Along Came Love (5 page)

Jake didn't see how this was such a problem.
He remembered writing a few when he was in school.

"Yeah…so?"

"So…one of the notes was confiscated."

"And?" Jake was losing patience.

"And it would seem your niece sees herself as
some sort of match maker."

Jake stared at her with a steel edge frown,
"What's your point?"

"The point is the note itself. She was
writing rumors about certain teachers, and passing it through the
class. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but well…the teacher
she was writing about was Mrs. Douglas, a newly widowed teacher
that took offense to her being paired off with another teacher
after her husband just dying?"

He still didn't grasp the problem. "So my
niece is in trouble because she sees a teacher interested in
another teacher? Is that some sort of crime, these days?"

"No, not a crime, but Mrs. Douglas was
embarrassed and the entire classroom knew what was in the
note."

"And I'm supposed to…."

Samantha jerked the glasses off her nose and
stood up. Her eyes were big and serious, her face strained. Jake
needed to quit thinking about the way her hair floated over her
shoulders, and the way her eyes narrowed on him.

"Mr. Travers…"

"Jake." He quickly corrected her.

"Jake, your niece is disrupting the class,
not to mention your nephew, Clay. They seem to be in this together.
We need you to bring this to her attention and warn her that this
kind of note passing is not to be tolerated."

Jake watched Samantha move around the desk,
he wondered about her now like he did when he was a young teenager
with hormones out of control. What would it be like to touch those
lips of ice? Could he melt them?

"Mr. Travers are you listening?" Samantha
inquired.

Jake jumped back to reality, "Yes, yes, I
heard every word. But I thought Sammie Jo was having a math
problem."

Samantha picked up the file on her desk and
handed it to him, "She has the ability to learn anything, judging
from her past grades, but she isn't paying attention. Problems
start when they don't pay attention."

Jake nodded and took the file, scanning
quickly her A-B average in every subject.

"Sammie Jo is a very bright young lady. She
has the capacity to do very well in school. However, she isn't
concentrating on her work any longer. And instead of turning her
attention to boys her own age, she has unfortunately turned to
playing cupid for the world."

Finally she was saying something that made
complete sense to Jake. Although he loved Sammie Jo dearly, he
above everyone in the family knew how she loved to play cupid. Only
this time she had taken it outside the family and gotten herself in
a little hot water, according to the prim and proper Ms.
Courtland.

"I'll speak to her, of course."

"Please," Samantha put her hand on top of his
and pleaded, "Please, be gentle."

It was the first sign Jake had glimpsed of a
soft hearted woman. Maybe the little counselor wasn't such an
ice-maiden after all. Jake glanced at the hand, then cleared his
throat, "Yeah…"

The woman was a mixture of cold and hot
mixed. He was getting so many mixed signals, he wasn't sure what to
do. Most women didn't puzzle him, he could see right through them,
but this one operated a little differently, putting Jake in a
puzzling state. Why had she kept her identity a secret? He liked
her, he had always liked her. Heck, she was the only woman that
seemed to ring his bell. He reacted to her in every way, always
had. Why didn't she understand that?

"She's very vulnerable at this age. She's not
quite a woman yet, but she is on the brink of it. You mentioned her
parents are on vacation?"

Jake nodded, "Yeah, it's like a long overdue
honeymoon."

"That explains some of it." Samantha quickly
nodded.

"You know of course, that Sammie Jo was
adopted, don't you?"

"No," the counselor looked a little rattled.
Checking her file, she looked up at him in surprise. "We didn't
know that. It isn't mentioned in her records."

"Yeah, well, she was still a baby. My brother
and his wife never took a real honeymoon because she was so little
at the time, they didn't want to be away from her. Now that she's
growing up they thought it would be alright to take one. This could
be what prompted her to do this, don't you agree?"

Samantha smiled, charmed by his caring,
"Perhaps you're right. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. And
if she really is having math problems, I suggest you have her stay
late for tutoring."

"Sounds reasonable," he agreed with a sigh of
relief, and took Samantha's hand in his. He shook it lightly,
squeezed it and smiled, tipping his hat to her.

