A Sweetbrook Family (You, Me & the Kids)

by DeStefano, Anna

  But her dad hadn’t done everything he could for her or her mom. He hadn’t even tried.

  Becky had blamed her mom, because it had been easier that way. Because it hurt less when she was mad. But her mom wasn’t the loser Becky had called her over and over after coming to stay in Sweetbrook. And being mad had stopped making her feel better weeks ago. She wasn’t even sure she hated this tiny town so much anymore.

  She’d never felt alone here, not really. No matter how hard she’d tried to make things miserable for everyone. Because, she realized, she’d had Grandma Gwen and her mom on her side.

  Her family.

  She turned in her grandmother’s arms and hugged her back. For the first time, she felt lucky for the weeks she’d spent in Sweetbrook. Maybe she even wished she could stay longer than the short time she had left. That maybe she, her mom and her Grandma Gwen could be a real family, living together here and starting over.

  Her thoughts returned to Daniel.

  The kid’s dad was a deadbeat, too. But unlike Becky, Daniel didn’t have a mother anymore. Principal White was all Daniel had, and things weren’t looking so good for them, either.

  Where was Daniel going to find the family he needed?

  * * *

  “EXCELLENT JOB, Ms. Loar,” Mr. Hutchinson said at the end of what had turned into an all-afternoon planning meeting.

  Amy discreetly checked her watch. Hutchinson had already caught her doing it once, and this wasn’t the best time for her to appear as if her mind was anywhere but on his pet project. But six o’clock had come and gone a half hour ago, and she couldn’t wait to talk with Becky, to hear how everything had gone at school that day. And she had to know how things were progressing with Josh and Daniel, too.

  “Amy?” Thomas Fuller prompted.

  She surveyed the boardroom. Hutchinson was waiting expectantly. Thomas’s smile was growing more snug by the second, and the rest of her staff was trying not to look bored out of their minds. Obviously, someone had asked a question.

  She cleared her throat. “Jacquie?” She turned to her assistant, trying not to look like a drowning woman grasping for a lifeline.

  “Yes, Mr. Hutchinson.” Jacquie nodded without missing a beat. She focused her attention on the man sitting at the head of the conference table. “The final draft of the project offering is ready to go. It includes documentation of the research and design we’ve done in conjunction with the Kramer staff, as well as the financials on the development, testing, support and equipment payout for the next five years. Plus the signatures we’ve obtained from each of the sign-off meetings.”

  “We’re eighty-five thousand under the budget we projected up front.” Amy took over, the bonus she’d been planning to secure for her friend and assistant increasing exponentially. “And we should have no problem completing the systems retooling two months before next year’s deadline.”

  “So.” The slight upward tilt of Hutchinson’s mouth was a good sign. “You’re confident we’ve secured their business.”

  “I don’t see how they can say no.” Amy turned her most professional stare on Thomas and dared the man to contradict her.

  Everyone else at the table, having witnessed the growing tension as she and Thomas worked together over the last week, waited, as well. Her team had spent the last seventy-two hours finalizing the details for this presentation, going the extra mile for Amy without having to be asked. They understood her promotion was at stake, and had rallied behind her. All Thomas had to do to lose the respect of everyone in the room, including Hutchinson, was throw a wrench in the works now. Could the kid be a team player, or would his ego be his undoing?

  He tipped Amy a begrudging nod, placed his pen on the table and folded his hands.

  “I agree totally, sir,” Thomas said from where he sat to Hutchinson’s right. “Of course, Amy and the rest of her team will be working closely with the Kramer staff right up until the presentation Thursday. But I don’t foresee any stumbling blocks that would warrant your attention.”

  Amy hid her relief, content to watch the smiles spreading over the faces of the other ten people in the room.

  “Excellent!” Mr. Hutchinson rose from his chair. The entire room stood to join him. “Then I’ll expect daily updates, and I’ll see the two of you at the closing meeting Thursday at three.”

  He nodded at Thomas, then stepped to Amy’s end of the table and held out his hand.

  “Fine job, Ms. Loar.”

  She shook it, feeling as if she’d just been told, Welcome aboard.

  When he’d left and the conference room door had swung shut, she turned to the others and beamed.

  “Great job, everyone.” She began clapping, so proud of all they’d done.

  The others clapped along with her. Jacquie, who knew better than any of them the sheer desperation that had kept Amy going for months, was close to tears. Even Thomas joined in the impromptu celebration, patting backs and shaking the hands of the associates closest to him.

  It all seemed so right, so perfect. They couldn’t take anything for granted until Thursday’s meeting, but it was actually going to happen, Amy realized. She and Becky were going to be okay. She was finally going to be free of the past.

  But as wonderful as the moment was, she found herself checking her watch again. In the midst of the first taste of success she’d known in years, Amy’s heart wasn’t in it.

  “Excuse me,” she said to the group.

  She couldn’t wait any longer. She had to call home.

