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Mavis’s forehead puckered in a frown. “You mean you didn’t meet him today?”
“No. His daddy came by alone.”
“Hmm. What do you suppose he did with Justin when he came to look us over?”
Tina was beginning to see why her boss seemed troubled. “That’s a good question. Let’s use the phone in your office so I can put it on speaker and you can hear, too.”
“That’s not necessary. I trust your judgment.”
I wish I could say the same, Tina thought. But she couldn’t. Being too trusting, too gullible, had cost her plenty in the past and would have ruined her future, too, if she hadn’t left everything behind and started over where no one knew her.
Mavis followed her into the cluttered office. “Push aside my stuff and make yourself a place to sit down, honey. I keep meaning to get this place straightened up. I just never seem to find enough time. One look at all this and I give up because I know it’ll take too long.”
“My mother used to say cleaning up a big mess was like eating an elephant. It can’t all be done at once. You have to take it one bite at a time.”
“Well, well, well,” the thin, middle-aged woman drawled, staring at Tina in amazement. “You’ve worked for me for over a year and that’s the first time you’ve mentioned your family. How is your mama?”
“She passed away a long time ago,” Tina said softly. Thoughts of the past had obviously caused her to let down her guard. That mustn’t happen again. Once she started telling her story she’d run too great a risk of inadvertently revealing her secret shame.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Mavis said. “Is your daddy still living?”
“No.” The answer sounded crisp and off-putting, much to Tina’s distress. She didn’t want to be unkind, especially not to a friend and mentor like Mavis Martin, but she didn’t intend to discuss any aspect of her prior family life. Not now. Not ever.
Looking for a distraction, she quickly dialed the motel and asked for Zac’s room. He answered on the first ring.
“Hello?”
“It’s me, Tina Braddock, Mr. Frazier. I’ve talked it over with my boss, and I’m calling to invite you to bring Justin to meet me and the other children. Is tomorrow morning too soon?”
She was sure she heard a relieved sigh.
“No. That will be fine. What time?”
“If you come around ten, he can start by having milk and cookies with us.”
“Good. We’ll be there.”
Mavis was waving at her and making hand signals from across the desk. Tina got the idea. “One question, if you don’t mind?”
“Sure. Shoot.”
“You said Justin didn’t like to be away from you, right?”
“Right.”
“So where was he today when you came by the day care center? Why didn’t you bring him with you?”
“Ah.” Zac let out his breath in a whoosh. “I guess that might seem odd if you didn’t know the whole story. We’d been awake most of the night. He was sound asleep when I left. I figured it would be better to be by myself when I scouted out places for him to stay, so I let him sleep.”
“You didn’t leave him in a motel room all alone?” She couldn’t believe a father who had seemed so concerned would have done such a thing.
“Of course not. I paid one of the maids to babysit. Justin never even knew I was gone.”
“Oh. Thank goodness. I thought…”
“Look, Ms. Braddock,” Zac said tightly. “I’m doing the best I can under the circumstances. I’d like to spend every minute with my son, but I can’t. I have to work. That’s why I need a place like yours to take care of him during the day. The rest of the time he’s my responsibility. One I take very seriously.”
Instead of attempting to justify her position, Tina fell back on her professional demeanor. “I’m sure you do. I certainly didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”
“Sorry.” Pausing, he muttered to himself before continuing. “It’s not your fault. I know I get defensive sometimes. It just galls me that so many people don’t think fathers are capable of taking good care of their kids by themselves.”
“All anyone can do is try,” Tina told him. “No two children are alike. Sometimes, even a person’s best efforts aren’t good enough without the help of divine intervention.” Like she’d gotten with Craig.
“You sound like an expert,” Zac said. “Do you have children?”
Touched by the irony of his question, she gave a soft, self-deprecating chuckle. “Dozens. All other people’s. And I’m certainly no expert. At least, not once they get older than about six. I’d rather face an unruly gang of twenty preschoolers than try to figure out one teenager.”
“Boy, not me,” he countered. “I don’t envy you your job one bit. Give me a reasonable teen any time.”
“There is no such thing as a reasonable teen,” Tina argued amiably. “Believe me, I know.”
“That sounds like the voice of experience. We’ll have to compare notes sometime. Maybe I can give you a few pointers and you can do the same for me.”
“I’ll be glad to help you and Justin in any way I can. See you tomorrow, then. Bye.”
