by Gail Sattler
Ryan turned to Tyler. “But it’s true! Uncle Josh says that all the time! I only sometimes have to pull old socks out of my hamper. I’ve never had to wear bare feet in my shoes.”
Bradley started tugging on Melissa’s sleeve. “Uncle Josh is doing a real good job looking after us. He really is.”
“Yes, I know he is.” For a split second, Melissa made eye contact with Josh, smiled, then let her gaze sweep over all five of the boys. “How would everyone like to tell me what you did at school today?”
He listened to the boys chatter on about school for the duration of their meal, grateful beyond words for Melissa being able to change the subject gracefully. All sound ceased when he returned with the chocolate cake, which he’d hidden on the top shelf of the cupboard above the fridge. He wondered if they heard the shuffle of him moving things from atop the fridge, which would necessitate him finding a different secret hiding spot for next time.
He placed the cake in the middle of the table as all five boys stared at it, each one no doubt hoping for the first piece. This time he thought it best to tell Melissa his secrets concerning the cake, before the boys blurted it out and embarrassed him any more. “This came out of a box too. It’s a mix. It even had an envelope of icing in it. I figure if I do it carefully, I can get nine pieces out of it, and there’s only seven of us, so that means the adults,” he enunciated the word slowly, “can have two pieces.”
“Aww! Uncle Josh! No fair!” a chorus of voices called out.
“I promised them I’d make a chocolate cake if they all behaved and did a good job cleaning the house before you got here. Do they deserve it, Miss Klassen? Or do we get the whole thing?”
Silence loomed as ten big round eyes zoomed in on Melissa. He gave her credit for letting the silence hang for as long as she did, to add to their suspense.
“I think they deserve it.”
“Yea! I get first piece!”
“I get second!”
“Settle down. Everyone gets their piece when I give it to them—after they put their plates in the dishwasher.”
In the blink of an eye, only Josh and Melissa remained in the dining room, the clatter and mad scramble in the kitchen echoing in the background as they jostled for position at the dishwasher.
Josh grinned from ear to ear. “That’s a trick I learned from Brian and Sasha.”
She grinned back. “It works.”
“I’m first! I’m first!” Kyle ran into the dining room waving his arms over his head. He scuffled into his chair, the whole time watching Josh expectantly as his brothers rushed in behind him.
Josh began cutting the cake. “Do you think this is a good time to tell them the first shall be last, and the last shall be first?”
Melissa giggled, and Josh thought it a charming sound. “I don’t think so.”
Josh thought the cake was pretty good for a mix, especially since it was something he’d never done before. The whole thing had even come with a disposable pan to bake it in, making it quite easy to do, since there was nothing he had to figure out for himself. On the bad side, he had a feeling that after making one cake, he would be obligated to make more, since now they knew he could do it.
As expected, the second the kids finished their cake, they deserted the dining room and ran for the living room to play video games or to the den to fight for the computer, leaving Josh alone with Melissa.
“I want to help with the dishes.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say a thing, she raised her palms to him and stood. “Don’t argue with me. I think you’re doing such a good thing by looking after the boys, and I’m sure you could use a break. You still had to make the meal, and I can’t imagine what it took to get the house tidy for me on short notice, so let me help.”
“You’re not giving me a choice, are you?”
“Nope.”
He had every intention of not doing the dishes until she left, then getting a couple of the kids to help by telling them that if they helped, they could stay up later, since it was a Friday night. In a strange kind of way, this was better. If he took Melissa into the living room, the boys would vie for her attention and yak her ear off. If they were in the kitchen doing the dishes, the boys would stay as far away as possible in fear of being asked to work.
This way he would have her all to himself, and he didn’t have to share.
“How about if you wash and I dry, since I know where everything goes?”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s get started now. I would think there’s an awful lot to do.”
“That’s a matter of perspective, I guess. It’s no different than any other day for me.”
She followed him into the kitchen, and unlike the other times he met with Melissa in person, today they had no time constraints and nothing specific to discuss. The time flew by as they talked about nothing in particular, and for the first time, Josh thought that doing dishes wasn’t so bad.
After he slid the last clean bowl into the cupboard, he leaned over to push the buttons to start the dishwasher. “What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”
Instead of Melissa’s voice, Bradley’s little voice replied, “Pick her up? Are you and Miss Klassen going out to a restaurant for supper tomorrow, Uncle Josh?”
Josh fumbled with the dish towel and turned around. “No, Bradley. We’re going shopping—to the Christian bookstore. Miss Klassen and I are going to buy everyone their very own Bibles to read. You’ll be allowed to read it before bed for credit on your reading minutes for school.”
“But I can’t read good yet.”
“It’s okay. I know that. I can read to you until you get better.”
Bradley turned to Melissa. “You mean you’re not going to a restaurant with my uncle Josh?”
“No, Bradley, we’re not.”
“But why not? Don’t you like each other?”
Josh couldn’t allow Bradley to put Melissa on the spot. More than that, he was afraid to know the answer. All he knew was how he felt, and he did like Melissa, at least for as little as he knew her. Through the eyes of a child, all Bradley could fathom in a relationship was “liking” someone, but in this case, the obstacles went too deep for Bradley to understand why dating Melissa wasn’t a possibility. “Bradley, please. You’re not supposed to ask questions like that. Why don’t you go play video games with Ryan?”
