The Summer Proposal

Caleb frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning he has a good memory. A very good memory.”

“I already knew that! He’s apparently remembered every vulgarity he’s ever heard.”

“Here it is.” Will burst through the French doors waving a ragged paperback. “It’s a great book, all about a Jewish boy whose parents come to live in the United States from Russia a long time ago. You wanna borrow it?” he offered.

“Thanks.” Julie accepted the book and tucked it into her briefcase.

“Have you ever tried writing a book yourself, Will?” she asked.

“Nah,” Will rejected the idea. “Printing’s too hard. Them squiggly letters don’t never come out right.”

“I see. How about math?” Julie asked. “What are six and eight?”

Will shrugged. “Don’t know. Ain’t got my calculator.”

“Which would seem to be a powerful argument for learning to do sums in your head,” Caleb observed.

“No, it ain’t,” Will said. “’Cause I ain’t the one what wants to know. She does.” He pointed a grubby finger at Julie. “She’s the one what should learn to add.”

“Definitely the judge’s offspring,” Caleb muttered.

“But—” Will started.

“Never mind,” Julie cut him off. “I think I have a fair idea of what I wanted to know. Thanks for your help, Will.”

“You all done?” Will looked surprised. “No more questions?”

“Nope. No more.”

“You coming back?” Will eyed her hopefully. “Maybe we could try them cards again. Maybe I gots that ESP, but it’s hidden deep.”

“Let’s hope it stays hidden,” Caleb muttered. “Will, I’m going to talk to Julie for a while. You go amuse yourself.”

Will obediently got to his feet and stood there looking at him.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

“Where’s my ten bucks?”

Caleb frowned. “What ten bu…dollars?”

“Mom always gives me ten bucks to go outside and amuse myself when she wants to talk to her dates.”

Julie closed her eyes, praying the scorching heat she could feel burning its way over her cheekbones wasn’t as visible as it felt. She had no doubt why his mother had given him the money to disappear. And it sure wasn’t so she and her dates could talk.

She stole a quick glance at Caleb, but he looked more taken aback than angry at Will’s inadvertent disclosure.

“I don’t give bribes,” Caleb finally said. “And I expect to be obeyed.”

Will wrinkled his nose as he considered the situation. “But I expects my ten bucks, and I ain’t seeming to get it.”

“There is a difference,” Caleb said sternly. “I am the adult.”

“All that means is that you done lived longer,” Will retorted. “Someday I’ll be as old as you.”

“Not if you don’t get out of here right this moment!” Caleb snapped.

“Grown-ups!” Will grumbled as he stalked back into the house.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Caleb muttered.

Julie studied Caleb’s tense, frustrated features, not sure even in her own mind what to say to him. She liked Will and wanted to help him. But the trouble was, she also liked his father and that worried her.

“Caleb,” she began slowly.

“Not here,” Caleb cut her off. “He’s probably eavesdropping.”

“No, I ain’t!” Will yelled from just inside the French doors.

Julie hastily swallowed the giggle threatening to escape. She had the distinct feeling from Caleb’s harassed expression that he was not seeing the humor in the situation at the moment.

“Come on.” Caleb got to his feet. “We’ll go out for a cup of coffee. Away from little pitchers.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to drive. My car won’t start, and I haven’t had time to take it to the garage,” Julie said, trying to tell herself that the pleasure she felt at his suggestion they go out for coffee was only because she could use the extra time to figure out how to phrase her refusal and not because she wanted to be alone with him. The problem was, she had never been very good at self-deception.

Chapter Three

Julie looked around with interest as Caleb pulled into the parking lot of a diner. The front of it was shaped like an old-fashioned trolley car, and it exuded a homey charm that appealed to her. But that it would appeal to Caleb surprised her. It was not at all the type of restaurant she would have expected a wealthy, sophisticated man like Caleb Tarrington to patronize.

“Coffee, please,” Caleb told the waitress who appeared beside their booth the moment they sat down.

Julie studied his long, tanned fingers as they beat an impatient tattoo on the tabletop while he waited for their coffee to arrive. They were strong fingers, but it wasn’t just physically that he was strong.

Caleb Tarrington was strong inside, where it really counted. In the character department. His dogged determination to do his best by his son was proof of that. His entire concentration had been on Will and how to best help him adjust to his new life.

