“They break up and get divorced,” Jonah finished. “You have to make sure Izzy isn’t crazy like the others.”
“What others?”
“You dated crazies before.”
Stunned, Thane shot a glance at Fischer. “How does he know these things?”
“Obviously your son is a wise, worldly soul who listens to what grownups talk about much more often than you think he does,” Fischer said, getting down a mug from the cabinet.
“I’ve dated a few women who were…” Unable to find a word that fit, he went on, “Yes, couples can end up divorced. That’s why it’s my responsibility to make sure Izzy is the right woman for us…and not one of the crazies.”
“Okay.” Satisfied with Thane’s answer, Jonah went on to something else. “Can I have orange juice with my eggs?”
“May I and I’ll pour it,” Fischer said. But then he glanced over at the glop of yellowish mixture in Thane’s skillet. “On second thought, you pour. Let me at those eggs before they become the consistency of rubber.”
Thane ate his breakfast in silence and got Jonah ready for school without saying much more on the subject. But when he came back to the house after walking Jonah to school, Thane went in search of Fischer and found him outside sitting at the patio table drinking his third cup of coffee.
“What did you think of Jonah’s question this morning?”
“More importantly what did you think of your answer?” Fischer fired back.
“I thought I was upfront with him.”
“Then don’t overanalyze the situation. Don’t let your head get in the way of your heart either.”
“The one thing my experience with Alyson taught me is the need for caution. I don’t have the luxury of letting my heart lead the way to the wrong woman.”
“Is that what you think Isabella is?”
“I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it, Fisch. But she’s hiding something. She pulls back if I ask detailed questions about her past. Things like, ‘where have you lived?’ should be pretty simple enough to answer. At first I thought it was because she’d been in an abusive relationship.”
“If you think she’s being deceptive that might be a big red flag.”
Thane nodded. “That’s just it, the abusive relationship doesn’t account for those long, drawn-out, ambiguous ways not to answer a question. So until I get her to open up more to me, the jury’s still out.”
“I guess I don’t blame you for being cautious. But try not to be so much that you close yourself off to something wonderful.”
“Yeah, I got it. I’ll do my best.”
Bobby Prather and Doug Bayliss had become fixtures around the Delacourt house. So often that Thane liked to think he’d succeeded in giving the boys something else to do other than make trouble wherever they went. In addition to them, Tommy regularly stopped by to play with Jonah.
Today all four boys were over, chomping at the bit to do something. Izzy was more than willing to spend her Saturday overseeing and carting around the troop for a little fun while Thane and Fischer got Longboard Pizza ready for the grand opening.
One of the places Isabella promised to take the gang was Layne’s Trains. Cooper had offered to demo all the new engines and gadgets he got in for the holidays. She didn’t have to make the offer twice before Jonah and his friends were scrambling to get there. With the dogs on leashes, they walked over two blocks to Main Street.
On the way Jonah chattered like a motormouth to the other kids and to Izzy about anything and everything that popped into his little head. He went through his week at school citing a list of information. His spelling words had been really tough. His math problems were hard. But he’d made a puppet for Halloween that he really liked that he’d displayed on the refrigerator.
Maybe that’s why listening to the ordinary ramblings of a six-year-old boy, it surprised her when the bombshell rolled out of Jonah’s mouth so easily.
“Daddy says we have to be careful and make sure you’re the right woman for us.”
She stopped walking. “What did you say?”
“Daddy says there’s a lot of crazies out there. Guys have to be careful.”
“Jonah, are you certain your father said that?”
“Yep. Daddy’s dated women before who were really—out there. That’s why he kept me away from them.” He took her hand. “But you seem okay to me. I’ll put in a lot of good words for you so Daddy won’t think you’re crazy.”
Unable to think of an appropriate response, she simply uttered, “Gosh thank you, Jonah. I feel so special now.”
She tried not to let that jolt cloud the outing. But the disappointment she felt could only be cleared up by asking Thane.
When Isabella noticed Bobby Prather hanging back from the rest, she could only wonder what had the boy sulking in a train store. “Bobby, are you okay?”
“My mom and dad are getting a divorce. My mom’s moving back to San Francisco to be with her family.”
“And she’s taking you with her?”
“Nope. She never liked me, she liked my sister best and when my sister died, she really acted like she didn’t want me around.”
Isabella shuddered at the coldness of the child’s words. She tried to find a bright spot but after several long seconds, she simply said, “So you’ll stay here with your friends instead of changing schools. That’s good news, Bobby.”
“I guess, but my dad doesn’t know who’ll look after me while he’s at his jobs.”
“We’ll figure something out, okay?”
“No one wants me.”
“That isn’t true.”
“Sure it is. Jonah doesn’t even have a mother and yet he has you.”
“I’m your friend, too. Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand what your mom and dad were saying?”
“No. I heard my parents arguing about who I would live with but it wasn’t about who would take me, it was about which one had to take me.”
“Oh, Bobby, I’m so sorry they hurt your feelings.” No child should ever hear anything so hurtful, she decided, trying to come up with something else to say. Grasping at straws, she added, “Believe it or not, I know how you feel. I was married to a really bad man once. Even though he didn’t like me very much he didn’t want me to leave either. I felt stuck, trapped.”