Curiosity filled Mavis’s expression as Tina hung up the phone. “I thought your specialty was little tykes. You never mentioned that you’d worked with teenagers.”
“I haven’t.” Tina busied herself straightening piles of paper on the desk rather than continue to meet her boss’s inquisitive gaze. She’d slipped again. That was twice in one day, which was two times too many. “I was just making polite conversation.”
“Oh.” The older woman reached out and stilled Tina’s fluttering hands. “If you don’t stop rearranging my papers, I won’t be able to find a thing. Go on home. I’ll lock up.”
“You’re sure?” Tina was eager to leave, to be alone where she could sort out her thoughts and gain better control of her tongue.
“I’m positive.” With a motherly smile, Mavis looked her up and down. “You deserve a break. You’ve either had a particularly rough day or a truck full of raw eggs crashed into you while I was busy in the other room.”
Tina laughed lightly. “The yellow spots are from finger paint, not egg yolk. Tommy got mad at Sissy, and the rest is history. I was kind of caught in the middle.” Recalling the funny incident, she shook her head. “To make matters worse, it happened exactly when Zac decided to drop in to look the place over.”
Mavis’s left eyebrow arched. “Zac?”
“I meant Mr. Frazier,” Tina said, blushing.
All her boss said was “Of course you did.”
Justin Frazier was a miniature version of his daddy. The minute she saw the lonely little boy, clinging tightly to his father’s hand, Tina’s heart belonged to him.
She made sure all the other children had their cookies and milk, then approached father and son. “Hello, Justin. My name is Miss Tina. I have an extra cookie that really wants to be eaten. Do you suppose you could help me with that?”
He buried his face against his father’s pant leg.
“Okay,” Tina said casually. “I guess I can give it to one of the other boys if you don’t want it. That wouldn’t be really fair, though. They’ve already had theirs. I saved this cookie specially for you.”
Justin rolled his head just far enough to reveal one dark eye, and peeked out at her.
“It’s chocolate chip. Of course, if you don’t like that kind…”
One pudgy hand reached out. Tina quickly handed him the cookie and turned to rejoin the class, subtly motioning Zac to follow. “How about a carton of milk to go with that?”
Without looking back, she proceeded to get the milk, insert a straw and set the carton at an empty place at the low table as if she fully expected Justin to agree to sit there. “Here you go. Nice and cold.”
For a moment it looked as if he was going to continue to hang on to Zac in spite of Tina’s assured manner. At the last second he let go and slid into the scaled-down plastic chair. None of the other children said a word. They were all too busy studying the new arrival and his daddy.
Across the table, little blond Emily began to giggle, when Justin bit into his cookie and half of it crumbled and fell on the floor. Tina was about to offer him another, when she saw Tommy McArthur carefully break his own cookie in half and lean closer to hand the piece to Justin. She was too far away to hear what the boy said, but she figured it had to be funny because Zac had his lips pressed tightly together and was struggling not to laugh.
To her relief, Justin accepted the gift and whispered something back to Tommy before stuffing the whole half of the cookie into his mouth at once.
Zac stepped back quietly. As soon as he was far enough away, Tina joined him. “What did Tommy say?” she asked.
Shaking his head for a moment to compose himself, he said, “I think my son just took his first bribe. He promised Tommy he’d see that I didn’t dunk him in any paint.”
“No wonder you looked like you were about to burst!”
“I was surprised he even remembered me. I told you I didn’t understand little kids.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. Nobody really does. They don’t even understand themselves.”
“You sure seem to know how to handle them, though. I was worried Justin would pitch a fit when I tried to let go of him. It was amazing he didn’t.”
“I think sometimes we underestimate the adaptability of children. All I did was act like sitting at the table with the others was the most natural choice for him to make, and he made it. It’s that simple.”
“For you, maybe. When I told him he was going to day care this morning, he threw a terrible tantrum. It’s a wonder the folks at the motel didn’t hear him and call the police.”
“Have you found a house, yet?” Tina asked, keeping watch on the children as she talked.
“No. And I’m getting pretty frustrated.”
“Well, as long as you don’t throw a tantrum…”
“Very funny. Although I did feel like it yesterday when we drove seven miles out of town to look at a place and found out it was already rented.”
“In a close-knit area like Serenity, most of the best places never get advertised. People just hear they’re going to be for rent or for sale, and tell their friends.”
“Terrific.”
