Jason slouched. “How come Dad never sends us any money?”
Lucy refrained from rolling her eyes. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Because he’s a jerk.”
Matthew’s lively expression fell. “Yeah…he’s a jerk.”
“I know you boys are mad at him, but you have to admit he does pay child support.” On a sour note, she added, “Most of the time.”
She hated to bash Gary, tried not to in case one day he stepped up to the plate and was actually a dad to the boys. Once they were spoken, she couldn’t take negative words back, but sometimes they just slipped out.
“How come we can’t have the child support to buy comics?”
“Because it goes toward food and electricity.”
“I don’t want electricity,” Matt grumbled, stacking his fists and lowering his chin on top of them.
Lucy smiled. “But you use it every time you leave the light on in your bedroom.” She drank a swallow of iced tea. “Dad helps, so I don’t want you to think he doesn’t do anything.”
It was important to Lucy that the boys didn’t hate their father, even though he was an absentee dad. Sons looked at adult males as role models, and Gary Carpenter was surely no role model. So Lucy had to improvise and make him appear a level better than he was.
His lack of being here still annoyed her in that he didn’t participate in Jason and Matt’s lives. There was no excuse for Gary to be down in Mexico with another woman. He should have stayed in Boise, been there for her sons and been a dad.
But Gary had his own agenda and there wasn’t a darn thing Lucy could do to change how her ex-husband thought. She’d wasted enough time on that over the course of their marriage.
The food came, and she and the boys enjoyed a family dinner together. It felt good. Right. She forgot about past hurts, the wrong choices, and just enjoyed. She even let the boys order dessert, and just as they were finishing off the last spoonfuls of chocolate syrup in melted vanilla ice cream sundaes, Drew came into Woolly Burgers with the other Little League coaches.
The group stopped by the table and said hello to the boys. The coach Matt had was pleasant and attractive. Too bad he wore a gold wedding ring. The fact that she noticed had Lucy silently chastising herself. He complimented Matt on his fielding, then said he’d see him day after tomorrow. The men filled a table, but Drew lagged behind.
“How’s it going, Jason?” he asked.
“Okay.”
Lucy kept her gaze leveled on Drew, wondering about his past and wishing she knew more. How could he have tossed away a great career for an addiction? She’d never understand why someone would cave to the lure of drugs. She hardly ever took a pain reliever, unless she had bad cramps or a headache. Drew’s past didn’t make sense and perhaps the Greenbaums didn’t know the whole story.
Drew shifted his stance, emphasizing the strength in his well-muscled thighs. The faded blue jeans he wore fit him snugly, but they weren’t too tight. A striped, button-down Oxford shirt made his shoulders appear quite broad. He tucked the tails in, so Lucy could see his stomach was flat, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. For his age, he was in great shape. She couldn’t help admiring him, and when she caught herself, she looked away.
“We’ll be doing dailies at nine,” Drew said to Jason, “but if you want to come an hour early, I’ll let you pitch some balls to me.”
“Yeah, sure. I could do that.” Jason seemed to really want to, and it made Lucy take notice. He’d complained about having to try out for Little League, but when he’d found out he’d made the team, he had looked pleased. She knew baseball would be good for him. Too bad he had to be around Drew….
She wished she could figure out if he was fit or unfit to coach. Surely the Little League commission had checked him out. They were very stringent in their guidelines. So many parents sued now, it was ridiculous.
“Just make sure you bring your doctor’s release.” Drew’s profile drew her attention—his nose and straight forehead, the shape of his mouth.
“I’ll get it.” Lucy crossed her arms, perhaps a subconscious move to ward away thoughts of him because she found her reaction to him vaguely disturbing.
His attention turned to her and he smiled. A tingle started in the pit of her belly. She hated that he could cause her to feel a little flutter. “How’re you?”
“Fine.”
“Everything go all right at the Greenbaums?”
“I got the job.”
“You’ll like working for them. They’re good people.”
Lucy wondered how good Drew would think they were if he knew they talked about his past, even with favor and sympathy.
“Hey, Coach.” Matt, who had quietly listened to the exchange, finally burst in. “Do you think if I got one of your baseball cards, you could autograph it to me?”
“Absolutely.”
“Gee, thanks!”
Drew glanced over his shoulder to the table where his friends sat. “I better go. See you around.”
A moment later, Lucy paid the bill and drove the boys home.
Switching on lights, she closed the kitchen window to ward off the chill mountain air that had settled in. She looked at the stack of mail on the counter, and watched Jason finger through the envelopes. He didn’t have to tell her what he was hoping for.
She’d gone to their post office box earlier in the day, and what he wanted had come.
He grabbed an envelope and waved it at her. “Sweet! My car insurance money. When can we buy me a replacement truck?” Jason’s face lit up as if it were his birthday. She hated to knock the wind out of his sail, but he’d given her no choice.
“We aren’t,” she replied, walking into the kitchen and getting a glass of water.
“Whadda you mean?”
“I’m not buying you another truck, Jason.”
“Why not?”
“Because you haven’t earned it.”
He lowered the envelope, stared hard
