Homecoming Day Read online

  JT didn’t look happy. “I think you’re nuts, but fine. I’ll come serve my detention at your house.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t thank me yet. I mean every other teacher here in school has written me off. The fact that you haven’t makes you stranger than all of them.”

  “Hey, I had a baby. I deserve some crazy time. So, head back into detention here today, but my house tomorrow, right after school lets out, okay?”

  “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Tomorrow then.”

  Despite JT’s unenthused expression, Laura thought she saw a flicker of something else in the girl’s eyes. Something that looked like hope.

  TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY went by fast. It was as if time had blurred. Jamie wanted to eat every three hours like clockwork. Laura listened to her lactation consultant and tried to sleep whenever he did. Except when JT came over.

  Those first two days they read together.

  JT wasn’t illiterate, but her reading skills hadn’t progressed beyond a grade-school level.

  “…it’s like a code,” Laura explained on Thursday. “You learn what letters say when they’re together.”

  “They didn’t teach sounding it out. They taught us whole words. I can see those, but I don’t know how to figure out new ones.”

  “That’s what phonics does. It breaks words into syllables.”

  JT studied the page in front of her. “G—” she pronounced a hard G “—net-ics.”

  “That G sounds like a J.”

  “See, it doesn’t work.”

  “Hard or soft. It’s always one or the other, so, if it’s not hard, then it’s soft. Say the word with a soft gee.”

  She said it with a soft G. “Ge-net-ics.” She paused. “Genetics.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Okay, let’s finish this science.”

  It took an hour, but JT managed the next three pages, and then they completed the worksheet. “I did it.”

  “You did.”

  “It took a long time.”

  “Yes, but it’s not really how long it takes, it’s getting it done that counts. Michelangelo took four years to paint the Sistine Chapel. It’s a masterpiece.”

  “My science isn’t a masterpiece.”

  “But you read the chapter and you did the work. Just think, you can go to school after the Thanksgiving break and hand in the homework.”

  JT smiled. “I know tomorrow’s out ’cause it’s Thanksgiving, but can we meet on Friday?”

  “You know you don’t have to serve a detention on a vacation day, but I’d love if you came over. Maybe in the morning?”

  “Yeah. That’s good. I’ll see you then. You go get Jamie, and I’ll let myself out.”

  “Night, JT. Make sure you do your math.”

  “Math is easy, Ms. Watson. One plus one always equals two. It’s not like English where letters change their sounds on a whim. Hard G’s, soft G’s. It’s a mess.” JT laughed. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

  Happy Thanksgiving. Laura knew it was coming, but had managed not to think about it. Now, she’d have the whole day tomorrow to not think about it.

  She hurried down the hall to Jamie, who was still—well, not full-out crying. It was more of a hey-I’m-awake, where-are-you?

  “Hey, Laura! JT let me in,” Seth called from the front door.

  “Just a minute,” she called.

  Seth. She hadn’t seen him at all this week. They’d exchanged voice mail, but she figured he was easing away from her, and she didn’t blame him. One minute, they’d been declaring they were allies over JT, the next he was in the birthing room with her. And then they’d offered each other those friendly kisses. Kisses she was not going to reflect on…or repeat.

  She’d go out, tell him she was fine, and then send him on his way.

  She cradled Jamie as she went into the living rom and found Seth, in uniform, waiting for her. “On your way to work, or from?”

  SETH DRANK IN THE SIGHT of Laura. She looked good.

  They’d played phone-tag, but he’d purposely stayed away. He hadn’t planned on seeing her today. It was better for both of them if they had some distance. She’d said that repeatedly, and he believed it. Hell, he needed to get back to the orderly life he’d built for himself. But here it was, Wednesday, and he’d found himself pulling into her driveway on the way to work.

  Staying away hadn’t kept her off his mind. If anything, she’d been on it more than ever. He thought that maybe if he saw her and reassured himself that she was fine, he’d be able to maintain that distance. Able to stop thinking about two insignificant pecks on the cheek.