“What did you do?”
“I left on my own, kind of like you did the night you ran away. For you, that wasn’t the answer, to try to leave. What I’m trying to say is that I know what it’s like to feel unwanted. Believe me, when I tell you that we’ll work on your parents. I want you to know Thane’s door is always open. If you should need a place other than that, so is mine. You remember that when things get tough at home, okay?”
“You mean that?”
“I do. Now why don’t you go over there with your friends and play with the trains and try to enjoy the rest of your Saturday while you’re here.” She watched the boy saunter over, his heart not really in the activity.
Later, she told Thane about the conversation.
“He actually said his parents didn’t want him?”
She nodded. “I wonder if it’s true. Someone needs to go talk to Mr. Prather and find out.”
Thane wasn’t stupid. “I take it that ‘someone’ is me.”
“Man to man, father to father, it’s better than me approaching him, especially since I’ve already formed an opinion of him that isn’t very flattering. Same goes for Mrs. Prather.”
“I hear that. Okay. I’ll go see him first chance I get.”
“There’s something else.” She went into what Jonah had told her earlier and waited for his reaction. It wasn’t what she expected.
He started laughing. “I did say that. But that was before you. That was back when we lived in New York. I didn’t bring women around Jonah. You understand that, right? I went out, left him with my mom. My dates were never part of the mix. But apparently in talking about you Jonah decided to lump you with them. Yo
u should know that you’ve been given access to Jonah more than any other woman I’ve ever been with. Do you honestly believe if I didn’t think this was serious between us, I’d let you near Jonah on the level I have?”
“You could just feel like I’m nothing more than a babysitter.”
He frowned. “I hope you’re joking. I was under the impression you wanted to spend time with Jonah to get to know him better.”
“Of course, I do. That’s the reason I took four boys to the toy store today. It’s the reason I got upset when he told me.”
“He didn’t mean to upset you. Sometimes I need to watch what I say around him. He picks up on a lot when I think he’s distracted. Stay here tonight and I promise I’ll make it better.”
“I suppose I could live with that.”
“That’s my girl.”
Thane had to pick the best time to approach Greg Prather. The man had a weird schedule. Four times a week Greg worked second shift at Murphy’s Market stocking shelves. Five nights a week, he showed up at the vet clinic to clean out the cages of the animals recovering from surgery or other ailments. He performed those same duties as needed at the Fanning Marine Rescue Center for Keegan and Cord Bennett.
From what Thane could tell, the low-paying jobs kept Greg in a foul mood most of the time. When he rang the bell it was a couple hours before school let out. As he waited on the porch, Thane didn’t really expect much in the way of cooperation from Bobby’s father.
Greg opened the door glassy-eyed and annoyed.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Prather, but since our kids have been hanging out together for several weeks now, I thought it might be a good time to stop by and connect.”
“Look, I don’t have a lot of time for socializing. My wife packed up and left me this past Wednesday. She went back to her fancy family in San Francisco. She didn’t bother to take her son with her either. So if you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass on connecting.”
“Okay. I just thought…”
“Doesn’t matter what you thought. I know who you used to be, some hotshot ballplayer in the NFL. I doubt we have a thing in common. What I can’t figure out is why a big deal like you wants to live in this town?”
His attitude just made Thane sink his teeth into the conversation even more. “I grew up here. My parents have a house on Landings Bay. We have two boys that attend the same school and hang out together. I know how it is to be on my own when it comes to raising a child. My boy lost his mother when he was a baby. My mom used to take care of him but when she died of breast cancer I retired from the NFL and became Mr. Mom.”
Greg let out a loud, weary sigh. “Well, come on in then, maybe we can wallow in a vat of self-pity together. Name’s Greg.”
“Thane Delacourt.” The two men shook hands to sanction their meeting.
“Want something to drink? I’ve got a pot of fresh coffee I put on not fifteen minutes ago.”
“Sure, that’d be fine.”
Thane followed him into a small kitchen where he watched Greg get down a cup. “How do you take it?”
“Black with plenty of sugar.”
“So, you’re a regular Mr. Mom, are you? You’re opening that pizza place at the corner of Main and Pacific,” Greg said as he took a seat across from Thane at the kitchen table.
“Which means I’ll be hopping whenever it opens. I don’t know how to say this but…”
“I knew you had something else on your mind when I opened the door and saw you standing there. Might as well spit it out.”
“Bobby told Jonah about his sister dying, so I know it’s been a rough few years.”
“Ah, little Ariana. Leukemia took her.”
“I’m very sorry. But that’s not all. Before your wife left, Bobby heard you two fighting.”
“That’s not news. He often heard us fight because that’s all we ever did.”
“He overheard you both arguing about how neither one of you wanted him.”
Greg lowered his cup, met Thane’s eyes. “Do you know what that woman did? She packed up and took off in the middle of the night while I was at work, left him alone in the house sleeping in his bed for hours. I know you more than likely have good intentions even though it’s not any of your damn business but… I don’t mind telling you I don’t know what I’m gonna do with the kid while I work my three jobs.”
