I'm Your Man

“Is tap okay?” Oh, yeah, she was enjoying herself.

“If that’s all you have.”

“Come in, then. I’m surprised you don’t have your own with you. I can’t remember seeing you without a bottle of water with that funny-looking filter on it.” She headed for the kitchen, leaving Daniel in the living room. Ted followed her.

“What’s going on between you two?” he asked, setting their picnic cooler on the counter.

“I told you before that we’ve never gotten along.”

“I know you feel he’s kept Jess and Riley from you all these years, but you were the one she left her son with this time. Obviously, things aren’t as rosy as you thought with that relationship.”

Obviously. But why? What had happened? She poured a glass of tepid tap water. “I don’t feel he kept them from me. I know he did. He offered her an apartment of her own above his garage—a really nice one. He pays all of her expenses. She doesn’t have any responsibilities whatsoever. Is that any way to help a teenage mother mature and become independent, as she should have been by now? Daniel hasn’t helped Jess. He’s enabled her. He’s stunted her. And it looks like it’s come back to bite him, doesn’t it?”

“I think you need the full story before you decide that. Maureen, I have to say, this is a side of you I haven’t seen before. It’s not attractive.”

Okay, maybe her smugness over Jess leaving Riley with her wasn’t attractive, but she had a right to feel happy about whatever it was that had brought Riley to her after hurtful years of having so little contact. They would have a chance to have a real grandmother/grandson relationship. It was what she’d wanted for so long.

“You don’t understand,” she said to Ted. “You haven’t had a child turn her back on you when she should’ve been needing you more than anyone else.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand the situation in that particular way. But that was then, Maureen. This is now.”

“And now is a second chance. Don’t take the joy out of it. Please.”

He stared at her for several long seconds, then he wrapped her in his arms and held her tight. “Okay, sweetheart,” he said, resting his chin on her head. “As long as you’re putting Riley’s needs first.”

Of course Riley’s needs would take center stage, but her needs mattered, too, this time.

When they returned to the living room, Daniel was stretched out on his stomach on the floor playing demolition derby with Riley. They were making all sorts of crash sounds—brakes squealing, metal hitting metal. Cars were flying into the air then crashing down.

Riley climbed onto Daniel’s back and ran a car up his spine and into his hair, where it just about got lost in the denseness, then did get stuck.

“Oops,” Riley said, tugging at the car. “Sorry, Papa.”

“Ouch. Hold on, bud. You’re gonna give me a bald spot.”

Maureen watched Daniel try to extricate the car before she finally set down his glass of water and went up to him. “Here. Let me. Sit on the chair.”

It was like performing microsurgery, unwrapping long strands of hair from the tiny tire axles, almost one by one. His hair was incredibly soft, and up close like this, she could see it was shot with silver here and there, not easily visible since his hair wasn’t very dark. He bounced Riley on his knee, and they kept their heads together, as if they were telling secrets.

Maureen yanked the final few strands free to get the job over and done with.

“Hey!” He rubbed his head.

“Sorry. It wouldn’t come loose.”

He gave her a look of disbelief but muttered his thanks.

“Nap time,” she said to Riley.

He gave her a look. “I’m six. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t take naps anymore.”

“A rest, then. You got up early and you played hard at the park. Just close your eyes for a little while.”

“But—”

“Do as your grandmother says,” Daniel said.

Which really ticked Maureen off. How dare he stick his nose where it didn’t belong? But Riley had already headed for the bedroom.

“Bathroom first,” Maureen said.

The three adults stood waiting, the silence awkward. When Riley emerged she followed him into the bedroom and made sure he took off his sneakers before getting onto the bed. She handed Stripe to him, then covered him with an afghan that Cherie had crocheted and kissed his forehead.

“I’m not gonna sleep,” he said, the words muffled by the stuffed tiger.

“That’s fine.”

“Papa will still be here when I get up, won’t he?”

“I don’t know what his plans are. But I’m sure he’ll say goodbye before he goes anywhere.” Like back to Seattle on the next available flight.

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Okay.” He pulled the afghan up to his chin then. “Don’t shut the door.”

“I won’t shut it all the way.”

When she returned to the living room, she found Ted in her big chair and Daniel picking up the toys, putting them in their plastic containers.

“Thanks,” she said.

“He likes to start over. There’s something about creating a new city that appeals to him.”

“Maybe he’ll be a builder,” she said, taking a seat on the sofa, next to Ted’s chair. She was determined to stay calm.

“Maybe.” Daniel picked up his glass of water and sat down, too. He looked at Ted. “I don’t think I heard what you do for a living.”

“I’m a CPA and financial planner.”

“How did you two meet?”

“At work,” Maureen said. “I’m not sure if Jess told you about Carlos Martinez, my boss at Primero Publishing? He passed away suddenly five months ago, and his wife, Bernadette, stepped in as publisher. Ted’s been a friend of theirs for years. She asked him to take a look at the company finances.”