“It has its advantages. For instance, I happen to know that the house two doors north of me is going to be vacant soon. It’s in a nice neighborhood and only about a quarter-mile from the high school. Would you be interested?”
“Interested? At this point I’d practically kill for a decent place to live.”
Tina laughed. “I don’t think you’ll have to do anything quite that drastic. I’ll talk to the folks who are moving as soon as I get home tonight and find out all the details for you. Hopefully, there won’t be too long a wait.”
“You’d go to all that trouble for me? Why?”
Looking up into his eyes, she saw how much her kindness had affected him. This was a man who apparently wasn’t used to experiencing the honestly offered concern of strangers. Or accepting their help. He was never going to fit in around here if somebody didn’t set him straight. Tina immediately decided it was her duty to be that person.
“In small communities like this one, Mr. Frazier, folks help each other all the time. It’s how we are. We don’t need specific reasons to look out for one another. We just do it. A lot of us behave that way because Christians are supposed to, but we aren’t the only ones who show kindness. Pretty much everybody does. It’s one of the blessings of living here.”
“I see.”
Tina decided to press ahead. “Do you have a church home? If not, you can’t beat the one I go to,” she said enthusiastically. “We’d love to have you visit this Sunday. At nine-thirty I teach a Sunday School class of children Justin’s age. He should be comfortable enough with me by then to enjoy it. Regular church starts at eleven.”
“We’ll see.” He glanced at Justin. “I guess I might as well try to get out of here. I do have a lot to do.”
Tina scanned the table where her charges sat. “I think you’re wise to leave him with us right away, instead of getting him used to having you stick around. He’ll be fine. Just go over and tell him goodbye as if you’ve done it that way a thousand times. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“What if he cries?”
“Then, I’ll give him a hug and comfort him until he stops, the same as you’d do,” she said. To her dismay she noticed that the man seemed a bit put off by her comment. Surely he didn’t expect a motherless child to do without a lot of cuddling, even if his father didn’t view it as a natural masculine response.
“You do whatever you think is right,” Zac said. “You can reach me at the high school all afternoon if you need me. What time should I come back for Justin?”
“We like to lock up and be out of here by six-thirty. Will that work for you?”
“I’ll make it work,” he said.
Tina watched him walk stiffly across the room and bend over his son. The boy didn’t seem at all upset when he bid Zac goodbye. Funny. She’d dealt with lots of little ones in the past and she’d expected at least a mild protest, especially since Justin hadn’t had time to make friends yet.
Hanging back, she waited for the boy’s reaction rather than anticipating difficulties and telegraphing her own concern. If he accepted his father’s departure, there would be no reason to treat it as anything but routine.
Zac straightened and headed for the door. He never hesitated, never looked back. If Tina hadn’t spotted the moisture glistening in his eyes as he passed, she might have believed he wasn’t concerned about leaving Justin at all.
Chapter Two
Tina wasn’t surprised that Zac was the first parent to claim his child that day. It was barely four-thirty when he arrived. Justin looked up from the rug where he was pushing a toy race car, broke into a wide grin when he spotted his daddy and ran to him.
Zac tousled the boy’s thick brown hair. “Hi, buddy. Did you have fun?”
Nodding, Justin suddenly turned shy again and hid his face against his father’s leg, just as he had that morning when he’d first arrived.
Troubled by the abrupt change in the child’s attitude, Tina approached. “You’ll need to sign him out on that clipboard hanging on the wall by the door. Just find his name, fill in the time and sign in the space provided.”
She followed, as Zac took the boy’s hand and led him toward the door. Justin was dragging his feet and not looking at anyone, so she crouched down beside him as Zac paused to check the pupil list.
“It was very nice having you in my class, today, Justin,” she said amiably. “Tomorrow we’re going to paint, and play with the outside toys and have lots more fun.”
When the boy looked into her eyes, Tina was positive she saw a glimmer of fear. She gently stroked his bare arm to soothe him. “And then tomorrow, after school, your daddy will come for you again. Just like he did today.” Still not sure she was getting through to the little boy she added, “And I’ll be your special friend. If you want to keep me company while I walk around and do my job, you can be my helper, okay?”
“O-okay.” His voice was barely above a whisper. As soon as he spoke he looked up at his father for reassurance.
Tina, too, looked up. “I think you should tell Justin that it’s okay for me to be his friend,” she said. “He seems worried that you might not approve.”