  * * *

  “OVER EASY OR WELL DONE?” Josh asked, the same old joke sounding even more tired than he felt.

  “Whatever,” Daniel replied from the kitchen table, where he was finishing up his homework.

  “Over easy it is.” Josh turned off the gas burner and moved the bubbling pot of hot dogs to the side to cool.

  Theresa had left a casserole in the oven that Josh would heat up later, but he knew good and well Daniel wasn’t going to be tempted by whatever canned soup, chicken and broccoli concoction she’d magically morphed into a hearty meal. Good thing Family Services didn’t much care what Daniel ate at this point, as long as the kid had three squares a day.

  Josh caught himself staring at his nephew. Another session with Dr. Rhodes had come and gone with no real progress in getting Daniel to share his memories. Josh was closer every day to losing him, just as he and Daniel were finally beginning to settle in with each other. At this point, there was very little chance he could stop Wednesday’s visitation with the boy’s father.

  He glanced to where the cordless phone sat on the tiled island, itching to make the call he’d promised himself he wouldn’t make. Amy Loar had said her goodbyes. She was fighting for her survival in Atlanta. He had no business asking her to come back and hold his hand while he explained the inexplicable to Daniel.

  It didn’t matter that she was wrong when she’d said he didn’t want a woman with her history in his life. He’d take Amy any way he could get her, baggage and all. But he wasn’t going to pressure her any further. He’d made the mistake of not listening to his ex-wife’s needs, and he owed Amy better than that.

  The phone chose that moment to ring, its perky jingle mocking his dark mood. He grabbed it.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, Josh.”

  “Amy!”

  Daniel’s head lifted from his homework.

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?” Her hesitant question had no
business sounding so beautiful.

  But heaven help him, it did.

  “No. It’s good to hear from you.” And it was. He felt himself take his first full breath all day as he ripped open a fresh bag of hot dog buns and motioned for Daniel to come fix himself a plate.

  “How was your day?” he asked, shaking off the tempting image of them as a couple, chatting like this every evening over a hastily prepared dinner.

  “Great, actually. I think my promotion is a lock.” Her voice was a little too bright. A little too forced.

  “That’s wonderful.” He couldn’t have been prouder, even though the promotion meant she was slipping even further beyond his grasp.

  “How are things there?” she asked. “I just talked with Becky, and she said you and Daniel were out of school this afternoon. She thought there might be a problem.”

  “We’re doing good,” he replied for Daniel’s sake.

  Josh pulled the baking pan from the oven and scooped fries onto Daniel’s plate, reassuring himself that potatoes were indeed vegetables. He tousled the boy’s hair, the most affection he could give a kid who still refused to be hugged. At least Daniel no longer flinched every time Josh got within ten feet of him.

  “Something’s wrong,” Amy stated. “I can hear it in your voice.”

  “Becky’s still doing great at school, if that’s what you mean,” he said evasively.

  “That’s wonderful, but that’s not what I meant. What’s going on with Daniel and his father? I may be hundreds of miles away now, but I still care.”

  Her genuine concern made him want to crawl through the phone line and kiss her.

  Josh checked that Daniel had returned to the table. The boy was engrossed in seeing how much ketchup he could consume with each fry, so Josh slipped into the hall with the phone.

  “There’s a meeting on Wednesday,” he revealed in a half whisper. “A judge-mandated visitation with Daniel’s father that Barbara Thomas can’t make go away.”

  “Oh, no, Josh. Have you told Daniel?”

  “No.” Josh leaned back against the wall. “Not yet.”

  “Did things go better with the therapist today?”

  “Not really.” This afternoon’s session had been especially disappointing, given how hard Daniel was trying to talk about his dad, but still couldn’t. “The doctor says we’re getting closer every day, but we’re running out of time. I don’t want to force Daniel to do anything, but—”

  “Josh, you have to tell him he’s about to see his father again.”

  “Now why didn’t I think of that?” Josh snapped, blasting her with the irritation he’d been holding in since this morning’s outburst.

  He couldn’t bring himself to tell Daniel. Not yet.

  Maybe he was being a coward because he was afraid of losing the boy’s trust once he admitted he couldn’t keep Curtis Jenkins away. But Josh wanted to be the kid’s hero, like the ones Daniel was always reading about in his comic books. Not another adult at the end of a long line of people forcing him to accept the worst and make the best of it.

  “Josh, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “No, I’m sorry.” He sighed at the worry in her voice. “I’ve had a rotten day, but none of this is your fault.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m taking Daniel back to his therapist again in the morning,” Josh said. “Dr. Rhodes is booked solid all day, but he managed to squeeze us in first thing, so we can give it one more try. Wednesday afternoon is soon enough to tell Daniel, if we still have no way to stop the visitation by then. There’s no point in him worrying himself sick about it all week.”

  “I wish I could do something,” Amy said in a low voice. “I wish…”

  “Yeah. Me, too.”

  Man, did he wish.

