Love From the Ashes (5 page)

“You are welcome.”  The other kids got into the car and put on their seatbelts as she got in the driver’s side.

“Do you know where she lives?”  Kari asked from the backseat.

She chuckled lightly.  “Yes; I’ve been there a few times.”  She drove towards their house; smiling to herself as the kids were talking about their day.  They were all worried about the new school, but they seemed to have a good time.  She pulled in front of the house and then turned to face them.  “We’re here.”

The eagerly got out of the car, and she helped Frankie with her seatbelt.  “Thank you!”

She grinned.  “You are welcome.”  They walked up to the house as Cassie was opening the front door.  She stared at Rebecca and then focused her attention to the children.

“I don’t understand.”

Rebecca shrugged.  “They were at the school, just waiting for him to show up.  I couldn’t just leave them there.”

Cassie crossed her arms.  “Hey, I just made peanut butter sandwiches; you guys better go check them out.”  They each smiled and ran into the kitchen leaving Cassie and Rebecca alone.  “When I hadn’t heard from Thomas, I kind of wondered; this isn’t like him.”

“Yeah; I didn’t figure it was.  You probably should call him to let him know that they’re alright.”

“Well, you absolutely did the right thing.  I’m sorry that you had to go out of your way.”

“It doesn’t matter.  It’s only a 10 minute deviation; I’m glad that I could do it.”

Cassie pulled out her phone and Rebecca watched her dial his number.  By the expression on her face, she wasn’t going to go easy on him.  “Thomas?  Do you know where your kids are?”  She paused for a moment while he talked.  “Are you serious?  That’s great, but…” she looked at Rebecca and rolled her eyes.  Rebecca stifled a giggle.  “Rebecca brought them home.  Yeah; I know.  You do…okay, get here when you can.  Bye!”

“You know what?”

Cassie laughed.  “I know that he owes you big time.”

“Cassie, it was nothing; really.”

“If you say so, but I sure do appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.  I probably should leave.”

“I don’t think so.”

“What?  Why not?”

“You are going to stay here and get a proper thank you.”  Rebecca didn’t know what Cassie meant by that, but she really didn’t want to make him feel obligated to be nice to her.  She got the impression the night of the party that he felt like he was being forced to be there.  In fact, she was sure of it.

“I really don’t need to.”  She argued, but Cassie brushed it off.

“Let’s go join the kids for peanut butter sandwiches.”

Rebecca reluctantly followed her; she didn’t know why she didn’t dart out of there as fast as she could.  Something was inside her head telling her to stay, but the other part was telling her that she didn’t belong there.  When she saw the kids, with their milk mustaches and sticky grins, she felt that maybe she was wrong.  Maybe that was exactly where she needed to be.

Thomas rushed into the kitchen; he saw the kids eating and talking happily, like nothing had even
fazed them.  “I’m sorry you guys.”

They all turned to him and he worried that he was going to get yelled at, but then Bethany smiled.  “It’s about time dad;” she then laughed, causing the rest of the room to join in.

“I’m assuming your day at school went alright?”  He looked between them and then glanced briefly at Rebecca.  “Remember our deal; there’s ice cream involved.”

Kari stood up and pointed to Bethany and Frankie.  “Don’t say a word to mess this up.”

He smirked and then turned his attention to Rebecca.  “I guess I owe you a thanks.”  He almost felt like a school boy, being shy around the popular girl.

“You owe her a lot more than that.”  Cassie piped up and then turned around
and pretended like she was focused on wiping Savannah’s face.

He stared at her and then turned back to Rebecca.  “Don’t worry about it; it was on my way.”  Cassie laughed, but when he caught her looking at him she turned away.  “I have to get going, but I’ll see you tomorrow Kari.”

As she was about to reach the door he noticed that Cassie wasn’t looking too pleased with him.  “What?”

“You’re just going to let her leave, without at least walking her to her car.”

He looked away and shook his head.  “Fine!”  He hurried after her and caught her before she reached the door.  “I’ll walk you to your car.”

“You don’t have to do that.”  She replied, but didn’t look at him as they walked down the driveway.  When they reached her car she turned to him.  “Thank you, but it wasn’t necessary.”

“I know it wasn’t, but I wanted to.”

She laughed and he noticed a
gleam in her eye.  “Are you sure it wasn’t Cassie pressuring you?”

He shrugged.  “Only a little.”

“I thought so.”  She turned back to her car and opened the door.  “I hope that today isn’t going to be a regular occurrence.”  She laughed and he saw that she was only teasing.  “I’m just kidding; I actually enjoy spending time with them, what little we did.”

“I won’t plan on today happening again, but it’s a lot harder being a single father than I thought it would be.  I’ve been doing this for two years and it doesn’t seem to be getting much easier.”