The man deserved the truth from her.

“Thank you,” Julie murmured absently as the waitress set her coffee down. But how much of the truth would be beneficial without discouraging him? she wondered.

“Spare me the euphemisms.” Caleb seemed to read her mind with no difficulty. “Tell me what you think in plain English, not wrapped up in a lot of educational jargon or psychobabble.”

“Okay, if the plain unvarnished truth is what you want, then it’s what you’ll get.

“First of all, I think your son has been neglected. Not physically, but emotionally and socially.”

Caleb clamped his lips together as if holding back angry words, but who they were directed at, Julie didn’t know. His ex-wife for what she had done to Will, or, more accurately, hadn’t done, or herself for having the audacity to point it out.

“I figured that one out myself,” Caleb finally said. “But that’s past. It can’t be changed. Now we need to devise a strategy for dealing with it.”

Not we, Julie mentally corrected him. Caleb. She wasn’t going to get involved.

“I will give you my input, but I have plans for the summer,” Julie said.

“And your input is?” Caleb ignored the second part of her sentence.

“Based on my brief, my very brief, observation of your son, I would say that you have a two-pronged problem. The first and the easiest to deal with is his lack of necessary first-grade skills. It’s a big plus that he reads well. Hopefully, his reading has brought him into contact with some of the history he should know.”

“History!” Caleb’s dark eyebrows arched in surprise. “In the first grade?”

“Definitely. Oh, we still do a few of the old-style social studies units on family and community, but we also give the kids a solid grounding in the history of the world and the United States.”

“Don’t you think you’re pushing them a little? These are six-year-old kids, after all.”

“Inquisitive six-year-old kids. Giving them a sense of history early is crucial.

“But that’s a side issue,” she said. “Scholastically, Will’s most pressing need would appear to be bringing his writing and math skills up to speed. I don’t anticipate much of a problem because he seems to be a very bright little boy.

“However, his social skills…” Julie paused, mentally searching for a diplomatic way of saying it.

“You mean his language would send any suburban soccer mom running for her four-wheel drive?” Caleb said bluntly.

Julie sighed. “Unfortunately that’s exactly what I mean. But even worse than his colorful language is that he doesn’t seem to realize that he shouldn’t say…the things he does.”

Caleb smiled ruefully. “He’s more amoral than immoral?”

“Got it in one! Which unfortunately is going to make the job that much harder.”

Caleb frowned, and Julie watched as a muscle in the corner of his mouth twitched with the strength of the emotions he was holding in check. Seeing Caleb angry would be a formidable sight, Julie thought with an inward shudder. She wouldn’t care to have that anger directed at her.

“Why harder?” Caleb asked.

“Because if Will knew that the words he used were…”

“Bad?” Caleb filled in.

“No!” Julie vehemently shook her head, and Caleb watched in fascination as the light-brown strands brushed the velvety skin of her cheeks. Her hair looked so soft and silky.

He wondered what it would feel like to leisurely run his fingers through it. To have the curly ends brush against his bare skin. He swallowed uneasily as his body began to react to the images flooding his mind. With an effort, he wrenched his thoughts back to what she was saying and not what she looked like.

“Words in and of themselves are not bad,” Julie insisted. “It’s people’s reactions to them that cause the trouble. Most kids learn very early which words get a rise out of their parents, and they tend to save those words to use on the playground to try to impress the other kids with how daring they are.”

“But Will isn’t being daring,” Caleb said. “He’s simply repeating what he thinks is normal.”

“Exactly. You’re going to have to teach him to substitute more acceptable words.”

“How am I supposed to do that? I can’t stand over him twenty-four hours a day and correct his English.”

Julie chuckled at the image Caleb’s words evoked.

Caleb momentarily forgot his growing sense of impending disaster at the enchanting sound of her laughter. It trickled through his mind, lightening his mood, and making him believe that he really could cope with his son’s problems.

“Maybe if I found Will a playmate or two from among my friends’ sons,” Caleb said thoughtfully.

“Bad idea,” Julie vetoed. “At least, initially. Kids being kids, Will is far more likely to teach his language to them than learn to suppress it because they don’t use it.”

“You think so?” Caleb asked doubtfully.

