Second Time Sweeter Page 4

  He was on the computer checking out the island of Madagascar when Mr. Abbott appeared beside him. “Hey, Mr. Abbott.”

  “Hey, Amari. What’re you doing?”

  “Learning about Madagascar.”

  Abbott paused to check out the screen before asking, “Why there?”

  Amari shrugged and clicked on a picture of the country’s cloud forests. “I just like learning about other people.”

  “So, you want to study anthropology?”

  “No. I want to drive NASCAR.”

  Abbott stared. “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mr. James didn’t tell me much about you all. He said it would be best to find out on my own.”

  Amari understood. “He’s big on self-discovery, as he calls it.”

  Mr. Abbott looked around the classroom at what the other kids were doing. “I’ve never taught in a school where students are allowed this kind of freedom. Little kids, yes, but not older ones.”

  “It’s only one afternoon a week, but Mr. James is a great teacher.” Realizing he wasn’t going to get anything done, Amari turned away from the screen. “So, what do you want to know?’

  Abbott grinned. “You’re pretty up front, aren’t you?”

  “I think we all are. Comes from being in foster care and then living here. Tell you what, we know you’ve been trying real hard to be a good sub, and since you’ll be getting your own class when Mr. James and Rocky come back, how about you get to know us all, now?”

  He seemed surprised. “Okay. How do you propose we do that?”

  Amari stood. “Hey, guys?”

  Everyone looked up.

  “Mr. Abbott wants to get to know us better, so can we give him like an hour to ask us questions and stuff?”

  Brain looked to Leah. Amari saw her nod. A few minutes later, they pulled their chairs in a circle and began to talk.

  Later, Amari walked into his dad’s garage and found him working under the hood of the car they were restoring. The 1969 Chevy Camaro belonged to Ms. Marie, but had been sitting under tarps in her barn since the mideighties. When he and his dad pulled the tarps off, the tires were flat, mice had eaten all the upholstery and wiring, and the front end was crushed from the tree Ms. Marie crashed into one night while driving in a snowstorm. She wanted to maybe sell it after it was drivable again.

  “Hey, Dad.”

  “Hey, Amari. I got your brother’s text about band practice.”

  “Yeah, he and Zoey and Wyatt are at the rec.”

  “How was school?”

  Amari dropped his backpack onto the old sofa and headed to the refrigerator and grabbed a soda. “I was a facilitator today.”

  His dad straightened. “A facilitator?”

  “Yeah. Mr. Abbott wanted to know about us, so I made it happen. He’s an okay dude. He asked us a bunch of questions about who we were before we came to Kansas, and how we liked living here. We learned about him, too. He has six brothers and a sister.”

  “Wow.”

  “He’s the baby and his parents are from New Orleans.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Ms. Bernadine stopped by, too. I think she wanted to make sure we didn’t have him gagged and tied in the storage room.”

  His dad chuckled. Amari set his soda bottle down and walked to the car. “What are you doing?”

  “Trying to figure out why this carburetor doesn’t fit.”

  “Did we order the wrong one?” Amari asked, watching his dad try to maneuver the piece into place. One edge wouldn’t lie flush.

  “Maybe,” Trent replied, adding, “More like probably, though.” There was disappointment in his voice.

  “Do you want me to go online and order another one?”

  “Yes, but later. I want to talk to you about something for a few minutes first, if that’s okay?”

  Amari took in his serious face. “Am I in trouble because I left the table last night?”

  “No. But I am wondering how you feel about the whole thing with Mal.”

  Amari remained wary. “How do you feel?”

  “Mad. Disappointed. Upset.”

  “Me, too. Devon was at school bragging about leaving the table, but I didn’t leave it because he did.”

  “Your mom and I wondered about that.”

  “I left because . . .” Amari paused, trying to find the right words to explain his mixed-up feelings. “Is it wrong that I don’t want to be around OG right now?”

  His dad placed a light hand on his shoulder. “No, son, it isn’t. Honestly, I feel you.”

  “I just don’t understand how he could do something so messed up.”

  “I know.”

  “Thought maybe I’d talk to Tamar about it. Is that okay? Not trying to hurt your feelings or anything by not talking to you about it.”

  That earned him a soft smile. “My feelings aren’t hurt. I may do that, too. She’s good at helping people sort through things.”

  Relieved, Amari continued, “Devon said he’s going to talk to her about making OG paint Ms. Marie’s fence.”

  “Even if Tamar thinks he should do it, she’s not going to make him do anything.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s a grown man and should be able to figure out a fix for himself. Even though it’s been only done by kids, your mom and I think him painting the fence would probably go a long way in making amends.”

  Amari asked a question that had been bothering him a lot, and he hoped his dad didn’t think it was inappropriate. “Why did he take the money? Do you know?”

  “Male pride.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Your grandfather grew up in a time when men paid for everything. Women were mostly moms and housewives. Only in the last forty years have they moved into the workforce and begun making their own way. So when he and Bernadine went to Key West for Christmas last year, she paid for everything.”

  Amari was confused. “But that’s what she does.”

