Love at Last

by Darlene Panzera

  Sarah pursed her lips and Joanne gave her a playful poke.

  “Okay, okay, I won’t even look at him.”

  “What about your date?” Sarah nodded to the mild-mannered man Joanne had brought with her. “Aaron Phillips seems like a nice guy.”

  “He is,” Joanne said, her voice soft, “and he’s employed, a big plus on my list. He helps run the community center.”

  Sarah watched Matt sneak another look in her direction. Was it because he liked her, like Joanne thought, or because he didn’t know anyone else at the party? Either way, she knew she couldn’t leave him alone for too long. She took a tray from the outside cooler and made her way over to him.

  “What can I do to help?” Matt asked.

  “Nothing. You can mingle with everyone and have a… Oh! Here she comes.”

  “Who?”

  “Gabrielle St. John. Her son, Christopher, is friends with Tommy. She interviewed me yesterday for the events-planner position at the country club. I knew she was coming to the party and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to show her what I can do.” Sarah hesitated. “I should go greet her, but I have to cook these burgers.”

  “Why don’t you let me do that?”

  “I couldn’t-“

  “Please,” he said, taking the tray of hamburger patties from her hands. “You’d be doing me a favor.”

  “I would?”

  “Everyone always hovers around the grill while waiting for the food to be done. It’s a great way for me to meet people.”

  Sarah raised her brows. Was Matt uncomfortable introducing himself to strangers? He didn’t appear to be shy around her, but she’d only known him for a day and she’d been the one to approach him, not the other way around.

  “Well, okay,” she replied. “Be sure to turn the propane knob all the way around. Sometimes the grill is a bit tricky to light.”

  “No problem.”

  Sarah gave him a curious look as he readily engaged in conversation with the first person he met. He couldn’t be shy. No way.

  Maybe he simply liked to cook?

  Matt flipped the beef patties over with the spatula and the flames jumped upward with a sizzling hiss. The mouth-watering aroma drew a third of the party attendees forward just as he’d anticipated. The perfect way to get to know Sarah better until they had more time alone.

  “I don’t know how she does it,” Joanne complained. “I wish she’d let me help her, but Sarah is obsessive about not being a burden on anyone. What she doesn’t understand is that I enjoy helping others.”

  Sarah’s grandmother agreed. “She’s always sending over plates of food, helping with chores, but she won’t accept help herself. Not unless she has no other choice.”

  “Sounds like Sarah’s determined to be independent,” Matt mused.

  “Unless a guy like you can change her mind,” Joanne countered. A sly smile spread across her face.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Matt promised, and shoveled the last of the cooked burgers on to a plate.

  When the women left, Kyle approached with a narrow gaze and uplifted chin.

  “How much longer do we have to stay here?”

  Matt turned off the grill and set the spatula aside. “Don’t you want to hang out with the other kids?”

  “There’s nothing to do. Tommy’s mom won’t let us skateboard, the D.J. only plays old music from the eighties and except for the burgers, there’s nothing but vegetables and health-food.”

  “Sarah’s trying to make a good impression on her potential boss.”

  “I want to leave.”

  Reluctance pitted Matt’s stomach as he glanced across the yard toward Sarah, but he knew he could see her in the days ahead. The hours with his son were limited.

  “Okay,” Matt agreed. “I’ll tell Sarah we have to go.”

  “The wildflower bouquets are a nice touch, but you know the country club is not the same as a backyard barbeque.” Gabrielle St. John’s tone oozed with criticism as thick as the raspberry cream frosting smeared across the white angel food cake.

  Sarah pressed her lips into a thin line. She’d tried her best to erase doubts over her nearly vacant resume, but it seemed nothing she did even came close to bringing a smile across the snooty woman’s face.

  Worse, Tommy had pleaded with her a second time to allow a skateboard competition in the driveway and the pressure to uphold her idea of a perfect party forced her to say no.

