Small Change (22 page)

She stopped, right in the middle of the aisle. “Okay, guys. We have to make a decision.”

“About what else to get?” asked David.

Rachel shook her head. “No. About what to put back. Sorry, but I just totaled what we've spent so far and we really can't go this much over our food budget. Two things have to go. You two decide.”

“Mom.” Claire looked at Rachel as if her last brain cell had died.

Rachel's diet had been relatively spartan with her children gone. Watching what she spent on food was as important now that they
were back. Even more so, in fact, because she had to make sure they ate well. She motioned to the goodies in the cart. “This is the kind of overload that sinks ships. So, before ours sinks, I want you two to figure out what we're going to toss. Okay? Pretend we're in shark-infested waters in a rubber boat with a big leak and we're going down fast. We have to make it to the island. What's going?”

David shrugged and grabbed for the ice cream, but Claire reached out a hand and stopped him. “No, not that. If we keep the ice cream we can have shakes.” She stood a moment, studying the contents of the cart. “Popcorn will last longer than chips.”

David frowned. “I like chips.”

“Then let's put back the cookies and the candy,” suggested Claire. “We can make cookies, right?” she said to Rachel.

“Absolutely. In fact, that's on our list of activities for the week.”

Claire and David looked at each other, considering, then David scooped the candy and the cookie dough out of the cart and trotted off to put them back.

“Good choices,” Rachel said, and hugged her daughter. “You will be an amazing money manager someday.”

Claire showed her appreciation for her mother's compliment by making a face. But she had a perfectly good time that evening consuming popcorn and chocolate shakes and playing Crazy Eights with her family and her best friend. Someday her daughter would look back and savor this moment, Rachel assured herself. She knew she would.

The following day Girl Camp was in full swing, starting with Belgian waffles for breakfast and followed by egg yolk facials. Lunch was lemonade and egg salad sandwiches dressed up with fancy shapes prepared by Rachel and served by David, who agreed
to be a waiter in exchange for his very own batch of peanut butter cookies. And in the afternoon Rachel taught them some basic salsa steps.

“Wow, Mom. When did you learn to salsa dance?” asked Claire in amazement.

“A friend taught me,” Rachel said with a smile.

“That was so fun,” Bethany enthused when her mother came to pick her up. “What are we doing tomorrow?”

“Beading, and after lunch Tiffany's coming over to give you manicures and pedicures.”

“Wow,” breathed Bethany.

“You're setting the bar pretty high,” teased Bethany's mom.

No, setting the bar high was a month-long stay in New York, thought Rachel.

But as the week rolled by, Claire and Bethany enthused over every activity she came up with for them. Of course, every day included some kind of girly spa thing, and a craft of some sort. Three days Jess met them at the tennis courts as soon as she was done teaching gymnastics and gave both the girls and David tennis lessons. The highlight of the camp was on Friday. David, not wanting to dress up, ate early and escaped to shoot baskets while the girls enjoyed a gala dinner of hamburger stroganoff and biscuits that they had made themselves. They finished with the strawberries they had dipped in chocolate and sparkling cider served in Rachel's good champagne glasses.

“So, a toast,” Rachel proposed after she'd poured sparkling cider all around. “To being a girl.”

“And to my mom,” added Claire. “She's awesome.”

It was all Rachel could do not to cry as they all clinked glasses. She grabbed her camera and held it at arm's length, capturing
three smiling faces—two young, fresh, and hopeful, and one not so fresh, but hopeful all the same.

Dressed to the hilt in the fancy clothes they'd found at the Goodwill, the girls paraded to the living room to finish the straw-berries and enjoy a teen chick flick. Rachel watched them with a smile. Girl Camp was a success. She'd expended a little money and a lot of effort and what she had right now was priceless.

The movie was half over when Chad showed up at the front door, holding a pizza box. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by and see how Girl Camp went.”

Rachel noticed that her son was already coming their way, the smell of pizza luring him like the Pied Piper's pipe. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” said Chad, and introduced himself, offering a hand for David to shake, which, well-mannered child that he was, he did.

“What kind of pizza is that?” asked David.

“Four-cheese,” answered Chad.

“Awesome,” said David, following him into the house.

The girls weren't above taking a break from their movie to snag some pizza, so Rachel made casual introductions as they got glasses from the cupboard and hunted down plates. She found herself feeling oddly embarrassed, like she'd been caught doing something naughty. She had nothing to be ashamed of, she reminded herself. She wasn't the one who had split up the family. Still, it somehow seemed unfaithful to the cause of motherhood for her to have found a boyfriend in her children's absence. What if they didn't like him? (
They
meaning Claire, since David's affections could easily be bought with a pizza.)

The girls wandered back to the family room to watch TV and David joined them, sprawling on the floor.

“Would you like to go out on the patio?” Rachel suggested after she'd handed Chad a glass of lemonade.

