“Maybe we should set Chris up with Harry,” Gina suggested, tongue in cheek. The mere idea brought tears to the eyes of everyone as they laughed so hard even the guys glanced their way, wondering what they found so amusing.
“Oh that would go over well,” Jess giggled merrily.
“We could try a blind date,” Darby added. “Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when they spotted each other?”
“Ed would for sure have to have some of his officers on site to prevent a murder.”
“He seems like such an easygoing man, too” Holly mussed. “Until he thinks about her. Did you hear him earlier? It sounds like he hates her.”
“You know what they say about the fine line between love and hate though,” Jenna reminded them.
“I don’t think there’s any love lost there,” Gina told her. “I’ve known Chris for a long time, and I’ve never seen him react so negatively toward anyone. I’ve never met her, but Jon likes her well enough, so she can’t be too bad. I wonder why she rubs him the wrong way.”
“Because he’s a chauvinist. ‘Women have their place…and it’s not working construction,’” Darby mimicked almost perfectly. “Personally I think it’s funny. I hope she works there for the next twenty years. Serve him right if she did.”
“Poor Jon,” Gina said with a laugh. “Can you imagine having to put up with Chris’ attitude if Harry actually did stay there long-term?”
“Has anyone even met the girl?” Holly asked, curious as to what it might be about Harry that set Chris off every time her name was mentioned. “I know Sam has seen her. He says she’s a tiny thing, but seems to pull her weight.”
No one had, though they all owned up to wanting to.
“Kate’s still sleeping,” Dan announced, walking up to Jess and flopping down beside her. “I think I’m getting too old for this.”
“Yeah, right,” Jess scoffed. “You just want another hot dog.” Dan grinned wickedly as the rest of the players wandered over, sitting by their wives or girlfriends. Or, in Jon and Chris’s case, next to each other.
“Yup. You work up quite an appetite playing football. Right, guys?” he asked, directing the question to Zack and Billy. Zack nodded his agreement while Billy, who wasn’t sure what Dan meant, plopped down in Sam’s lap looking tired.
“I wanna another hot dog, Mama.”
“Me, too,” Zack echoed.
Sam secured them on the dowels someone had supplied, an idea that Holly thought was pure genius. She never had liked the idea of using dirty sticks to cook her food on. She leaned her head against his shoulder when the boys approached the fire.
“They’re probably going to be sick all night,” she said lazily.
“If they’re up all night, I’ll come watch them tomorrow so you can take a nap,” Sam offered. Holly elbowed him.
“Thanks. That’s very kind of you. I was thinking maybe I should send them home with you instead. That way you can experience the fun firsthand.”
“Thanks. I appreciate the offer. Let me think about it and I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”
“Coward,” Dan accused.
“You bet,” Sam agreed amiably. But Holly knew that he wasn’t. That if she really wanted him to take them home, he would. He was getting into the father role wholeheartedly.
“Mama. I have to go potty,” Billy announced, handing his stick to Sam. Holly groaned, getting to her feet and looking at Gina.
“Go in the side door. The bathroom is down the hall to the right, first door on the left.”
“Thanks. Come on, sport,” she said, taking her son’s hand and walking him across the lawn.
They hadn’t been in the rambling old farm house yet and Holly’s first impression was that it was very homey, a perfectly lovely place to have grown up. While she waited outside the bathroom for her son to take care of business, she looked at dozens of framed school pictures hanging on the walls. Half of them, she knew, were of Sam’s sister, who was away at college, but the others were clearly her fiancé.
From an adorable kindergartener, to the obviously awkward junior high years, to the young man in high school, well on his way to being the handsome guy he was today.
“I’m done, Mama,” Billy announced, opening the door.
“Did you wash your hands good?”
“Yup.”
“Good boy. Do you want to look at the pictures while I use it now?”
“Okay. Is Sam on the wall?”
“Right here,” Holly told him, indicating the twelve he wanted to see.
