The Bachelor's Sweetheart

“Mr. Donnelly, we’re ready.”

Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Hope’s friend Ava, the talk went as well or better than Josh had hoped. The kids had some great and outlandish ideas. And Josh seemed to have made a friend in Hope’s non-friend, Owen. The little boy latched on to him to the point of asking if he wanted to sit next to him at his desk for the second job presentation of the afternoon. With Hope’s permission, he did.

“Class, let’s thank Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly for talking to us today,” the teacher said when the other speaker had finished her presentation.

“Thank you, Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly,” the classed chimed.

A bell rang.

“That means the buses are here,” Hope said.

“Everyone get your things together and line up,” Mrs. Bradshaw said.

She led the queue of third graders to the main door while Jared and Hope headed to the office to sign out. Owen trailed behind them.

Josh stopped. “Owen, don’t you need to get on your bus?”

“No, I wait for my mom in the office. She’s a teacher’s aide. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” Josh hoped he wouldn’t regret his hasty agreement.

“You know a lot about go-carts. Have you ever made a Pinewood Derby racer?”

“No, I haven’t. I wasn’t a Boy Scout. But my nephew made one.”

“I want to make one, but Mom doesn’t know anything about building things.” Owen stared at his feet. “And my dad’s at Dannemora. We moved here so it’s not so far to drive to visit him.”

Josh swallowed the lump in his throat. The maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility. Although his father had never been in more than the county jail for a few days, Josh could certainly relate to an absent father.

“With all the stuff you know, we could make a winner.”

He squatted to Owen’s level. “I can’t make any promises, but who’s your Scout leader?”

“Mr. Hazard.”

“I know Mr. Hazard. I’ll talk with him and see what I can do, okay?”

A smile lit Owen’s face. “Okay!”

“I’ll have to have your mother’s permission to help you.”

“You can wait with me now and talk to her today.”

Josh stood. “No, I want to talk to Mr. Hazard first.”

“All right.” Owen took a seat in the office, and Josh signed Hope and him out.

“Bye,” Owen said as they left. “See you tomorrow, Hope.”

“Bye, Owen.” Hope’s goodbye sounded friendly enough. If it hadn’t, he would have had to have a talk with her, which wouldn’t be in sync with the fun-brother persona he cultivated. Hope’s situation as the new kid last school year hadn’t been a lot different from Owen’s.

“Can we build something, too?” she asked as he made sure she had the seat belt buckled across her booster seat correctly.

“What do you want to build?” If he didn’t watch it, he’d have so many projects going he’d have to take a leave of absence from his real job to do them all.

“A castle in the backyard at my house.”

“I’ll need to talk with Jared and Becca about that one.”

“All right, but I’m sure it will be okay.”

Josh wasn’t as sure. “I missed lunch. What do you say to an ice cream sundae at the diner while I get a burger and fries?”

“I say yes. Becca and Jared only let us get cones.”

Score one for big brother Josh. Since he didn’t plan on having any kids of his own, didn’t have it in him to be a husband and father, he figured it was his place to spoil Hope and Jared and Becca’s family and any kids Connor and Natalie might have.

Hope caught him up on everything third grade while he ate his late lunch.

“Be sure to talk to Jared,” Hope said when he walked her into the house.

“Talk to me about what?” Jared asked, walking in behind them.

“Tell him, Josh.” Hope scampered off to the other room.

“Hope asked me to build her a castle in your backyard. I assume she means a playhouse castle.”

“Better check that. With Hope, you never know. She could mean a full-scale stone-wall moat-surrounded castle.”

Josh laughed.

“I don’t see a problem. I’ll talk with Becca, and you can work the details out with our little sister.”

“I have something else I want to talk with you about.”

“My loan to Tessa? It’s the same as the loans I’ve made to other local businesses. It has nothing to do with whatever you two have going on.”

Jared, too? “Friends. We’re friends. And that’s not what I wanted to talk with you about. It’s her loan, her business. What I want to talk to you about is a little boy in Hope’s class, Owen. He sounds like a good candidate for your motocross school program. His mom’s a teacher’s aide at the school, and he said his dad is at Dannemora.”

Jared whistled.

“After my talk, the little guy asked me if I’d help him build a car for the Pinewood Derby.”

“Are you going to?”

“Probably, after I talk with Ted Hazard, his Cub Scout Leader, and Owen’s mother.”

“Your job, Tessa’s renovation, Hope’s castle, this kid’s Scout project and your volunteer fire department commitment. Think you might be spreading yourself a little thin?”