A Mom's New Start (Love Inspired)

by Margaret Daley

  Dressed in a floppy hat that shaded her face, Maggie watched the guys clean up after lunch as Ruth and Anna built a sand castle while she and Kim walked along the beach. “If I tell you something, you need to keep it quiet. I don’t want Brady to know what I’ve asked Cody to do—or rather what he’s volunteered to do.”

  “He’s going to counsel Brady without him knowing. Like Dad.”

  “Your father figured it out pretty fast, so he’s going to be much more subtle with Brady. It’s not like he doesn’t know the family now.”

  “But still your son could suspect something.” Kim moved out farther from shore, the water lapping the tops of her thighs. Her gaze fixed on Brady on shore, she tilted her head to the side. “So what are you gonna do?”

  “I don’t know. Convince Brady he needs help. Cody wants me to talk to Hannah since I know what it’s like to be alone and pregnant. Maybe by throwing us together, it’ll evolve naturally.”

  “I hope it works. I’ve noticed how depressed Brady has been lately. I’ve been worried about him. Does Cody think it’s being a teenager or something else?”

  Maggie glanced over her shoulder at the others about a hundred feet away. “We just talked about it this morning. Cody’s good but let’s give him time. He did mention that some people have had delayed reactions to Hurricane Naomi, so I guess it could be that.”

  Kim planted her hand on her waist. “I didn’t think of that. It could be. Right after it happened he was extra quiet like he is now. But then he began pitching in and was almost back to normal, so I dismissed those thoughts, especially when Dad went downhill.”

  “And Brady did a lot to help Uncle Keith. This new behavior didn’t really appear until after your dad got better. To be on the safe side, I’m going to call his doctor tomorrow and have him check out Brady in case there’s a physical reason he’s so tired lately.” From the corner of Maggie’s eye, she glimpsed her son walking back toward the pier on the north side of the island. Anger marred his features. “I’d better go see what’s going on.”

  Maggie exited the water and hotfooted it across the sand, the bottoms of her feet burning. After snatching up her flip-flops, she put them on as she hurried to catch Brady before he retreated from the family.

  “Hon, where are you going?”

  Brady slowed his pace but kept trudging along the worn path they used to traverse from one side of Eagle Island to the other side. “Going to the Blue Runner. Where else would I go? Back home where I want to be?”

  Patience, Maggie. But it was wearing thin. “I’d like you to stay with us.”

  “I want to take a nap.”

  “But you already slept ten hours today.”

  “I’m tired. I must need more sleep.”

  “Then take a nap,” she said, gesturing toward the beach where they had set up umbrellas, towels and chairs, “but do it here. This is not debatable. And next week I’m calling your doctor to get you a checkup. You’ve been tired a lot lately.”

  “I’m fine. Can’t a guy sleep when he wants? It’s summer. Summer is for resting.”

  “You’re gonna have to humor me on this.”

  Scowling, Brady folded his arms over his chest.

  When Maggie started her trek back to the beach, she paused after a few steps and waited for her son to catch up with her.

  Anna squealed and began pointing to an area not far from where she was in the water.

  Close to Anna, Cody sloshed through the Gulf to the girl and stared at what she indicated, then lifted his head and shouted, “It’s a shark.”

  Chapter Four

  “A shark?” Brady ran past Maggie as he headed toward the Gulf.

  “Wait! Brady, you can’t go in. It’s a shark.” Maggie hurried to catch up with him, visions of some of the sharks she’d seen caught off the Mississippi coast flashing through her mind. The last one was an eight-foot nurse shark with rows of sharp teeth.

  Her son barely paused in his trek out into the sea. “It can’t be too bad. Anna isn’t running screaming out of the water.”

  Maggie swung her gaze to the pair still in the same spot. Anna jumped up and down, pointing. Cody stood calmly near her. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Maggie shouted, “How big is it?”

  Looking toward her, Cody indicated about two-and-a-half feet.