  His dad smiled. “I know, and he knew that, too. However, knowing and having to stand aside while she took care of the bills are two different things. And it made him feel less.”

  “Less than what?”

  “A man.”

  “That’s dumb, Dad.”

  “Yes and no. Remember what I said about the times he grew up in. Men were the providers, and now times have changed.”

  “So he took the money to make himself feel better?”

  “No. He wanted to be able to treat her, take her on vacation, take her to dinner.”

  “With money that he stole?” Amari asked skeptically.

  “According to him, his plan was to invest it, make a killing, repay the stolen money, and have enough left over to do the vacation and dinner and the rest. And he’d pay for everything.”

  “So how come he hasn’t paid the money back yet if he invested it?”

  “Because the guy he and Clay invested with was a crook. He disappeared with the money and they don’t know where he is.”

  “This is like a bad television show.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “Do you think Ms. Bernadine will forgive him?”

  “That, I don’t know. Him bringing his new lady to the wedding was one of the dumbest moves I’ve seen in my life, but stealing the money shows he wasn’t thinking straight to begin with.”

  Amari agreed. OG and Ms. Bernadine had been so tight everybody thought they’d be hooked up forever. Now she just looked sad all the time even though she thought nobody could see it.

  Amari and his dad spent the next hour working on the brakes and replacing the lining in the trunk. They didn’t talk much, which was okay. Just being with Trent and doing something they both enjoyed always made him feel special. Once they rolled out from beneath the car, Amari told him, “Thanks, Dad.”

  “For what?”

  “Just for being my dad.”

  “Thanks for being my son.”

  That made him feel even
more special. “Growing up back in Detroit, I used to see kids at stores and in cars with their dads, and I wanted to be them. Having a dad, you know.”

  “I always wanted a son, too. And you fit the bill perfectly.”

  Amari smiled.

  “You ready to head home?” Trent asked. “We can go on the Camaro website after dinner and look up that carburetor.”

  “Yes. Who’s cooking tonight? You or Mom?”

  “I am. I took some chops out of the freezer this morning.”

  “Can we have mashed potatoes, too? Maybe some broccoli and cheese sauce? I’ll help.”

  “You got it. Do you want to drive home?”

  Amari’s eyes lit up. “Yeah!” He’d gotten his permit last week. State law mandated he put in fifty hours of supervised driving with an adult before he could move up to the phase that led to driving alone. He’d been driving since the age of ten, but waiting to be legal was killing him.

  His dad tossed him the keys. Amari caught them deftly.

  “Lead the way.”

  Amari picked up his backpack. His dad locked up and they walked out to the truck.

  Later that evening, Gary left Leah and Tiffany at home doing homework and drove to Trent and Lily’s for the homecoming meeting. Lily, being Lily, put him on the committee unbeknownst to him, but he didn’t mind. The gathering would be in two weeks and he was looking forward to renewing old friendships. The only thing giving him pause was the possibility of seeing Eleanor Price again. Affectionately known as Nori back in the day, she’d been one of the smartest girls around. She’d also been the girl he’d been in love with and hoped to marry, until Colleen lied about being pregnant with his child. His lips tightened at the memory. In the blink of an eye, he’d gone from preparing to attend Notre Dame on an academic scholarship to being married and selling cars at the dealership owned by Colleen’s overbearing father, Milton. For her part, Nori left Henry Adams after graduation to attend school out east, and then her parents moved away. He heard she’d become a math teacher. In the years since, he thought about her off and on and wondered what life might have been had circumstances been different.

  Gary pushed the doorbell button. Trent answered and stepped back so Gary could enter. “Hey. Bernadine said the health department gave you a tentative okay to open tomorrow.”

  Gary sighed thinking about the crazy morning at the store. “Yeah. All the floors have to be mopped and sanitized.”

  “Who knew an eighty-two-year-old lady could be such a menace?”

  “If I never see Mrs. Beadle or Lorenzo again, it’ll be too soon.”

  “Come on, we’re meeting in the den.”

  Lily looked up at Gary’s entrance. “Hey there. Rough day, I hear.”

  “Yeah. I wound up sending the staff home. Maintenance crew is dealing with the health department’s requirements. We should be good to go tomorrow.”

  They then got down to business and Lily passed them each a blue folder. They were the only people from their class still in the area, so they were a committee of three.

  “In your packet, the first page is our tentative agenda for the weekend. We’ll open Friday evening with a meet and greet. I sent Rocky a text and she’s okay with closing the Dog so we can use it. She’s going to put a sign on the front door a few days in advance so folks will know it’ll be closed to the public.”

  Gary liked that idea.

  Lily continued, “On Saturday morning, I can’t see closing the Dog again without folks complaining, so we’ll have breakfast at the rec. Tamar and her crew have volunteered to handle the skillets and waffle irons. Gary, I’ll get you a food order in a day or two, so we’ll have enough on hand without having to raid Rocky’s fridge.”

  “Okay. Just let me know.”

  “Then, after breakfast, I thought we’d have a walking tour of the town. None of them have seen the new Henry Adams, so I want to show it off. Especially the school.”

