Love Me Forever

He waited a beat. “Rainbow Daycare is my client. I know a lot about them.”

“Well, it was a stupid question, Hunter. When have you known me not to consider my girls? I have to go. Goodbye.” She closed the door.

He stared at it for a moment, thinking he might want to simplify his life, but it didn’t seem to be happening.

* * *

SANDY CALLED HER MOTHER from the sidewalk in front of Toni’s Boutique, an elegant clothing store for women on Commercial Street, absentmindedly noting the colorful resort wear in the window.

“You did what?” her mother exclaimed after Sandy told her about Crazy for Coffee.

“I needed employment, so I bought a business so I could hire myself. Makes good sense to me.”

“Oh, sweetheart. Working for yourself only means more bills, not necessarily more income.”

“Mom, Hunter just did his best to discourage me. Come on. I need positive input. And Toni’s is having a sale. If you’ll watch the girls for me in the mornings between 4:30 and 7:00, when you’ll to take them to daycare, I’ll buy you an outfit.”

She heard her mother gasp. “Four...?”

“And a jacket,” she added quickly. “Just until I can hire someone for those hours. And a pair of shoes.”

Her mother was silent.

“And a car!” Sandy continued with theatrical extravagance. “Mom, I realize it’s a lot to ask...”

“Okay, Okay,” her mother said finally. “You’re lucky I’m an insomniac. I’ll do it. But it better be some car.”

CHAPTER FIVE

LORETTA SEPARATED PAPER plates while Sandy placed squares of cake on them. Bobbie added scoops of vanilla ice cream and Stella delivered to the crowd of little children gathered around two picnic tables in Sandy’s backyard. The yard sounded like Times Square on New Year’s Eve!

Bobbie scooped heroically from the two-gallon tub. “Who’d have thought such a big noise could come out of such little children?”

Sandy glanced up in surprise. “I don’t even notice noise anymore. The girls are always giggling or shrieking. My head rings continually.” She turned toward Stella, who stood in the yard near one of the tables and held up two fingers. “Okay, guys. Two more, then maybe we can have coffee and a piece of cake.”

Grateful for the rare sunny day in the coastal Oregon spring, Sandy smiled at the sight of her daughter and her daycare and neighborhood guests wearing their jackets and the plastic superhero capes she’d provided. She had fashioned the capes out of tarps she’d cut to shape, Bobbie had painted familiar superhero symbols on them, and all they’d had to do was convince the children to turn the capes around to the front when they sat down to eat.

Dylan, Bobbie’s eleven-year-old nephew by marriage who was helping keep order by tossing balls and leading races around the yard, frowned at Sandy. “Now those superhero capes are just bibs,” he accused.

Sandy whispered back, “Yes, but no one’s noticed yet, so please keep it to yourself.”

“Hmm. Trickery. Sweeet!” Dylan was clever and observant, and surprisingly patient with the younger children, unlike Sheamus, who found them childish from his lofty eight-year-old perspective.

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.” Dylan ran off while Sandy went out into the yard to investigate a sudden scream that rang out above the din. By the time Sandy reached a boy and girl throwing punches while rolling over each other in the grass, Stella was pulling them apart.

“What happened?” Sandy asked, drawing the boy toward her and dabbing what looked like a smear of blood on his forehead. Mercifully, it was only frosting.

Towheaded and freckled, Danny Hankins jabbed a finger at the sturdy girl with blunt-cut dark hair who was fuming. “She kissed me!” he shouted in disgust.

Stella bit back a laugh. Sandy, relieved nothing worse had happened, tried to sound reasonable. “But a kiss is a nice thing. Why would you punch her?”

“Because when I wouldn’t kiss her, too, she punched me! I was just offending myself.”

“Defending yourself. Molly.” Sandy leaned over the little girl, whose eyes betrayed hurt under the anger. Considering her own situation, Sandy felt a certain sympathy for her. “It isn’t nice to hit. And you can’t make somebody kiss you. They have to want to.”

“Well. You do understand that.” A taunting male voice made Sandy straighten. She looked up into Hunter’s smile. He wore jeans and a dark blue T-shirt with the Raleigh & Raleigh emblem on the pocket.

“Hello, Hunter.” Her tone was polite but stiff. She noticed a giant package held against his side. “What on earth...?”

He swung a red kiddie car, large enough for a child to ride in, out from under his arm. His smile developed an edge. “If you can tolerate me long enough to let me wish your daughter Happy Birthday, I promise not to stay.”

“Wow!” Danny put a pudgy hand up to stroke the car’s bumper.

“That’s mine!” Addie declared with four-year-old vehemence, arriving at his side in a flash, wearing her tiara. She looked up at Hunter, avarice in her eyes. “Isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.” He put it down on the grass, having to urge the growing circle of children around them to back up. Addie climbed right into it and uttered a little scream of delight. “My car!” she squealed, and heartlessly ripped off the rainbow-striped bow stuck to the windshield.

“Your car.” He squatted to point out the controls to her. Then he indicated the walkway that ran all around the yard and protected the flowers growing against the stockade-style fence. “It’ll work best on the walkway. You can’t go out of the yard with it or it’ll stop working. Okay?”

Sandy had to appreciate his instructions. He turned to her, his expression neutral. “Can she take it for a spin?”

“How fast does it go?”

“Two and a half miles per hour.”

“Then, yes.”

“Okay.” Hunter lifted Addie out and she squealed in protest as he carried the kiddie car to the walkway. She ran behind him and climbed back in the moment he placed it on the stone strip. “Please be careful with the flowers. And watch when you get to the corner so you can make the turn. That’s what real drivers do.”

Addie was off, the mob of children deserting their cake to follow her, screaming their delight at this new excitement and pleading for their chance to ride. Hunter turned to greet his mother, then Loretta and Bobbie. “Good afternoon, ladies. Addie invited me.”

Bobbie indicated Addie behind the wheel of her car. “Addie’s thrilled that you’re here, and it’s her party, after all.”

Addie did three circuits of the yard before she stopped, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed.

“Do you want to let your friends have a ride?” Sandy asked, already knowing the answer.

“No.” Addie’s reply was clear and concise.

“But they’re your guests.”

“No.”

“Everyone brought you presents. It would be nice if you let everyone...”

“No.”

“When you go to their houses,” Hunter said, “they’ll let you play with their stuff if you let them play with yours today.”