Melissa turned to him. “It’s okay, Uncle Josh,” she said, then approached Bradley. She lowered herself by bending one knee and kneeling on the other to make herself eye level with the boy. “Of course I like your uncle. I think in time we could become good friends. Is that what you wanted to know?”
Bradley squinted his eyes, scrunched his eyebrows, and looked first at Melissa, then back to Josh. “But friends can still go to a restaurant for supper, right?”
Melissa nodded. “I suppose so, Bradley.”
“So does that mean you’re going to go for supper with Uncle Josh tomorrow?”
“Well. . .”
Josh forced himself to smile, something he seemed to be doing a lot of lately. “I don’t know if Miss Klassen wants to go to a restaurant with me tomorrow, Bradley.”
Bradley stepped closer to Melissa, who was still hunkered down in front of him. “You want to go with Uncle Josh tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Uh. Sure I do, Bradley, but I don’t know if Uncle Josh does.”
“Uncle Josh?”
“Uh. Sure, Bradley, if Miss Klassen wants to go out for supper to a restaurant, we can do that—but only if she wants to.”
“Yea!” Bradley shouted. “I’ll go ask Tyler if he can baby-sit us!”
In a flash, Bradley disappeared.
Josh cleared his throat as Melissa stood. “Well, I guess we’re going out for supper tomorrow. What time should I pick you up?”
“But we’re going shopping tomorrow, aren’t we?”
“How about if we go shopping later in the day, then go for an early supper?”
&nb
sp; They both glanced toward the doorway to the living room, where they both could hear Bradley’s animated voice chattering away to his brothers about their plans for Saturday, then back to each other.
“I guess,” she mumbled.
Josh cleared his throat. “Well, Melissa, it looks like we have ourselves a date.”
Eight
Josh tucked the bag of books under the seat and slid behind the wheel. “I can’t believe how much that cost. I had no idea kids’ books were that expensive.”
“I know what you mean, especially when you had to buy five of them. But it’s a real good start, and when the younger kids improve their reading skills, you can pass the books down from the older ones. There’s what, two years between their ages all the way down the line?”
“Something like that. So, where do you want to go for supper?”
“I don’t care, but I would think you don’t want to go somewhere that serves hamburgers.”
“You got that right. Steak?”
“Sure.”
Josh started the van and drove out of the parking lot, heading for a steak house he’d driven by countless times yet never been to.
As he pulled into the parking lot, he scanned the row of parked cars, gladly noting he wasn’t the only van in the bunch. To make himself feel better, he pulled into an empty spot beside another van.
He should have been driving his two-seater sports car to take a woman out for a Saturday evening dinner, not a family minivan, which he noticed the hard way was piled with toys and old hamburger wrappers and drink cans in the backseats. But being the practical type, he’d put his car into storage, since every time he traveled, he had a load of kids with him. At the price of car insurance, it didn’t make sense to have the car sit in the garage, untouched, except for when the kids hit it when they put their bikes away.
Since they were earlier than the usual dinner crowd, they were shown straight to a table. Immediately, Josh knew they’d come to the right place. There wasn’t a kid anywhere.
Neither of them spoke when they were seated. After a silence that was much too long for comfort, Josh folded his hands on the table and tried to act casual. “Well, here we are.”
Melissa did the same. “Yes. I guess we are.”
Silence hung between them, and for the life of him, Josh couldn’t figure out what to say. They were supposed to be on a date, but because the only reason they were together was to satisfy a little kid, it felt like anything but a date.
If he had been with Theresa, he knew exactly what he would be doing. They would have started the night out by telling each other about what they’d done since the last time they’d been together, and Theresa would catch him up on the news of the week, which would have revolved around either a familiar activity or mutual friends. Then Theresa would have teased him about something dumb he’d done recently, and together they would share a good laugh.
But those days were gone. He wasn’t here with Theresa, and this wasn’t a real date. He was here with his nephew’s teacher, a woman who had sacrificed time from her weekend to help him buy some books for the kids. He wasn’t even sure she had wanted to go out to dinner with him. The only reason they were together was that Bradley put them in an awkward spot.
He suspected the main reason she went along with Bradley’s prompting was because knowing Bradley’s family situation, despite Josh’s good intentions, it was obvious he didn’t know what he was doing. In the best interest of one of her young students, she’d become involved in a situation that had quickly escalated out of control.
Josh ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve got to be honest with you. I have no idea what to do or say. I’ve never been in a situation like this in my life.”
Melissa stared down at her napkin. “I know. I don’t know what to do or say, either.”
Fortunately, the waitress took that moment to appear, sparing Josh having to think of a reply.
Instead of concentrating on each other, they both studied the menus and exchanged only a few words on the possible selections.
Silence again hung in the air after the waitress took their orders and left them alone once more.
A different waitress walked past their table with orders for other patrons.
