Mad For The Dad

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“It’s been four whole hours since I put the silverware away and it’s all still in the right compartments! No teaspoons mixed in with the soup spoons, no forks stuck up so the drawer can’t close, no knives left with the cutting edge up. It’s like a miracle, Mark, an honest to God miracle.”

“Very funny, Mom. When the guys here ask about my parents, one of the first things I mention is my mother’s great sense of humor. Of course then I have to break it to them that you still use snail mail because you are, like, the most totally computer illiterate person I know and couldn’t use e-mail if your life depended on it. It wrecks the image, Mom, like totally destroys it.”

Rachel laughed. “You’ll be happy to know I’m thinking about taking a computer class.”

That surprised her son. “Really? What for?”

“So I can get a job. Gotta support myself now, you know. Dad only pays alimony for the next six months. After that I’m supposed to be back on my feet and self-supporting.”

Mark’s response sounded disconcerted, as though they’d strayed into territory he’d just as soon avoid. “Oh, yeah. Right. That, um, sucks. So, uh, what else is happening?”

Rachel understood her son’s reluctance to be caught up in adult problems. She thought back over her day. Really, only one item of import stuck in her mind. “I met a guy,” she reported. “He’s going to try to raise his little nephew all by himself. He crashed his nephew’s little red wagon right in front of my new place. The little boy was crying and groceries were everywhere. I had to go out and save them. Todd—that’s the child—is a little pistol, but Daniel—that’s the guy—seemed real nice. Sincere, but in over his head, if you know what I mean.”

“A guy with a wagon? Sounds like a dork.”

“He’s not a dork!” God, no. Daniel Van Scott was anything but dorky. Oh, man, here it was hours later and Rachel got the shivers just thinking about him. She was going to give herself high blood pressure if she didn’t watch out. End up on medication like her mother, for crying out loud. “He just tripped, that’s all.”

“Like I said, sounds like a dork.”

“Well, he’s not.” Not by a long shot. “Now, what’s new with you, Mark? Your classes going okay? You’re studying enough? Are you meeting any nice girls?” Ones that still go to church?

Her son’s voice came back sounding entirely too casual for a mother’s peace of mind. “Yeah, I’ve met a few. Most of them are sorority tools, if you know what I mean, but this one’s pretty cool. She’s vegetarian. I had no idea meat was so totally bad for you and the environment, too. I’m never eating it again, man.”

Oh, God. “Mark, how will you get enough protein in your diet? How will you—”

“Chill out, Mom. I’ll be fine. But what I need is one of those small refrigerators for my room. You know, so I can keep yogurt and stuff like that on hand.”

Rachel walked into her living room with the cordless phone and sank into the sofa. She tucked her feet up underneath herself. “So go get one.”

“Mooom.”

Her son’s disembodied voice came back at her and she had no trouble imagining the despairing look on his face.

“They’re expensive, you know? I’d need like, eighty or ninety dollars put into my checking account. Think you could do that for me?”

Ah, they’d reached the crux of the phone call. Money. She’d been warned about this from friends with older children. “Mark, you had three hundred dollars when your father and I dropped you off at school just a very short time ago.”

“Yeah, but I bought this totally awesome game for my computer and I had to have a good bike for getting around campus ‘cuz nobody uses the campus bus, so I turned in the pass you guys bought me and spent the cash on a bike helmet, you’ll be glad to know. And I bought this unbelievable mountain bike. It was on sale and everything, so how could I go wrong?”

Rachel put her hand over her eyes and collapsed back into the sofa. “You’ve already gone through all your money? Mark, that should have lasted you a couple of months!”

“How was I supposed to know something else would come up that I’d need?” Mark asked, his logic clear, at least in his own mind. “I mean, you should see the graphics on this computer game I got. It was going to be my entertainment for the semester. But now, with this girl and all, she’ll probably want to go to the movies and stuff. And I really need that refrigerator—actually, a small microwave would be cool, too. A lot of the guys here have them. And at least I’m better than my roommate. He never takes his girlfriend anywhere! All they do is fool around. One of these nights that top bunk is going to crash right down on top of me—probably kill me.”

Rachel just about collapsed. “Your roommate and his girlfriend are…doing that while you’re in the room?” she squeaked. Oh, God. Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Mark paused in his spiel, evidently aware he may have gone too far. “Well, yeah, but it’s no big deal,” he quickly assured his mother. “I mean, you probably can’t remember back to when you were interested in sex, but it’s pretty normal for my age group, you know.”