“Sure,” he said, giving her an intimate smile.

As she followed him out she heard Bethany ask Claire in a low voice, “Is that like your mom's new boyfriend?”

“I guess,” said Claire.

“He's sooo cute.”

“He's okay.”

Rachel was happy to settle for okay. Okay was a good place to begin. In fact, it was a perfect place since she had no idea what kind of ending her story was moving toward.

B
y mid-August Chad had found renters for his house and Rachel had new neighbors. David was in Michael Jordan heaven because he suddenly had two boys right next door who lived to shoot hoops. Their mother, frazzled from juggling a part-time job with raising two active sons and a preschool daughter, was happy to sign the boys up to attend basketball camp with David.

It was nice to have neighbors, but Rachel found herself half wishing the house next door was still empty and in need of repair. Now there was no reason for Chad to stay in Heart Lake. Except her, and was she really a good enough reason? “I suppose you'll be moving on to build your real estate empire,” she said when he called her later that week.

“Not yet,” he said. “I've got the place on the lake for as long as I want.”

Ah, yes, the mysterious friend's house. Much as she and Chad had been hanging out together, he'd never taken her there.

“Nice friend.” A nasty thought flickered in Rachel's mind.
What if the friend was a woman? Was that why Chad hadn't ever invited her over, because he was playing two women at once?

“Yeah, he is.”

He. The nasty little thought vanished with a satisfying poof. But Rachel was still left wondering why Chad hadn't invited her over.

She imagined the place to be one of the little cabins left over from the days when the lake was an undiscovered summer get-away, nestled in among the trees, hiding from the finer homes that had been built in the last fifteen years. Maybe his humble living quarters embarrassed him. Maybe he was embarrassed by his circumstances in general. All their dates had been fun yet inexpensive. They had done everything from the occasional dinner at his sister's restaurant to bicycling around the lake or meeting for coffee at the Sweet Somethings bakery, and, of course, he had been at her place often enough. Maybe she'd have to come right out and ask him about that. She should probably come right out and ask him about his finances. Period. He was always so vague about his business, preferring to keep their conversations centered on movies or books, her life, or just life in general, making it obvious that he didn't want to share.

But times were tough for lots of people. If he was in the process of rebuilding his life, he could certainly admit it to her. She understood about rebuilding, and she didn't care how much money he made. She'd learned from her experience with Aaron that the size of a man's bank account was far less important than the size of his heart. And if this relationship was going to keep going, they had to be honest with each other.

When he called to invite her family to the North County fair,
she accepted, but said bluntly, “Only if we pay our own way in. County fairs can get expensive.”

“Don't worry,” he assured her. “I can afford it.”

“Can you?” she countered.

“If I couldn't I wouldn't have asked you.”

“Okay,” she said doubtfully. Male pride was a dangerous thing.

She let him pay their way in, but once they hit the midway she sent David and Claire to buy ride tickets with their allowance money.

“Actually,” said Chad, holding up a hand to stop them, “I'm picking up the tab for the day.” He gave both kids a twenty-dollar bill.

“Cool,” said David.

“Thanks,” said Claire, smiling around her new braces.

Rachel didn't say anything. Instead, she stood bug-eyed while her children darted to the ticket booth.

Chad cocked an eyebrow at her. “Why are you looking so surprised?”

“Because that's a lot of money.”

He smiled and put an arm around her. “It's okay to splurge once in a while. And I figure since this is the first time I've gone out with you and your kids I should make a good impression.”

“In other words, buy their affection?” teased Rachel.

“Why not?”

“Because it's not necessary. You didn't need to buy mine,” said Rachel.

“That's one of the things I love about you,” he said, and gave her a kiss that sent her insides whirling. “I suspect your kids are a harder sell,” he added. “Anyway, you can't go to the fair and not
go on the rides. Come on,” he said, steering her toward the ticket booth. “Let's get some tickets for us. I'm sure you want to ride the Ferris wheel.”

“And go through the fun house,” Rachel decided.

“And the roller coaster.”

“Not so much.”

He gave her a squeeze. “It'll be okay. I'll hold onto you so you don't fly out.”

“What if we both fly out?”

“Then I'll pull out my Superman cape and take us to safety,” he said with a grin and gave her another kiss, and she found herself believing he could probably do just that.

She loved following Claire and David through the fun house, maneuvering over shifting floors and standing next to Chad in front of mirrors that distorted their reflections. Riding the Ferris wheel felt like living a scene from one of her romance novels as she felt herself whisked up, up, and around, cuddled next to Chad. As they dangled at the top of the wheel with the fairgrounds spread out in all its country glory around them and, in the distance, the Cascade Mountains, still wearing a snowy shawl, he pulled her close to him and kissed her.

Eyes closed, she murmured, “That was perfect. Every girl should get kissed at the top of a Ferris wheel.”

“Especially this one,” he said, and kissed her again.