  Gary thought back on the former Henry Adams High School. It had been almost sixty years old in those days, and just big enough to hold the seventy students in grades nine through twelve. Compared to the other schools in the area, it had been wholly inadequate in terms of science labs, athletic facilities, and what passed for technology back then, but it had been theirs.

  Lily’s voice cut into his thoughts. “After the tour, we’ll go back to the rec and have a cookout, weather permitting. And Saturday night will be the dance, complete with DJ.”

  Gary asked, “So how many people are coming?”

  “The list is in your packet.”

  Gary found the list and, as he scanned it, froze at the sight of two names: Eleanor Price and Colleen Ewing Baker, his ex-wife. “Colleen’s coming?”

  Lily nodded, looking unhappy. “I sent her a flyer, just being polite. I never thought she’d actually RSVP, but she did.”

  He blew out a breath. She was the last person he wanted to see.

  “I’m sorry, Gary.”

  He waved it off. “No apologies needed. It’s just a weekend. I’ll deal with it.” He hoped Colleen and her husband had a hotel room because staying with him and the girls would not be an option.

  Lily still wore a concerned look, so he said, “I’m okay, Lil. Promise.” He reread the list, this time taking in the names of some of the guys who’d been on the basketball team he and Trent co-captained. Thinking about them made him smile and remember the good times they’d shared, but his eyes kept straying back to Nori’s name. She was listed as “Price,” the surname she’d had back in the day. Had she not married? Would she speak to him? Would she remember him? When he glanced up again, he saw Lily still watching him. She and Nori had been on the track team together. Did Lily know what he was thinking? Had she and Nori continued their friendship? After the way his relationship with her crashed and burned, did he even have a right to question Lily about her?

  Trent asked his wife, “Is there anything else we need?”

  “I would like any old pictures you may have. I asked our classmates to bring theirs. We’ll set them out so everyone can see them.”

  “Tamar has all mine,” Trent said. “I’ll grab them from her next time I’m out there. We might also want to break out the video Amari and Preston surprised us with at our wedding reception.”

  “I’d forgotten about that. I’ll make myself a note to dig it out.”

  Gary said, “I have my old albums at the house. I’ll look through them. I’m sure I have some photos we can use.”

  Lily nodded. “Good. The hotel in Franklin is where most of the people will be staying, so the three of us may have to play taxi drivers that weekend. We may also need to make a few runs to the airport.”

  “I’m in,” Gary said, wondering where Nori lived now and if she’d be flying in or driving. “I plan to take those days off. I’ve already told Gemma.”

  They spent a few more minutes talking over some minor details. He did his best to not let the prospect of having to deal with Colleen dampen his enthusiasm, but it was difficult.

  Arriving home, he turned out the porch light and climbed the stairs to the second floor to check on his girls. This was the house he’d grown up in. He was an only child, so all the love his parents had was poured onto him. They’d been strict but fair and he tried to apply that same love and standard to his own parenting. Colleen hadn’t let him participate much in the girls’ early raising, but he liked to think he was making up for that now.

  He stuck his head in Leah’s open door. “Hey, Leah.”

  She was seated on the bed with her laptop. “Hey, Dad. How’d the meeting go?”

  “It went well. It’s going to be fun. Found out your mother’s coming.”

  Distaste flashed over her face for a second, then vanished before she asked flatly, “Is she staying with us?”

  “No.”

  He thought he saw her tension drain.

  “You didn’t talk much about how things went in Atlanta this summer.”

  Still focused on the
screen, she replied, “Not much to talk about. We went, we stayed, we came home.”

  Gary studied her silently. She finally looked up again. “Honestly? When I’m eighteen, I won’t be going back.”

  She and her mother had never meshed the way Colleen and Tiffany had. Colleen seemed intimidated by Leah’s intelligence, and instead of taking pride in all that Leah was, she did her best to undermine it by insisting being smart wasn’t as important as being stylish and pretty. When Leah was in middle school and wanted to attend Space Camp, he and Colleen had a huge argument over whether she’d be allowed to go. Colleen felt it was a waste of money, but he took Leah’s side and refused to back down. Colleen eventually relented, but it was the first of many battles he waged on behalf of Leah’s right to become who she wanted to be. “Lee, do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not really, Dad. I . . . maybe one day, but not now. Is that okay?”

  “Yes, but one more question, and I need you to be truthful.”

  Leah waited.

  “She didn’t hurt you physically, did she? Nothing happened with her new husband?”

  Leah shook her head. “No, Brad’s nice. She just hurt my feelings, as always, but we’ll talk about that too, when I’m old enough to process it better.”

  Her stoicism broke his heart. “I’m here for you, Lee. No matter what.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you need to talk to Reverend Paula?”

  “No, I’m good. Promise. Now, let me get back to this. Okay?” She smiled.

  “Okay. But, Lee—”

  “Daddy. Bye.”

  He grinned and dropped his head. Their smiles met, and he left her and walked across the hall to check on Tiffany.

  She was painting her nails. “Hey, Tiff.”