  “Seth, to work, or on the way home?” she repeated as she patted the baby’s back with the quiet confidence of an old pro.

  “To work. I wanted to stop and check on you both.” He held out his hands to Jamie. “May I?”

  Standing next to Laura, holding the baby, Seth felt as if a rubber band that had been pulled too tight finally released. “Hey, big guy, how’s your week going?”

  “So, what brings you here?”

  He looked up from Jamie and tried to remember his excuse for stopping in. He spotted a cornucopia on her table. “I wanted to see what you were doing tomorrow for Thanksgiving.”

  “Nothing.” She hurriedly added, “You know with a brand-new baby, I don’t want to go out anywhere.”

  “I had the day off, but traded it with a friend who has small kids at home.”

  Laura frowned. “That’s nice, but what about your family?”

  “I’m going to see them Friday. My sister has a tournament in town. Want to come along?”

  Again, that’s not what he’d intended to say. But he realized that having Laura along would give him a buffer. He missed his family, dammit, but when he saw them it only reminded him that things had changed and he didn’t know how to change them back.

  “You want me to come to your sister’s tournament?”

  “If not to the actual game, maybe after? We’ll be going out to eat. I thought you might like to get out of the house,” he ended lamely.

  “What about Jamie?”

  “Maybe the chief and his wife could babysit? I know they’d love to.”

  “Oh, you know?” Jamie gave a little whine, which gave Laura reason to take him back. Her tone was terse as she asked, “You’ve been talking to him about me? About Jamie?”

  “Nothing more than saying you’re both fine.”

  “And you’re still trying to forge some kind of relationship between me and Jay’s parents, and that’s not going to happen.”

  “They’re the baby’s grandparents,” Seth said softly.

  “Right, but they’re nothing to me. I won’t keep them from seeing him, but I’m not ready to have them babysit.”

  “So bring him along.”

  She took a deep breath and stared at the baby. “I don’t know.”

  “My family would love it.” Seth realized that it wasn’t just his family—he’d love it. He’d missed Laura and he hated the thought of her being alone on Thanksgiving.

  “Can I think about it?”

  “Sure. I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Before I go, do you need anything?”

  “No, I’m fine. I’ve got everything under control.” She said the words as if she were trying to convince herself as much as him. “JT just left. Of course, you know that since she let you in. She…” Laura jumped into a discussion about the reason they’d formed their alliance.

  Discussing JT was easy, familiar ground. Twenty minutes later, Seth said, “I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late.” He headed toward the front door.

  Laura followed him, cradling Jamie. “Have a good night, Seth.”

  Without thinking, he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Thanks.”

  She looked startled.

  Hell, he’d kissed her again. Apologizing for the chaste kiss would only give it significance, so he s
imply said, “I’ll check with you again about Friday,” and out into the cold he went, trying not to think about having kissed Laura again. He’d done it without thought and it felt natural.

  This fact disturbed him more than the kiss itself.

  He went on three domestic calls. The holidays certainly brought out the best in people. He should have been too busy to think about Laura, but thoughts of her kept intruding—the image of her holding Jamie, the look of surprise on her face when he’d planted that platonic kiss on her forehead, even the thought of her on her own with Jamie for Thanksgiving.

  He couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her and worrying about her. Which is why he was on her doorstep at noon the next day.

  SETH PACKED UP HIS CAR and was on Laura’s doorstep at noon. She looked tired and…well, rumpled.

  “Happy Thanksgiving!” he practically shouted.

  “Quiet,” she whispered. “Jamie’s asleep. I don’t know if it was colic, or simply a bad night, but the good news is, I am reacquainted with what’s available on late-night television, and I am thinking about ordering a new kitchen Wonder Gadget.”

