Love From the Ashes (7 page)

“I don’t think that we’ll be necessary.  I think that they’ll get along nicely with you.”

“I could give you references; if you would like.”

He looked like he was thinking.  For a moment she thought he was going to take her up on it, but then he laughed.  “We’ll just believe that I’ve already done all that.  I would like to take you up on the offer.  It was really nice of you; thank you.”

“It is my pleasure.”  They finished their food and laughed about the different stories she had about her past students.  “You would be surprised with what they try to get away with.”

“I can’t imagine anyone wanting to prank you.  You aren’t like any teacher I had in school.”

“Is that a good thing; or, bad thing?”  She watched him.  She knew that it was coming very close to flirting, but it was too late.

“Believe me; it’s a very good thing.”  He winked at her.  He seemed almost more surprised than she was. 
She knew she was probably blushing, but she didn’t really care.  “I could give you a few stories about my relationship with my children too.”

“I’m sure you could.”  She replied with a laugh.  “You’ll have to give me some examples some time.”

He nodded.  “We’ll save that for another night.”

She nearly jumped with excitement that he would consider going out again.  “Right; it’s getting late.”  She couldn’t believe that it was going on 8:30.  They had been talking for nearly 2 ½ hours and she felt like she could talk for
at least 2 ½ more.

She reached for purse and he put out his hand.  “I got the tab.”

“That’s not necessary.”  She pulled out some money, but he wasn’t paying attention.  She jumped up and followed him to the cashier.  “You don’t have to do this.”

“I know, but I want to.  I enjoyed myself; besides, the whole point was to pay you back for taking my kids to Cassie.”

She rolled her eyes.  She didn’t need payment for that.  “I didn’t mind doing that; you definitely didn’t owe me dinner.”

“I got it; just smile and say thank you.”  He laughed and she put her wallet away.

When he looked at her she grinned.  “Thank you?”

“Did you really just ask a question?”

“Maybe.”  He followed her out of the restaurant and walked her to her van.  “Thank you for supper Thomas; I really did enjoy myself.”

“So did I.  I’ll call you sometime this weekend and we’ll make arrangements for Monday.  Think about what price you consider to be fair and let me know.”

“Price?”

“Yes; what do you expect to make by
watching my children?”

She climbed into her car and turned to him.  “I already know that answer.  I am expecting nothing in return.  I’m just happy that I could do something to help; that’s all.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “Are you serious?  I wouldn’t ask you do this for free.”

“You’re not asking; I’m offering.  Don’t worry about it; I am sure there will be ways to repay me in the future.”  She realized how that came out; his eyes got big and she smirked.  “You know what I mean.”

He laughed.  “I suppose I do.”  He closed her door as she rolled down her window.  “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye Thomas.”  She drove away; she needed to keep telling her heart that they were only friends. 
The only problem was she could feel her heart quickening as she thought about him, and she knew that it was too late…she was already falling.

____________________

Thomas caught himself whistling as he walked up the sidewalk to Cassie and Seth’s house.  He knocked on the door and Cassie answered quickly.  She held up her finger and motioned him to follow her.  She took him to the guest room and he smiled.  Judy and Joey were sound asleep in the play pen, and Frankie was asleep on the bed.  She closed the door and they headed to the living room.  “Where are Bethany and Kari?”

“
They’re in the kitchen finishing up homework.”

“Homework?”  He laughed.  “It’s Friday night; usually I have to force them to do it on Sunday.”

“They’re growing up.”  He smiled.  He figured Cassie probably had to bribe them.  “While they are doing that; let’s talk.”  He sat down on the couch and she sat across from him.  “How was your evening?”

He laughed.  “Better than expected.”

She smiled and rubbed her hands together.  “So, what does that mean?”

“Calm down Cassie; don’t read too much into it.  She’s a nice woman, but that’s it.”

Cassie snapped her fingers.  “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”

He knew she meant well, but it was just too hard for her to understand.  “There is something that I have to discuss with you though.”

“That sounds serious.”

“Rebecca has offered to help out with Bethany, Kari, Frankie, Joey, and Judy.”

“Help out?  I thought I was doing an alright job.”

“Believe me; you are doing far better than alright.  I appreciate your help, but Monday I am starting to work longer hours at the station.  There could be evenings that I don’t come home until this time, or later.  You have your job, Savannah,
and Seth, and I don’t want to have to keep relying on you.  Let’s face it, if it got to be too hard; would you tell me?”

Cassie snickered and shook her head.  “No.”

“Exactly; which is precisely why I have decided this is the best idea.”

“I don’t understand; how this even became an option.”

“Well, I don’t really know how either.  It was her idea.”

