The Nanny's New Family (Caring Canines) (11 page)

Dressed in a blue T-shirt celebrating Super Sports Day, Annie scanned the sea of blue T-shirts before her. She couldn’t come without one because according to the kids, everyone would be wearing them. And they were. Even after talking with Jasmine about appearances a few weeks ago, Annie had been hesitant to go without her usual turtleneck at least under her T-shirt. But in the end, she’d realized children learned by example more than words. Annie needed to show Jasmine that what other people said shouldn’t control what she felt about herself or how she acted.

Annie, carrying everyone’s sack lunches, stopped at the edge of the playground, where she met Ian.

“The trick is to cover all the children today. I’ll start with Joshua’s class at this end.” She pointed to Jade in the third-grade area. “I’ll go there next, then to Jasmine and finish with Jeremy with the fourth graders. You do the opposite, and we should meet between Jade and Jasmine’s classes.”

“Last year they had different grades compete on different days. Whatever possessed them to do it all in one afternoon?”

“Beats me. We’ll get a workout for sure. Whether the kids do is still up in the air.” Annie glanced from one end of the playground to the other—at least two football fields long.

“I’ll take Jeremy and the twins their lunches. See you in a while.” Ian strolled toward the area for the third graders.

Since the time Ian had been sick a few weeks ago, Annie had tried to keep a distance between them, but it had been difficult—and she suspected the twins of plotting to get Ian and her alone together. She was sure they were responsible for all those secret admirer gifts. So far she’d managed to foil their plans, but they hadn’t let up.

Maybe she needed to talk with them about the impossibility of their dad and her getting together. There would come a time when Ian would be ready to date and possibly marry again. By that time Annie would move on to other children who needed her help. Annie knew she couldn’t stay when Ian became serious about a woman. She cared too much to hang around. His kiss had shown that. She still dreamed about it.

Joshua ran to her, throwing his arms around her. “You came!”

Annie tousled his curly blond hair. “Of course. How could I miss dancing with you?”

“Yeah, but when the music stops, we have to stand
real
still. I want to win. If you move we’ll hafta sit down.”

“I’ll try to stay still.” She tried to keep a straight face. Joshua was the one always on the move.

When the dance competition was announced, Joshua put on a serious expression, paying attention to everything his teacher said. Then the music started. Holding Annie’s hand—they had to remain connected the whole time—he wiggled and twisted, nearly wrenching her arm out of the socket. When the song stopped, Joshua froze, his gaze fixed on her. By the third stop, his body was contorted into a weird position, and he couldn’t keep still longer than a second. The teacher pointed to them to sit down.

Joshua walked off with Annie, his shoulders slumped and his head down, while Annie rotated her shoulder. He plopped down on one of the blankets his class had laid out.

“Joshua, you might not have been the last person left standing, but you got some good exercise.” Which was the point of Super Sports Day.

Another boy sat near Joshua and stared at Annie. “What’s wrong with your neck?” The child pointed at her scars.

Annie had prepared herself for questions from curious children. “I was in a fire.”

His eyes got big. “You were? Did a fireman save you?”

“My dad did.” A knot swelled into her throat, and Annie swallowed several times, not wanting to think about that day.

“Do they still hurt?”

She shook her head.

By the time she left Joshua, several other children had said something to her about her scars, more curious than anything. When she arrived at Jade’s class, Annie felt hopeful about her decision. It took her telling Jasmine to see that she’d been letting a few callous people change how she felt and acted.

Jade’s friends were fun and pumped about Super Sports Day. Not one of them asked about her scars, although they had seen them. Annie knew she’d made a good decision to let them show. For fourteen years her life had revolved around what had happened at the fire. Not anymore.

As Annie walked toward Jasmine, she waved to Ian, who made a detour to talk to her, greeting her with a smile. “You look as if you’ve been enjoying yourself.”

“I have. How did you do in the three-legged race?” she asked, trying to ignore how he made her feel when he looked at her as though she was the only person around.

“I think Rex and Jeremy would have done better.” His eyes sparkled with merriment.

