Single with Kids

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All heads bowed low over the handbooks, each girl trying to read fast and be the first to answer the question. Grace put up her hand a minute before anyone else. Ginny was next.

“Tell us, Ginny,” Valerie said.

“We’re supposed to use the compass to make a path from one place to another place.”

“Right.” Valerie smiled. “So let’s all get up and Mr. Warren will start teaching us how to do just that.”

Rob thought he’d planned out his twenty allotted minutes very carefully, but he hadn’t counted on the silliness of third-grade girls. His time was up long before he’d gotten everyone to understand which way to point the compass, let alone how to change directions.

Valerie grinned at him as she raised her hand for quiet. “Looks like we’re going to need more than one meeting to understand orienteering. For now, all of you can put your compasses back into the bag, and then sit down at the table for snacks.” The girls stampeded toward Rob as he held the bag, then rushed to the table to jostle for their places. Grace and Ginny brought up the end.

“I understand,” Grace said quietly. “My mom and I have worked with compasses before.”

“I could tell,” Rob told her with a smile. “I saw you trying to help the others. I appreciate the effort.”

Her eyes shone at the praise. “You’re welcome.”

“Excuse me.” Ginny’s voice was at its most impatient. “I want some snacks before it’s all gone.” Grace stepped aside and went to sit at the end of the table.

Rob eyed his daughter with disapproval. “That was not polite.”

“Was I supposed to wait forever?”

“You—” He swallowed the reprimand. “Have a seat so everybody can eat.”

After snack came the craft segment, which had to do with making paper chains to represent the food chains in nature. Ginny’s fingers didn’t maneuver scissors well, so Rob spent most of his time cutting out the pictures she wanted from the pages of animals and plants Valerie had provided.

The meeting ended at four-thirty with another circle, standing up this time. “Link hands,” Valerie said. “Like this.” She crossed her arms and reached for the hands of the girls on either side of her. Everyone else followed suit…except Ginny, who couldn’t hold her crutches and cross her arms.

“Just take my hand,” Rob told her. “Don’t worry about it.” But he could tell by the set of her mouth that another storm was brewing.

As they all held hands, Valerie taught them a song about friendship. “This is how we’ll close every meeting,” she told them. “As friends and as a troop. Remember the GO! motto—All for one, and one for all!” At the words, she turned in place, uncrossing her arms as she did so. The girls—except for Ginny, and Rob—followed suit.

Then there were parents arriving to pick up their daughters, book bags to gather and chains to collect, and more excited chatter than Rob had ever imagined.

Finally, the room grew quiet, with only three children left to deal with. Ginny had made her way to a chair and sat there twirling her paper chain around her wrist. As Valerie packed up her supplies, Grace gathered trash from around the room and under the table where girls had let their scraps fall.

Connor had subsided onto the bench of a table and put his head down on his unbandaged arm. “What did happen to his arm?” Rob asked Valerie. “Is he okay?”

She put the last of the construction paper away. “He and another boy got into an argument at school on Monday. When the other boy teased him from behind a window, Connor…” She closed her eyes, then shook her head as if she still couldn’t believe it. “Connor punched his fist through the window.”

“Ouch.” Rob winced. “That had to hurt really bad.”

Valerie nodded. “He’s winding down on the pain medicine now. He didn’t damage anything badly, but he’s got several cuts with stitches and lots of others that just burn.”

“Did the other guy get hurt?”

“No, thank goodness. Then we’d be in an even bigger mess. As it is, they want me to take Connor to the doctor. The psychiatrist, actually.” She pressed her fingertips to her eyes. “They say his behavior is unmanageable. The school nurse suggested medication might help.”

Rob glanced at the little boy. “Do you want to go that route?”

“Of course not. And he’s not unmanageable to me. But I can’t be with him every day, every minute. He’s got to be able to control himself.” Valerie sighed. “He’s so angry.”

“Does he have friends? Play sports?”

“Two weeks in town isn’t long enough for friends.” Her shoulders slumped. “And I haven’t had time to investigate sports programs. I imagine it’s too late to join a team now.”

“I don’t know about that.” Rob picked up the box she’d packed before she could. “What does he like to play?”

“Soccer, of course. Doesn’t everybody?” Valerie reached out to take the box, but stopped when Rob frowned at her. “Fine. I’ll let you carry that one. I’ve got several more.”

“Why don’t you just unlock the car and open the door and let me do the carrying?”

She went to the door of the cafeteria and pointed the remote lock control at the van across the parking lot. After a pointed glance in his direction, she went to pick up a different box of supplies. “You see—I can compromise.”

“Stubborn,” he muttered as he walked past her.

“Independent,” she countered, following him.

The afternoon breeze carried a hint of autumn, and Rob stood still for a second after they’d loaded the van, appreciating the difference. “Every so often we’ll get a day like this, where the humidity is low and the shadows are crisp. Fall comes to this part of North Carolina, but it’s slow.” He looked at Valerie, noticing how the wind brushed her curls back from her pretty face. “I’ll bet you’re used to early autumns and cold winters.”

