The Parent Trap Page 6

  And there was no ignoring the fact that her mother was pretty nice, too. Easy to talk to. Very easy on the eyes. Her parenting skills were as enviable as her culinary skills were deplorable, and he had no idea why but he found that charming. Over the past few days, though, he’d only caught rare glimpses of her, and he suspected she might be avoiding him. He regretted his blunt comments the other night. He’d been comparing his parenting to Sarah’s, his daughter to hers, and had fallen short on both counts. He hadn’t meant to sound critical of Kate but he had, and Sarah probably thought he was a jerk. She was right, and he hoped she would accept an apology the next time he saw her.

  At the end of the seawall he exchanged a wave with a young couple on the beach whose golden retriever was hauling a stick out of the water. He swung around to make the return trip, laughing as the pair narrowly avoided a shower of seawater as the dog shook out its fur.

  Not only did Kate seem to get along with Casey, she liked Sarah, too. She had even hinted that if Jon thought he might like to start dating, then maybe he should think about asking Sarah out. The idea had already crossed his mind, not that he would admit that to his daughter, at least not yet. What if Sarah said no? He would still have to live next door to her and that would, at best, be awkward. Better to wait till he had some sense of what her answer would be.

  And then Kate had dampened his enthusiasm by pointing out that it’s not as if her mother were ever coming back. She was right. Georgette was never coming back and the truth was, he didn’t want her to. But dating someone else? Until now he hadn’t been ready to consider it. Kate needed to have one parent who was there for her, and for better or worse that parent was him. He couldn’t focus on being a parent, and maintaining a home for them and reestablishing a career, if he was back in the dating game. There was also the not-so-insignificant matter of figuring out how and where to meet eligible women. But then, on their first day in Serenity Bay, there one was, standing on his porch with a welcoming smile and a plate of really awful cookies. That had immediately been followed by a pizza dinner. Sharing a couple of pizzas with their teenage daughters was not a date. It was simply...a simple dinner. And still he’d managed to mess it up.

  During the drive down the peninsula to Sechelt, he had to admit he’d listened shamelessly and with interest to the questions Kate asked Casey.

  Did she help her mom at the store?

  No. Sometimes Casey went there after school and sat in her mom’s office to do her homework, but working in the store was boring.

  Did her father live in Serenity Bay?

  No. He’d died. Jon already knew that.

  Did her mom have a boyfriend?

  No.

  If Kate hadn’t already dropped a less-than-subtle hint about him asking her out, he would have thought it a strange question. Casey didn’t seem to think it was but she didn’t elaborate and Kate didn’t ask her to, so he couldn’t very well ask her to expand.

  He left the seawall walkway and tried to maintain his pace as he ran back up the hill, turning onto his street, winded, perspiring and ready to take on a new day just as the sun lit up the eastern sky above the Coast Mountains. He still had plenty of time for coffee and a shower before Kate would be up and getting ready for school. He slowed to a walk as he approached his driveway, and pulled up the hem of his shirt to wipe sweat from his forehead. As he let it drop, he glanced at the house next door and was sure he saw a curtain flutter in a second-floor window.

  He spent a couple of minutes stretching muscles that hadn’t had a decent workout in a couple of days. While he did, his thoughts remained on the woman next door.

  Was she a morning person? Was she a runner as well? She was in great shape for someone who admitted to eating a lot of takeout. Maybe instead of asking her out to dinner, he should invite her to run with him in the morning. Running wasn’t a date, and if she said no, she still might accept an invitation to dinner.

  “And you are way overthinking this,” he said, letting himself into the house, inhaling the aroma of newly brewed coffee and the cinnamon scent of whole-grain raisin bread. This weekend, he and his daughter had started a new life. Today he was starting a new job. The other firsts—whatever those might be—would happen in good time. And if a first date was going to be one of them, he had to apologize to Sarah for being a jerk and somehow convince her that he wasn’t.

  * * *

  SARAH PARTED HER office curtains just enough to watch her neighbor return from his run but not so much that he could see her watching him. His dark-colored knee-length running shorts revealed the muscular calves of an athlete, exactly what one would expect of a high school gym teacher and soccer coach who ran for half an hour in the morning. She’d been downstairs and had caught sight of him as he left and headed down to the beach, and from her deck, coffee mug in hand, she had glimpsed him running along the seawall. Impressive.

  Impressive also came to mind as she watched him now through the narrow slit in the curtains. His light blue T-shirt hung loose over the shorts, sweat-darkened in places that emphasized just how fit he really was. And then he pulled up the hem and swiped it across his forehead, briefly revealing strongly rippled abs. Her breath caught, her insides started to hum, then the shirt fell into place and he was gazing up at her window. She took a hasty step back, still a little breathless, still humming, the vision of those delectable abs etched in her memory.

  “Mom?” Casey was awake.