“I know so,” Julie said firmly. “And I also know that the mothers’ reaction will be to refuse to allow their sons to play with Will, which will effectively isolate him. And social isolation is a recipe for a very unhappy childhood. Give him a month to get used to not using objectionable words, and then you can find him a couple of playmates.”

“I suppose—” Caleb broke off as the cell phone in his pocket rang. “Excuse me, I’d better get this,” he said. “It could be Miss Vincent about Will.”

Julie leaned back against the vinyl cushion as he answered the call. It quickly became apparent that the caller wasn’t his housekeeper. From the totally incomprehensible conversation Caleb was carrying on about stress mass, she guessed the call was work-related.

She watched him as he talked, fascinated by the way he gestured with his hands to make a point. Caleb Tarrington was the most physically compelling man she had ever met. There was something about the sum of his parts that appealed to her on an instinctive level as no other man ever had.

Intellectual attraction she could understand and deal with. But how on earth could she reason with the breathless excitement that flooded her every time she looked at him? She had no idea because her reaction defied logic.

“I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Ben.” Caleb concluded his call, switched the phone off and put it back in his pocket.

For a long moment, he studied the gray tabletop as if marshaling his arguments, and then he looked up. His blue gaze caught and held hers.

“Julie, I need your help. Will needs your help.”

Julie instinctively shook her head.

“Please don’t refuse until you’ve heard me out.”

“All right.” Julie agreed more because she didn’t know what else to say. The truth was certainly not an option. She could just imagine his reaction if she were to say, “So sorry, Caleb, but I can’t help your son because I want to throw my arms around you and kiss you senseless, and it scares me. It scares me because I’ve never felt like this before.”

Not only that, but it was a feeling that most emphatically didn’t fit into her plans. She already had her future neatly mapped out. In seven or eight years, she intended to find a nice, pleasant man with whom she could build a marriage. A fellow educator who shared her love of teaching and wouldn’t expect her to give it up to play housewife. A man who would be content with one child and would be an equal partner in raising him. A man who would be willing to accept the role she gave him in her life, not try to take it over.

As she very strongly suspected Caleb would do. The very intensity of his personality would preclude the kind of warm, companionable relationship she intended to settle for. Julie frowned slightly as she realized the word she’d chosen. She wasn’t settling for anything, she mentally refuted her subconscious’s choice of words. That was the type of relationship she wanted. There was no room in her life for a mad, passionate love affair in or out of marriage.

Besides, she thought with a complete lack of self-deception, chance would be a fine thing. She wasn’t the type of woman who inspired thoughts of unbridled lust in men. All the men she’d ever known had either seen her as the girl-next-door or as the kid sister they’d never had. Even Caleb. She remembered his comment about her looking too young to have graduated from college. Men didn’t whisper sweet nothings in her ear. They told her about the women they were in love with in mind-numbing detail and asked her advice on how to catch them.

“Please listen,” Caleb responded to her frown, thinking it was in reaction to his request and not her own thoughts.

“I said I would, and I will,” Julie said, “but that’s all I’m promising.”

“If you will tutor Will and help me figure out how to muzzle his language, you can name your price,” Caleb said.

“This isn’t a job that can be totally delegated to a tutor,” Julie said, trying to make him understand the necessity of his being personally involved. “Will is your son, and he needs you.”

“I know he’s my son, but until two days ago I hadn’t even met him. I had no idea when I set up my work schedule last year that I would have him living with me.”

“Change your work schedule,” Julie said flatly.

Caleb ran his fingers through his short dark hair in frustration.

“It isn’t that easy. I not only have to finalize the plans for a shopping center, but the preliminary plans for the renovation of the high school are also due at the end of next month. Both of them have to be turned in on time because contractors and builders are lined up to act on them. If I cause a delay, it’s going to cost a lot of people a lot of money. Some of whom can ill afford to lose it.”

“Even without the financial consideration, the kids need that high school fixed,” Julie conceded. “The old one is falling down around their ears.”

“Just the ceiling tiles,” Caleb said. “And to further complicate matters, Miss Andrews, my secretary, had to leave town last week with no warning because her mother had a heart attack. At the moment, her mother’s in the hospital, and Miss Andrews has no idea when she’ll be able to return.”

“Miss Andrews?” Julie’s voice rose questioningly. She’d done temporary work in dozens of offices while she was in college and in every one of them the boss had been on a first-name basis with his secretary.

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