The Parent Trap Read online

  Sarah set the tray on the table and handed one of the mugs to him. “Kate seems like she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

  “She does. But she’s going through a...I don’t know...a phase? At least I hope it’s a phase.” He drank some of his coffee. “This is good.”

  “Thanks. Fourteen’s a tough age, especially for girls.” She set her mug on the table and wrapped her hands around it. “No longer a child but not quite old enough to have any independence.”

  “True. Boys seem to take a while longer to get to that point.”

  “So I recall. I think raising girls is easier, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know about easy, but then I never expected to be raising a kid on my own, boy or girl.”

  “How long has it been?”

  He drank some coffee while he contemplated his answer.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s a personal question. You don’t have to answer it.”

  “No problem. I was just doing the math. Georgette moved out a year ago but even before that she was busy with her career, pretty much working twenty-four/seven, so we—Kate and I—were on our own a lot of the time.”

  Sarah gazed into her coffee cup, choosing her words carefully. “Juggling family and career is tough for a lot of women,” she said. “We want to be a success at both.”

  “Georgette likes to live large. It’s not a lifestyle that lends itself to parenting...and I’m being honest, not critical. She adores Kate, and Kate is her biggest fan.”

  “Your daughter’s lucky to have her in her life then,” she said. “Casey was only six when my...when her father died in a car accident.”

  He looked genuinely surprised. “Oh, I’m sorry. That must’ve been rough.”

  “It was at first.” She sipped some coffee and changed the subject. “What made you choose Serenity Bay as your new home?”

  She didn’t particularly want to talk about herself, and she didn’t want to talk about her disaster of a marriage that ended even more disastrously. Keeping the conversation on current topics should be safe enough.

  “I didn’t so much choose the town as it chose me. Deciding to leave the city was the first step. The town we moved to depended on where I could find a job.”

  “Of course, that makes sense.”

  “When I heard about the teaching position here, it sounded perfect. The school, the town, everything. Then I found this house, and here we are.”

  “I hope you like it here. After my...Jim died, my parents tried to get me and Casey to move back to Ucluelet or least someplace on Vancouver Island where we’d be closer to them. They thought it would be easier for us to be near family, but Serenity Bay was the right place for us then and it still is. Great schools, friendly people. It’s a good place to raise kids.”

  “That’s what I’m counting on.” “My daughter was not happy about the move.”

  Sarah smiled. “Teenagers don’t like change, that’s for sure. Casey said she’ll show her around and introduce her to some of the kids at school. Maybe that will help.”

  “I hope so.”

  “It’ll be good for Casey, too, having a girl her age living close by. She can be a bit of a loner and I worry about her sometimes.”

  “But isn’t she on the soccer team?”

  “She is, and she plans to work on the student newspaper and wants to run for student counsel, but outside school she spends a lot of time by herself, doing homework, reading. Especially this summer because her best friend is away.”

  “She sounds grounded,” he said. “Maybe some of her enthusiasm will rub off on Kate. She does what she needs to get by and then she hangs out at the mall, pores over fashion magazines, exchanges text messages with her friends.”

  There was no mistaking his tone when he mentioned the magazines. As close to derisive as possible without being rude.

  “Sometimes a child finds her passion,” Sarah said. “And sometimes that passion finds her. Our job as parents is to encourage them to keep the doors open and be willing to explore opportunities when they present themselves.”

  “When it comes to school, it might take a crowbar to pry open Kate’s doorway to opportunity.”

  The comment stung Sarah’s sensibilities. Did he say things like that to his daughter? If he did, then there was little wonder they had a communication problem. She stood with her cup in her hand and reached for his. “I’ll get more coffee.”

  “Thanks.” He sounded awkward, as though he’d picked up on her reaction and regretted what he’d said.

  He was on his feet again and taking in the view when she returned with their mugs refilled. She set his on the metal top of the glass rail, next to where he leaned on his forearms.

  The western sky was still lit by the sun that had just dipped out of sight. The harbor was quieter than it had been earlier in the day. A lone fishing trawler chugged into the marina, and a pair of kayakers paddled near the resort on the other side of the bay. For a few minutes she and Jonathan stood and gazed across the bay, occupied with their own thoughts.

  She set her red mug next to his. “It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?”

  “I was thinking the same thing. It’s why I decided on our place. We were lucky to get a one-year lease, which gives us time to decide if this is where we want to call home.”

  “I never get tired of this. Every time I look out here, it’s a little different from the last time, depending on the tide, the angle of the sun, the marine traffic coming and going.”

  “The real estate agent said we’d even see whales from time to time. I wasn’t sure if that was true or just a sales pitch but I put a pair of binoculars in the kitchen, just in case.”

  “It’s true,” she said. “It’s quite common to see one of the resident pods of killer whales, but usually outside the breakwater. They seldom venture into the bay. Casey loves them. I’ll bet Kate will, too.”

  “I hope so.” He finished his coffee, straightened. “She and I should be getting home.”

  “Of course. I’ll let the girls know.” She took his mug and set it along with hers on the tray and carried it inside.

