Sally Hayes - Magic In A Jelly Jar

“Abbie, I’m sorry. I love you very much. You know that, don’t you? And I always will.”

“I don’t understand why you had to go so far away.”

And Samantha simply couldn’t explain it to her, except to say, “You know the worst thing about being a grown-up is that we don’t always get to do what we want or to live where we want or to see the people we love as much as we’d like. But I do love you. I won’t ever stop. And I love Sarah, too.”

“You just don’t love Daddy?”

Samantha sighed, then drew in a shaky breath. Richard didn’t love her anymore. That was the problem. But she couldn’t make him the villain here, not to his daughter. Samantha wanted Abbie and Sarah to be happy now with Richard and his new wife, even if it had broken Samantha’s heart to lose the girls. And if she wanted the girls to be happy, she couldn’t blame their father for what happened.

“Abbie, I’m so sorry. If I could, I’d wave a magic wand and everything would go back to the way it was before, and we’d all be together again.”

“But you can do all sorts of magic,” Abbie argued. “I saw you. Lots of times. Can’t you fix this? So we can be together again?”

“No, sweetie, I can’t.”

“Well…can I at least call you? When Daddy isn’t here? So we can just talk sometimes?”

“Abbie, it’s long distance. Your father’s going to know you called when he gets the bill and sees my number there.”

“He will?”

“I’m afraid so. You’re going to have to tell him.”

“But he’ll get mad.”

“Maybe not so mad if you tell him first, Abbie. Tell him you’re sorry, and then ask him if it’s okay if you call again sometimes. Maybe on my birthday. Do you remember when it is?”

“May?”

“Yes, in May.”

“But that’s four whole months away! What if I don’t want to wait that long? What if I need to talk to you?”

Swallowing hard, barely managing to keep her voice steady, Samantha said, “You’re going to have to ask your father and do what he says. Because he’s your father.”

Whereas, she was nothing to Abbie anymore, at least not according to Abbie’s father. Never mind that Samantha spent three years mothering Abbie and Sarah, or that she couldn’t love them more if she’d given birth to them.

“Abbie?” she said softly, working hard not to let the bitterness come through. “Your father is the one who gets to decide about these things, okay?”

“It’s just not fair,” Abbie said tearfully.

“I know.” Samantha had to cover the receiver for a minute, because she was crying so hard and she didn’t want the little girl to hear. It would only make this harder. “I love you, sweetie. Tell Sarah I love her, too.”

And then Samantha hung up the phone and wept.

Joe had no choice but to bring Dani along when he took Luke to Dr. Carter’s office. He picked them both up from the late-stay program where they stayed from the time school ended until he got there after work. Then they drove straight to Dr. Carter’s, because that was the only way he was going to make it on time.

In the truck Dani had a million questions about where they were going and why. Once she knew Luke was in trouble, she was beside herself with glee. While Joe tried to deal with whatever Luke had done, she danced around Joe, pointing out that she hadn’t done whatever Luke had.

Joe could be reading Luke the riot act for pulling his sister’s hair, and the next thing he knew, Dani would be smiling and chanting, “I didn’t pull anyone’s hair. I didn’t pull anyone’s hair,” which infuriated Luke even more and didn’t do much for Joe’s mood, either.

Joe finally decided a bribe was in order, because he didn’t want the good doctor to think both his kids were heathens. He told Dani that if she behaved, didn’t break anything or steal anything and managed to keep fairly quiet, they would find out where she could get a glow-in-the-dark toothbrush, too.

“Pink?” she said.

Anything, Joe thought. If only she’d behave for the next ten minutes.

“Pink,” he said, praying that glow-in-the-dark toothbrushes came in pink and that Dr. Carter could find her one.

They pulled into the parking lot and climbed out of the car, Dani singing a limerick at the top of her lungs that had Luke begging Joe to make her be quiet. Joe had the fairy. Luke was dragging his heels. Joe put his hand at his son’s back to propel him toward the door.

“Do y’think she’s gonna be really mad?” Luke said, as if that meant much more to him than making his father mad.

“I think she’s going to be disappointed that you would take something that didn’t belong to you, especially something of hers, because she thought you were her friend.”

“Oh.” Luke looked even more miserable than before, and his steps had slowed to a crawl.

“It’s not going to get any easier,” Joe said, holding open the door so Dani could dance through.

“You sure about that?” Luke hung back on the sidewalk.

“Positive.” Joe motioned for him to move along. “In. Now. She stayed late tonight to talk to us.”

Dani was gazing at the fairies in the display case with the same sort of awe Luke had shown the day before.

“Don’t touch anything,” Joe warned her as he approached the window to the receptionist desk.

A young woman with reddish hair and a bright smile whom he hadn’t noticed the day before was waiting for him. Three more women, all staring at him and smiling, stood behind her.

“Mr. Morgan?” the redhead said.

“Yes.” Lord, he was infamous at the dentist’s office. His kid pulled teeth and lifted fairies from the waiting room.

All four women smiled at him.

“And this is Luke? And…?”

“His sister, Dani.”

Dani turned around and grinned. “Daddy, it’s just like in the book! Luke’s magic book!”

Joe winced, the legend of the tooth fairy growing ever larger in the minds of his children. “Don’t touch anything, sweetheart, okay?”

He turned back to the women, who were still waiting, still smiling. Didn’t they have anything to do?

“Samantha’s in her office. She’s expecting you,” the redhead said. “If you’d like to have a word with her first, Luke and Dani can play here for a few minutes. I’d be happy to keep an eye on them.”

Joe hesitated. Did he trust himself alone with Dr. Carter again? Maybe she’d pull another scarf out of his shirt pocket. Or explain to him how she made the ceiling glitter like that and how stars came to shoot across the starry sky she’d created in her examination room.

He glanced back at the kids, Dani in awe of the fairy collection, Luke sitting miserably in the corner.

“Don’t worry,” the woman said. “I have three kids of my own, and dozens come in here every day. I know all the possibilities for trouble in this room.”

Joe worked up a smile and tipped his head to her. “Thank you, ma’am. I would like to talk to the dentist.”

He told the kids he’d be back shortly, warned them again about behaving, then headed down the hallway grinning like an idiot. He was here to return a piece of stolen property, after all, and to beg for a trick toothbrush for his baby girl.

This in no way resembled a date, even if he had tried to take a bath in the sink at the office after work to get rid of the worst of the grime and the sweat clinging to him, then thrown on the clean shirt he tried to remember to keep in the car for those days he was summoned to Luke’s school on the way home from work.

Hell, he wouldn’t know what a date was, but he for damned sure knew this wasn’t the way to make a good first impression on a woman.