  Sarah jolted, realizing she’d been frozen in time, one hand pressed to her chest as though that might slow her heartbeat, stop her heart from pounding through her rib cage. The sound of her daughter’s sleepy voice snapped her back to reality. She swung around, quickly turned on her desk lamp and picked up a file folder, fanning through the contents as though searching for something. She glanced up when her daughter appeared in the doorway in purple plaid flannel pajama pants and an old yellow sweatshirt.

  “Good morning, sweetie. Excited about school starting today?”

  “Yes, but kind of nervous, too. I mean, it’s high school. And Henry isn’t back so I’m kind of bummed about that. He and I always go together on the first day of school.”

  Henry, whose family lived across the street, and Casey had been friends forever and they did have a lot in common—straight-A honor students, academically competitive, seasoned bookworms. Outside the classroom, though, their interests couldn’t be more different. Casey was athletic and crazy about animals. Henry was into photography and creative writing. He was also two inches shorter than Casey, and he was the only kid Sarah had ever met who could, and often did, trip over absolutely nothing.

  Poor Henry. To say the kid was a klutz was an understatement. Sarah was also quite sure he’d had a crush on her daughter for the past year, and she was equally certain that the feeling was not mutual. If Casey was interested in a boy, it was a carefully kept secret. Henry had been away at photography school all summer and had gone straight from there to a family reunion in Montreal. According to Casey, he was missing the first few days of the school term and was due back on the weekend.

  “What about Kate? I thought you were going with her.”

  “I am. They’re giving me a ride, and I promised to show her around and introduce her to everyone.”

  “You’re sure you don’t want me to take you?”

  “Mo-om. It’s high school, not kindergarten.”

  Casey’s horrified tone made her laugh. “You’re right. Tell you what. We’ll go out for burgers tonight and you can tell me all about your first day.”

  “Deal. What’s for breakfast?”

  “There’s juice in the fridge and waffles in the freezer. Or we could scramble some eggs. Those would probably be better for you.”

  Casey scrunched her nose. “Waffles are good. Do you want some?”

  “Sure. I’ll be right down.”

  “
Okay, I’ll put enough in the toaster for you, too.”

  Sarah set the folder back on her desk and switched off the lamp, then peeked between the curtains again. There was no sign of Jonathan, so she flung the curtains wide, briefly admiring the early-morning sky, now deep blue and streaked with pink, before cinching the belt of her robe and returning to her bedroom to lay out clothes for work. Today’s to-do list was long, and getting lost in thought about her buff new neighbor would only get in the way.

  “Besides, it’s your daughter who’s heading off to high school this morning, not you.” She was too old and certainly too jaded to let a man distract her from the things she needed to do to take care of herself and her daughter. Especially a man who wasn’t doing a very good job of taking care of his.

  “Hold that thought,” she advised herself. Hold. That. Thought.

  * * *

  “WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST?” Kate asked when she came downstairs and plunked an oversize leather satchel on the end of the kitchen counter.

  “There’s cinnamon-raisin bread on the island,” he said. “It’s still warm, and I left out the butter and honey. Fresh fruit salad in the fridge.”

  “The bread smells good,” she said.

  He wasn’t used to compliments so early in the morning. Or at all, for that matter. Was she working up to asking for something? Or, he thought, eyeing her attire, maybe she hoped he’d be too flattered to notice what she was wearing. Her narrow-legged brown jeans ended well above her ankles and had front pockets that were closed with chunky metal zippers. Her silver-gray off-the-shoulder sweater revealed several straps that were attached to garments that were not intended for public viewing. On her feet, gray patent stilettos.

  He resisted the urge to ask, “That’s what you’re wearing?”

  This was why girls need mothers. Fathers knew nothing about fashion and they didn’t have a clue how to talk to their daughters about what was appropriate for the first day at a new school.

  While Kate applied a scant layer of butter and honey to a slice of bread, he took out the fruit salad and scooped some into a bowl for her. She slid onto a stool at the island and he set the bowl in front of her, resisting the urge to hitch her sweater up over her shoulders. Instead, he poured her a glass of milk.

  “Is there any coffee left?” she asked.

  Heaven help him. “You’re a little young to be drinking coffee.”

  Judging by the eye roll, she didn’t think so. “Me and my friends drink coffee when we go to the mall.”

  Of course you do. You did, he corrected himself. No mall here, and he hoped she would find better things to do with her time. Maybe her new friend next door would be a stabilizing influence. Casey was studious, athletic and, according to her mother, had a plan for the future. All the things he hoped for Kate.

  As if on cue, there was a tap on the sliding glass doors and there was Casey, her wave as vigorous as her smile was wide. Jon gave her the sign that the door was unlatched, so she slid it open and immediately filled the kitchen with her energy.

  “Wow,” she said. “It smells awesome in here.”

  “My dad made raisin bread this morning.”

  “What?” Casey’s wide-eyed response was amusing. “You baked it yourself?”

  “I did. Help yourself.”

  Casey slathered a slice with butter and honey and took a huge bite. “Mmm. This is good,” she mumbled around the mouthful.

  Kate picked up hers and took a dainty nibble. “What did you have for breakfast?”