  “Excuse me, Sarah,” Matt said, drawing near with Kyle by his side. “Thank you for the invitation, but we have to head home now.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  Sarah looked past them, toward her own son. Tommy sat on the back step of the porch, his head in his hands, and looked like he wished he could leave too.

  She swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the huge wedge of remorse blocking her throat. This wasn’t the party Tommy had wanted. It was the party she had wanted, to impress Gabrielle St. John, so she wouldn’t have to be a grocery store cashier the rest of her life. But there would be other job opportunities. Her son would never have another thirteenth birthday.

  According to Tommy, life began at thirteen.

  Thirteen branded him a teenager.

  Thirteen was the required age to enter competitions at the local community center, where he’d undoubtedly get a sponsor and become a world-famous skateboarder.

  She recalled the look on Tommy’s face when he opened the bright-colored wrapping and pulled out his new skateboard earlier that morning. Life could be short, a lesson she’d learned from her husband, but a small cherished moment – or the memory of one special day - had the power to last a lifetime.

  Sarah refocused her attention on Matt and Kyle.

  “Can you stay just fifteen more minutes? Please?”

  She hated the desperate tone in her voice, but she was desperate. Desperate to make this day right.

  Matt shot his son a questioning look to which Kyle rolled his eyes and gave a disinclined nod.

  Next, Sarah dismissed the D.J., marched over to the open kitchen window, and pulled the boom box off the sill. Inserting her son’s favorite CD, she cranked up the volume and gave the party a whole new beat.

  “Joanne, I need your help,” she said, grabbing hold of her friend’s arm.

  Joanne gasped. “You do? I mean, I’d love to help.”

  “You, too, Aaron,” Sarah invited with a smile, “if you don’t mind.”

  Once Sarah set Joanne and Aaron to work opening bags of chips and filling the coolers with soda, Sarah invited everyone to follow her through the garage to the paved driveway.

  “Okay, here are the rules,” she said, pausing a moment to relish the look on her son’s astonished face. “Each trick counts as one point. The person with the most tricks at the end of five runs wins the competition.”

  Matt and his son, Kyle, placed bright orange cones along the end of the driveway to mark the finish line.

  “Don’t you want to enter the competition?” Matt asked.

  Kyle shook his head, his nose scrunched.

  Tommy set up the rail his friend Frank had given him, and his voice rose with enthusiasm as he discussed the finer details of the competition with his friends.

  “Sorry I don’t have any ramps,” Tommy apologized.

  “I’ll build you a ramp,” Matt said to the boys, and pointed to the wood in the back of his truck a few feet away. “It would only take me about ten minutes.”

  “Cool!” Tommy exclaimed, and the other boys called out their appreciation as well.

  “Very cool,” Sarah told him when the wooden arc was done. “Thanks, Matt.”

  Matt thought she was pretty cool herself, the way she’d taken charge of the situation and turned it about.

  Over the next half hour, the adults lined up on either side of the driveway seemed to have as much fun as the boys on their boards. Cheers rose into the air and smiles pervaded the crowd. Even Kyle, who had refused to participate, had perked up
enough to offer his critique on each competitor’s performance and help Sarah’s grandma keep score.

  “He didn’t land that last one right,” Kyle said, and jumped on his board he’d retrieved from Matt’s house. “You’re supposed to flip the edge over like this.”

  Kyle popped the skateboard into the air, making it flip over twice, and landed on the top deck with both feet.

  “You’re good,” Tommy said. “Do you think you could show me how to do that?”

  Kyle looked startled. Apparently, he hadn’t been aware of Tommy behind him. “Um, sure.”

  Before long, Matt discovered his son not only on good terms with the other boys, but a top contender in the skateboard competition.

  “I thought you wanted to leave,” Matt teased, as he tightened one of the screws on Kyle’s board.

  “Not now,” his son answered. “I have to show the others my double kick-twist.”

  Matt laughed, and Kyle gave him a rueful grin.

  The party was perfect, in more ways than one.