  He followed without saying anything. She couldn’t tell if he had picked up on her disappointment with his negative comments about his daughter or if something else was bothering him. In her opinion, those had been terrible things for a parent to say about a child, especially the crowbar remark. Even if he didn’t say anything that harsh to his daughter’s face, a sensitive kid would pick up on his attitude.

  His problem is not your problem. He seemed like a nice guy and he was definitely nice to look at, but she had no time for anyone who was not fully engaged as a parent. She’d been there once and that had been one time too many.

  * * *

  AS BEDROOMS WENT, Casey’s was a total train wreck, Kate Marshall thought. There were books everywhere. The walls were covered with World Wildlife Fund posters of a rhinoceros, a baby monkey and a bamboo-eating panda. Built-in shelves running the width of the room, beneath the window, were lined with cages and aquariums.

  Casey opened the door of a tall wire cage that was filled with ramps and a wheel, reached inside and produced a small brown mouse.

  “This is Jane,” she said, extending her hand. “Would you like to hold her?”

  Did she want to hold a rodent? In her hand? Not even a little bit. “Oh, gee, ah, no. But thanks.”

  The girl grinned at her as she reached into the cage and brought out Jane’s identical twin. “This is Dian. Lots of people are afraid of mice, but they’re actually sweet and very gentle. I named these two after famous scientists.”

  “Oh.” Kate searched her memory for famous scientists. Other than Albert Einstein, she drew a blank.

  “Jane Goodall studies chimpanzees and Dian Fossey wrote Gorillas in t
he Mist. Have you read it?”

  A book about gorillas? Seriously? “No, I haven’t.”

  Casey placed a rodent on each shoulder, giggling softly as one of them nuzzled her neck. Kate shuddered.

  “You’re welcome to borrow my copy.”

  “Oh, gee—”

  “Let me guess. That’s another no.”

  “Science books aren’t really my thing,” Kate said.

  “That book’s not really a... Never mind.” Casey scooped nuts and seeds out of a glass canister and into a little dish inside the mouse cage. “I’m going to be a veterinarian some day because I want to work with animals, so I read a lot of...science books.”

  Her emphasis on science...was that a put-down?

  “Most kids who haven’t even started high school haven’t figured out what they want to do when they graduate.”

  “Yeah, most people think it’s weird, but I’ve always known. My mom says I figured it out in kindergarten when the local vet visited my class. Dr. Jacobson still runs the animal clinic in town and she does a lot of work for Serenity Bay’s animal shelter. She even has three rescue dogs of her own. She helped me get on as a volunteer at the animal shelter this summer.”

  Casey tossed a carrot and a piece of broccoli into the cage, and then she took one mouse off her shoulder, holding it in her palm, stroking its head and along its back with the tip of one finger before setting it gently in the cage.

  “Nighty-night, Jane. You, too, Dian,” she said, repeating the process with the other rodent. “I’ve always wanted a dog, or a cat, or both, but my mom’s allergic to cats and she says we’re too busy to take care of a dog.”

  Anyone who could be this crazy about a mouse definitely should have a real pet. Kate had never had a dog, but there’d been many nights when she’d crawled into bed, snuggled up with Princess and cried herself to sleep because her mom wasn’t coming home. She hardly cried about that anymore, but it still made her sad. If her dad knew, he’d freak out for sure, and she did not need that. She was glad Princess was a good listener and an even better secret-keeper. For a while she’d cried about having to move, but that hadn’t made any difference, either. And she wasn’t so much sad as she was totally furious with her dad for making her come to live in this stupid little town in the middle of freaking nowhere. Especially if Casey was any indication of what the other kids were like.

  “Maybe you can convince your mom to change her mind about a dog.”

  “Oh, I’m working on her.” Casey grinned and moved on to a terrarium that housed a small brownish-gray reptile. “This is Rex,” she said. “He’s a green anole lizard. I named him after my favorite dinosaur. Lizards aren’t dinosaurs, though.”

  Like anyone cared.

  “Birds are more closely related to dinosaurs than lizards are.” Casey opened a plastic container that had small holes poked in the lid, took out a bug that was...ew! ew! ew!...squirming!...and dropped it into the glass enclosure with the lizard.

  Kate hastily averted her gaze, not wanting to see this particular critter consume its meal. She didn’t respond to the dinosaur trivia, either, but Casey didn’t seem to notice.

  “Rex eats crickets,” she said. “I buy them at the pet store.”

  The only thing creepier than keeping live bugs in your bedroom? Picking them up with your bare hands and feeding them to something even creepier. Ew.

  “What do kids do in Serenity Bay?” Kate asked, hoping to shift the conversation away from the science of Casey’s critters. “Besides school, I mean.”

  Casey sprinkled fish food into the aquarium next to the lizard tank, and they both watched the multicolored fish dart to the surface. Finally, some normal animals.

  “That depends. I’m on the soccer team and I’ve always been involved in a bunch of activities at school.”

  “What about after school? Is there someplace kids like to hang out?”

  Casey shrugged. “At Paolo’s, the place where our parents bought the pizzas, or at the after-school drop-in at the community center. The boys like to go there because there’s a pool table and video games.”