“That bad?”

“We came in dead last because I kept tripping. Jeremy was a sport about it, although I’m not sure he’s stopped laughing yet.”

Annie chuckled at the picture that formed in her mind of the race.

“You’re laughing, too! I thought you at least would give me sympathy.”

“Sorry.” Annie struggled to suppress her smile. “How’s Rex handling the crowd?”

“He’s loving it. While I was there, Jeremy showed him off to tons of people, telling them all about what his dog can do.”

Annie glanced in the direction of Jeremy’s class and glimpsed the boy and Rex with other children surrounding them. “Rex has been great for him. I heard Jeremy last night before bedtime, telling him his problems.”

“What kind of problems?”

“He didn’t do well on his math test, and there’s a girl bothering him, pestering him about Rex all the time.”

Ian sighed. “Those kinds of problems I can handle, whereas Jasmine is still having trouble with Kayla. The race they did together was a disaster. The McGregor clan didn’t do very well in competition today.”

“Jade came in first.”

“That’s not surprising. She’s my sports fanatic. How about Joshua?”

Annie rubbed her shoulder. “I’ll recover, hopefully.”

“What happened?”

“As you know, your youngest is very enthusiastic, and that carries over to his dancing.”

“I volunteered to be his partner, but he wanted you. You’ve charmed your way into my children’s lives. Mine, too.”

Ian’s compliment warmed her from the inside out. For a second Annie felt beautiful.

She just smiled. She’d better end this conversation before she kissed him on a playground full of hundreds of people. “See you at the end.”

“Most definitely.”

As Annie headed toward Jasmine, she felt relaxed. Talking with Ian was always easy, even when she’d told him about the fire. Sometimes she had to make herself remember he was her employer—like a moment ago—and that being with his children was a job that would end someday.

Annie approached Jasmine sitting on a blanket with a couple of her friends and an adult. Not far from her was Kayla with her mother and a group of girls. Jasmine had her back to Kayla, which was probably a good thing since the child was sending glares Jasmine’s way. Annie settled next to her and greeted the others, who had all visited the house at different times.

“How are you doing, Jasmine?” Annie asked when she heard a remark from Kayla about how she’d tried to get a different partner for the race but the teacher wouldn’t let her.

“Now that the race is over, fine. I tried to get Kayla to lock arms so we could work better together. She wouldn’t, so we spent most of the time going back to the starting line when we lost our balloon.” She spoke loud enough that Kayla would hear it.

Kayla gathered her girlfriends close and whispered something that caused them all to giggle and look toward Jasmine.

When Jasmine glared at Kayla, Annie laid a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Ignore her.”

“I was here first, and she came and sat down with her friends. She did that on purpose to bug me.”

“You’re letting her control your behavior. Do you want her to have that kind of power?”

Jasmine clamped her lips together.

“Did you see her neck?” a girl behind Annie whispered loudly.

“Yeah, so gross.”

Jasmine started to get up, her hands balled. “That’s so rude.”

Annie leaned close, keeping her in place. “I’m okay.” Then she looked at Jasmine’s friends. “What are you all going to do this summer?”

Everyone jumped in to answer. Jasmine settled down and said, “We have a pool Dad will open after Memorial Day, so you all can come and swim.” That started the girls making plans for a swim party the first weekend in June.

Finally when Annie thought Jasmine was okay, she rose. “I’m heading for Jeremy’s class. See you later.”

Giggles erupted from Kayla’s group. Annie slowed and glanced back. Suddenly she saw Jasmine launch herself at Kayla and wrestle her to the ground. Annie’s stomach clenched.

Chapter Eleven

A
nnie rushed forward at the same time Ian arrived and pulled his daughter off Kayla, while the girl’s mother cried out, “She’s hurting my baby!” The woman grabbed her daughter and smoothed her hair away from her face while Kayla sobbed.

“Dad, she said mean things about Annie.” Jasmine’s eyes shone with unshed tears, a scratch down her right cheek. “I couldn’t let her get away with it.”

“What did she say?” Ian asked, turning his attention from Kayla’s dramatics.

