A Sweetheart for the Single Dad

Because as determined as she was to get this job she’d been given done, she was even more determined about that!

* * *

Angel, Casey, Biz—who was really Elizabeth—and Clara. Lindie had repeated the names of the four Murphy sisters several times to remember which was which as she worked with them in the community center’s kitchen that afternoon. Angel was the oldest at eleven, Casey was nine, Biz was eight and Clara was seven.

They were the four girls whose dad had died, whose mother had turned to computer crime to support them, who were now living with their grandmother while their mother went to jail.

When Lindie had arrived at the center she’d again said only that she was there to see Sawyer. But this time she was asked her name and when she gave it—only Lindie—the woman who introduced herself as Marie greeted her warmly and said, “Sawyer told us you might be coming to volunteer.”

Marie had then cheerily explained that she was the volunteer coordinator and that it was her job to familiarize new volunteers with the center’s layout and to put them to work.

A tour was the first order of business and as Lindie was shown the recreation room, she saw Sawyer in the distance at a chess table, playing chess with the boy—Parker Cauzel—who he’d been asked to talk to on Monday.

Sawyer appeared to be watching for her because he spotted her the minute she entered the rec room and waved. But that was the extent of their interaction. He stayed at the chess table and Marie kept Lindie occupied.

It made her wonder if he’d set up the whole thing to make sure she didn’t get to him. And while that frustrated and concerned her since she was there expressly for the purpose of seeing him, it also disappointed her and struck a bit of a blow to her ego.

He’d warned her that he spent Thursdays with the kids and wouldn’t be available to her. But she hadn’t taken that too seriously.

Since she’d been so eager to get there today to see him, it was a little demoralizing to think that he hadn’t been as eager to see her; that instead he might have arranged for her to be intercepted by someone else to keep her away from him.

In fact, it was more than a little demoralizing.

But with no choice except to go through the new-volunteer orientation with Marie, that’s what Lindie did. When it came to deciding where her skills could be best used and she tried for the rec room, she was told that there were enough volunteers in the rec room today. Instead she was steered toward the kitchen where help was needed.

Still, making the best of the situation and hoping to connect with him later, Lindie had jumped in in the kitchen and accepted the assignment of making a snack using what was available—several boxes of graham crackers.

Since there were also the ingredients for frosting, Lindie made a suggestion and got the okay before she was left with the four Murphy girls to get to work.

“This was our favorite afterschool snack when I was little,” she said as she taught the girls how to make a simple chocolate frosting. Then she and the two older Murphys spread the frosting on one side of graham crackers, handing them over to the younger girls to top with a second graham cracker and stack on plates.

As they worked it didn’t take much for the girls to warm up to her—they were impressed with her hair and interested in how she twisted it in back and left curls to erupt out of the twist at her crown. They liked her simple twill slacks and the embroidery down the front of her blouse. They loved her shoes—ballet flats that were the same blue-black of her pants and had white polka dots all over them.

The longer they worked together, the more they interjected information about themselves, too, letting Lindie get to know them. She concluded that they were lovely, polite little girls trying to cover up the fact that their mother had done something wrong.

By the time they had several plates stacked with the graham cracker sandwiches, which the sisters were very impressed with, Lindie was beginning to feel like one of the girls.

“Do we bring these around to everyone now?” she asked, hoping it would get her nearer to Sawyer.

“Everybody knows to come in to see if there’s something when they want to eat,” Angel informed her just as Clara was motioning to Lindie to bend so she could whisper in her ear.

When Lindie did, the seven-year-old said, “Could I bring one home to my gramma? She likes chocolate but we couldn’t buy any at the store yesterday because she had to buy so much other stuff for us to eat. We had to put her candy bars back when we didn’t have enough money at the end.”

And that was as much as it took to break Lindie’s heart.