Josh leaned back in his chair and folded his hands to rest on his stomach. “Look, Melissa, broccoli. I do hope you’re going to eat all your ‘vegabulls.’ ”
She smiled, and Josh felt more encouraged about the way the evening might turn out. “You, Uncle Josh, are a tyrant.”
“Yeah, but I’m a healthy tyrant.”
“A healthy tyrant who hides chocolate cake. How could you?”
“Hey. If I didn’t hide it, you wouldn’t have had any. I made it after most of them went to bed for a good reason. I have no idea what I’m going to do at Christmastime when I have to hide their presents. I’ve been considering renting a storage locker, just to be safe.” He closed one eye and raised one finger to his lips. “Hmm. . . Actually, I already have a storage locker. I’ll just use that.”
“I guess you put all your furniture into storage for as long as you’re living at your brother’s house.”
“No, I didn’t have that much stuff. My junk is in the basement. Except for my stereo and my TV, which are in my bedroom. What’s in storage is my car. Between the van and the kids’ bikes, there wasn’t room in the garage for it. I guess I’ll drive it again someday.”
“This has been a big adjustment for you, hasn’t it?”
Josh let go a very humorless laugh. “You have no idea.”
She listened intently, laughing at times, as he told her about some of his experiences and mishaps in his first month of being Mr. Substitute Parent. They groaned together predicting some things that were bound to happen, as well as other potential disasters Josh saw coming but for now could do nothing about except let things develop naturally. After laughing so much, when the waitress brought their meals, they needed time to be silent and wind down to properly give thanks for the food and their day together.
Josh closed his eyes to savor his first bite of the delicious steak. “This is sooo good. And I don’t have to share. Plus I can stay seated the whole time I eat.”
He opened his eyes to see Melissa studying him. She didn’t say a word.
He quickly dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. “Oops. Sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like that. And I didn’t mean to talk so much about the kids earlier. I thought it was only parents who went out to get away from the kids and then ended up talking about nothing else. I must be pretty pathetic.”
“No, you’re certainly not pathetic.”
“Really?” he asked, not caring about the sarcastic edge to his voice. “If it wasn’t for Bradley pulling that little stunt and backing both of us into a corner we wouldn’t be here together right now. A six year old had to get me a date.”
“It’s okay, Josh. I’m having a good time.”
He smiled from the bottom of his heart. “Me too. Still, I promise not to talk any more about the kids.”
“I don’t mind. What you’re having to face is very unusual, especially at your age.”
Josh smoothed his hair, then toyed with some of the food on his plate as he spoke. He knew lots of people his age who were married and had kids. “Not really. Lots of twenty-five year olds are parents.”
“Yes, but most twenty-five-year-old fathers only have babies and toddlers, not a host of boys from fifteen years old all the way down to six.”
“No, I suppose not. Up until a month ago, it was just me and Cleo.”
“Yes, you’ve said that before. Cleo seems like a very nice dog.”
“She’s great. Have you ever had a dog? Bradley told me you’ve been asking a lot of questions about her. I’ve got a book on Labs if you’re interested. It’s full of general characteristics and expectations for the breed, training tips, plus all sorts of stuff you should know before you get any dog.”
“That’s okay. It’s just that the who
le situation, uh, interested me. That’s all.”
“If you ever want to borrow the book, just let me know. Although it’s packed in a box somewhere—it might take me awhile to find it.”
“I’ll be sure to ask you for it when the day comes that I decide to get a dog.”
The waitress delivered the bill signifying the end of their evening together. Josh snatched it up when he thought Melissa would get to it first. “This is my treat. It was supposed to be a date, you know, so that means I pay.”
“Not really. Not anymore.”
“It is for a first date.” He didn’t say it out loud, but besides being their first date, this would also be their last. The thought somehow caused considerable regret. “Do you think Bradley will be happy now? I told you he had a crush on you. He wouldn’t have done this if he didn’t think you should be treated special. You should hear all the things he tells me about you.”
She cringed. “I don’t think I want to know.”
One corner of Josh’s mouth quirked up. “Don’t worry. It’s all good.” He folded his hands on the table after he gave the waitress his credit card. “Want a list?”
He could see her cheeks darken, even in the low restaurant lighting, and he tried not to smile because of it.
“No, I certainly do not want a list. Two can play at this game. He’s always singing your praises too.” Melissa stopped talking as the waitress returned with the slip for Josh to sign. “I’m pleased to announce that every good thing he says about you is true.”
“Then what about the bad stuff? Is that true too?”
Her eyes sparkled as she smiled, then followed his lead as he stood. “He hasn’t said anything bad. He has quite a case of hero worship for his resident uncle.”
“I could say the same about his teacher.”
Josh drove her home and walked her to the door with mixed feelings. Tonight was supposed to be a first date, in which case he would simply say a quick good night at the door. On the other hand, they’d been out together a number of times, although not a single instance could be called a date. In such a case, he knew her well enough to kiss her good night, which was exactly what he wanted to do. It was also exactly why he shouldn’t. Not only was he not in a position to pursue a relationship, he could only guess at how awkward it would be for a teacher to see the parent or guardian of a student socially, and he was already pushing the boundaries.