"Thank you for your co-operation." She said a
slight smile to her lips.

Jake looked deep into those green eyes and
smiled, "I never thought you were chubby. I just thought you were a
snob."

With that, her eyes turned even greener, "I
never meant to….give off that impression."

His look seem to galvanize her, "Yeah…I
seemed to give off a few wrong signals myself…"

The next day, Jake picked Sammie Jo up after
tutoring and he saw Samantha again. She was standing at the front
door of the school with Sammie Jo and smiling. The transformation
that smile made had Jake reacting physically. Why did looking at
Samantha now give him such a kick in the gut? He was happy with his
life, except for a few small details he had to work out.

Samantha had walked Sammie Jo to the front
door, but the minute she saw Jake she had turned away. Maybe it
wasn't him she was avoiding. Maybe it was men in general. But why?
She was beautiful, healthy, and for some reason he wanted to know
more about her. And now that he knew who she was, she was more
elusive than ever.

"She's very pretty isn't she, Uncle Jake?"
Sammie Jo asked as she climbed into the truck and distracted him
from staring.

"Who?" Jake asked trying to forget how
Samantha deliberately shunned him years ago, and was still doing
it.

"Ms. Courtland" Sammie Jo giggled.

"Yes, she's a very nice looking woman. Do you
like her?" Jake asked trying to concentrate on something other than
Samantha.

"She's cool. I thought she was mad because I
wasn't catching on, but she is really very sweet. It's just such a
shame."

Jake barely heard his niece, but his head
jerked around to stare at her, "What's a shame?"

"I overheard some of the other teachers say
she was taking care of her sick Mother. That she has no one…no
husband, no children. Just like you…Uncle Jake."

Wanting to change the subject, Jake took the
conversation in a different direction. "Not exactly, Pumpkin. Well,
I guess your folks will be home in a few days."

"Do you think they will be sore?" Sammie Jo
asked, turning all her attention on Jake.

"I think I can manage to smooth it over,
especially since you are taking the tutoring. But there are a few
other things we need to talk about before they get back."

Sammie Jo reached to give him a quick kiss on
the cheek, "You are just the coolest, sweetest Uncle a girl could
have, Uncle Jake. So why doesn't Laurie Beth marry you."

"Could be because I haven't asked her," Jake
answered quickly. Was marriage and kids all Sammie Jo ever thought
about these days. He really needed to talk to her about this, but
then again, he had to figure out how to go about it too.

Sammie Jo reminding him about Laurie Beth had
him rattled again. He hadn't so much as given her a thought since
he left on vacation. Somehow a regular Saturday night with a lady
had gotten to be more of a habit, than a thrill. He certainly
hadn't considered it dating. Just having dinner with a friend, but
deep down, he knew Laurie Beth wasn't thinking along those
lines.

Jake considered marriage, but he honestly
couldn't commit himself to Laurie Beth. He wasn't in love with her
and he knew it. Coming home reinforced that fact.

Had he led Laurie Beth on all this time? Was
he among those callus brutes that took women for granted? Maybe he
should change a few things. He hadn't meant to. Just like Smantha
said she hadn't meant to snub him.

Laurie Beth was just so sweet and willing to
keep things simple that he had grown into a platonic relationship.
It was comfortable.

"Don't you want to get married and have kids,
Uncle Jake?" Sammie Jo asked.

"No!" Jake answered too quickly. When Sammie
Jo completely shut up, he realized he'd been too harsh with an
answer. "Look pumpkin, I've been married, and it's not for me."

"You were married before?" Sammie Jo asked,
her hands gripping his waist.

Jake honestly thought Sammie Jo knew.

"It was a long time ago, and best left in the
past."

"But who was she?" Sammie Jo prodded, turning
her full attention to Jake.

"Pumpkin, you ask too many questions." Jake
tried not to show his frustration.

"Did she hurt you terribly?" Sammie Jo's
voice clouded with emotion, her feelings spilling over.

"Terribly," he admitted in a comical way, not
realizing until that moment that he spoke the truth.