Jasmine glanced at Annie then whispered something in Ian’s ear. His expression darkened.

Annie didn’t want the child getting in trouble because of her. “Jasmine, don’t let Kayla—”

“She called you a monster. You aren’t.” Tears slipped down her cheeks.

Annie scanned the growing crowd and quashed the impulse to leave. She had to be here for Jasmine—and Ian. That was more important than how Kayla had insulted her. “I’m sorry she said that, but that doesn’t mean you need to go after her. Please tell her you’re sorry.”

“I won’t. She was wrong.”

“But so were you.” Annie saw Jasmine’s teacher approaching. Mrs. Evans stopped and talked with Kayla and her mother first, then came over to Jasmine. “Kayla said you hit her for no reason.”

“She said some things about Annie. Kayla’s the ugly one.”

“We don’t tolerate fighting for any reason here, Jasmine. I think it’s best if you go home with your dad, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning in the principal’s office before school. Then you can have your say.”

When Mrs. Evans left, Jasmine sniffled and wiped away her tears. “I’m not sorry, Dad. Kayla had no right to make fun of Annie.”

“We’ll discuss this at home. Annie, will you walk with Jasmine while I get Joshua, Jeremy and Jade?”

“We’ll be waiting at the car.”

Annie and Jasmine walked in silence through the school hallways and out the front door. At the SUV Annie lounged against the hood, trying to figure out what to say to Jasmine.

“Do you think Dad’s gonna ground me?”

“I can’t say what your father is going to do, but I hope you’ll apologize to Kayla for hitting her. Violence isn’t the answer, Jasmine.”

“She’s a bully. She makes fun of people all the time and gets away with it. How can her mother sit there and let her do that?”

“Kayla and her mom aren’t your concern. You can’t control them. All you can control is your actions. If you can rise above what she does, others will see that. Girls like Kayla win when they get you in trouble.”

“Aren’t you mad about what she said?”

“I didn’t hear it, and even if I had, I would have ignored it. She can’t hurt me unless I let her.” As she said those words, Annie realized she really believed them. “I can’t make you say you’re sorry, but forgiving Kayla will make you feel better. A person who makes fun of others and bullies them is someone who has problems. They are usually miserable. But God taught us to turn the other cheek.”

Annie noticed Ian coming out of the school building with his other children. The sight of him brought forth that brief moment on the playground when they’d been talking.

Jeremy stopped near Jasmine. “Way to go, sis. I wish I could have seen it.”

“Jeremy, get in the car, and the rest of you, too.” Ian waited until his kids had piled inside the SUV then asked Annie, “Are you all right?”

“I’m more concerned about Jasmine. When I decided to wear the T-shirt, I knew something like that could happen. That’s why I used to cover up my scars—explaining got tiresome. But today as I was talking to Joshua’s friends about my scars, it didn’t bother me like it used to.”

“What should I say to Jasmine? I’d probably have said something to Kayla if I’d heard what she’d said. That girl is wrong, too.”

“But you wouldn’t have hit her.” Annie turned to get into the car.

“You aren’t going to tell me what you’d do in my place? I know you have an opinion.”

“Ask Jasmine what she thinks should happen to her because of her actions. What should she have to do?”

Ian grinned. “Good idea.”

After what happened at the picnic, no one spoke on the drive home. When Ian pulled into the garage, the children piled out and waited at the door to go inside.

“Zoe was always the one who disciplined the children,” Ian explained. “I worked and she took care of the home. Then Aunt Louise took up where Zoe left off. Until my aunt died, I didn’t have a lot of input into how the children acted. I didn’t need to. They behaved, except for an occasional outburst. Jasmine and Jeremy have been so fragile lately. I don’t want to make the situation worse.”

“You’ll do fine. The most important thing they need to know is that you love them and care about their problems. Children need love, consistency and stability.”

“Not just children.”

“True. Change is scary for anyone.”

Ian opened his door and got out. Annie met him at the garage entrance to the breezeway. “I’ll check on the others while you talk with Jasmine.”

