And he was kissing Dory whenever possible. Sometimes they’d duck behind a tree, only to be caught. Sophie would say, “You’re kissing again!” and Austin would say, “Blllkkk!” She suspected Clay enjoyed getting caught. It was like marking his territory with the kids. If she didn’t have evening meetings and he wasn’t doing his twenty-four hours at the firehouse, they often had dinner together followed by a private meeting on the front porch after the dishes were done.
Just the evening before, he had some things on his mind—a new dimension to this still new relationship.
“We need a better game plan for summer,” Clay said. “On my days off, I want you to let me take charge of the kids so you can be at the center. I’ll get them to T-ball and Little League practice and all that stuff. It takes the strain off you a little bit so you don’t have a hard time adding ball games to your schedule, because I know you really want to go to as many games as possible—and you have kids in two different leagues. Know what I mean?”
Boy, did she know! Between her work with the center and the kids’ activities, it was sometimes a push keeping the schedules straight. “I appreciate the offer,” she said to Clay. “But that’s too much. We’re not your responsibility.”
“I want to do it, Dory,” he said. “It’s not something I have to do, and I don’t have any ulterior motives. It’s not about getting closer to you—though I’ll take any invitation I can get.” And then he grinned. “They’re good kids and I’m good with kids. I can get a letter of recommendation from my sisters. They take complete advantage of me.”
“Do they, now?” she asked with a smile.
“Absolutely. And speaking of my family, the rest of them want to meet you. We have to pick a day you can come to a family picnic, meet the whole gang.”
“Have you been talking about me?”
“Not really. I brag. No one can believe I have a girl as beautiful as you, so you have to give me credibility and meet the family.”
“Are you getting a little ahead of yourself?” she asked him. “We’re pretty new, you and me.”
“Nah, we’re not new. Kissing is new. Watching the kids is new. But we’ve lived next door to each other for months and know plenty about each other. Besides, those kids of yours? They tell everything. If I forget to put on a turn signal, they’ll rat me out.”
True enough, she thought. They saw everything, heard everything, told everything. Besides, she was totally hooked on Clay, only because he was wonderful. Generous and kind and loving and tender. So they did just as he’d suggested. Dory and Clay worked out a schedule that eased her load a little bit by letting him help out with her kids sometimes. Her children were ecstatic—they’d far rather have Clay at their practices and games than her!
She thought about this as she sat at her desk in her office, and of course it made her smile. She was alone in the house that served as the center. It seemed it was either crawling with people and thus distractions, or quiet like this.
But not quiet for long. She felt a presence standing in her office doorway and looked up to see Mr. Sills standing there. He was a short, bald man who got red all the way to the top of his head when he was upset. Right now he was exceedingly pink.
“I hope you’re satisfied, Miss Finn.”
“Mr. Sills?” she asked, standing from her cluttered desk. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He walked into her office. “Oh, don’t play coy, Miss Finn. You launched a campaign to ruin my business, and don’t deny it!”
“What?” she asked, appalled. She came around her desk. “Mr. Sills, I wouldn’t do something like that, no matter how upset I was with you! What in the world are you talking about?”
“Those firemen, they said they were going to stop shopping at my store and spread the word to their family and friends. All because I had to let you go! And I’m not going to kid you, Miss Finn—I resent it! But in order to undo the damage, I’m willing to give you your job back.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said. “I already have another job, Mr. Sills. It’s not only one I’m more suited for, but it needs me as much as I need it. But I’ll speak to them—the firefighters. I’ll insist they go back to your store, and try to un-spread their word to family and friends. They shouldn’t have done that—it was wrong.”
“You will?” he asked.
“Of course, Mr. Sills. I told you, I’d never do anything like that. But please, let’s not kid ourselves that it’s about me. I think it has a lot to do with your attitude toward single moms, and that they’re too much trouble to employ. My next-door neighbor Clay is one of the firefighters who was at the store the day we had all the drama in the parking lot. It turns out he has a sister who’s a single mom and he looks out for her and his nephews the best he can. Apparently he took your attitude more personally than I realized—and obviously doesn’t appreciate it.”
Mr. Sills muttered something, shaking his head.
“What was that?” she asked.
“And one of them has an ex-wife who’s a single mom, and another was raised by a single mother….”
Dory crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, so you already knew this wasn’t about me, but about your bigotry. Maybe I should just stay out of this—it sounds like you made your bed.”
Mr. Sills seemed to shrink a bit. “Listen, Miss Finn, my receipts really dropped off the last several weeks. If you know a way to end this moratorium, I’d be most appreciative….”
“You need an education,” she said. “First of all, the only category you can lump single moms into is that category where they don’t have partners to share the responsibility of the kids, and that makes life that much harder for them—their jobs that much more essential. Many of them are widows or victims, and they need our help. All our help! Maybe you should come to our conference for single moms, sit in on some of the workshops, see if you learn something.”