“That’s my daddy when he was little like me?”
“It sure is. Now don’t touch anything, okay? I’ll be right out.”
“Okay.”
Thinking that sending Billy back outside would have been a smarter move on her part, Holly hurried as fast as she could. But it wasn’t fast enough. Billy wasn’t in the hall. Instead he was across the hall in what she assumed was John Jensen’s office.
“William McGinty!” she exclaimed from the doorway. “You get yourself out of there right this instant.”
“But here’s my daddy, too,” he explained, not moving a muscle. Holly sighed and walked in to get him. “Look, Mama.”
Holly did take a moment to look. Sure enough, it was a photo of Sam, proclaiming him the senior chess champion of 2003. He looked so proud that she couldn’t help but be proud of him.
“What’s that in his hand, Mama?” Billy wanted to know.
“It’s a trophy, kiddo, but we shouldn’t be in here. This is Mr. Jensen’s office and we weren’t invited. Let’s go back outside. I’m sure Sam has finished cooking your hot dog by now.”
“My daddy,” he reminded her, slipping his hand into hers and letting her lead him back out to the fire.
At the door he ran ahead of her, straight back to the bonfire and into Sam’s lap where he retrieved his finished hot dog.
“Me ‘n Mama was lookin’ at pictures of you, Daddy. You got a tro-tro-” He looked at Holly as she approached a little slower. “What’s thing again, Mama?”
“A trophy, sweetheart.” She looked at John and Gina. “I’m sorry. He snuck into your office while I was in the bathroom.”
“That’s all right,” John assured her. “Mostly all I have in there are the kids awards and trophies. I’m glad that Billy was duly impressed. We’re pretty proud of our boy. Did you see his debate awards? He got them all through high school and college.”
“I’m sure Holly doesn’t want to hear about all of that,” Sam said quickly. His tone was a little odd and Holly looked at him, wondering if he was okay.
“Yes, we can talk about that some other time,” Gina added, changing the subject to the scavenger hunt, and the treasure chest full of candy that would be divided among the kids, young and old.
While John hurried inside to get the first clues for the teams, there was nervous chatter around the bonfire, and Holly felt a vague sense of unease. Everyone had seemed perfectly normal until Billy brought up the trophy picture, but why would that have made everyone uncomfortable?
So Sam was a genius. She already knew that. Why wouldn’t he have won games throughout his school years?
The 2003 chess champion. Had he cheated to win, and they all knew it? She doubted it. He was far too honest to have done something like that, even if it was what? Nine years ago.
Nine years ago?
No, that couldn’t be right, she thought, shaking her head in confusion. That would make Sam what? Twenty-seven? No. He was her age. Wasn’t he? Slowly she turned her head and looked at him. She heard someone, Jon she thought, murmur, “Uh-oh.”
“Sam.” Twenty-seven? No. He couldn’t be that young.
“What, sweetheart?”
“How old are you?” she asked.
“About fifty tonight, why?” he asked evading a direct answer.
“Sam- What year did you graduate?” She saw him close his eyes, and was vaguely
aware that there was absolute silence around the fire.
“Come here,” he finally said, getting to his feet and pulling her to hers.
“Where are we going?”
“Just over here so we can talk.”
“You graduated in 2003, didn’t you?” she demanded as he pulled her along with him over by the barn, about twenty yards away from the crowd.
“Yes I did,” he admitted quietly.
“So you’re only twenty-seven, aren’t you?” she accused, offended that he hadn’t mentioned that fact a long time ago. She was five years older than he was.
“What does it matter how old I am?” he asked.
“It matters, Sam. You lied to me.”
“I never did. You just assumed I was your age and- Well, it didn’t seem important enough to correct you.”
“So you’re twenty-seven,” she muttered.
“No. Not yet.”
“Not yet? Your birthday was in August. We had a party for you, remember.”