Cassie’s eyes grew and he laughed.  “Wow; she
must have wanted to make a good impression on you.”

“What?  She loves kids; that was her reasoning.”

Cassie crossed her arms and stared at him.  “Okay; believe what you want.”

“I’m serious.  We got to know each other; I think she is ju
st that type of person that wants to help out.”  He shrugged.  “So, I agreed to it.  I am doing this for everyone’s sake.  I think it will help you out as much as it will help us.  The plan is that beginning Monday she will take the kids after school and meet up with you.  Then I will pick the kids up at her place when I get off of work.  I will leave the car seats with you.  It’s just lucky that she has a van, otherwise it wouldn’t work.”

“Well, it seems like…”

“Cassie?  Thomas?”

“Hold that thought.”  She chuckled.  “We’re in here Seth.”

“Hello.”  Seth walked into the living room and sat down.  “How was your evening Thomas?”

“It was fine.”  He didn’t feel the need to
elaborate.

Cassie quickly filled him in on Rebecca and how she was going to take on the responsibility.  Seth didn’t seem too surprised, but Thomas still couldn’t believe it.  “I was just getting ready to say that it seems like Thomas and Rebecca all has it worked out.”  He thought he saw Cassie wink at Seth, but he figured he was imagining it.

“Daddy, I’m getting tired.”  He looked up and saw Kari entering the room.

“Is your homework done?”

She nodded.  “Yeah, even though it is only Friday.”

He looked at Cassie and she laughed and shrugged.  “Okay, maybe I bribed them.”

“Thank you!”  He whispered.  “Go and get Bethany and we’ll get out of here.”

“I better start carrying out the sound sleepers.”  He laughed as he stood up.  “By the way; I’m moving tomorrow.  I know that we don’t have a lot of stuff, but it might take a few trips.”

“We can help you.”  Seth interjected.

“Thomas why don’t you let Frankie, Joey, and Judy spend the night.  They’re zonked and we can get them to you tomorrow.”  He stared at Cassie; it would be helpful.

“Are you sure?”

“We’re positive.”  Cassie added with a smile.

“Okay; I can come pick them up when I take a load to the new house.”

She shrugged.  “Sounds fine.”  He headed to the door with Kari and Bethany in tow.  “You guys have a good rest of the night.  We’ll see you tomorrow.”  She hugged the girls and then they walked out to the van.

Thomas grabbed the car seats from Seth.  “See you guys!”

“Thank Seth.”
  He turned and looked at Kari and Bethany.  “Ready to go?”

The
y nodded as Bethany yawned.  It was a long day for all of them; he couldn’t wait to get to the Bed and Breakfast and enjoy a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow their new life would begin.

Thomas was excited about moving into their new home and he could tell that the children were too.  After he picked the kids up from Cassie and Seth’s they dropped off a load to the house.  Everyone enjoyed seeing their new rooms and it made Thomas happy to know that they were going to enjoy living there.  They all talked excitedly about friend’s staying over and having their own room to play in and it made him relieved that the house had so many different rooms. 
Cassie and Seth did their share of helping them move and they were able to get all moved in just a matter of a couple trips.  After they were done, he looked around the house and realized they would have a lot more furniture that they would need to supply the home.  “Cassie, do you want to go furniture shopping with us?”  He laughed at the thought of all of them wandering through stores, but they had to do something about the empty space.  “I could use a woman’s perspective.”  He had never gone anywhere shopping by himself, let alone furniture.  It wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.

“I wish I could Thomas, but I have to work extra this weekend.”

Seth walked up and joined the conversation.  “Why don’t you call Rebecca? I’m sure she would be glad to assist you.”

Thomas glanced at Seth and saw that he wasn’t kidding.  “I don’t know…”

“Thomas, you guys are going to have to see each other plenty of times, now that she’s watching your kids.  This will give you guys more time to get to know each other.”

“Maybe so, but…” he looked at his kids
as they were eagerly going up and down the stairs with some boxes.  “Okay, we’ll see.”

“I better go.”  Cassie kissed Seth as she hurried from the room.

“Yeah; I should too.  If you need anything give me a call.”  He raced from the room and Thomas questioned whether he was facing a setup.  He shrugged it off and dialed her number.  He had programmed it into his phone once she had decided to offer her services.

“Hello?”  He thought about hanging up, but figured she would recognize the phone number.

“Hey Rebecca, it’s Thomas.”

“I’ve been waiting for your call.”

He was confused as to what she meant by that; it was pretty convincing that it was a setup.  “You have?”

“Yeah; you said that you were going to call me this weekend.  We have to figure out how you want to handle your work schedule.”  He laughed; he was embarrassed that she meant it any other way.  “I’m ass
uming that’s why you’re calling?”