  Sarah tossed a stack of greasy paper plates into the garbage bag Matt held open for her. “Thanks for staying after to clean up.”

  “The skateboard isn’t the only thing that came together,” Matt said, his voice soft.

  “No, it isn’t,” Sarah agreed.

  “Tommy and Kyle have a lot in common.”

  “Tommy and Kyle?” She swallowed hard and looked away. “Yes, they do.”

  He was talking about the boys, of course. How silly of her to think he meant…

  “Maybe they can get together again next week when Kyle comes back,” she offered.

  “He’d like that,” said Matt, “but I hope I don’t have to wait a whole week to see you again. What if I knock on your door and ask you to dinner?”

  “Dinner would be nice.” Sarah’s heart raced. This time he did mean her.

  Tommy rushed through the kitchen door. “You should have seen it – it’s so cool! Kyle helped me learn how to do a double kick-flip and I taught him how to grind rails on my new skateboard.”

  “That’s great,” Sarah said, as her son raced back out.

  “What is?” Matt raised a brow and his mouth curved into a slow smile. “C’mon, you can say it.”

  Sarah laughed. “Helping each other.”

  Maybe it was her imagination playing tricks on her but Sarah couldn’t help but smile when he looked at her like that. Like she was more than a new neighbor or new friend.

  “Great party, Sarah,” Joanne said, entering the kitchen with Aaron. “You’ll make a fantastic event planner.”

  Sarah grimaced. “I didn’t get the job. Gabrielle St. John informed me of her decision five minutes after I turned up the volume on the boom box.”

  “Good!” Aaron Phillips exclaimed.

  Joanne gave her date a puzzled look. “Why is that good?”

  “Because the community center needs a coordinator to plan themed events for all ages and I really liked the way Sarah pulled everyone together to pitch in and help.”

  Sarah shook her head. “I’m afraid recruiting help is not one of my-“

  “Sarah, just say ‘yes!’” Joanne exclaimed.

  An event-planning job at the community center would allow her to do something creative, oversee her son’s skateboard competitions, and team up with her friends.

  “Yes,” Sarah replied, and exchanged a warm look with Matt before she turned back to Joanne and Aaron. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  Back at Matt’s new house, Kyle was all grins as he moved about the living room. Matt’s heart, already buoyed by his interaction with Sarah, lifted even higher. He hadn’t seen his son smile like that since the divorce.

  “Tommy’s new skateboard is cool,” Kyle said, picking up a photo of himself off the fireplace mantle. “The trucks holding the wheels are strong enough to land all kinds of jumps.”

  Matt nodded. “Last night I helped his mom put it together.”

  “Yeah, Tommy says she doesn’t know much about tools. But she seems nice.”

  “She is.”

  “The competition was a great idea. So was the ramp.” Kyle disappeared into his bedroom and came back out with a hand-drawn blueprint. “Maybe you could build us a half pipe for the driveway?”

  “Sure,” Matt said, looking over the paper. “Just give me the measurements of what you want.”

  “Could you have it ready for when I come back next week?” Kyle’s face lit up with enthusiasm.

  “Why don’t we work on it together?” Matt asked, cocking a brow. “I have some spare wood behind the house and we still have a few hours left before I drop you back off at your mom’s.”

  “Cool!”

  Early the next morning, a knock sounded on Sarah’s door. When she went to answer it, she found Matt on her front porch with the plate she’d given him two days before. The cookies she’d baked him were gone, but the plate wasn’t empty. A beautiful pink Stargazer lily bouquet sat on the oval glass and filled the air with sweet fragrance.

  “Can I help you?” she teased, a thrill coursing up her spine.

  “I hope so. I’m trying to put something together and not sure how to proceed. I noticed you were good in the kitchen and was wondering…”

  “Do you need help baking more cookies?”

  “Not exactly. How are you with picnics?”

  She smiled. “Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been on one. How about you?”