  She made it sound lame, and Kate sort of agreed. Except for the part about boys. In the city, she and her friends usually went to the mall after school. Lots of boys hung out there, too, but she mostly loved to check out her favorite clothing stores. Recently she had been paying attention to the window displays and she already had a ton of ideas. When she was old enough to have a part-time job, she wanted to work in one of those stores and wow shoppers with her displays.

  “Do you spend much time at the drop-in center?” she asked.

  Casey scrunched her nose, making her freckles stand out more than ever. “I usually come home and do my homework, but sometimes I stop at the library on my way. I read a lot.”

  No kidding, Kate thought. The only room she’d ever seen that had more books than this one was a library.

  “You said you’re not into science books,” Casey said. “What do you like to read? Or do you like to read?”

  Kate hesitated, having a mental debate about whether or not to confess her dreams. Why not? It’s not as if they were as lame as living with rodents and lizards and dinosaurs.

  “Magazines, mostly. Fashion magazines. Seventeen, Teen Vogue. I want to work in the fashion industry someday.” She couldn’t believe she’d said it out loud. She’d never revealed this to anyone, not even her closest friends in the city. They were only interested in goofing around or gossiping on Facebook, and they would either shrug off her ideas as totally not going to happen or, worse yet, make fun of her.

  “Cool,” Casey said. “You should talk to my mom. She lives and breathes fashion trends, and pretty much everybody in town shops at her store. Except me.” Casey grinned. “She doesn’t sell the kind of clothes I like to wear.”

  Kate had already noted the other girl’s attire, the same outfit she’d been wearing when she and her mom had delivered the cookies earlier that day. Faded denim cutoffs with rolled-up cuffs just above the knee, the soccer T-shirt, black-and-white high-top Keds. Ponytail. No makeup. Total tomboy. Still, Casey might not get where people like her mom and Kate were coming from, but she understood what it meant to have a dream.

  “I can’t wait to see your mom’s store, but what I really want to do is work for a big fashion magazine someday as the editor in chief.”

  “Oh, wow. Like in The Devil Wears Prada,” Casey said.

  Kate laughed at that. “You saw that movie?”

  “Yeah, my mom and I have a movie night every Saturday. Except tonight,” she added. “Since you and your dad came over. Have you seen it?”

  “Yes. I loved the clothes, but I’ll be nicer when I’m the editor.”

  “More like Anne Hathaway,” Casey said. “Although I liked her better in The Princess Diaries. You sort of look like her, actually.”

  “Lots of people say that. It’s mostly the hair, before Anne cut hers. My mom interviewed her once when she was in Vancouver for something.”

  “Really? Wow, that must’ve been so cool. Did you get to meet her?”

  “No.” Not a chance. Her mom used to go on and on about the famous people she met, but whenever Kate asked to tag along, the answer had always been a firm no.

  “She didn’t even let you watch from backstage, or whatever they call it in a TV studio?”

  Kate gave her best careless shrug. “Those interviews were part of her job and it wasn’t appropriate to have a kid hanging around.” At least that had always been her mother’s excuse. But the cold, hard truth, as Kate eventually realized, was that her mother didn’t want those people to know she was a wife and mother.

  “That’s too bad. Almost every summer we get a few famous people who bring their yachts into the marina here. Sometimes they’ll even stay a few days, do some shopping. Once in
a while they go into my mom’s store, too. I’m never around to meet them, but it’s pretty cool that they like her store enough to shop there.”

  “I’ll definitely check it out, especially if it’s the only good place in town to shop.”

  “Be sure to tell her about the magazine stuff, too. If she knows you’re interested in more than just shopping, I’ll bet she can teach you all about the business end of things, too.”

  This was the first positive thing Kate had heard about Serenity Bay since she’d arrived. But was she brave enough to share her dream with an adult? “I wonder if she needs help with displays and stuff like that.”

  “She might. She’s always super busy so if you’re interested, you should ask her.”

  “I will. There’s just one teensy little hitch.”

  “What’s that?”

  “My dad.” Okay, not so teensy. “He’ll have a cow if he hears about it.”

  He was always going on about how she needed to get a good education, and by that he meant math and science and history, and then get a good job doing whatever people did when they knew math and science and history. She had never told her mother any of this, either, because by the time she figured it out, her mother was gone. Now, when they were on the phone, her mom spent a lot of time talking about the places she and Xavier had been, the celebrities they met. Just as she did this afternoon when she called. Kate tried not to let it bother her, but it did.

  “It’s not like you’re doing anything wrong if you talk to my mom about her business,” Casey said.

  True. And Sarah did seem super nice.

  “We’ve always had soccer practice every Tuesday and Thursday after school. If your dad doesn’t change the schedule, then you could drop by my mom’s store on one of those days and he’ll never have to know.”

  Huh. For a kid who came across as a Goody Two-shoes, Casey might be pretty cool after all.

  “I might do that.” Maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad after all, Kate thought, watching Casey remove a circle of cloth that had been fastened over the top of a gigantic glass jar with an elastic band. She dropped another cricket inside. “Is there something in there?” she asked.