“Thomas, may I be honest?”

“Of course.”  He didn’t know if he was going to like what she had to say, but he was intrigued.

“I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself.  I mean, I might not be a parent, but I have pretty good insight.  I know that you didn’t deliberately leave your children at school.  Accidents happen and even though I don’t know why you weren’t there, I know that you probably had a good reason.”  He fixed his eyes on her and when she looked at him, she blushed.  “What?”

“Nothing; it’s just we don’t even know each other, so I find it interesting that
you are so insightful.”

Her expression fell and then she looked at him.  “Are you making fun of me?”

He quickly shook his head.  “Not at all.  I find it refreshing.”

“You do?”

He laughed.  “You find that strange?”

He noticed that she suddenly looked nervous.  “I don’t know; I guess sometimes it comes across as being too opinionated.”

“It’s not too opinionated in my book.  I wouldn’t want to come across as the parent that would forget about their children.  My mind was a bit preoccupied, because today I bought a house.”

“You did?  That’s great news.  Where’s it located?”

“It’s in the Castleton neighborhood.”  She started to chuckle.  “What?”

“I live in that same neighborhood.”

“Is that so?  Is it a nice neighborhood?”

“Yeah; I’ve been there for several years.”  She looked around, her nervousness appearing once again.  “I probably should be going.  It was good talking to you.”  She opened the car door and slid into the front seat.”  He kept the door opened and she cocked her head.  “Was there something else?”

“Cassie’s right.”

“Okay; what about?”

“She said that I need to be giving you a proper thank you; I agree.”

“You’ve thanked me plenty.  Like I said: I like your kids.  Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Have coffee with me.”

“What?”  She smirked.  “You are insane.”

“I’m not insane; I’m just trying to repay your inconvenience.”

“I wasn’t inconvenienced.  I swear to you.”

He didn’t know why he was pressing the issue, but he wouldn’t accept defeat.  “You said it was on your way; that’s not really the truth, because I now happen to know where you live.  So, you did go out of your way and I won’t take no for an answer.”

After awhile, he knew he had finally gotten to her.  “I suppose coffee would be okay.  Just two people getting acquainted, but that’s it.”  He nodded, that’s all he would ever want anyway.  “We’ll discuss the details later?”  She handed him a card.  “Here’s my number.”

He put it into his pocket.  “I’ll see you later.”

He watched as she drove away.  There was a connection he felt when talking to her; he was sure it was just because she was so friendly to his kids.  He liked talking to her and he hoped that they could just have a nice adult conversation, outside of the house.  He walked back into Cassie’s house where they were all watching him.  “So?” 
Cassie asked; an expectant grin on her face.

“I figure you
were right.  She deserves to be repaid.  I’ll take her out for coffee, as a friendly gesture.”

“Sure; I’ll buy that.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”  He didn’t feel like Cassie believed anything he was saying anyway.  “So, do you have some news you need to tell everyone?”  She pointed to the kids and he knew what she meant.

“I almost forgot.  Guess what?”  They all shook their heads, none of them wanting to venture a guess.  “You’re no fun;” he laughed.  “I bought us a house today.”

Bethany looked at him; excitement on her face.  “You did?”  She ran to him and gave him a hug.

“There’s more!  Each one of you will get your own room, but that also means we’re going to have plenty of things to do to fix it up.  Are you guys in?”

“Dad that’s awesome.”  Kari ran to him and the rest followed.  He kissed the tops of their heads and smiled at Cassie.  “Let’s go get ice cream to celebrate.”  They all cheered as Cassie laughed.  “Thanks Cassie!”

She shrugged.  “Anytime.”  Then the Campbell bunch ran out to the car and Thomas realized just how blessed he truly was.

____________________

He was glad to finally sit down and learn how their first day of school went.  As they ate their ice cream he spoke up.  So, how was everyone’s first day?”

“Me first; me first.”  Frankie piped in and he was pleased to see how excited she was.  My teacher is so nice.  She let us finger paint and we made a picture of ourselves; she called it a self…self…”

“Portrait?”

Her eyes got big and she nodded.  “Yeah; that’s it.”  She continued talking and he was engrossed in hearing her day.  “It was a lot of fun.”

“Did you bring the picture home?”

“Nope; we have to hang them on the walls.  Then when you go visit the school, you have to see if you can figure out which one is mine.”  That would be interesting, he thought.  He could only
imagine what it would be like for a Kindergartner.  “I had a lot of fun.  We also got to play with the dolls, but there is this one kid…” her eyes grew dark, startling him.  “He is not very nice.”

“Why?  What did he do?”

“He kept telling us that we weren’t allowed to play with the toys.  He then pulled my hair.”