  Seth nodded at the box in his hands. “Speaking of kitchens, mind if I make myself at home in yours?” He didn’t wait for her response, but simply went there. This was crazy. He hadn’t intended to come here today, yet here he was…again. He was using the holiday as an excuse, when deep down he knew he’d have shown up here regardless. Staying away had been hard. Too hard.

  “What’s in the box, Keller?”

  “Well, I have to be at work in a few hours, but I decided that I couldn’t really let the holiday go by without a traditional dinner.”

  In the kitchen, he began emptying his box. There was a box of stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, a frozen pumpkin pie, a box of frozen mashed potatoes, a container of whipped topping and a small, rectangular foil pan.

  Laura pointed at the foil. “What’s that?”

  He cracked the foil top. “That is a turkey loaf.”

  “Huh?”

  “It said it was a hundred percent turkey, but it didn’t say what part of the turkey. It does, however, make its own gravy. But just in case…” He reached into the box and presented a jar of turkey gravy to her. “Ta da.” He sounded like his brother, Zac, but channeling Zac was easier than being himself. Zac was easygoing and charming—everything Seth wasn’t.

  Seth smiled as Laura laughed. “And here I was going to have a microwave turkey dinner.”

  “Oh, this is quite the step up. I started the turkey loaf at home, but it still needs time in the oven. I can have dinner ready in an hour.” He turned on the oven and put the turkey pan into it, then asked, “Pots?”

  She pointed. “Seth, JT keeps asking me why I care, and I keep telling her it’s because I do. Her question frustrates me because I don’t know how to explain why I feel compelled to help her. But I find myself wanting to ask you the same thing. Why are you here? I mean, I get that you feel the same compulsion to help JT. We both think she’s special. But this isn’t about JT. And staying with me while I had Jamie wasn’t about her, either. We agreed to be allies, but this—” she waved her hand at the makeshift Thanksgiving meal “—and Jamie’s birth, well, they’re more than that. I’m no charity case, and I don’t want you here because you feel your boss—”

  He took her by the shoulders and said, “Stop right there, Laura.” Zac would know what to say, but Seth didn’t have a clue. He tried to find the right words. “You’re no charity case, and I’m not here because of any sense of obligation. Yes, I checked in on you at first because of JT. But now, this isn’t about that. I think you can use a friend. I know I can. So, let’s say I’m here because I get what it’s like to be lost without someone. Because…”

  He dropped her shoulders and pulled a can of cranberry sauce off the counter and placed it on her can opener. With his back toward her, he said, “I was a baby that no one wanted. I know that Jamie has you, and he’s so lucky for that. But since Jay can’t be here for him, I’d like to be. I want him to have as many people as possible in his life watching out for him.”

  “That would be—”

  The doorbell rang, and Laura groaned as she headed toward the front door, muttering about noise and sleeping babies, while all Seth felt was a sense of relief. Channeling his brother’s openness was exhausting.

  Seth continued preparing his not-quite gourmet dinner. He could hear murmurs, then footsteps coming down the hall.

  “Seth, look who’s here.” Laura’s voice was flat, devoid of emotion, as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen.

  “Sir. Mrs. Martin. Happy Thanksgiving,” Seth said.

  “To you, too. Laura said you stopped in to cook for her.”

  Mrs. Martin frowned at the box of frozen mashed potatoes.

  “I knew she didn’t want to go out today and thought it was a way to be sure she got dinner. It says they’re real—the mashed potatoes,” he offered. “But Laura and I aren’t sure about the turkey. We’ve decided to not ask too many questions.”

  “We stopped in to see if she’d reconsider dinner with us,” the chief said, “but we can see that she’s well taken care of.”

  “I’m sorry Jamie’s sleeping,” Laura said.

  “Do you mind if we tiptoe in and see him before we go?” Mrs. Martin asked. “We won’t wake him.”

  “Sure.”

  As soon as the Martins had disappeared down the hall, Seth said, “I didn’t know they were coming.”

  Laura nodded. “I didn’t think you did.”

  “You okay?”