She had no idea what the center’s policy was on sending food home. She’d used all the graham crackers available to arrive at the number of portions Marie had said she should have, and she couldn’t risk that other kids there might go without if she wrapped even one up for Clara.

But during the tour she’d been shown the employee’s lounge and where to put her purse. And she’d seen a vending machine there.

So, ruled only by her need to send something chocolate home with that child, she said, “I think we only have enough crackers for the kids here. But if you don’t tell anyone, I know where I can get a candy bar for you to take home to your gramma.”

Clara beamed with delight. “She likes the ones with nuts.”

“It has to be just between you and me, though,” Lindie warned, worried that she was stepping over some kind of boundary. “Do you have a backpack or somewhere we can kind of hide it?”

“A backpack, yeah,” the little blond girl confirmed.

While the other sisters and more kids began to wander in to take the snacks, Lindie slipped away to the employee lounge, got money from her purse and went to the vending machine.

Since she was alone in the lounge—and thinking that she couldn’t send Clara Murphy’s grandmother a candy bar without sending treats for the girls, too—she ended up putting five candy bars into her pockets before a voice from behind her said, “Are you having a blood sugar crisis?”

She jumped.

Unlike her first visit to the center, this time she recognized the voice.

Sawyer.

She’d been so intent on what she was doing she hadn’t heard him come in. Or step up to stand close behind her.

She turned around to face him, still wondering if he’d arranged for her not to get near him today. And if he had, what was he doing there now?

“Hi,” she said, taking in the sight of him in what she assumed was the remainder of his work suit—grayish-blue slacks and a light blue shirt he wore with the collar button unfastened and the long sleeves rolled to mid-forearms.

Yep, still terrific-looking.

If only that could be toned down some.

“Is there a reason you’re stuffing candy bars in your pockets?” he reiterated.

“The profits go to the center?” she said with a nod at the note taped to the machine.

It was a lame answer and he saw through it. “Try again?”

She told him what she was doing.

“That’s not a good idea, Lindie,” he said when she had. “Kids will work you, if you let them. And even if the candy really is for Gramma, kids also talk and you’ll have this whole place wanting you to do the same thing for them. Plus once word gets out that you’re a soft touch or kids think you’re gullible you could be in line for—”

She knew he was right. She’d been in this situation before too many times to count. And yet... “Clara is seven. She isn’t a mastermind manipulator. And all she wanted was one lousy chocolate-frosted graham cracker to take to her grandmother. My grandmother took me in—along with my brothers and sisters and cousins—when we didn’t have anywhere else to go, too. Granted, money wasn’t an issue, but I can’t imagine how awful I would have felt if she’d had to sacrifice something she wanted to feed us. I felt bad enough about other things, it would have been even worse to know that. It’s just a few stupid candy bars and I’ve already told Clara she can’t say anything about it. But even if she does and I end up having to buy them for the whole place, then fine. But today Clara needs to take her gramma a treat and I’m going to make sure she can. Shoot me.”

He shook that handsome head of his. Just when she thought he was going to tell her there were rules against this or something along those lines, he sighed and said, “I know the Murphy girls. I know that they’re good kids and that none of them is diabetic or has allergies—because if you don’t know those things, you could be causing real problems with treats like this. But because I know that with these particular kids it’s probably okay... Come on, I’ll play lookout while you give them to her. This once!”

The downside was just that it made her like him more, but Lindie only said, “Thanks,” and then took him up on his offer by leading him to the kitchen where Clara was watching for her.

The little girl ran up to her expectantly and the three of them went to where the backpacks were kept. While Sawyer blocked them from view with his back to them, keeping an eye out for witnesses, Lindie passed the candy bars to the child to stash, wondering how this would look on a security camera if there had been one.

But there was just no way she could have lived with herself if she’d refused the child.

When the deed was done and Clara left them to return to the kitchen, Lindie again watched Sawyer shake his head at her. But what he said was “I have another game waiting for me. Try not to get yourself into more trouble, huh?”