But as they sat in back of Claire and David on the roller coaster,
clack-clack
ing their way up the track, she experienced a very different feeling. “I hate these things,” she muttered, grabbing the bar in front of her. Anything could happen on a roller coaster.

Up and down, whipping around corners at breakneck speed, if
something broke, if somehow the little train of cars disconnected from the track …

Chad gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Rides like this are only an illusion. You're probably in more danger when you're driving your car.”

Rachel barely had time to retort, “I don't drive like this,” before they plummeted. Then all she could do was grit her teeth and hang on for dear life. When the ride finally ended, she walked away on shaky legs.

“Let's go again,” said David, bouncing in front of her, grinning.

“I am never going on that thing again. Let's go look at the pigs.”

“Aw, Mom. We still have tickets left,” David protested.

“How about we let them finish up and I'll buy you a scone?” suggested Chad.

Much to her children's delight, she let him distract her with a simple biscuit wrapped around jam. She was so easy.

Later he bought her children hamburgers and cotton candy, and then he took them all to a concert featuring a popular country band. By the time they drove back to Heart Lake in his Mustang to the sound of soft rock on the radio it was dark. David was snoring in the back seat, Claire was texting, and Rachel was thinking how family-like this moment felt.

She could see this man as part of their family, could envision them driving home from similar outings, unspoken contentment hanging in the air. Was that where they were going with this relationship? She hoped so.

The next week Rachel convinced the children that it would be a great idea to pick blackberries to add to her stockpile in the freezer.

“I'll make you a pie,” she promised.

That had been all it took to send David looking for a pot. Claire went with a little less enthusiasm, but she went.

As they stood at the edge of the berry patch, filling their pots with fat, juicy berries, the morning sun warming their backs, Claire casually asked, “So is Chad your boyfriend?”

There, indeed, was the question of the day. “What would you think if he was?”

Claire gave a one-shouldered shrug. “It'd be okay, I guess.”

David, who had already lured Chad into shooting baskets with him on several occasions, added, “He's cool.”

“Anyway, Daddy's got Misty,” said Claire. “You should have someone.”

Rachel found herself pleasantly surprised. Very magnanimous. And she couldn't have said it better.

“I'm going over to Sam's for a minute. He wants help timing his carburetor,” Brian said, giving Tiffany a kiss on the cheek.

“Have fun,” she said, logging onto her eBay account as he wandered off. He'd be at the neighbor's getting greasy for the rest of the day. But that was okay because she had things to do herself. After finishing up she'd be off to Jess's house for her weekly finance pep talk. She could hardly wait to share how well her business was doing.

Up popped her list of current bids. Good. Everything was selling and the bids on several items had gone up. And it was only Saturday. By tomorrow she'd be raking in the money, which was
a good thing, considering the fact that her number of nail clients had dropped. They'd be okay though. Come fall her first charge card would be paid off. Then she only had one more to go. Maybe, if she worked really hard and if Brian didn't lose his job, by next summer they could afford a project car for him.

She was logging off when her phone rang. It was her mother, calling for her weekly check-in. Tiffany happily picked up and told her all about her latest moneymaking triumphs.

“Your father will be so pleased,” said Mom. “Now I have some news for you. Cressie's pregnant.”

Her baby sister was pregnant? Cressie had only been married a year. How was that possible?

This would be a good time to say something.
“Oh, wow. I'm happy for her,” said Tiffany. She was. She'd run right out and buy a present to prove it.

“It would be nice if you could call her. I think she was a little hesitant to tell you for fear of making you feel bad.”

“I can't feel bad that we're going to have a new baby in the family,” Tiffany said as much to herself as her mother.

“That's what I told Cressie.”

Tiffany felt like her throat was closing up, but she said, “I'll call her. Tell her I'll have a baby shower for her.”

“You could tell her yourself,” suggested Mom.

“I will. But right now I have to go. I'm late for my money club.”

Tiffany managed to say the proper good-byes and I-love-you's, but by the time she hung up she was close to hyperventilating. “You'll have a niece,” she told herself. “That's awesome.” She'd be a supportive sister and a fab aunt. Obviously, the universe thought she'd be a much better aunt than a mother. The universe was right, of course. She'd already decided she wasn't ready for motherhood
so there was no reason to feel sorry for herself. And she was happy for her sister. Happy.

“Where's Tiff?” asked Rachel as she and Jess settled on Jess's deck with their iced tea. “I thought she'd be over here already, bragging about her garage sale finds.”

Jess checked the wall clock. Tiff was her usual fifteen minutes late. “I'll call her.” The second Tiffany answered the phone Jess could tell she'd been crying. “Oh, no. What's happened? Did Brian lose his job?”

“No. Everything's fine,” Tiffany insisted, her voice watery.

“I can tell. You'd better get over here right away. We've got iced tea and Rachel brought day-old donuts from the bakery.”