  “I was remembering last Thanksgiving when Jay and I had dinner with them. Mrs. Martin asked me to call her Mom and I said no, not until after the wedding. She helped me plan the wedding. I don’t have my mom and she only had Jay, so she volunteered. She said that she didn’t think she’d ever have a chance to plan a wedding. She cried and hugged me, and at that moment I wanted to call her Mom more than anything in the world. It was such a happy day. And now?” She brushed away tears. “Sorry. New-mom hormones.”

  “You’re going to have to work things out with them sometime, for Jamie’s sake,” he added quickly. “But it doesn’t have to be today. Let me help.”

  “Seth, you don’t have—”

  “We started out as allies, but now we’re friends, remember? This isn’t about the chief, the baby or JT. I’m your friend. And like I said, I know how hard it can be to deal with people when you’re feeling shredded from a loss.”

  Laura nodded. “Thanks. I think I’ll lie down for a few minutes.”

  She walked past him and stopped short, stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Friends.”

  Damn. Another kiss. That was four. Four totally innocent kisses. The Europeans kissed each other casually all the time, he assured himself. It didn’t mean anything.

  But if it didn’t mean anything, why did he feel as if he’d just cheated on Allie?

  He was saved from delving any deeper when the Martins appeared. “Where’s Laura?”

  “The baby was up all night. She’s napping while I finish making dinner.”

  The chief nodded.

  Mrs. Martin said, “Please thank her for letting us spend time with the baby, even if he was sleeping. I’ll call soon.”

  “I’ll tell her, ma’am.”

  “How about your family?” the chief asked.

  “I’m working second, so I told them to eat without me. The whole bunch are coming into town tomorrow for that big basketball tourney. I’ll see them then.”

  “Good. Family matters, Seth. Our job can make it difficult, but that only means we have to try all the harder. Because when life is over, I don’t think anyone says, ‘I wish I’d worked more overtime,’ rather than ‘I wish I’d had more time with my family.’”

  Mrs. Martin rushed from the room.

  The chief looked stricken. “And that’s what you call, putting your foot in it. I assure you, though, I regret not having more time with Jay,
and would do anything if I could have even one more minute with my son. Or if I could go back and undo this rift with Laura, I would. She was like a daughter to us.”

  “Give her time, sir.”

  “I don’t have any other option, do I?” Resigned, he started down the hall after his wife, then turned around and said, “Happy Thanksgiving, Seth. Please tell Laura I said the same to her. And tell her Adele and I have our lists for dinner, and at the top of each one are her and Jamie.”

  Seth wasn’t sure what lists the chief was talking about, but said, “I’ll tell her, sir. Happy Thanksgiving.”

  Half an hour later, he heard Jamie stir, which was good because their impromptu meal was almost done.

  He got Jamie and changed his diaper before gently knocking on Laura’s door, which was ajar. She didn’t call out and he nudged the door with his foot and saw her curled at the edge of the bed.

  He stood and simply watched her for a minute.

  When she was awake, she was formidable, whether she was fighting for JT, or caring for her son. Or even being angry with the chief. She was of average height, but now, she seemed dwarfed by the bed.

  Cradling the baby in one hand, he gently tapped Laura’s arm. “Laura, you need to wake up. Jamie’s hungry.”

  She sat upright, blinking her eyes. “Seth?”

  “Jamie woke up. He’s changed, but hungry.”

  “Oh.”

  “Why don’t you feed him. Our dinner should be ready when you’re done.”

  Seth set the kitchen table. He found candles in the cupboard and lit them. The meal, while not exactly home-cooked, was close. They laughed as they chatted and ate.

  Seth insisted on doing the dishes afterward.

  Laura sat at the island, holding Jamie, watching him. “Seth, we forgot something.”

  “What?”

  “We didn’t say what we were thankful for. My family used to have actual lists. We’d write down what we were thankful for and save the list. Mom always said that those lists were her lifeline when she was feeling blue.”