Oh God, oh God, oh God. She should have had a talk with Mark before he’d left for school. She should have bought him some condoms, made sure they’d gotten into his suitcase. She’d gotten pregnant with Mark on prom night, her senior year in high school. It had been her first foray into the mysterious world of male-female—looking back on it, boy-girl—sex stuff. It had changed the direction of her entire life and Mark was only a few months past that point in his life. He needed at least another three or four years before he took a chance like that. It could change your life completely. Rachel knew.

She’d given Mark an eleven-thirty curfew on his prom night. Ron had smirked, but Rachel had been unwilling to take any chances. Was Mark making up for lost opportunities now?

And her son didn’t think she remembered the pull of sexual feelings? All she had to do was think about the rush she’d gotten just looking at Daniel Van Scott this afternoon and Rachel knew she wasn’t dead yet. Not by a long shot.

Mark cleared his throat. “Uh, Mom, you still there?”

Maybe, maybe not. This could all be some kind of strange out-of-body type experience. She wasn’t really having this bizarre phone conversation with her own, carefully raised son. “Mark, I’m afraid you’re going to have to talk to your father,” Rachel heard herself say. “Going through all your spending money in a little over a week was a choice you made. I guess as far as I’m concerned, my feeling is now you have to live with that decision. Either that or get a part-time job. At any rate, it’s something you’ll have to deal with.

“By the way, I found some of your old Tonka trucks when I was packing. I couldn’t help keeping them when your dad and I cleaned out the old house. I was thinking I’d give them to that little boy I was telling you about. He’s the perfect age for them.”

“What? You’re giving away my Tonkas? Not on your life. I still want those. That kid’ll just have to get his own toy trucks. Those are mine.”

Rachel shook her head and tried to organize her thoughts. Her collegiate, urbane son who talked about sex ever so casually refused to be parted from his toy trucks. Life was strange. Her son was strange. Heck, in all probability, she was strange. “Mark, I’m hanging up now. Let me know if you have any luck with your dad and call me again some time. But just to talk, you know? It would be nice to hear from you when you didn’t necessarily need something from me.”

Rachel hung up the phone after a series of motherly admonishments about studying hard and making sure he kept his new bicycle tethered with a lock through the bike’s frame, not just the tire. She thought about broaching safe sex, but Mark cut her off, which, when the phone call was all done, left her pacing the living room.

“Now I know how my own mother felt,” she muttered to the walls as she circled the room. “This is like a nightmare and he hasn’t even gotten anybody pregnant yet!” Maybe she should go out in the morning and by a box of condoms. Send them to him, just in case.

For some reason, condom shopping brought to mind Daniel and the idea hit that maybe she could confiscate a few out of the box before she sent it and keep them for herself.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rachel immediately chastised herself. “The poor man’s got his hands full without having to deal with your midlife sexual identity crisis as well.” Again she circled the room, gesturing with big sweeping movements of her hands as she lectured. “Besides, didn’t you learn anything from your experience with Ron? For crying out loud, the man talks you into bed—well, actually the grass in that corner of the football field under the scoreboard, but that’s just details— gets you pregnant, graciously marries you so you can work your fingers, hands, heck, your arms to the bone putting him through school and then the jerk sticks around barely long enough to get the kid out the door, before clearing out himself so fast I’m surprised he didn’t get something vital caught in the door when it swung shut after Mark.” Rachel paused and thought about that. “Actually it’s kind of too bad he didn’t.”

She shook her hand in the air. “Anyway, whatever, the point is, I thought we’d made our marriage work. Yes, it had gotten off to a rough start, but I thought we’d worked through all that and made it. What a fool I was. I don’t want Mark to have to get married, have this carry on to the second generation. And certainly, certainly I couldn’t live through it a second time myself.”

And Daniel Van Scott was simply too attractive for her peace of mind. Right then and there, Rachel made a vow to keep her distance. There was some kind of very odd, no doubt, chemical attraction at play here. She hadn’t felt it, well, in eighteen years, and she’d at least managed to convince herself it had been true love rather than adolescent hormones back then. She no longer wore the blinders of youth, and in a way, it hurt.

No, there was no point in making a fool of herself a second time.

Rachel slept, but not well. In the morning, she cooked a single egg and matched it up with a solitary piece of toast. She washed the one plate she’d dirtied, then took herself out for a walk to explore her new neighborhood. There was a small park a block and a half up. Rachel could see a bank of stores another block after that.