  Relief shivered down her until she remembered baby sharks still had teeth. Behind her son, she waded toward Cody and Anna about twenty yards offshore. On the beach Kim and Zane were walking toward the middle of the island and probably didn’t hear Cody, but Ruth and Uncle Keith came to the edge of the water and watched.

  “What’s it doing?” Maggie asked as she approached the trio now observing the shark’s movements.

  “Just swimming in circles. Maybe it’s looking for its mother.” Anna glanced around.

  “Cool.” Her son’s expression became excited, his attention glued to the shark.

  “Probably it’s searching for food smaller than us,” Cody said with not an ounce of fear in his expression.

  “Really?” Maggie checked where the predator was in relationship to her son—a few yards away.

  “Yeah, Mom. Cody is probably right. We’re safe. It sees us as a threat.”

  Anna screamed. “Look. I see a fin out there. Its mother is coming.” The child backed up a few steps, her arm waving in the air.

  Maggie followed the direction Anna indicated and saw a fin heading toward them about twenty yards away. “Let’s get to shore. That’s no thirty-inch shark.”

  Before she finished what she said, Cody had grabbed Anna’s hand and started for the beach. Maggie did the same with Brady.

  “Ah, Mom. It could be a dolphin.” He shook off her grasp, but he kept going toward shore.

  “Yeah, it could be, but it could be a shark. I’d rather not take the chance.” Maggie threw a glanced over her shoulder and found the fin turning. The shark or whatever it was began swimming parallel to the beach but away from them. Drawing in a deep breath, she kept that information to herself in case Brady decided to turn around and head back out.

  Once ashore, Anna ran up to her grandfather and Ruth, jumped around pointing at the larger fin in the water. “Papa Keith, what do you think that is? A dolphin or a shark?”

  “It isn’t swimming like a dolphin. It’s gotta be a shark. Probably a reef one.”

  Brady joined them. “You think so? They can grow to be big.”

  “Yep. I saw one that was at least a foot longer than me.” Uncle Keith rocked back on his heels in the sand.

  Anna’s eyes grew round. “While you were swimming?”

  “Yes. I didn’t panic, but I did get out of there.”

  “I’m sure you did, dear. I didn’t marry a thrill junkie, thank goodness.” Ruth clasped Uncle Keith’s hand.

  He started back toward the umbrellas and chairs. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Wait till you see what I have planned for our first-month anniversary.”

  “We’ll celebrating month anniversaries?”

  “When you get to be over sixty, I think it makes sense.” Her uncle winked at Ruth. “Besides, celebrations are fun.” He leaned close to his bride’s ear and whispered something to her.

  She giggled and playfully punched him in the arm.

  “C’mon, Brady. Let’s follow the shark down the beach.” Anna started running.

  Brady went after her.

  “Don’t go into the water,” Maggie shouted, then slanted a look at Cody. “Did he hear me?”

  “I think they heard you back in town.”

  “Just wanna make sure Brady heard me.”

  “Oh, he did.”

  The grin that spread across his face warmed her more than the sun beating down upon her. “One good thing about spotting the shark, Brady has forgotten about taking a nap.”

  Cody peered down the beach to where Anna and Brady were still jogging. “Good. He’s still interested in some things.”

  “So all I have to do is get a pet shark for
him. I don’t think there’s an aquarium big enough to hold a shark, even a baby one.”

  “I always wanted a cool pet while growing up.”

  “And you didn’t have one? What did you have? A dog or cat?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Not one animal?” The thought of him not having a pet saddened her. Brady loved animals. When he lost his dog right before the hurricane, she had intended to get him another one, but so much of her energy went into cleaning up Bienville and trying to get it back to the way it was, to taking care of her uncle, to helping others get some normalcy back.

  “Nope, the closest I came to having one was when a guy in my class was going out of town and I babysat his dog for him.”

  Maggie noticed the kids trotting back toward them. “How old were you?”

  “Ten, and I took my job very seriously. I had a ball for that week. I took his beagle to the park, played Frisbee with him and took him on hikes.”