  “Waffles.” Casey’s single-word answer was muffled by her second mouthful.

  “Cool. Your mom made them?”

  Casey swallowed and laughed. “No, my mom doesn’t cook. We buy the frozen ones that go in the toaster.”

  Jon met Kate’s gaze, and for one brief moment he detected what might have been gratitude. In addition to recently announcing she was a vegetarian, she had also declared the importance of going organic. Apparently she hadn’t realized she’d been eating healthy food all along. Rather than let her appreciation go to his head, he changed the subject.

  “Do you know which classes you’re taking this semester?” he asked Casey.

  “Science, social studies, math and English. What about you?” she asked Kate.

  “Science, French, math and art.”

  “We’ll have some classes together, then. And my friend Henry is taking art, so I’ll bet he’ll be in your class when he gets back from his holiday.”

  “He’s into art?”

  “He is. He’s been away all summer, first for a month at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver to study photography, and then he went to Montreal for a family reunion.”

  “He was at a university? How old is he?”

  “Same age as us. They have a summer program for high school students. I think it’s totally unfair that there’s so much stuff for kids in the arts, you know, photography, art, music, dance. But do you ever hear about a summer veterinary program for teenagers? Never.”

  Jonathan turned off the coffeemaker and loaded the dishwasher as he listened with interest to their conversation. There wasn’t even a slim chance that any of Kate’s friends in the city would consider spending their summer vacation studying and learning something new. That would have seriously put a kink in their hanging-at-the-mall-drinking-coffee time. But here, already, she’d met one kid who aspired to do just that, and would soon meet another who already had. When it came to his daughter he was naturally leery of teenage boys, but he liked Henry already.

  “Are you girls ready to leave?” he asked.

  Kate slid off her stool and snagged her bag off the counter. Casey, who’d been leaning on the island next to her, straightened and hitched her backpack higher on her shoulders.

  “Cool outfit,” Casey said.

  “Thanks. I did all my back-to-school shopping before we left the city.” If she noticed that Casey’s tan-colored T-shirt, jeans and high-top sneakers seemed more appropriate for the first day of school than something that had just stepped off the runway, she wasn’t letting on.

  Jon latched the sliding deck doors, grabbed his sports bag and followed the girls through the foyer where Princess, curled in a tight little ball, occupied a ray of morning sunshine streaming through the sidelight.

  “Aw, your cat is so sweet,” Casey said. “I still have my heart set on a dog, though.” The girls grinned knowingly at each other, suggesting something was afoot. “Cats are great,” she added. “But a dog would be more...” She paused, seemed to choose her words. “Lively.”

  Given Princess’s penchant for catnapping, a sloth might be more energetic. And that’s what made her so perfect for their household. She was demanding at mealtime, but otherwise she quietly prowled from a patch of sunshine here to a couch cushion there. She had an affection for laundry hampers, especially those filled with clean clothes, a fondness for high queen-of-the-castle places, and a weakness for windowsills from where she watched the outside world with thinly veiled disinterest. Ever since Georgette had moved out, his goal had been to create stability and routine with an absence of drama. In spite of her name, Princess was a perfect fit for them.

  The girls were settling into the backseat of the SUV as he descended his front steps and saw Sarah walking down hers. In a slim navy skirt with a matching jacket over a soft pink shirt, she looked businesslike, professional and absolutely stunning. She unlocked her car, set her briefcase inside and came around to where he stood by his open car door.

  “Good morning.” She forced a smile.

  “Good morning. You’re getting an early start,” he said, wishing he didn’t sound so lame.

  “I like to go in early whenever I can.” She tipped her head, fluttered her fingers at the girls who were already fastening their seat belts in the backseat. “Have a good first day
of high school. They grow up so fast, don’t they?” she said to him, straightening. “Too fast.”

  “Mo-om.”

  Sarah laughed. “See you after school, sweetie.”

  “I’ve decided to get the soccer team together for a quick practice as soon as school is dismissed,” he said. “I hope that’s okay.”

  “That’s not a problem. Casey’s been looking forward to soccer season, and I’ll be at the store until closing time. After that we’re going out for burgers.”

  “Right.” He thought of the dinner plans he’d made for himself and Kate, the fresh salmon that would go on the grill, the makings of a salad in their fridge, and contemplated extending an invitation to Sarah and her daughter. No, it was too soon. He had already offered to make pizzas on Saturday, and she had accepted. That would have to be soon enough. “Well, have a good day.”

  He slid behind the wheel and backed out of the driveway and onto the street. As he drove away, he glanced in the rearview mirror in time to see Sarah gracefully tuck those long, shapely legs into her car, and he knew it was an image that would stay with him all day.

  CHAPTER SIX

  TUESDAYS WERE SARAH’S catch-up days, the days she dusted and vacuumed the store, dealt with correspondence, shopped for office supplies, and took care of anything else that been added to her to-do list throughout the previous week. She switched on the computer in the office at the back of the store, and opened her calendar and scanned her task list.