Rachel glanced at the park once more and thought. The sun was shining, the few clouds in the sky were on the run, and although it was September now, summer was still in the air. She walked up to the stores and bought a paperback novel at the drugstore and a foam cup of take-out coffee at the corner restaurant. Carting both items back to the park, Rachel made herself comfortable on a green wooden bench. Most of the toddlers surrounding her were happily playing and provided a pleasant white noise while she basked in the warm sun and read her book.

“Hey, what’s this, another day off? Or do you work nights?”

Rachel instantly knew who had settled on the bench next to her. That low-timbred voice had played a major part in her restlessness last night. “Hi, Daniel,” she said. “I assumed you’d be spending the morning getting your office set up.”

“Hey, Todd, no pushing. That other little boy was on the horsey first. You’ll have to wait your turn.” Daniel yawned and draped his arms along the bench back.

The tips of his fingers were very close to touching Rachel’s shoulders and she’d never been more aware of a man. Not even when she’d been sixteen.

“I got up early,” Daniel admitted, more pleased than he was comfortable with to find Rachel in the park. “Worked for a couple of hours before the champ woke up. I found a playpen in the back of his closet and set it up in the study. He played pretty happily in there for a little while, too. I figured we both deserved a break before lunch. I’ll get more done during his nap. Did you see that kid hit Todd? Where’s his mother? Why isn’t she watching that monster more closely?”

“Todd took his truck.”

“Oh, well, uh, Todd,” Daniel called out, “give the little boy’s toy back. I guess next time I better bring a couple of our own sand toys for him, huh?”

Rachel shrugged more casually than she was feeling. “You seem to be getting the feeling for this pretty quickly. It sounds like you managed just fine this morning.

Daniel stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle. He gave an expansive, contented sigh. “Yeah. I even had a couple of inquiries already from former clients who knew I was going out on my own.” He gave Rachel a sidelong glance. He must have been more harried than he’d thought yesterday. This woman was positively beautiful. And he hadn’t noticed? He was slipping, definitely slipping. But she was here now and so was he. He—

“Really? That’s terrific.”

“Yeah, I just wish I could get my system up a bit faster so I could get some estimates out to people, but it’ll probably take a few more days. No, Todd, keep your shoes on. There might be broken glass or sharp stones in the grass.” After that admonishment, Daniel turned his head and studied Rachel through narrowed eyes. Whoa. Nice eyes. Big and a gorgeous warm brown. “You on vacation?”

Rachel cleared her throat. “Well, actually I’m sort of between positions at the moment, I guess you could say.” Was she ever.

Daniel perked up at that. Maybe persistence could pay off? “Yeah? Well, I haven’t had time to get an ad into the paper, let alone have anyone answer it. I know you said you didn’t want to take a job baby-sitting Todd full time, but what about a kind of temporary thing? You know, help me out until I can get somebody else. When you can, of course. It doesn’t have to be forty hours a week or anything. I’d appreciate whatever help I can get. Like this afternoon, if you’re not busy I could pay you to get my filing cabinets set up while I try to hook up my new printer. I wasn’t able to get to it yesterday.”

He looked at her so hopefully, and once the full force of those sky blue eyes was turned on her, Rachel knew she was lost. She’d probably agree to sell her own grandmother if Daniel asked her to. She took a sip of her coffee and burnt the roof of her mouth. Great. Just terrific. Well, might as well get this over with. “I might come down after lunch. For a couple of hours during Todd’s nap” she cautiously allowed. Cautious? Hah! Rachel began to despair whether she knew the meaning of the word.

Daniel was no fool. He cemented the deal quickly, before she had any opportunity to change her mind. “Great!” Then, evidently afraid to let her out of his sight, he hastened to offer, “You could eat lunch with us, if you wanted. I was going to make grilled cheeses.”

Oh, no. Rachel was determined to limit her exposure to Todd’s sunny smiles and cute toddler ways. Right now, she was bent on damage control and would eat low fat peanut butter and reduced sugar strawberry jam if it killed her. Rachel stood and tossed her foam cup into a nearby dark green metal trash barrel. “Thanks for the offer, but I have a few things to do before I come down.” Like sit down and weep for a while over her own stupidity. “I’ll be down around one o’clock or so.”

Daniel stood, too, unable to believe his good fortune. This was one fine-looking woman and she obviously had a tender heart. She was going to take pity on him. Daniel, the former lady killer, was both humble and grateful. Also extremely attracted to Rachel, although he knew enough to sit on that. He wasn’t about to do anything stupid and scare her off. ‘One o’clock. I really appreciate this, Rachel.” He snapped his fingers. “Todd will be down by then, so don’t ring the doorbell, just knock, okay? Or better yet, I’ll leave it unlocked and you can just come right in.”