  “Why didn’t you get a pet? Just because you didn’t stay put in a place doesn’t mean you can’t have pets.”

  “Not according to my dad, but then I really think it was because Mom was allergic to dog and cat hair.”

  “There’s always a fish or snake.”

  “What’s cool about a fish unless it’s a shark? And my mom banned snakes and rodents from the house.”

  “What’s stopping you now?” Maggie asked as her son skirted around them and settled under an umbrella on a towel. Brady’s enthusiasm had lasted about fifteen minutes.

  “My job.” Cody peered toward where she was staring. “We’ll figure something out. There may be a time you’ll have to tell him he needs to get some counseling.”

  “I know,” she said on a long breath. “But like the saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. That may be Brady.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  Maggie chuckled. “What is this? Cliché day?”

  “If the shoe fits...” He shrugged.

  In the midst of all her worrying, Maggie burst out laughing.

  “Did I tickle your funny bone?”

  “Uncle!”

  As he laughed, Cody peered toward the others on the beach. “We’re getting stares.”

  “Yeah.” All except her son who had closed his eyes and was probably asleep. “All this talk about pets makes me realize I should get Brady another dog. His dog died a week before the hurricane. Frisky was fifteen. She had to be put down. That was hard for me and Brady, but it was way worse seeing her suffer.”

  “Brady didn’t say anything after the hurricane?”

  Maggie thought back to that time when their emotions were on overload, their energy sapped from working so much just to make the house livable. “I remember him saying something a couple times. I intended to see about a new pet, but then something else came up. When Uncle Keith got so bad, Brady stopped asking. He was sharing a bedroom with his great uncle and trying to help him as much as possible. With school, the house and Uncle Keith, there was little time left over.”

  “I would talk to him about it. Pets are great to help people who are depressed or floundering.”

  “Then I know the perfect place to take Brady to get the pet of his choice.”

  “Are you sure you want to give him a choice? Remember the shark.”

  “My cousin Nathan thankfully doesn’t have sharks at his farm, but he does have an array of animals that Brady can choose from.”

  “Nathan Grayson?”

  “Yeah. Do you know him?”

  “We’ve gotten to know each other. I’ve sent several of my clients out to his farm to get a pet.”

  “Have you ever been out there?”

  “No, I just know him from church.”

  “You need to go.”

  “I know. I’ve been meaning to.”

  “We’re gonna help him finish painting the last few rooms in his house this Saturday. It took quite a beating during the storm. He’s finally repaired the damage in between taking in abandoned animals and running his veterinary practice.” Maggie swung her attention to her son still sleeping under the umbrella or at least pretending to. There was no way she could sleep through the noises the others were making—laughing and talking only feet away. “Brady’s giving me a hard time about going. He’s always loved going before, but lately it’s been hard getting him to do anything. Now that he has his own room again, he has camped out in it. In past summers, I hardly saw him. He’d be gone from right after breakfast to right before dinner, playing with friends.”

  “Maybe he’ll change his mind if he knows he gets to pick out a pet.”

  “True. I’m not above using a bribe—or should I say incentive. Can you come, too? The more help, the faster we get done, then we can enjoy the animals.” She grinned. “Who knows? You might find a pet for yourself.”

  “Can I bring Hannah?”

  “Oh, I like how you think. We could use someone to tape off the areas to be painted. I’ll check with Nathan, but I can’t imagine him turning down free labor.”

  “Not the Nathan I’ve gotten to know.”

  He’d ignored her suggestion about looking for an animal for himself, but she’d heard the hint of regret in his voice when he’d been talking about why he’d never had a pet. “Be prepared for him to try to talk you into taking a pet.”

  “Thanks for the warning. I’ll have to work on my refusal.”

  Behind the sunglasses she couldn’t really read his expression, but his voice conveyed the same tone as earlier. “It doesn’t have to be like that. You could become a foster owner until Nathan finds a more permanent home.”