“No. I mean, yes. I remember the party. But no, not yet,” he admitted reluctantly. Now Holly was starting to feel a little nauseous and demanded,
“If you‘re not- How old are you, Sam Jensen?”
“Old enough to be in love with you. Old enough to want to marry you and be a father to those boys over there. Old enough to have made a name for myself in architecture. At least around here.”
“Sam.”
“Twenty-five,” he finally said, so quietly she was sure she couldn’t have heard him correctly.
“What did you say?” she gasped, stepping away from him.
“I’m twenty-five, Holly. I graduated from high school at sixteen, and from college at nineteen. It doesn’t matter-” He reached out to grasp her shoulders, but she shook him off, stepping farther away.
“Doesn’t matter?” He was over seven years younger than she was. He’d only been twenty-four when they‘d begun dating. “Of course it matters!”
“No, it doesn’t,” he insisted, sounding panicked.
“How can you say that? You were only sixteen when Zack was born. And you want to adopt him? You’re barely old enough to be Billy’s father.”
“I love them, Holly. I love you. My age doesn’t change that.” he said, stepping closer. She stepped back, now against the barn wall. There was nowhere else to go.
“Because I’ve already been deserted by one man who thought I was too old for him.”
“I’m not Mike! I’m not going to desert you or the boys. You’ve got to believe me. Trust me, Holly.”
“I can’t. I’ve been through it once and it was hard enough,” she shouted, beginning to sob. “I can’t do it again. I won’t.”
“I won’t leave you, sweetheart. As God is my witness I won’t.”
“Hey, you two, we can hear everything you’re saying. Maybe you should tone it down a bit,” Dan said quietly. She hadn’t noticed his approach.
“We’ll tone it down all right,” Holly promised, “because I’m going home. “Now. Will you take us, Dan?”
“Holly, you don’t want to do this,” Dan said, grasping her hand as she started to run back to the fire.
“Yes I do! I’ve been lied to and cheated on by one man. I’m not setting myself up for it again. Now will you take me and the boys home or not?”
“I’ll take you,” Sam told her, sounding defeated.
“No. I don’t want-” She couldn’t finish. With tears streaming down her face she tore the engagement ring from her finger and held it out. “Take it. Maybe you can find someone your own age to give it to the next time.”
“Holly, please. Let’s go inside and talk,” Dan continued gently. “I think if you will listen calmly to-”
“I’m going home if we have to walk.” She snatched her hand out of Dan’s and hurried to her sons, and grabbing their hands and heading for the dirt road that ran in front of the house. In her misery she didn’t notice that she’d frightened them half to death.
“Holly, wait!” she heard calls from behind, but paid them no mind. She wanted to go home.
“Mama, stop!” Billy cried out, digging in his heels so that she literally had to drag him along behind her. “Mama, I want my daddy!”
“Sam’s not going to be your daddy after all,” she sobbed.
“No! I want Daddy. Let me go!”
“We’re leaving, Billy. Now stop it or I’m going to ground you from cartoons for a week.” The threat didn’t faze him, and he threw himself down to the ground, crying and fighting her for all he was worth.
“I hate you! I want my daddy,” he screamed, as Ed Winslow’s car pulled up beside them.
Jenna got out and gathered the hysterical boy in her arms, climbing into the backseat with him. Zack, shoulders slumped, followed her in. That left the front open for Holly. In resignation she got in and shut the door, beginning to feel numb, which was a pleasant relief from the pain and anger of a few minutes ago.
Except for Billy’s crying for his daddy, no one else said anything, until Ed pulled up in front of her house.
“Holly, will you wait a minute please?” he asked as Jenna got the boys out.
“I don’t want to talk, Ed. I’m sorry but I don’t.”
“Then just listen for a minute. Please.” She clamped her lips together and nodded once.
“I know those boys, probably better than their own parents do. We’ve always been close. Dan had the most normal childhood of all. Jon and Cal had some pretty rough spots. Then there was Sam.
