Wind Chime Point

“You interested in grabbing that burger today?” he asked the teen.

Jimmy’s expression brightened. “Sure, if you have the time. I’m getting sick of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I’ve been bringing.”

Wade frowned. “You’re not going out with the other guys for lunch?”

An embarrassed flush crept up the boy’s neck. “Nah, they’re older than me. They don’t want me hanging around. Besides, I need to put my paycheck aside to help out at home. Since my dad’s accident, he hasn’t been able to work as much. We can use whatever money I bring home.”

“Your dad had an accident?”

“His right hand got cut real bad on a job a few months back. It makes it hard for him to do construction, you know? They say with rehab, it’ll get better, but he hasn’t been able to do the kind of rehab they recommended. He cut back on his insurance to save a little money. Mom told him it was a mistake, but he wanted to get her the new stove she wanted.”

“So money’s real tight,” Wade guessed, resolving to see if there was anything he could do to help out. It was plain, though, that Jimmy had a lot of pride. He suspected he’d gotten that from his dad.

Jimmy shrugged. “We do okay,” he insisted. He hesitated, then added, “If I could pick up some overtime, it would help.”

“I’ll see what I can do. You’re a good worker, Jimmy. If Tommy can’t find a few extra hours for you, maybe somebody else will be able to use you.”

“I’ll take anything,” Jimmy said eagerly. “That’d be great, Mr. Johnson.”

“It’s Wade. Now, let’s go grab those burgers.”

He drove over to Castle’s, which was already bustling with a lunch crowd.

“Any tables left?” he asked Cora Jane.

“I’ll always be able to find room for you,” she said.

“And this is Jimmy Templeton,” Wade told her.

Cora Jane looked him over. “Any kin to Rory Templeton?”

Jimmy nodded. “Yes, ma’am. He’s my dad.”

“I thought so,” Cora Jane said. “You look just like he did when he was your age. I was real sorry to hear about his injury. How’s he doing?”

“Coming along,” Jimmy told her. “I’ll tell him you asked about him.”

Cora Jane turned her attention back to Wade. “You were out mighty late last night,” she commented.

“I wasn’t aware Gabi had a curfew,” he teased.

“I just meant that she got in too late for me to get any inkling of how things went,” she said, her frustration plain. “And I thought for sure we’d see you at that chick flick at the multiplex, but there wasn’t a sign of you.”

“We saw the action movie,” he reported, managing to hide his amusement at having frustrated her spying mission. “Gabi’s choice, by the way.”

“Really? She hates that kind of movie.”

Wade chuckled. “So I gathered. It gave her an excellent chance, though, to carry on about men having no sensitivity or taste when it comes to movies.”

Cora Jane laughed. “Now that does sound more like her.”

She seated them in the booth near the kitchen that Wade knew she normally reserved for family. “I’ll send your waitress right over,” she promised, then hurried off.

Not two minutes later, as he and Jimmy were just starting to study the menu, a familiar voice said, “You!”

He glanced up with a smile. “Gabriella, I had no idea you’d be working here today.”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t. I got bored at Grandmother’s and drove over here. She snagged me in the kitchen just now and put an order book in my hands, then assigned me to this table.”

Wade laughed. “She never gives up, does she?”

“Never. It would serve her right if I just sat down here with you and waited for some other server to take over this table.”

“Do it,” he suggested. “Of course, that would be playing right into her hands.”

He noted that Jimmy was studying the two of them with obvious fascination.

“Jimmy, this is Gabriella Castle. She’s Cora Jane’s granddaughter.”

“The one Tommy was talking about yesterday,” Jimmy recalled, proving that he’d taken in the whole conversation about Wade’s social life.

Gabi regarded him curiously. “That would be Tommy Cahill?” she guessed. “And my name came up?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Cora Jane is not the only meddler in Sand Castle Bay,” Wade said. “Say another word, Jimmy, and our deal for that burger is off.”

Jimmy looked chagrined. “Sorry.”

Wade grinned at him. “Just teasing, but maybe we ought to talk about something else. Gabi, Jimmy here saved the day on the job I’m doing for Tommy.”

“Not really,” Jimmy protested. “I just had an idea.”

“Which turned out to be on the money,” Wade said, then filled Gabi in.

She smiled at the teen. “I’m impressed. Are you serious about working in construction?”

“It’s okay for now,” Jimmy said. “I sort of drifted into it by accident, you might say.”

Gabi seized on the remark. “But you’d rather be doing something else?”

He nodded. “I kinda wanted to go to college, or at least to junior college, but it’s not in the cards right now.”

“What did you want to study?” she asked.

“Biomedical engineering,” he said, his expression suddenly animated.

Gabi looked startled. “And you think you have what it takes? It’s a tough field.”

“I got pretty good grades in science,” he responded.