  He wished she was here with him and Daniel. That Amy could somehow let herself trust in the unknown she couldn’t control long enough to see what she was leaving behind. He wished for a relationship with her that was a lifetime beyond the couple of kisses they’d shared.

  He wanted it all. Amy and Becky and Daniel. He wanted them to be a family.

  “I…I’d better get back to our hot dogs.” He forced out the words, longing for the comfort of her touch.

  “Oh! I should have realized I’d be interrupting dinner.”

  “Working late again?”

  “Yeah.” She gave a hollow laugh. “It’s after six, and I’m just now taking my lunch break.”

  “It’ll all get better after Thursday, right?”

  “Yeah.” The laugh was positively jaded this time. “Then Becky and I can start our new life.”

  “Doug Fletcher assures me we’ll have Becky’s evaluation by the end of the week. You’ll be all set to start working with her new school when she returns to Atlanta.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Amy replied without enthusiasm. She was doing what she did best, what he most admired her for—holding strong, even when it hurt.

  “I’ll talk with you soon, then,” he offered, giving her the way out she needed. “Good luck on Thursday.”

  “You, too. With Daniel on Wednesday, I mean.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Goodbye, Josh,” she said. Her words had an awful finality to them.

  “Good night, Amy.”

  I love you.

  The line clicked, and she was gone.

  The hand holding the phone dropped to his side as he fought not to punch the buttons that would call her back.

  He’d been married for ten years, but until he’d held Amy in his arms, he’d never truly understood the strength a man could find in a woman’s softness. He knew he’d spend the rest of his life trying to forget that perfect feeling of wholeness he and Amy shared with each new touch.

  He was in love with her. And Amy, her daughter and everything their families could have created together were slipping through his fingers just as surely as he was losing his fight to keep Daniel.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “DANIEL? What are you thinking about?”

  Daniel hated that question more than all the others.

  They’d been there for almost an hour, he and his uncle and Dr. Steve. Talking a little, but mostly sitting and waiting. They’d come in first thing Tuesday morning, when they’d just been there last night, though his uncle wouldn’t say why.

  “Daniel?” the doctor asked again.

  “My dad,” Daniel blurted out. His stomach churned. “I’m thinking about my dad.”

  “Are you afraid it would make things worse if you talked about him?”

  What was he supposed to say? Of course talking about it would make things worse.

  Dr. Steve leaned forward. “You’re trying so hard to talk about him now, even if we haven’t quite gotten you there. Why the sudden change after the last few months?”

  His uncle gave him a wink.

  It was still a shock, how he seemed to really want Daniel around now.

  “I guess maybe…talking about my dad might not be so bad anymore,” Daniel said.

  “Because it’s better than the alternative?” Dr. Steve asked.

  “The what?”

  “Like talking about what scares you couldn’t be worse than how it felt to actually see your dad last week?”

  “Maybe.” Daniel reached for the new hole he’d picked in his favorite black sneakers.

  “Or maybe there’s something you want now that you can’t ha
ve until you deal with all the stuff you remember?”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Daniel glanced at his uncle again.

  Uncle Josh didn’t wink this time.

  “And what is it that you want, Daniel?” the doctor asked.

  Butterflies were beating away in his stomach. His eyes filled with tears.

  “Daniel?” Dr. Steve asked. “This is a safe place. The things that are scaring you can’t hurt you here.”

  Your uncle’s not going to let anyone hurt you….

  Becky’s mom seemed so sure each time she said that. And each time she’d said it, Daniel had wanted to believe her a little bit more.

  But he remembered his mom saying that they’d be safe, too, once they were in Sweetbrook. Daniel had believed her, but his grandmother hadn’t wanted them here. And now his mom was gone, and his old man was back, and Daniel would never be safe again—

  “I can’t do it!” He exploded from the chair. Forget that he’d agreed to try. Forget all this stupid talking. Forget them all. “You can’t make me!”

  “Daniel—” his uncle began in a soothing voice.

  Dr. Steve held up his hand, silencing them both.

  “We can’t make you do what, Daniel?” The therapist’s eyes, when he got that look, made Daniel feel like the doctor could see every last one of his secrets. “Tell us what you’re afraid of.”

  “Him, okay?”

  The long glance exchanged between his uncle and therapist made Daniel groan.

  “Not him—” He pointed to his uncle. “I’m not afraid of him. It’s…it’s my…”

  “Your father,” Uncle Josh finished for him. “Everything we’ve been trying to work through, the misbehavior and fighting at school, the problems you’ve had settling in at the house, it all has something to do with what happened when you were younger and living with your mom and dad, right?”

  “Yeah… No! Maybe. I can’t…I can’t talk about it.”

  “What don’t you want to talk about it, Daniel?” the doctor pressed. “You know how important your memories are to your uncle keeping custody of you. And it’s clear you don’t want to go back with your father. What do you think has you scared so badly you can’t do the very thing that will get you what you want?”