Shoe Strings

even need
to ask?”
    “Oh, I was, ah…”
    Cal stepped off the porch and met Jesse halfway down the
stone walkway, reached his hand out to feel the damp ends of his hair.   “Is that strawberry-kiwi I smell?   Damn it, Jesse.   If you’d ever bother to answer your cell
phone, you’d have known I had a renter.”
    “Now you tell me.”
    “She just got here this morning.”   He put his hands on his hips and closed
his eyes.   “Did she see you naked?”
    “No, but she damn near gave me a heart attack when I came
out of the bathroom.”   He patted his
heart.   “But the bigger jolt was her
looks.   Where’d she come from?   You been rubbing bottles and asking
genies for wishes?”
    Cal smacked Jesse affectionately on the head.   “Atlanta.   She called this morning and now she’s
here.   And I want her to stay.   Haven’t had any rental income since
October.”
    “Believe me, Dad, I want her to stay too.”
    “Then find somewhere else to shower and take a nap.   If she bolts, I’m going to have to start
paying Ty in IOUs.”
    Jesse cocked his head and put his hands on his hips.   “I don’t ever remember you paying me to
do work around here.”
    “That’s because you lived here.   Ty’s my grandson and he’s a
teenager.   If I want to see him, I’d
better make it worth his while.”
    “Well,” Jesse looked back toward the cabin, “I hope you’re
prepared to see a lot of me because Angelita’s made putting up with you worth
my while.”
    Cal ran a hand over his face.   “I don’t even know her story, son.   For all I know she could have a husband
coming up on the weekends.”
    “Did you ask her?”
    “No.”
    “Find out for me, would you?”   He punched his dad in the shoulder and
made his way to the Scout.   “God knows
you love to pry.”
    “Where’re you going?” Cal asked with an exasperated sigh.
    “Getting Ty from school.   He works for me for free.”

 

 
    Chapter 2
    Kerri Ann Bloodworth was pissed and she couldn’t for the
life of her figure out why.   She’d
spent three years, three solid years, nursing a grudge against Jesse for not
being around to help with Tyler.   And now, even though he’d been back for years, when he called and
announced he’d swing by the school and pick him up, let him work at the raft
shop for a few hours, and then bring him home after dinner, she was
pissed.  
    Not that she wasn’t just wishing she didn’t have to stop
working on the books for the thirty minutes it would take her to pick Ty up and
bring him back to the restaurant.   That
was beside the point.   The point
was…what the hell was the point?  
    She pushed back from her desk and rose to look out the
second story office window.   She
could hear Emilio and Frank laughing and telling stories in the kitchen below
as they restocked supplies and mixed up more dough for later that night.   With the mood she was in, it looked like
she was going to take a break anyway.  
    Some days, when she was feeling like this, edgy and restless
and completely unable to concentrate on the numbers in front of her, she’d
wander down and go head to head with the guys in the kitchen on whatever
subject they were discussing.   It
was usually women or sports, two topics she considered herself an expert on.   First and foremost, she was a
woman.   Second, she’d spent half her
life either cheering on every sport under the sun or helping Ty with the finer
points of his sport of choice.   Pitching, catching, hitting, football, in-line skating, how to hold a
lacrosse stick, the varied rules of hockey—these were all typical dad
responsibilities.   But just when Ty
was old enough to start participating in sports, Jesse decided he’d had enough
and went running for a better life in Atlanta.   So it was either give in to the
depression that swamped her most days or pick herself up by the bootstraps and
be both mom and dad to the little boy whose presence had immeasurably altered
her life.    
    And wasn’t it just a pisser that Jesse was back, had been
back for over five years, and she was still in a funk about him butting his nose
into Ty’s life without her permission?   She’d told him to go, damn near begged him to when their fighting was at
its worst and she’d find Ty crying into his pillow.  
    A sharp knock at the door had her whirling around and
clutching a hand to her chest in surprise.   “Come in.”
    Bryce Jenson poked his head in the door