“Sam, in his own way, was the biggest misfit of all, because he was so crazy smart. From the time he was small, he was smarter than just about anyone, and you know how smart kids are treated in school. Like freaks. I guess today they call them geeks. Anyway, the other guys befriended him, even though they were all more than two years older than he was. Sam was still more mature than the lot of them.”
“What do I need to know this for?” Holly snapped, not wanting to picture in her mind a lonely little boy. Not after she’d just seen pictures of that same little boy.
“Because you should know that Sam was always mature for his age. Very mature. The only girlfriend I recall him having in high school was the one who used him to pass one of her classes, and then she dropped him like a bomb.”
“That’s sad, Ed, but what does that have to do with me?” she demanded, impatiently. She did not want to feel sorry for Sam. He was the one who lied to her, not the other way around.
“A great deal, actually. He was always the odd man out, Holly. The girls his age were too immature, and the girls he did relate to, the older ones like you, didn’t want anything to do with someone that much younger than they were.”
“I’m tired, Ed,” she whispered. “Make your point please.”
“In everything except the actual numbers, Sam is exactly what you wanted, Holly. He won’t leave you like your ex did. It’s taken him all this time to find a woman he could commit to, and that’s you.” He paused briefly. “Did you know he fell in love with you when you started Zack in the Boy Scouts? And he never so much as looked at another woman since.
“Did you know he remodeled his house about three months after he met you? He hadn’t done much with it before. It was more like an empty shell with nothing but an old table and chairs, and a bed because he really didn’t have any interest in making it a home. But once he got to know you a little bit, found out what you tended to favor, then he changed it to something you might like. He made it a home for you and the boys, Holly. It was like he was just waiting for the right woman. Does that sound like someone who will run away someday?”
“You know what that sounds like? Like he’s the same kind of arrogant jerk my ex-husband was. Lure me in with pretty promises, and then disappear when things get to be too real.”
“You don’t know much about him then, not if that’s what you believe. I know Sam, and I know he takes his commitments seriously. He won’t make one
if he can’t keep it.”
“I’m sorry, I just can’t- I mean, I have my sons to think about,” she whispered, wishing she could believe him.
“Just think about it, Holly. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Just think about what I’ve said. You know it’s the fair thing to do.”
“Fair? Like Sam misleading me until I fell in love with him was fair?” she demanded, ending the question with a shout. “It would have been fair to have been given the option of whether or not I wanted to date a kid. But Sam didn’t seem to care about fairness then, did he?” She flung her door open and climbed out. “I’m sorry, Ed. I really am. But you know what, I’m not feeling very charitable right now. Thanks for the ride. I’ll send Jenna out.”
“I think she’s planning on staying.”
“Fine.”
~~~~~
When Ed returned to the Jensen’s, Sam was still sitting at the fire, statue still, looking like a man who had nothing to live for. All of the guys were keeping quiet company. In the same way that nothing he’d said to Holly had mattered to her at the moment, he supposed that nothing anyone said to Sam would make him feel any better either. Still, he had to try, he thought, as he straddled one of the fat logs set round about the fire pit.
“Give her time, son. She’ll come around. I know she will.”
“Yeah, right,” Sam murmured tonelessly. But he did look at Ed. “Was she okay when you dropped her off?”
“Not really. She’s a stubborn little spitfire.”
“What about the boys? Billy?”
“He was still crying. I don’t think Zack said much of anything.”
“I’ve ruined their lives.”
“No, you haven’t,” Dan said firmly. “You’ve hit a rough patch. We all do. I told you about the night that Jess was going to leave me. That was pretty bad, too, but look at us today. Like Ed said, give her some time.”
“I don’t think that a hundred years will be enough time for her to forgive me,” Sam said, his eyes bright with tears. “I’m going to go home now. I appreciate that you all want to help, but I really would just like to be alone, okay?”
A Hero For Holly Page 15