His expression was all pain—he’d clearly be mortified. “Ohhh, Miss Finn…”
“Or you could donate to our food closet. You have a lot of product that’s perfectly good but can’t be sold—like disposable diapers in a crushed box, dented cans of vegetables and soup, that kind of thing. As long as it’s safe, we can use it.”
He brightened at once. “And you’ll speak to your neighbor?”
“And we have single moms looking for jobs all the time. You’re hiring from time to time. You could free up a position or two for us.”
“Ohhhh….” he moaned.
“If qualified, of course,” Dory clarified. “But even without the food and the job, I’ll still speak to Clay. Of course, I’ll tell him the whole story, about how I tried to get you to—”
“Done!” he said. “I’ll have the unusable items stacked in the stockroom weekly and you can go through them, and I’ll give you a call when we have a position free. But only for an interview—the job candidate has to be qualified.”
She smirked at him. “Mr. Sills, don’t kid a kidder. I was a hard worker. You’re going to miss me.”
“You were more than adequate….”
She laughed at him. “I think we can work together, Mr. Sills. I’ll call off the firefighters and you give me all your damaged but completely safe stock and let me send you job applicants when you have openings. And for good measure, we’ll put a nice big poster advertising our single moms’ conference and our resource center in your front window.”
His eyes brightened at that. “I suppose that could lure my customers back.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “It might give the illusion you’ve joined those of open minds and loving hearts,” she said. “Only you and I will know the truth.”
He scowled at her and she laughed.
Dory put out her hand. “Do we have a deal?” she asked. He nodded and took the hand. “Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Sills. Please, take some of my cards and leave a stack at your customer service desk.”
“Don’t push it, Miss Finn….”
“You
r competitors do that for me,” she said. “Happily.”
He took the cards from her, though he made a face. And she thought, what a piece of work! But she laughed and thanked him.
Once Mr. Sills had gone, Dory grabbed a couple of files off the top of her desk and turned to the filing cabinet. Still chuckling, she had begun to file them when she felt a couple of very sweet, very familiar arms slip around her from behind, followed quickly by some of the hottest, sweetest lips she’d ever known right against her neck. She giggled.
He turned her around and kissed her. When their lips parted he asked, “Was that Sills from the grocery I saw leaving?”
“It was,” she said. “I hear you’ve been a lot of trouble for him. Boycotting his grocery and all.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear about that. He had it coming, the old jerk.”
“I won’t argue that, but your move was vindictive and I’d rather not resort to that. I believe what goes around comes around and I just don’t need any bad karma. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah, but he did have it coming and he is an old jerk.”
“We made a deal—donations of food and et cetera, plus a shot at job openings in his store for our moms. I’m good with that. I think I actually intimidate him,” she said, and laughed. “He didn’t realize I have such influential friends. Now, what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to stop by before getting the kids from school and off to their practices. Meanwhile, you go home and freshen up. Put on something nice. I hired a babysitter—one of the guys at the firehouse has a seventeen-year-old daughter who drives. She’s going to be at your house at six-thirty.”
“Oh, Clay. Babysitters are kind of expensive….”
“It’s my treat and I can afford it,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “I’m going to take you to a nice restaurant, then bring you home to a couple of sleeping kids worn out from baseball, excuse the sitter and make out with you on the porch for a while. That’s what I want. Can you deal with that? Because it sounds like a great idea to me.”
She rose on her toes and gave him a kiss. “You turned out to be a pretty good neighbor, Mr. Kennedy. Yes, I can deal with that.”
He covered her lips in a deep and meaningful kiss. Against her lips he said, “I want to be a lot more than your neighbor, Dory.”
She ran her fingers through the thick dark hair at his temple. “You already are.”
Dear Reader,
Harlequin Books is well-known as a publisher with a lot of heart, and that attribute is not limited to their ability to publish universally loved romances, but also speaks to their generosity of spirit. Harlequin is about not just entertaining women, but empowering them. That’s why it’s such an honor and privilege to be asked to contribute a novella to the More Than Words program. The novellas are always inspired by charities that serve those in need.
The charity that inspired the project in my story is the Zoë Institute, a multilevel nonprofit resource center for single mothers located in Tahlequah, OK. Zoë refers to the Greek word that stands for not only the duration of life, but the quality of life; therefore the services the Institute offers range from crisis intervention, including the distribution of emergency food and other supplies, to education, mentoring, encouragement and support.
The Institute was founded by Rhonda Clemons, who found her calling when she was a widow with four young children. Single mothers, she quickly realized, need everything! Rhonda Clemons had a vision—a resource center that could meet every possible need, because she believes that every child deserves to grow up in a home where their mother is well supported, has the education necessary to live a full and abundant life and can lead their children to do the same. It is a world-changing, epic resolve that the center strives to reach—one single mom at a time. Between 300 and 400 families contact the Zoë Institute offices each month!