“Well, yeah
...I guess; it’s one of the reasons.”

She laughed.  “Okay; that wasn’t confusing.  There was another reason?”

He slowly let out a breath; he suddenly was flustered and he didn’t understand why.  “I actually could use your expertise.  I am in need of advice on furniture.  You see, we have this nice house, but very little décor.  I was wondering if you would be interested in accompanying us to do a little shopping.”

There was a long pause; it definitely made him question the call.  He wanted to say that he asked Cassie first, but she couldn’t go.  He wanted to do anything, but stay on the phone and wait for the crickets to chime in.  “Well, I…” she hesitated and so he quickly spoke up.

“If you have other plans, I understand.  It was just a thought.  I don’t know the first thing about shopping for furniture.  Scarlett always…”

“I would love to.”  When she intercepted the words, he was sure he had misunderstood her.  “Where would you like to meet?”

He was still stuck on the fact that she agreed to go.  “Um…
The Hutch?
”  It was really the only furniture store he had seen in Dallas; even though he was sure there were lots more.

“Okay; I’ll see you there in about 15 minutes?”

“You better make it 30.”  He laughed.  “It will take me that long to get everyone in the van.”

He heard her snicker on the other end.  “Okay.  I’ll see you then.”  They hung up and he waited a moment before calling up the stairs for the kids.  Suddenly he fe
lt like an awkward teenager.  He was perplexed as to why he felt so different when talking to her.  She was so genuine; it made him draw closer to her, even though he was trying hard to fight it.

____________________

Rebecca tried not to stare at Thomas as they walked down the aisles of the furniture store.  She still found it hard to believe that he had called her.  She wasn’t going to agree to go, but the sound in his voice suddenly made her want to be there.  She just didn’t want to seem too desperate.  “What all are you needing?”

“We brought the beds, but we’ll need a couple of dressers.  They had to share rooms when we moved into the smaller house.  Right after that we got rid of some of the furniture.”  He sighed and she saw a pain cross his face.  “I didn’t feel that we would ever have the opportunity to go somewhere else.  So, we’ll need 2 dressers.  I could use a
couch or two.  I was also thinking a large screen television.”

She glanced at him and she started to laugh.  “You’re really going all out.”

“Why shouldn’t I?  My children could use some entertainment.”  Rebecca thought of that for a moment and shrugged.  “Is there a problem with that?”

She chuckled when he asked the question.  “No; after all I’m not here to question what you want to buy.  It’s your money, but while you’re at it…you should buy two television sets.”  The look on his face proved that he didn’t know why.  “Bethany, she should get her own television for her room.”

Rebecca saw Bethany turn around; an eager expression was now plastered on her face.  “I don’t think so.  She is way too young.”

Rebecca crossed her arms and a frown formed on her lips.  “I am not…” she began, but Rebecca quickly put up her hand and showed that she would take care of it.

Bethany turned back around and she faced Thomas.  “First of all, she is not too young.”  She pointed to her as they came to a stop.  The kids were all focused on looking at the tents that were gracing the floor of the store.  “Whether you want to see it or not, she’s soon going to be a teenager.  She deserves to have a place that she can call her own.  I’m not trying to tell you how to raise any of your kids, but at some point you have to let loose the reigns and realize that she’s not a little girl anymore.”

He turned to where they had all disappeared into a tent.
  “She’ll always be my little girl.”

“That’s true, but next year she’ll be in high school.”

Thomas laughed.  “Fine, I’ll get her the television.”

Rebecca smiled.  “You’re making the right choice.”

He groaned.  “Why does it feel like tomorrow she’ll be an old married woman?”  She shook her head and giggled.  They headed to the tents and saw that they were still inside, obviously forgetting about either one of them.  “Are the five of you ready to go to the dressers?”

Kari peeked her head out of the flap and started to laugh.  “Dad, this tent is bigger than our last house.”

“It is; is it?”  Thomas replied with a chuckle.

“You know, Thomas…”

He turned to Rebecca and then looked back at the 5 faces that were looking out of the tent.  “Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?”

“What?”  Bethany asked.

“I think maybe our household could use one of these.”

“A tent?”  Frankie shrieked.

“We’ve never been camping.  Maybe we should change that?”  Rebecca stared at Thomas; he was a great father to those kids.  Each one of them ran over to him and gave him a hug.  Even Judy wrapped her arms around his leg.  “Are you sure there’s enough room for all of us?”

“We could get a big one and a smaller one.”  Bethany eagerly replied.

He nodded.  “I do believe that would be the best idea.  What do you think Rebecca?  I did ask you along for your opinion.”

“Yeah, I think that two would be the better choice.  Just in case.”