  “I usually just watch. There’s a view of the park from my new roof job. But I think with a little help, I could put together a pretty good basket of food.”

  “A picnic for two,” Sarah mused, light-hearted as she played along. “With wine and cheese?”

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “Fried chicken?”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Perfect,” Matt repeated, and his mouth widened into a smile reflected from the depths of his eyes. A smile that healed old wounds and promised new beginnings.

  Sarah followed Matt into his kitchen and did more than help pack a picnic basket. She helped him find the perfect opportunity to kiss her.

  A Look of Love

  A Look of Love

  Chapter 1

  Noelle stared at the ring Jack Davis held out to her, a glamorous three carat diamond as clear as the ice blanketing the entire Northwest.

  “I don’t know what to-to say,” she stuttered. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

  “I know,” Jack said, “but if you say yes, we can trade this wintry Seattle weather for warm California sunshine before the month is up.”

  “You sealed the deal with Carlson and Edwards?”

  Jack nodded, a victorious gleam in his eyes.

  “I can’t believe it,” Noelle exclaimed, glancing around the living room of his penthouse apartment. On top of the bar, two fluted glasses sat beside an unopened bottle of champagne. On the coffee table a congratulatory ribbon circled a fresh bouquet of red roses. And in the corner of the room lay a stack of cardboard moving boxes.

  Jack had been working over-time to convince the high-profile business conglomerate that Davis Software & Electronics was the right company to outfit their fifteen-story building with new office equipment. She had just never stopped to think how the deal, if accepted, would affect the two of them.

  “They loved the designs and want me to oversee the installation of the new computer systems,” said Jack, sliding a Carlson & Edwards cap over his short-cropped hair. “I’m scheduled to begin work in San Diego on the twenty-eighth.”

  Noelle’s gaze shifted to the calendar on the wall and back again.

  “So soon?” she asked, dropping into a chair.

  “There’s a cocktail party on the twenty-ninth, which I wouldn’t want to miss. All the founders of the corporation are going to be there.” He gave her a questioning look. “I would like to arrive with a fiancée on my arm.”

  Noelle opened her mouth but found she wa
s unable to respond. She and Jack had only been dating six and a half months and she wasn’t sure she was ready for a commitment at this stage of their relationship.

  “It’s all so sudden,” she said, her throat tightening with each word she spoke. “Overwhelming. I just took the job at Taps and Tutu’s a month ago.”

  “You can be a ballet instructor in San Diego.”

  “But the kids—”

  “Noelle, are you turning me down?” asked Jack, arching his brow.

  “No, of course not.” She forced a smile. “I just need time… to process it all in my head. I’d have to sell my house, find a replacement for the dance recital, and then there’s my brother’s wedding on Saturday.”

  “There is a lot to do,” Jack agreed. “I’ll have to skip the ceremony so I can finalize designs and prepare the computer systems for shipment.”

  “But it’s my brother’s wedding.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be there in time for the reception. And Noelle?”

  “Yes?”

  Jack studied her face, stepped forward, and slid the heavy diamond onto the ring finger of her left hand. “I’d like a definite answer when I get there.”

  Noelle swallowed hard. Was she ready to be someone’s wife?

  The next three nights Noelle barely slept. She’d always dreamed of getting married, buying a house, having kids… However, as her mother reminded her at their weekly fish and chips luncheon, life often had a way of rearranging even the best-laid plans.

  “First you bought yourself a cozy waterfront house. Then you got yourself some kids,” her mother teased, referring to the ballet students. “And now you are finally considering marriage?”

  “I know.” Noelle grinned. “I’m getting everything I’ve always wanted — just not in the order I expected.”

  Noelle’s plump, gray-haired mother pursed her lips, folded her napkin, and set it beside her untouched plate.

  “Is it everything you’ve always wanted?”

  “Of course.” Noelle stared at her in shock. “Why would you ask?”

  “Your brother voiced some concerns when I told him about the proposal.”

  “Concerns? About Jack?”