“Maybe you should look for a day job while he’s at school. That way you’d only have to worry about a couple hours in the afternoon.”
“Gee, that sounds great but there’s just one problem with it. In case you haven’t noticed there aren’t a lot of jobs around town. I took what I could get to pay the bills. We all can’t be rolling in dough like you.”
“Would you be willing to give up at least one of your jobs if I could work something else out?”
“I’m not an idiot. You come up with a decent job for me that brings in as much as all three are doing right now and I’ll give up the night work.”
Thane extended his hand. “It’s a deal. What is it you enjoy doing?”
That sent Greg into a fit of laughter. “I had this notion once upon a time that I’d become an artist, not the kind Logan Donnelly is, but rather… You see, I liked to design jewelry. I know it sounds kind of odd for a guy. But I went to school for it until I had to drop out. We had Bobby and that put an end to that.”
“Really?”
“Surprises you, huh? I had this stupid notion I could make money at it.” Greg shook his head. “I was young, idealistic, and foolish. Turns out, I couldn’t, not enough anyway.”
“Do you have any computer experience?”
“Not for years. I don’t even own one now. Look, I barely get by. This house was paid for by my in-laws. Who knows how long I’ll get to keep it once Peggy gets around to filing for divorce.”
“That isn’t the way it works. In California it doesn’t matter who pays for the house, everything is considered community property, split fifty-fifty, unless there’s some type of legal doc like a prenup that says otherwise.”
“No shit? I never signed a prenup and neither did Peggy, didn’t even consider such an option.”
“Plus, your wife left you.”
“And abandoned her son,” Greg finished. “I may like you yet, Delacourt.”
“Yeah? I may like you, too.”
After Thane left, he mulled over the job dilemma. The man was right. Jobs around the small town were definitely few and far between.
That night he reported back to Isabella and together they tried to brainstorm a solution.
“Right now the only thing I can come up with is that Julianne Dickinson has yet to get her resale shop off the ground. She’d planned to have it opened by now but she hasn’t found anyone to manage it.”
Thane chewed on that news. “Wonder how much she’d be willing to pay?”
“Not sure but she makes a good side business with all the stuff she finds to recycle. She certainly doesn’t have time to run it nine months out of the year and take care of her duties as principal. It’s worth a shot.”
“Okay, it’s a place to start. I’ll approach her at school tomorrow and see if it’s something she’d be interested in doing.”
The next morning Thane walked Jonah to class and then went in search of the principal. Tapping on the open door to her office he found her sitting behind her desk surrounded by a pile of paperwork.
“If this is how you start every day you have my sympathies. Going through all those folders would drive me up the wall.”
“It isn’t as bad as it looks. Besides, the school board increased our budget and I’m getting an admin to help me with a lot of the filing and correspondence.”
“Good for you. That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about. A job. Isabella tells me that you wanted to open up a resale shop on Main Street but couldn’t find anyone to manage it.”
Julianne nodded, waved her hand over the file folders. “This is pretty much the reason Reclaimed Treasures has ta
ken a backseat. I’m considering giving up the idea because I just don’t have the time to set up, tag every piece of merchandise let alone take care of the day-to-day operation.”
“What do you think about Greg Prather as your manager?”
“Bobby Prather’s father? Oh, I don’t know, Mr. Delacourt, the Prathers are going through a really rough patch right now.”
“Call me Thane. Peggy Prather’s already left town. My take is their rough patch is about to get a whole lot rougher. The couple’s headed for divorce. Mrs. Prather didn’t want to take Bobby with her and Greg didn’t want him to stay.”
“Oh, no. Does Bobby know this?”
“He overheard every word of the knock-down, drag-out fight.”
“When will parents realize arguing in front of the kids…?” Her voice tailed off and she let out an impatient sigh. “Listen to me, dishing out advice when I don’t even have kids. I’m not even married yet.”
“In theory I suppose it’s not a bad rule for parents to live by though. Anyway, I sat down yesterday with Greg, got to know him a little better. He’s trying to hold down three jobs, all of them at night. He pointed out to me that it’s difficult to find a job here. He can’t give up his night jobs if he wants to put food on the table. Taking that into consideration, how is he supposed to look after Bobby when he isn’t home at night?”
“So, as a solution you want me to give Mr. Prather a chance at the resale shop that hasn’t even opened its doors yet?” The principal sat back as if deciding what to do, all the while chewing on her bottom lip. After several long seconds she said, “Tell you what, let me talk to Ryder first before I dive headlong into making a bigger mess of Bobby’s life than it already is. It’s a good idea, Thane, doable. Once we talk, Ryder and I’ll be able to figure out how much I can pay him and go from there.”
“That’s all anyone can ask. You know he says he wanted to design jewelry. He went to school for it.”
“Greg Prather, a jewelry designer? Really?” She shook her head again. “The old adage is true. Never judge someone from afar. But that’s interesting…about the jewelry I mean. Over the years I’ve found some gorgeous silver pieces for next to nothing that would make lovely bracelets or rings. For that matter I’ve found pieces of clunky metal that would make cool necklaces.”
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