As she walked through the kitchen, she caught her reflection in the microwave door. Even in the vague image she could see the scars along her neck. Strange that what Kayla had said about her didn’t hurt her.
There’s more to me than my injury
, Annie thought,
and the people who count know it.
The smile Ian had given her when he’d seen her in the blue T-shirt told her that.

* * *

Ian made his way up the stairs. Jasmine usually retreated to her bedroom when she got in trouble. The door was closed, and he knocked on it.

“Go away!” she shouted from inside.

“Jasmine, we need to talk.” Ian waited to see if she would open the door. When she did, he entered and took a seat on Jasmine’s bed. His daughter stood in the middle of the room, hugging her arms to her chest and staring at the floor. “Why don’t you sit, too?”

Jasmine remained where she was.

“You know, when I was a child, I got into a fight with a kid who used to call me the teacher’s pet because I could answer all her questions. By that time I was one grade ahead of my age group and still pretty small. This boy was large.”

Jasmine lifted her head. “Did he hurt you?”

“Yes, but I hurt him, too. All my anger welled up one day and exploded. The fight happened after school on the way home. He’d been teasing me all school year, and I’d had enough. I gave him a black eye and made his nose bleed. That’s what stopped the fight. When I saw all that blood, I felt awful. The boy was on the ground, holding his nose and crying. Even at eleven I knew I wanted to help others rather than hurt them. I’d seen how my little brother had been hurt by kids picking on him because of his cleft palate.

“So I took off my shirt and gave it to him to stop the bleeding. At first he wouldn’t take it. I sat with him and told him I was sorry.”

Jasmine came to the bed and sat next to Ian. “But he hurt you first.”

“Yes, but I hit him.”

“Did he apologize?”

“No, but he left me alone after that.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“No, because no one saw the fight. My parents never found out until I told them.”

Jasmine’s eyes grew round. “You did? Why?”

“Because I felt guilty.”

“You didn’t start it.”

“It takes two to fight. I participated. He made me do something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t like being controlled like that.”

“Like Kayla did to me today?”

“Yes.” Ian wound his arm around Jasmine’s shoulder and pressed her to his side. “So what do you think I should do about you hitting Kayla?”

“I think I should be grounded until Monday.”

“I agree. No friends over, no phone calls and no TV. Anything else?”

Jasmine shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Ian rose and looked down at his daughter. “Jasmine, if someone is bothering you, come and talk to me before it results in fighting. Keeping it inside doesn’t solve anything.”

As Ian left Jasmine’s room, he wasn’t sure he’d gotten his point across, but he felt optimistic. Usually Jasmine was anything but calm. Drama surrounded her life. But a few minutes ago he’d strengthened a bond with her that he hoped would help her think through her actions.

* * *

At the campground at Cimarron Lake on Memorial Day weekend, Ian and Jeremy finished putting up the girls’ tent and stepped back to admire their work.

His eldest son grinned and said, “I’m glad we decided to come for Sunday night.” He swiveled around and panned the people around them. “Boy, Annie has a big family, and she said not all of them are even here this weekend.”

“Hi, I’m Nathan,” a child about Jeremy’s age said as he approached. “Uncle Ben always brings his dog with him, too.”

“He does? What kind?” Jeremy glanced around.

“German shepherd. He’s a service dog. At least that’s what Uncle Ben told us, but I don’t know what Ringo does.”

“This is my service dog. His name is Rex. I’m Jeremy.”

“Do you want to meet my uncle? He’s down at the lake, fishing.”

Jeremy turned to Ian. “Can I, Dad?”

“Sure.” He watched his son and Rex stroll with Annie’s nephew toward the water.

“You’ve been abandoned already?”

He looked over his shoulder at Annie, her arms full of backpacks and bedding. “Yep, for another dog.”

“That must be Ringo.”

“Normally I would be concerned about a German shepherd, but I know how well Emma trains her animals.”

“Ringo was her first service dog five years ago.”

“What kind is Ringo?”

“There’s a lot of research on how they help veterans who are suffering from PTSD. They can help with their panic attacks and anxiety.”