Rhonda Clemons’s vision has become the helping hand that has walked hundreds of single moms through the storm. For more information about this amazing organization, please go to www.zoeinstitute.com or call 918-453-9778.
Robyn Carr
BARBARA HUSTON
Partners In Care Maryland
Imagine waking up one morning so old and frail that a simple run to the corner store to pick up milk, bread and soup takes over three hours. Imagine constantly fretting that your bedroom lightbulb will burn out and go unchanged for weeks because there’s no easy way to reach it. Imagine what it’s like to boast a sharp mind, an independent spirit and a true desire to live at home, but not have the funds to periodically pay the fifteen to twenty dollars an hour for services to help make that happen.
But there is another way. It’s called Partners In Care Maryland, a vital, niche resource for older people and their families and friends living in Maryland—and a dream come true for Barbara Huston, the organization’s CEO.
“Most older adults want to stay in the community, but that doesn’t mean having something done for them necessarily. It’s about participating in that community,” she says, explaining the nonprofit’s “service-exchange” philosophy.
Put simply, the service-exchange concept is based on the idea that everyone has something to contribute to their community. People give their time and talents, and that time is logged into the “bank,” so when they need to draw from it, they can. For example, a seventy-five-year-old woman with 20/20 vision could read letters to a sight-impaired member and then ask yet another member for a ride to the doctor’s office or help repairing a leaky faucet. This network of care helps older adults feel as if they’re part of the solution rather than the problem, or, worse, a charity case, says Barbara.
No wonder that if anyone uses the word volunteer around Barbara, she quickly changes it to member.
A bunch of nice ladies
In some ways Barbara can’t believe she has been running Partners In Care Maryland since 1993. Back then the kitchen table served as a boardroom, and her sister and friend, both with gerontology degrees, helped run the show. Barbara had just left a career as a navy budget analyst working in the Pentagon after starting her family. That background, she says, certainly helped her learn how to burn the midnight oil to get a job done.
“You really can’t find anything that’s more high-pressure than that. It just cooks all the time,” she says.
Her tenacity paid off. That first year they transported twelve people to medical appointments and convinced the local hospital to donate one room to work out of. She’s the first to admit, almost cheerfully, that nepotism helped her get through the door.
“Our partner’s neighbor was the hospital’s new head, so he couldn’t really say, ‘Don’t come see me.’ When we pitched the idea we were just so sincere he gave us space,” she says.
Others were equally impressed with the “bunch of nice ladies” writing grants and knocking on doors, so eventually a foundation in Baltimore decided to fund them, as long as Partners In Care Maryland found a fiscal agent to handle the money until they landed their nonprofit status.
Today, Barbara still hits the ground running every morning, overseeing a budget of $700,000 per year, nine full-time staff and about twenty office volunteers as they help to coordinate about 100 rides per week out of their 6,000-square-foot office and thrift-store space—not to mention offering a growing number of other services for the whopping 2,600 members now signed up.
For instance, Partners In Care Maryland offers emergency kits containing food, water, a radio (with large buttons so everyone can see them), whistles and glow sticks. The organization also runs Repairs with Care to help with handyman-type chores, and networking programs that assist isolated and lonely seniors in reaching out to find friends.
“People have really taken to this idea,” she says. “We are still amazed and giddy that people wanted to belong and that it’s been so effective.”
Good for all
Beyond Barbara’s unyielding energy and kindness, one of the reasons for the nonprofit’s success i
s its far-reaching benefits. Not only do frail older people win, so do their families, particularly those who live too far away to help with ongoing, day-to-day care.
As families become more mobile, spreading out across the state to be where the jobs are, seniors are often left behind without a support system in place. Meanwhile, even a short drive of forty miles can quickly add up to hours on the road if an elderly mother needs a ride to the doctor’s office in town and there’s no one local to take her.
“It really takes the whole day. And it’s not that you don’t love your mother—it’s if she has to do that two times a week, that’s really going to upset your work-life balance,” says Barbara.
It’s little wonder, then, that many businesses are also seeing the advantage of organizations like Partners In Care Maryland. If it can locate local drivers for errands and medical visits, family members need less personal time off to care for their elderly loved ones.
Running itself
Ask Barbara what she is proud of, however, and she’s quick to answer that she’s amazed and thrilled that Partners In Care Maryland can now run itself. People know their jobs and do them well, she says.
Not that Barbara has been made redundant. She discovered this just recently when Partners In Care Maryland conducted an operations report that revealed staff and volunteers still say they turn to her for ideas and insight. Barbara remains at the helm, inspiring others to do good work.
“They said I’m still the head mother,” she says, laughing.
For instance, when Barbara went away on vacation not long ago, she arrived back to a sign on the desk that simply read “WWBD,” or “What Would Barbara Do?”
More Than Words, Volume 6 Page 15