Judith McWilliams - The Summer Proposal

“Really?” Will’s eyes widened as he tried to imagine the scene.

“Can you read the book, Will?” Julie broke in.

“’Course I can,” Will scoffed. “But I don’t wanna. It’s dumb.”

“What do you like to read?” Julie asked.

“Star Trek books and Goosebumps and lots a’others.”

“I see,” Julie said slowly. “Unfortunately, I didn’t bring anything like those with me.”

“I gots a great book in my room. That guy that brought me here, he bought it for me in the airport to read on the plane,” Will said. “Wanna see it?”

“Sure,” Julie said.

Will jumped up and raced toward the house.

“What are those books he mentioned?” Caleb watched his son disappear through the French doors.

“Upper elementary level,” Julie said slowly.

“Do you think he really can read them? I mean, he’s never been to school.”

“Did you notice the cards?” she asked.

“I didn’t pay much attention. I assumed they were simply to break the ice. As far as I was concerned, he’d already melted it with his vocabulary,” he said dryly.

“It does seem to be a bit on the X-rated side,” she conceded. “But about those cards, Will remembered what he had guessed on all the cards. He didn’t have to ask. Or even stop and think. And he didn’t make a mistake.”

“There were only ten cards,” Caleb said.

“The average kid would be lucky to remember four of them.”

Caleb frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning he has a good memory. A very good memory.”

“I already knew that! He’s apparently remembered every vulgarity he’s ever heard.”

“Here it is.” Will burst through the French doors waving a ragged paperback. “It’s a great book, all about a Jewish boy whose parents come to live in the United States from Russia a long time ago. You wanna borrow it?” he offered.

“Thanks.” Julie accepted the book and tucked it into her briefcase.

“Have you ever tried writing a book yourself, Will?” she asked.

“Nah,” Will rejected the idea. “Printing’s too hard. Them squiggly letters don’t never come out right.”

“I see. How about math?” Julie asked. “What are six and eight?”

Will shrugged. “Don’t know. Ain’t got my calculator.”

“Which would seem to be a powerful argument for learning to do sums in your head,” Caleb observed.

“No, it ain’t,” Will said. “’Cause I ain’t the one what wants to know. She does.” He pointed a grubby finger at Julie. “She’s the one what should learn to add.”

“Definitely the judge’s offspring,” Caleb muttered.

“But—” Will started.

“Never mind,” Julie cut him off. “I think I have a fair idea of what I wanted to know. Thanks for your help, Will.”

“You all done?” Will looked surprised. “No more questions?”

“Nope. No more.”

“You coming back?” Will eyed her hopefully. “Maybe we could try them cards again. Maybe I gots that ESP, but it’s hidden deep.”

“Let’s hope it stays hidden,” Caleb muttered. “Will, I’m going to talk to Julie for a while. You go amuse yourself.”

Will obediently got to his feet and stood there looking at him.

“What is it?” Caleb asked.

“Where’s my ten bucks?”

Caleb frowned. “What ten bu…dollars?”

“Mom always gives me ten bucks to go outside and amuse myself when she wants to talk to her dates.”

Julie closed her eyes, praying the scorching heat she could feel burning its way over her cheekbones wasn’t as visible as it felt. She had no doubt why his mother had given him the money to disappear. And it sure wasn’t so she and her dates could talk.

She stole a quick glance at Caleb, but he looked more taken aback than angry at Will’s inadvertent disclosure.

“I don’t give bribes,” Caleb finally said. “And I expect to be obeyed.”

Will wrinkled his nose as he considered the situation. “But I expects my ten bucks, and I ain’t seeming to get it.”

“There is a difference,” Caleb said sternly. “I am the adult.”

“All that means is that you done lived longer,” Will retorted. “Someday I’ll be as old as you.”

“Not if you don’t get out of here right this moment!” Caleb snapped.

“Grown-ups!” Will grumbled as he stalked back into the house.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Caleb muttered.

Julie studied Caleb’s tense, frustrated features, not sure even in her own mind what to say to him. She liked Will and wanted to help him. But the trouble was, she also liked his father and that worried her.

“Caleb,” she began slowly.

“Not here,” Caleb cut her off. “He’s probably eavesdropping.”

“No, I ain’t!” Will yelled from just inside the French doors.

Julie hastily swallowed the giggle threatening to escape. She had the distinct feeling from Caleb’s harassed expression that he was not seeing the humor in the situation at the moment.

“Come on.” Caleb got to his feet. “We’ll go out for a cup of coffee. Away from little pitchers.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to drive. My car won’t start, and I haven’t had time to take it to the garage,” Julie said, trying to tell herself that the pleasure she felt at his suggestion they go out for coffee was only because she could use the extra time to figure out how to phrase her refusal and not because she wanted to be alone with him. The problem was, she had never been very good at self-deception.

Julie looked around with interest as Caleb pulled into the parking lot of a diner. The front of it was shaped like an old-fashioned trolley car, and it exuded a homey charm that appealed to her. But that it would appeal to Caleb surprised her. It was not at all the type of restaurant she would have expected a wealthy, sophisticated man like Caleb Tarrington to patronize.

“Coffee, please,” Caleb told the waitress who appeared beside their booth the moment they sat down.

Julie studied his long, tanned fingers as they beat an impatient tattoo on the tabletop while he waited for their coffee to arrive. They were strong fingers, but it wasn’t just physically that he was strong.

Caleb Tarrington was strong inside, where it really counted. In the character department. His dogged determination to do his best by his son was proof of that. His entire concentration had been on Will and how to best help him adjust to his new life.

The man deserved the truth from her.

“Thank you,” Julie murmured absently as the waitress set her coffee down. But how much of the truth would be beneficial without discouraging him? she wondered.

“Spare me the euphemisms.” Caleb seemed to read her mind with no difficulty. “Tell me what you think in plain English, not wrapped up in a lot of educational jargon or psychobabble.”

“Okay, if the plain unvarnished truth is what you want, then it’s what you’ll get.

“First of all, I think your son has been neglected. Not physically, but emotionally and socially.”

Caleb clamped his lips together as if holding back angry words, but who they were directed at, Julie didn’t know. His ex-wife for what she had done to Will, or, more accurately, hadn’t done, or herself for having the audacity to point it out.

“I figured that one out myself,” Caleb finally said. “But that’s past. It can’t be changed. Now we need to devise a strategy for dealing with it.”

Not we, Julie mentally corrected him. Caleb. She wasn’t going to get involved.

“I will give you my input, but I have plans for the summer,” Julie said.

“And your input is?” Caleb ignored the second part of her sentence.

“Based on my brief, my very brief, observation of your son, I would say that you have a two-pronged problem. The first and the easiest to deal with is his lack of necessary first-grade skills. It’s a big plus that he reads well. Hopefully, his reading has brought him into contact with some of the history he should know.”