When he heard that he had to admit he was concerned.  “He must like you.”  He turned to Kari and she giggled.  “I heard before that a boy will tease a girl when he has a crush.  It’s the only
explanation.”

Frankie looked mortified and Thomas looked at Kari.  “She’s only 5; I’m sure that has nothing to do with it.”  It was definitely not a topic he wanted to divulge in.

“It’s true; they say men hit puberty at a younger age than women.”

“Kari Louise Campbell, where did you ever hear about that?”

“Oh dad, please.  I watch television.”

He covered his mouth, so she wouldn’t see him laughing.  “Alright then, moving on.  How was your day?”

“It was pretty good.  I really like Allison.  We have a lot in common.  Can I invite her to spend the night sometime?”

“I think that would be wonderful idea.”  Her hopeful expression made him breathe a little bit easier.  “How do you like Ms. Parker?”  He didn’t know why he was so interested, but he felt a sense of gravitation pull to her.

Her smile got wider.  “She is really nice.  Plus, she’s a good teacher.  You know how I don’t like Math?  Well, we had some problems today and I went to the board and was able to figure it out, with her help of course.”

“I like her too.”  He heard Bethany p
ipe in.  “It was really nice that she offered to drive us to Aunt Cassie’s.”

“Yeah; that was nice of her.”  He couldn’t help but wonder why she was willing to help him, or his children out.

“I think that she is going to be a great friend.”  He smiled at Kari’s eagerness.

“Well, I’m glad that you had a good day at school.  It makes me feel a lot better about this move.”  He turned to Bethany and crossed his fingers under the table.  “I hope that it’s 3 for 3.”

She frowned, but only for a split second.  Then her frown turned into a smile and he sighed with relief.  “Daddy, it was one of the best days I have ever had at school.”  He didn’t expect her to be so excited, but as she rattled off about each of her classes she was talking a mile a minute.  The expression he was giving her had to have been pretty funny.  When she stopped talking, she started to laugh.  “Sorry; I just really had a good day.”

“Wow; I am pleased to hear that.  I never thought discussing classes would make you so happy.”

She giggled.  “I have to admit, it’s not just the classes.”

“I figured there had to be more to it.”  He replied with a chuckle.  He took in a mouthful of his ice cream.  “Go ahead; what’s the real excitement for?”

“They have this dance at Christmas time; the boys invite the girls.  It is so grownup.  I don’t know that I can possibly wait 3 months.”  He stared at her; his mouth dropped open.  In his eyes, she would have to wait longer than that.  “What?”

“Uh…I don’t know that I really think it’s a good idea for a 12 year old to go to a dance.”

“What?  I’m practically a teenager.  You can’t be serious.  This girl, Heather, that I met today; she said it’s the biggest thing at the school.  They have one every year, and everyone goes.”

“That’s nice, but maybe next year.”

“Dad…” her voice slowly turned into a whine.  “They only let 8
th
graders go; there won’t be a next year.”

“Bethany, there will be plenty of dances you can go to.  Maybe not this particular one, but there will be others; I promise you.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the chair.  “This is so unfair.  Will you please change your mind?”

He snickered.  It was silly even to be discussing it; like she said it was 3 months away.  A lot could happen during that time.  “I’ll think about it, but don’t hold your breath.”

“Mom would let me go.”  Those 5 words was something that he was used to; so he wasn’t shocked when she spoke them.  “Dad, I’m…”

He shook his head.  “The subject is closed.  We will talk about it later.”  She looked away.  “Let’s go.”  He mumbled.  They all got up and headed out of the restaurant.  He was discouraged that he seemed to always have to prove himself.  He would push ahead and hope that one day they could all accept the bad hand they received.  He hoped that it would be sooner than later.

____________________

Rebecca took the last bite of her cold cereal and then put the bowl in the sink.  She had gotten to the point to realize that it was silly to go all out in meals, when she was cooking for one.  Cereal, suddenly, became her friend.  She wasn’t able to deny that there were nights she dreaded staying home in an empty house, but sometimes it could be nice just to relax.  However, on this night she was finding herself bored. 
With school, just starting, she couldn’t even take some time up by grading papers.  She grabbed the remote and started to surf the channels; she didn’t find anything that appealed to her, but at least it was empty sound that filled the room.  As she was settling into a rerun of
I Love Lucy
she heard her cell phone ring.  She didn’t recognize the phone number, but she muted the television anyway.  “Hello, this is Rebecca Parker.”

“Hello Rebecca Parker, this is Thomas Campbell.”  He laughed and she instantly ran her fingers through her hair.  She had to snicker, because it wasn’t like he could see her through the phone.

“Hi Thomas, I…” She was at a loss for words; she didn’t’ know what he could possibly need.  “How are you doing?”