“Sure, fine,” Rachel said and waved to Todd as she went to leave the park. But it wasn’t fine, not really. Entering a home without knocking bespoke a certain intimacy Rachel would really like to avoid, especially since she seemed so bent on self-destruction.

Chapter Three (#ulink_fa13701f-ea0b-5c95-b72d-b855f7917abe)

Daniel left the park shortly after Rachel. It was still a bit early for lunch, but Todd had decided that dumping fistfuls of sand on top of his head was nothing short of hysterically funny. When the first two explanations of how he could scratch his cornea, possibly go blind, have to go to the hospital and wear a patch over his eye for the rest of his life failed, Daniel packed in the logic. He simply picked the child up, tucked him under his arm and removed his nephew from the source of temptation.

“You’re going to regret your precipitous course of action, little buddy,” he advised as he strode down the street. “Every bit of that dirt has to come out of your hair before you take your nap. It could still get into your eyes, you know. I wasn’t kidding about that patch. At the very least you’ll have sand in your bed and you’ll hate it.” And so would Daniel, who in order to get a peaceful, quiet naptime out of Todd was now going to have to shampoo the little one’s head, a thankless task Todd took as a personal affront. Daniel fully expected his eardrums to shatter someday during one of Todd’s bath times.

Daniel stood out on his front lawn and held Todd as if he were a football. Todd’s body was horizontal and his head projected out in front of Daniel at waist level. Then Daniel ruffled his hand through the tot’s hair, gently massaging his scalp as he tried to dislodge as much of the sand as possible before going into the house. Todd thought it was pretty funny and spent his time squirming around as he attempted to grab Daniel’s leg and hang upside down and whoop. From that, Daniel assumed he’d managed to keep the gritty particles out of his eyes, thereby successfully avoiding any trips to the emergency room.

“That’s about as much as I can take care of out here,” he finally told Todd. “We’re going to have to hit the tub to get the rest.” He went into the house, Todd still tucked under his arm and let the screen slap shut behind him.

“Shoot,” he said and reversed himself, reopened the screen and swung Todd upright so he could reach his sneakers. Holding Todd’s feet just outside the front door, he pulled off his shoes and dropped them out on the porch into the small pile of sand that had poured out of the offending articles when Daniel had removed them. “Thank God I thought to do that,” he muttered as he reentered the house. “I wouldn’t want Rachel to see a mess like that inside the house. She’d think I was totally inept.” And he never thought to question why he cared one way or the other.

Daniel got thoroughly soaked during Todd’s bath and shampoo. All he could think about was how his life had changed in two short months. “I was engaged to be married, made good money, had job security, decent insurance coverage and probably would have made partner by the time I was thirty-five.” Daniel shook his head. “How the mighty are fallen.” Hard to believe it had only been June when he’d decided to strike out on his own and excitedly so informed his fiancеe. He’d thought she’d find it a great adventure—the two of them as a team working their way together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, through thick and thin—including those lean years that tempered every new business. They’d have eaten a lot of inexpensive pasta and cheap red wine at first, but they’d have done it with panache—by candlelight.

Wrong.

“If Marie couldn’t handle the idea of my giving up a secure job with nobody but two adults to worry about feeding, what the heck would she think of this situation?” In retrospect it was obvious Marie had only been interested in him when his future was firmly in place. “But she sure had me fooled for a while there,” Daniel admitted as he towel-dried Todd’s hair and wriggling little body. “She’d have probably had a heart attack and died if I’d asked her to help out with raising you, you little pill-face.”

Todd took the slander with a sunny smile and wrapped his arms around Daniel’s neck.

“Hey, lighten up,” Daniel protested as he loosened the child’s arms. “I’m glad you’re starting to adjust, but you’re going to choke me.”

Todd laughed out loud at that and Daniel rolled his eyes as he carried Todd out to the kitchen and deposited him in the high chair. “Real funny, champ. So funny I forgot to laugh.”

Daniel assembled a cheese sandwich and dropped it into a skillet. While it browned, he poured Todd half an inch of milk. Remembering how Rachel had taken pains to describe everything to the child the day before, he said, “Some good white milk, Todd,” as he handed the tumbler to the child. “Your milk’s in a green cup today. Green, got it?”