"You need a good woman, someone who will
stand beside you through thick and thin. I'm going to start working
on finding you a good woman, Uncle Jake. You deserve it. I don’t'
want you to be lonely in your old age."

Old age? Did Sammie Jo see him as old? He
glanced in the rearview mirror and frowned, yep, he had a few gray
hairs. He'd never paid much attention.

Okay, so it was too late to have the house
full of kids he had wanted so badly years ago. He still had plenty
of time to settle down, if he wanted. Only he didn't. He didn't
need a wife. Did he?

Sammie Jo was so serious, so touched by his
admission that she hugged her Uncle as he drove.

"Look, pumpkin, this role you've taken on to
pair every single person in the universe together, it won't work,
honey."

"You're right. I've got to start at home
first, then work my way into the rest of the world."

"No pumpkin. Sometimes playing cupid gets you
into trouble. Ms. Courtland pointed that out the other day. It
wasn't the math she was concerned about, although you will have to
take tutoring for that. No, it was this note passing cupid you and
Clay have cooked up at school. It's got to stop. You see, grown ups
have a way of handling things their own way. You embarrassed that
Ms. Douglas, she had just lost her husband, and well, you don't go
pairing off someone like that."

"But Uncle Jake, you are so wrong. When she
is so alone, and so lonely, and needs someone. We all love Ms.
Douglas, and we know she likes Mr. Abernathy."

"How do you know that?"

"A woman can tell these things," Sammie Jo
sighed heavily and leaned on her Uncle's back.

A woman? Good grief, he was in way over his
head, this time.

Then it hit Jake out of the blue, in his
desperation to explain something to Sammie Jo. She needed a woman
to explain it to her. Not a man, and certainly not him. He was no
love expert. And he knew just the woman.

She'd started this, she could finish it.

***

That same evening Ms. Hughes called.

"Mr. Travers, I wonder if I might impose upon
you to help out at the

school dance this Friday?" she asked
tentatively.

Jake felt at a complete loss as to how to
answer. School dance?

"Well, I really don't know how long I'm going
to be here, Ms. Hughes." Jake tried to be tactful.

"Oh, is Mr and Mrs. Travers back then?" she
asked.

"No, no, they won't be back till Saturday."
Jake admitted before thinking of another out.

"I see. Well, I normally wouldn't ask, but we
are so short handed. One of the teachers in student council had to
quit and it has left us extremely short handed. We have no one to
decorate the gym for the dance, and this is the first dance this
year."

The frustration in her voice had Jake
reconsidering. "I suppose I could help out. What exactly did you
have in mind?"

"Well, we need someone to volunteer to string
lights across the gym, and maybe, well, I hate to impose, but we
need a chaperone. Two of the mothers that normally do it are sick,
one expecting a baby, the other with the flu. I have one teacher
volunteering, but only one. I so need people and it seems as though
I can't get anyone with spare time. It's so important to the
children to learn social graces, and yet no one has the time to
stay and help."

Jake had experienced the same thing in his
own little town of Peaceful. Getting anyone to volunteer to do
anything was like pulling teeth and usually he ended up doing it
himself. Now he was being called upon and he knew he really should
do it willingly. After all, if he had children of his own he
wouldn't hesitate to be there every time.

If he had children? Where had that thought
come from. It was too late to be thinking along those lines..

He sighed heavily, and then nodded as though
Ms. Hughes could see him. "Okay, you can count on me, anything for
my niece."

"Oh…thank you, so much," Ms Hughes gushed.
"Honestly, you should be a father yourself. You'd make a fine
one."

"Yeah, well, I think I'll just stick with
being an Uncle."

"Thank you again, so much, Mr. Travers. Then
we'll see you Thursday evening in the gym to hang the lights?"

"Sure…I'll be there." He affirmed.

***

"How come you didn't tell me there was a
dance this Friday night, pumpkin?" Jake asked at the supper
table.

Sammie Jo shrugged but didn't look at her
Uncle. "I don't know. I'm not going so what does it matter."

Jake looked at her, then reached across the
table to lift her chin, "And why not?"