Jeremy, Rex and Nathan disappeared down the slope to the lake. As he watched, Ian thought Annie’s showing up in their lives had to be God’s doing. He might never have thought about a service dog for his son, but Rex was just what his son needed. Jeremy was still moody, but he wasn’t as angry. The doctor adjusted his medication, and it was finally working much better. That was progress.

“Where did the girls go? I thought they were helping you with our supplies.”

Annie put down her load by the tent. “They put your stuff over there, but Carey came over and introduced herself. She’s my ten-year-old niece. The girls hit it off and took Joshua to meet some of my younger nephews at the playground.”

“Do you have much left?”

“One more trip should do it, then I’d like to check on Joshua. Usually one of the older nieces is watching the younger children. I want to let her know about Joshua and his tendency to get into trouble. By the way, does he swim? Since you have a pool, I was hoping so.”

“You would think he was born in the water. He puts my other kids to shame.”

After they carried the last of the gear to the tents, Ian walked with Annie toward the playground next to the area where the Knight family had set up camp.

“With so many children, you all got the best site to camp in,” Ian remarked to Annie as he surveyed the ten tents of various sizes pitched for the group. “What’s your secret? Memorial Day is usually crowded at spots like this in Oklahoma.”

“My eldest brother and his family come a few days early.”

“Let me see—that’s Ken and his wife, Samantha. I need to carry a notepad around to keep everyone’s name straight. I came from a small family. One brother who has a boy a little older than Jeremy. A couple of cousins and my mother. That’s it.”

“And they all live in South Carolina?”

“Yes. When Zoe died, I thought about moving back to be near them, but this is home for my kids. They didn’t need any more disruption, and Aunt Louise came to help me.”

Ian was amazed yet again how easy it was to talk to Annie. When he was in high school and met Zoe for the first time, he could barely say two sentences to her. “Would you believe I was once very shy?”

“You aren’t now.”

“That shy guy is still in me, but if I was going to date Zoe and if I was going to work with patients, I had to overcome it.”

“How did you do it?”

“My wife. She wasn’t shy. I guess I learned by necessity and her example. Zoe never met a stranger. Joshua takes after her.”

Annie chuckled. “I guess we can do anything if properly motivated.”

“Motivation is the key to change.” Ian looked at the outskirts of the large playground filled with children. “How many belong to the Knight clan?”

“All but the three swinging over there.” Annie pointed toward the far side of the area.

“That means minus my three, so there’s twenty that I’ve seen.”

“I told you I have a large family.”

Ian smiled. “And I can tell how much you love your family, all gazillion of them.”

“Well, not quite that many. Maybe minus a couple billion,” Annie said with a straight face.

Laughter welled up in Ian. What a good start to the weekend. Especially after the past week of school with Jasmine suspended for two days before being allowed to go back Friday for the last day. “How did you get Jasmine to apologize to Kayla?”

“I talked to her several times about how much better she’d feel if she did. Sometimes the best way to deal with a bully is to be nice. To rise above her tactics.”

Interesting that both he and Annie had given Jasmine basically the same message. More and more he felt they looked at life the same way. “How did Kayla respond to Jasmine’s apology for hitting her?”

“She got mad and stomped off.”

“Odd.”

“Not really. Kindness often highlights the other person’s part in the incident. I’m hoping Kayla isn’t feeling as though what she did is a victory.” A gleam sparkled in Annie’s eyes.

Ian inched closer and grazed his fingers down the side of her neck, the feel of scarred tissue nothing new to him. “In my work, I see them all the time. I’m used to them. I’m glad you don’t feel as though you have to hide the scars from us.”

“Why?”

“I want you to feel comfortable with us, like part of the family. And the fact that Jasmine listened to you says a great deal.”

“Your children mean a lot to me, Ian.”

And Annie meant a lot to him. Ian had one more doctor to contact and then he’d approach Annie with his plan. She’d done so much for him. He wanted to give back to her. In not quite two months, he had his family back. Ian wanted Annie to do what he was trying to do: put her past behind her.