“Ohio, the last place we lived, had its share of winter weather.” She shook her head. “I won’t miss shoveling snow in the least.”

“We had a big storm here last winter—New Year’s Day, to be exact. We got almost ten inches of the white stuff. But it didn’t stay long.”

“That sounds good to me.” She shut the rear door of the van and turned back toward the school.

But Rob held his ground. He’d got her talking about herself, and he wasn’t about to give up now. “You aren’t from Ohio, right? Your accent says New York.”

“Brooklyn, actually.” She hesitated, as if unwilling to elaborate. “Before Ohio, though, we lived in Maryland for a couple of years.”

He leaned back against her van and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why so many moves? If you don’t mind telling me.”

“Those two moves were both promotions within my company. Great opportunities that I couldn’t turn down.” Valerie looked at him out of the corners of her eyes. “And before you ask, I’ll say that my husband refused to leave New York. Since he’d already moved out, there didn’t seem to be much point in trying anymore, and we filed for a divorce.”

“Ah. How long were you in Ohio?”

“Five years.”

“And now you’re in New Skye. Because…?”

“Because I got a job with a different company.”

“Another offer you couldn’t turn down?”

“Exactly.” Hands propped on her hips, she faced him. “Why is that so hard to understand? If I were a man, nobody would question my desire to succeed, to excel. A man is supposed to take the chances that come along for a better job, more money, more authority. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I don’t have the same ambitions.”

Rob held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t say—”

“My husband, weasel lawyer that he is, managed to construct a settlement that benefited him while shafting me and his kids. I am our sole support. I’m going to be responsible for their college money. I’m responsible for my retirement income. And I have every right to be just as damn successful as I want to be.”

“Valerie.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Hush.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but he shook her slightly and she backed down. “I’m not attacking anything you’ve done. I admire your gumption and your achievements. So relax.”

“That’s not what it sounded like,” she mumbled, staring down at the ground.

“You didn’t listen—just went off half-cocked.”

“Sorry.” When she looked up at him, her big brown eyes had a suspicious shine to them, as if she’d fought back tears. “It’s been a hard couple of weeks.”

“I’m sure it has.” He still held her shoulders, and he really liked the feeling of having her this close, which was as good a reason as any to let go. After a moment’s struggle, he managed to step back, putting her out of reach. To be safe, he jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “So I have a suggestion. How about dinner out tonight?”

Her eyes widened. “I…” She swallowed. “I don’t think so, Rob. I mean, I don’t have anything to do with the kids.”

He grinned. “I like the way you think. But I’m suggesting we bring them with us.”

“With us? You mean, to a restaurant?”

“Yeah. I know a place they’ll really like.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “I do not want to eat at some fast-food joint.”

“Nope. Not fast, not a joint. Just the best place in New Skye for a laid-back, delicious dinner.” Ginny had come to stand at the door to the school, no doubt wondering what could be keeping him so long. He called across to her. “What do you think, Ginny? Dinner at the Carolina Diner tonight?”

His daughter pumped her right arm in the air. “All right!”

Rob looked at Valerie. “See? What more testimony do you need?”

She smiled, setting those cute dimples on display. “Lead the way. I’m suddenly very hungry.”

CHAPTER FOUR

VALERIE FOLLOWED Rob Warren’s shiny black van out of the school parking lot, reflecting that she had a perfectly good jar of spaghetti sauce at home on the pantry shelf. There really was no need to make the effort to go out, though he’d promised her a restaurant with good food and a casual atmosphere for the kids. She had to admit, relaxed would be a welcome change of pace in her life.

“Where are we going?” Connor piped up from the back seat. “McDonald’s?”

“I don’t think so. Mr. Warren says this place is one of a kind.”

“Do we have to go?” Grace sounded tired. “I’ve got a lot of homework.”

Valerie glanced into the rearview mirror, but Grace avoided her eyes. “We need to eat. This won’t take any longer than cooking our own dinner. And you can get to know Ginny a little better.”

“Great.” The one word was not enthusiastic.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s in my class at school, Mom. And she’s…hard to talk to.”

“Her dad says she’s shy.”

“What’s wrong with her, anyway?” Connor wasted no time on tact. “She crippled or something?”

“Cerebral palsy is a birth defect,” Valerie explained. “Sometimes it happens when the baby is being born and doesn’t get enough oxygen to breathe. That causes problems with their nerves and muscles.”

“Can I catch it?”

“No, Connor. And I expect you to be polite while we’re at dinner—don’t stare, don’t ask questions. I’m sure that in most ways, Ginny is just an ordinary kid, like the two of you.”

She thought she heard Grace’s hmmph from the back seat, but she decided to ignore it. This dinner really was a good idea—as the new kids in school, both Grace and Connor were still trying to adjust and make friends. If Grace and Ginny could connect, that would be a start.

At the high school, the blinker on Rob Warren’s van signaled a right turn, and then an immediate left into the gravel parking lot of a bright yellow, concrete block building hung with a blue-and-white awning. The neon sign over the door identified Charlie’s Carolina Diner.