car was twice as hard as getting them out. Kate drug her feet and Liza kept dropping the stuffed otter she chose from the gift shop. While that part was harder, the drive back was much easier. And quieter.

  Both girls were still passed out when he pulled into Beth’s driveway and as he expected, her car was already in the driveway. She stepped off the porch before he had time to get the car in park and was at his door when he climbed out. She peeked into the back seat.

  “They passed out right after we le—”

  His words were cut short by Beth’s lips pressed against his with enough force to knock him back a step. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck as her tongue swept gently across his lips and then in between to tease his. After just a few seconds she pulled back, her cheeks flushed.

  “What was that for?” If this was how she was going to start thanking him he might have to point out how many times he’d already shoveled her driveway.

  She smiled a little. “I missed you.”

  His heart skipped a beat. He’d never been missed before. He was the kind of man women were happy to have in their bed, but ready to kick out soon after, if he was lucky enough to even make it that far. And it was his fault for stuffing cockiness where his confidence should have been. For pushing so hard, trying to find someone who could like him, fill one of the many gaps in his empty life.

  Don rested his hands on Beth’s shoulders, letting the soft strands of her hair brush across his knuckles. He swallowed, hoping to clear the emotion from his voice.

  “I’m glad.”

  SIXTEEN

  “How’s it going with your lady friend?” Ladonna wiggled her eyebrows over the magazine Don thought she was reading when he walked in the door.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Don took his dirt caked boots off and left them on the mat beside the door. The frigid temperatures decided to take a vacation the minute it was time to start clearing out the house he and Paul decided on and the front yard was a mud pit. Every step he took on his way to the dumpster was like walking through quick sand.

  “We’ve been through this a million times. You might have everyone else fooled,” Ladonna lowered the magazine to her lap, “but you will never fool me.” She tossed her reading material onto the tiny end table next to the couch and stood up. “So, with that in mind, how ‘bout you tell me about this girl.”

  “She’s not a girl.” No one would mistake Beth for a girl, not with the kind of curves she had hiding under all the layers winter required. Spring couldn’t come soon enough.

  Ladonna raised her eyebrows. “Well excuse me.” She leaned against the panel board wall beside where Don stood at the table sorting the mail he’d retrieved on his way in. “Then tell me about this woman.”

  Don dropped the stack of mail onto the table and sighed. So
far he’d been flying by the seat of his pants with Beth, trying his best not to make the same old mistakes. But maybe he could use a little insight from someone he trusted who wasn’t immediately involved. “It’s my boss’s sister-in-law.”

  Ladonna’s eyes went wide. “The widow?”

  Don cringed inwardly at the reference. It tied Beth to a dead man. One who was her husband. One who, based on what he’d heard from reliable sources, wasn’t that great to her. “Yeah.”

  Ladonna crossed her arms and blew out a low whistle. “That’s a tricky one.”

  “Yup.” He pulled off his coat and hung it beside the door. “And I’m not good with this kind of thing to start with.”

  Ladonna laughed out loud, the sound bouncing around in the small space. “Honey, men who look like you don’t have to be too good at anything.” She chuckled to herself as she shook her head. “That poor woman probably can’t wait to get her hands on you.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” Don pulled out one of the wood dining chairs and sat, deciding if all Ladonna wanted to talk about was the physical parts of things he’d give mail sorting another go. That he had handled. It was everything else that was an issue.

  “You’re not so su—” Ladonna snorted as she pulled out the chair beside him and sat down pointing her finger at the spot right between his eyes. “You know what turns women on the most? A good man. And baby you’ve got that in spades.”

  “I’m not so sure about that either.” He flipped a bill off to one side. “Haven’t you heard what a twat I am?”

  She groaned and flopped back in her chair, arms crossed and stared at him, one eyebrow up.

  “You know you are the second woman to look at me like that this week?” Don dropped a credit card offer into the junk pile.

  “Only the second?” She rolled her eyes at him and stood up. “I need to get going.” Ladonna swung on her coat and grabbed her purse off the table. “Your sister coming in this weekend?”