Route 66 Reunions (12 page)

Tessa looked up into Blake’s determined face and smiled. “All right. You can buy us something to drink. Thanks for understanding, Blake.”

He grinned. “I didn’t say I understood. I’m just going along with you to keep peace.”

“Smart man.” Tessa laughed and headed toward the checkout.

Twenty minutes later, at a fast-food restaurant, Tessa and Blake sat at a table alone, each with a tall soft drink. The boys took their drinks to a corner booth where they joined some friends.

Tessa took advantage of the resulting privacy to ask a question that had been bothering her for several days. She swirled the straw in her cup. “Blake, what do you think your mother would say if she knew who you were with right now?”

Blake shrugged. “Not much.” His eyes narrowed. “She gave you a hard time after I left for the navy, didn’t she?”

“I don’t blame her.” Tessa thought of the girl she had been back then. “No decent mother would want her son associating with what I was then, Blake. I’m just concerned she might feel the same way now.”

Blake’s smile, coupled with the light in his eyes, brought warmth to Tessa’s heart. “I don’t think you need to worry. She knows who I took to the movies the other night, including the three chaperones, and she laughed.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think Dad’s health is changing her.” A tiny crease formed between Blake’s eyes. “She started going to church. I never knew her to do that before.”

“Why, that’s wonderful, Blake.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I figured you’d think so. Dad’s doing better now, so maybe it’s helping. Guess it can’t hurt.”

“No, it can’t.” Tessa hesitated, fearful she would create a barrier between them. “How does she feel about you selling alcohol in your restaurant?”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t tell me how to run my business.”

His words were a warning. One she should heed. “I’m sorry, Blake. My guess is it bothers her as much as it does me. I don’t—”

“Look, Tessa, this is one area where I know what I’m doing.” Blake cut her off and changed the subject. “Plumbing is another story. I enjoy painting, but I’ll have to hire pretty much everything else done.”

Tessa thought about their conversation the next afternoon while she drove home from work. She prayed for Blake and for his parents that they would find not only healing but also salvation. At least Mrs. Donovan had made a good decision when she sought comfort from God.

As she stopped the car in her driveway, she noticed a box on the front porch. She hadn’t ordered anything. Probably a mistaken delivery she’d have to return.

She started to pick up the box when she noticed it wasn’t sealed. Someone had tucked the flaps together. She pulled them apart and stared at three brand-new ball mitts nestled inside.

T
essa left the box on the porch while she went in search of the boys. She followed their voices back to the kitchen. Rob pulled a casserole from the oven and set it on top of the stove. Seth filled water glasses while Derek set the table.

She shook her head. This was Blake’s doing just as much as the ball mitts on the porch. She looked at her tidy kitchen and knew she could never complain about his influence on her boys. Not as long as he kept the influence positive. She still had reservations about the bar in his restaurant.

“Mom, you’re home.” Rob noticed her first. “Dinner is almost ready. Why don’t you sit down and relax?”

She laughed as she obeyed. “I’m going to miss this when school starts, you know.”

“No, you won’t,” Seth said. “We can get dinner ready before you get home and still have time for homework after we eat.”

“I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such a great trio of boys.” Tessa felt tears well up in her eyes and ducked her head to hide them.

“Aw, Mom.” Derek slipped an arm around her shoulders. “We aren’t always good, but cooking’s fun. Me and Seth want to work in Blake’s restaurant, so we’re practicing. Rob’s gonna get a job cooking, too.”

“I don’t know.” Tessa looked at her older son. A lot of kids started getting jobs at sixteen. Maybe by then a decent job would open up for Rob. “Do you think you’d like to work in a kitchen?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Blake’s already taught me a lot. He came over this afternoon and showed me how to make this casserole. He said you should like it because it has two of your favorite foods in it. Chicken and broccoli.”

“How’d he know that, Mom? He said he knew you a long time ago. Is that true?” Derek asked, but three pairs of eyes waited for her answer.

Would they all have everything figured out before she got the nerve to tell her secret?

She nodded. “Yeah, it’s true. But I don’t think we’re good enough friends for him to buy you baseball mitts.”

“He bought us ball mitts?” Derek’s eyes widened.

Tessa held up her hand. “I didn’t say you could keep them. He left a box on the front porch, obviously so I’d find them first. We’ll take them back to him after we eat.”

The boys joined Tessa at the table and bowed their heads while she prayed. At her amen, the grumbling started.

“Returning a gift is rude, Mom,” Rob said.

Seth nodded, looking serious behind his glasses. “Yeah, he wants us to win our games.”

“We should go tell him thank you.” Derek took a bite of casserole.

Tessa swallowed the cheesy broccoli in her mouth. “Sorry, guys, they’re going back. I’ll buy what you need.” She lifted her refilled fork. “Rob, this is great.”

He grinned at her praise. “You should tell Blake. It’s his recipe. I always figured cooking and cleaning were for sissies, but Blake is a real man and he makes a living at it.”

Tessa couldn’t agree more. She admired Blake’s many qualities, but she couldn’t let her feelings for him go beyond friendship. Her Bible now fell open to the sixth chapter of 2 Corinthians and the admonition not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Even though Blake was a good man, he resisted the light of Christ that she’d found when she committed her life to serving the Lord. Until he accepted Christ, she would have to continually be on guard lest her feelings for him returned to the love she’d never forgotten.