  “I think I need to leave well enough alone. No sense getting attached.”

  But the regret still sounded in his voice. It touched Maggie in a place she kept hidden from the world. She had let Robbie into it, and the hurt had been unbearable when he was killed.

  * * *

  The heat of the Fourth of July still lingered although the sun started its descent behind the tall trees on the west part of Broussard Park. The scent of salt infused with the sweet smell of honeysuckle and jasmine drifted to Maggie on the light breeze blowing in from the sea and across the new garden the ladies of Hope Garden Club had planted last month. Sitting on the large daisy-print blanket, she watched people find a spot for their picnic dinner and an area to watch the fireworks right after dark.

  She spied Cody and Hannah crossing the park and waved to let the pair know where they had settled for the evening. Cody smiled and hurried his pace. Maggie’s heartbeat sped up. She tried to even out its beating, but the fact the man was staring right at her as though she were the only other person in the park sent a thrill through her.

  “I had a hard time finding a parking space.” Cody placed a store-bought dessert on the top of the cooler, then sat next to Hannah on the blanket right across from Maggie. “Where’s Brady?”

  “He’s here. One of his friends persuaded him to play some basketball.”

  “That’s good. And Zane?”

  “With the boys, refereeing. Uncle Keith and Gideon are helping him.” Gideon, Ruth’s son-in-law, and his family—Kathleen, his wife, and her two sons by her first marriage—had joined them half an hour ago after Gideon got off work as a firefighter.

  “Aah, maybe I should go see if he needs any help.” Cody rose in one fluid motion and walked toward the court on the other side of the park.

  Hannah watched her brother leave. With a shake of her head, she swung her attention to Maggie. “How many adults does it take to referee?”

  Maggie laughed. “Probably half the guys here.” She nodded her head toward the court. “There’s a group of men gathering. You know how they get when it comes to sports.”

  “I used to go to Cody’s football games as a little girl. He enjoyed football and other kinds of sports, but it wasn’t everything to him. My ex-boyfriend took the whole sports thing so seriously. I should have known he didn’t really love me
when going to a game with his buddies or watching one at home was more important than doing something with me.”

  “Is this the father of your babies?”

  Hannah nodded, a sheen of tears in her eyes. “How can a man just walk away from his own children? Not even give them a chance?”

  “I wish I had a good answer for that, but there isn’t one. Brady’s dad was killed in action and didn’t have a chance to be a father. He died not even knowing he was going to be a father. I know he would have been a good one. He’d wanted children.” The fallout from Robbie’s death still affected her and Brady. Would her son have been able to relate better to Robbie about what was going on right now than he was with her?

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I’m glad he at least wanted his kid.”

  “Yeah, but it didn’t make things easy. I wasn’t married. My mother was upset with me and let me know it. No, upset is too mild a word. Furious is more like it. I struggled to make ends meet. If it hadn’t been for Uncle Keith stepping in and offering me a home, I don’t know what I would have done. I didn’t have any health insurance, and having a baby is expensive.”

  “I know what you mean. I’m young and working in a male-dominated field. I had only recently finished up my training when Aaron walked out on me so I don’t have a lot of experience yet. Some employers where I lived were hesitant to hire a woman with next-to-no real experience. Then you add that I was pregnant, and the job I did have didn’t last. There isn’t any proof that was the reason I was let go, but when I began to show, things changed at the company where I worked.” Hannah laid her hand on her rounded stomach. “It’s getting a little hard to hide the fact that I’m pregnant. In a tight job market, people don’t want to hire someone who is pregnant and will have to go on maternity leave shortly after they start.”

  Listening to Hannah speak of some of the problems she’d run into brought back all the pain and stress she’d gone through while grieving for the loss of Robbie. “I have a few connections here. Let me see what I can do. That is if you want to get a job here.”

  “I don’t want to be a burden to Cody. Not that he has said anything to me about that. He never would. But I know he’ll be moving on soon. He always does.”