He motioned for a sales person to help them.  “I would like this tent and this one.  I have more shopping to do; will you please put these to the side for me?”

“Yes sir; just let us know if you need help with anything else.”

He smiled.  “Thank you!”

The eager clerk left them to continue their quest for furniture.  “The dressers are over here.”  Rebecca stated as the gang followed her to the other side of the showroom.  Bethany, Kari, and Frankie each ran around looking at the different dressers as Thomas and Rebecca hung back.  “Do you know which two is getting the dresser?”  Rebecca couldn’t h
elp but laugh as the three were looking in the drawers.

“Maybe I’ll be buying three.”
  Rebecca smiled as they moved closer to the older girls.  Thomas stopped and looked at a light oak.  “This one is nice.”  He turned to Rebecca and shrugged.  “It’s only a dresser.”

“What color are the beds?”

He scrunched up his nose and pointed to a dark brown knee high chest.  “I suppose they’re close to that color.”

“Then, don’t you think you should go a darker brown?”

“Since you put it that way; I suppose I do.”  They both laughed and he turned to the dresser next to him on the other side.  “This one would probably be better.”

Rebecca smiled.  “You’re probably right.”

“What do you guys think?”

Bethany and Kari both nodded with enthusiasm.  “That should work fine.”  Bethany looked in the drawers and smiled with satisfaction.

“I like this one better.”  They all turned to Frankie who was pointing at the dark brown chest.  It’s more my size.”

Thomas laughed.  “It’s not a dresser honey.  That’s a chest.  It holds personal belongings, like blankets, or towels, anything like that.”

Her eyes brightened up.  “It could hold toys.”

Rebecca giggled under her breath and turned to see how Thomas would answer to that.  When she looked at him, he was staring at her.  A look of help was evident in his eyes.  She shrugged; it was all him.  He laughed.  “You know what; you’re right.  Silly me.  Okay we’ll buy you the chest.”

She clapped with delight.  “Goodie!”

He told the clerk to add those to his list and then they all headed for the couches.  Rebecca felt like she was truly part of a family.  She couldn’t deny the fact, that it felt good.  She didn’
t ever want it to end.

____________________

Thomas knew his bill was quickly adding up, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.  He knew the lamps that would be ideal for Judy and Joey and the rugs that Rebecca picked out to make Bethany feel more grown-up, were necessities.  He found himself forgetting that their makeshift family was only temporary and that Rebecca was only helping him out.  Even when the young woman that was helping them to fill their list called her his wife, he didn’t do anything to correct it.  He also noticed that when she told Rebecca her children were beautiful, she didn’t deny it.  It was as if for that one moment they each forgot that it wasn’t the truth. It was like they forgot that they were practically strangers a couple of weeks prior.  It made everything so complicating, yet so invigorating.  She had helped him pick out a sofa and loveseat and he wasn’t convinced they were the perfect match, although, he instantly fell in love with them.  She had a way of making him see things in a totally different light.  “Thomas…” he jerked back to the present day when he noticed that Rebecca had been talking to him.  “Is everything alright?”

He laughed nervously.  “Of course; I’m sorry were you saying something?”

“I was just asking if there was anything else you needed to look at, besides televisions.”

Thomas pretended to look around the store and shook his head.  “I don’t think so.”  He then turned to Bethany.  “I have decided that you can look at a TV.”

Her jaw dropped and she stared at him, like he had just grown another head.  “Are you kidding me?”

He looked at Rebecca; he wanted to hope he was doing the right thing, but he had his doubts.  “I am serious.”

“Dad, that is not fair.”  Kari was quick to say.

“Kari, when you’re 12, you can get one too.”

She frowned, but nodded.  They headed to the television sets and Bethany quickly was let loose.  She looked at them like she had never seen a TV before.  Thomas had to smile at her excited appearance.  “Look at how happy you have made her.”  Rebecca whispered next to his ear.  He smiled.  He knew it was true.  He found the television he wanted and then he went to Bethany.

“Did you make up your mind?”

“May I have this one?”

He was thankful it wasn’t a big screen, she was at least reasonable in her request.  “That one would be perfect.”

“Thank you dad!’  She hugged him tightly and his eyes met with Bethany’s.  She was giving him an
I told you so
look and he nodded his understanding.  “I love you.”

“I love you too.”  The clerk headed their way and she adjusted his total.  “That should be all the damage I can cause.  Will you run the total?”
  She rushed off to a cashier and he started to laugh.  “She has a lot of energy.”

“She’s so young.”  Rebecca quickly pointed out.

The girl was back in no time.  “That will be $6,572.93.”  He noticed Rebecca’s eyes get big and he shrugged.  It could have been worse.