Rob insisted the kitchen had to be clean before they left. “Blake says cleaning is part of cooking. A good cook never leaves his kitchen in a mess. Derek, you scrape off the plates; Seth, you put them in the dishwasher.”

The boys obeyed without a whimper, and Rob took the casserole dish to the sink to scrub it clean before Seth put it in the washer. Tessa felt like a fifth wheel, so she grabbed a broom and swept the floor while Rob wiped the counters.

As soon as Rob stopped the car at Blake’s, the boys jumped from the backseat and ran to the large brick building as if they were home. Blake let them in with a wide smile that faded when he saw the box in Tessa’s hands.

“Uh-oh, I’m not in trouble, am I?”

“You most certainly are.” She shoved the box at him even though he held a wet paintbrush in his hand. “I told you last night we couldn’t accept expensive gifts from you.”

“So if I got them on sale it would be okay?” He grinned at her, and she frowned. He chuckled. “Hey, how do I know what you consider expensive?”

She flung her arm out to include the walls he had been painting. “Obviously pretty much anything is too expensive for a man who has to do his own remodeling. Blake, I don’t want you blowing your money on us. I can afford to take care of my boys.”

A hurt look passed across his eyes, but he only said, “Don’t worry about me, Tessa. I make good money from the Pizza Playground. I expect this one to pay for itself and more in time. Depending on how well this store does, I may open another somewhere else. I can afford three ball gloves. I enjoy giving gifts to people I like, and I like these boys.”

“Okay, I’m sorry, but, Blake, please take the gloves back. I can’t afford to be beholden to you or anyone else.” Tessa watched the boys walk around the room and hoped Blake would understand without pressing the point.

“Hey Blake, can we help paint?” The question came from Rob, but all three boys waited with hopeful expressions.

“Well, Mom”—Blake grinned at Tessa—“can they? There might even be a paintbrush to fit your hand.”

“Please, Mom?” Derek ran toward her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It’ll be fun and we promise to stay clean.”

“You’ve got old clothes on—” She stopped when an ear-splitting whoop of delight erupted.

Derek ran back to the others, and Blake’s pat on her back turned into a quick hug. “Good girl. You gave the right answer that time.”

Blake soon had them all equipped and working. Tessa decided that painting the light, restful blue might be fun. Blake said he liked a cheerful kitchen to work in.

Tessa painted with a roller and enjoyed the relaxing movement as she watched the paint cover the wall. There was something satisfying about seeing progress made with each stroke.

“Hold still, Tess. Let me get that for you.” Blake stepped in front of her and touched his finger to the tip of her nose.

“What did I do? Get paint on my nose?” Tessa looked up into his laughing eyes as she heard a snicker from the other side of the room.

Rob stood watching with a smirk on his face. Seth turned around and his eyes grew wide. Derek took several steps toward them and stopped. When he started laughing, the older boys did, too. Boisterously. Pointing fingers at her, bending from the waist, and slapping their knees laughing.

Blake chuckled and held up his blue-tipped finger. “No, but I think
I
did.”

Tessa swiped her nose with her hand and smeared the blue paint. She held her roller up as a weapon and advanced at Blake. “You did that on purpose. I can’t believe you would do such a thing to me.”

Blake’s eyes widened as he backed up. “What do you plan to do with that thing? Remember the boys are watching, so I have witnesses.”

“Oh yeah?” She took another step. “What good were witnesses when I needed them? Hold still. I just want to return your gift.”

“Tessa, you’ve got to stop returning my gifts. That isn’t polite, you know.” Blake shot a quick glance behind him as he retreated one step at a time. He held out his hands as if to ward off her attack. “I really don’t want you to return this one.”

“No, Blake, you have to be taught a lesson.” She took another step while one part of her mind registered the silence in the room. No doubt the boys were watching to see what she would do. To see if she could win against a man twice her size. Oh, she would win, all right, because if Blake took one more step backward, he would bump into the wall Seth had just painted.

“Just one question.” She held the wet roller in front of her. “Is this paint washable?”

“Soap and water.” Blake grinned. “You put that roller down, and I’ll wash your face for you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Of course, you look kinda cute with a blue nose. It’d be a shame to wash it off.”

She made a sudden lunge toward him and laughed as he backed into the wall. “Nope, my nose is fine. It’s your shirt I was worried about. If you wash it before it dries, the paint should come out.”

Tessa’s laugh mingled with the boys’ at the look of surprise on Blake’s face. He twisted to see the back of his shirt and grinned. “I deserved that, didn’t I?”

“Yep.” She headed back to her wall.

“That was a good one, Mom.” Rob laughed when Derek mimicked her sudden lunge with the paint roller. “We’d be in hot water if we fooled around like that.”

“Right you are. So let’s get back to work.”

She listened to the boys tease Blake about being bested by their mom and wondered if this was the way it would be if they had a dad. Then, knowing her thoughts would lead up a dead end if she didn’t turn them to something more productive, she filled her roller again and touched the wall.

On Saturday morning Tessa opened her front door to Kasi. “Do you want to come in for a while, or shall we go now?”

“Oh, let’s not waste any time.” Kasi stepped back on the porch while Tessa grabbed her purse. “As usual I’ve got a dozen things to do when I get home. Travis took the kids fishing with my dad early this morning, and they’ll be home by midafternoon. Zack doesn’t know I came over here, or I’d never hear the end of it.”