Bachelor Father (5 page)

Wearily, she closed the file folder. She’d
bring the case up at tomorrow’s staff meeting and not call Brett
until she had something concrete to tell him.

Brett stormed into his neighbor Tina’s house,
closing the door none too quietly behind him.

“Unca, Unca.” Jake jumped up from his pile of
wood blocks and ran to Brett. He lifted the toddler and hugged him
tightly. Molly Hennessey was not going to take Jake away from
him.

Tina looked over from the couch where she was
rolling socks. “From the sound of the door, I’d venture to say,
your meeting at Thayer House didn’t go as you expected.” She patted
the sofa beside her. “Want to talk about it?”

Brett put Jake down next to the blocks and
dropped onto the couch. He ran his hand back over his hair. “She
thinks she’s going to take Jake away.” He rammed his fist against
the arm of the couch.

“What about the new adoption application you
started with Susan Green?” Tina asked.

“That’s going ahead, in theory at least,” he
answered sarcastically.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” Brett got up and
started pacing the room, picking up Jake’s things as if getting
ready to leave.

“Brett!” Tina raised her hands as he passed by
as if to shake him.

He slumped on the couch in resignation,
waiting for her cross-examination. While he might be able to get
the roughest of day laborers to back down with a look and a growl,
he’d never managed to get Tina to give an inch once she’d set her
chin in determination. Not that he hadn’t tried and tried hard over
the years.

“Tell me about it,” she said
gently.

“I blew it,” he said as if that explained
everything.

“Come on,” she prodded. “What do you
mean?”

“After a shaky start, it seemed to go okay.”
He told her about Molly arriving early before he’d had a chance to
get his house in some semblance of order and about Humphrey’s
exuberant greeting. “Molly was a good sport. She took everything in
stride.”

His sister nodded. “That sounds promising.
Then, what happened?”

“Molly asked about the new adoption
application and about a lot of stuff she thought Susan had told me.
Maybe Susan had.” He shook his head. “You know how I was those
first couple of weeks.”

“Me, too,” Tina said. “Kate was my best
friend.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got Amy and your parents,”
Brett said, rejecting her sympathy. “Jake’s my only family now, and
I could lose him, too.”

Tina ignored his jibe. “So, what did she
say?”

“Something about the case not
being handled
according to
procedures
.” He emphasized the last three
words. “And that Thayer House should have reassumed custody of Jake
when I told Susan about Kate and David.”

“Um, hmmm.”

“I might have gotten a little defensive when
she mentioned Thayer House taking custody of Jake.” Defensive. He’d
all but thrown her out of his house.

“I’ll bet you did,” Tina said with a superior
smile. “I have seen you act a bit hastily on occasion. Now, did she
actually say Thayer House has to take custody?”

“No,” he admitted. “Yesterday, she said she
had to discuss the case with her supervisor.”

“Okay. And she called you this morning and
asked you to come in and talk with her.”

“Yeah.”

“What did she say this morning?”

“To make it short, she said that Thayer House
and Korean Child Welfare think placing Jake in foster care while I
reapply for adoption would be in Jake’s best interest.”

“That sounds like general procedure to me,
Tina said slipping into her attorney persona. “Did you ask about
being appointed as Jake’s foster parent?”

“No, I didn’t know I could. She also said
they’d have to put Jake on the Waiting Children List until I was
approved for adoption under the new rules.”

“I was afraid of that. Absent extenuating
circumstances, they have to list Jake as available for
adoption.”

“Absent extenuating circumstances.” Brett
hated it when Tina turned attorney on him. What he needed was a
sympathetic friend, not an attorney. “Susan Green seemed to think
the circumstances were extenuating enough,” he argued.

“Maybe your new caseworker will, too, once she
starts the case study and gets to know you better.”

“I don’t know about that. I get the distinct
feeling the adoption would go a lot smoother if I weren’t
single.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah. What do you say, Tina. Wanna get
married?” He managed a feeble smile.

“Sorry, you’re too late. Been there, done
that. I like my life the way it, just Amy and me. But I would like
to meet the woman who could slip a ring on your elusive
finger.”

Brett thought of his frequent and fleeting
romantic entanglements. “You’re right. Marriage would ruin our
perfectly good friendship.”

Tina laughed. “But, seriously, what’s next.
I’ll help any way I can, legally or otherwise—short of marriage,
that is.”

“I’m not sure. What I do know is that no one
is going take Jake away from me temporarily, or otherwise, without
a good fight.”

Chapter Four

Molly hesitated at the door. She was late for
the weekly staff meeting, and it was all Brett’s fault. If she
weren’t so wrapped up in his case, she wouldn’t have lost track of
the time. If she hadn’t been replaying yesterday in her mind on the
way to the meeting, she wouldn’t have bumped into the mail bin in
the hall and scattered her case files all over the floor.
Hopefully, she could slip into the conference room without
interrupting the meeting.

Charles motioned to her. Good, he’d saved a
seat. Molly slid into the chair next to him.

“Did I miss anything?” she
whispered.

Charles shook his head.

Flipping her pad to a clean sheet, Molly
focused on the woman speaking, the senior director of adoptions and
foster care.

“Before we start our case discussions,” the
director said, “I have the announcement we’ve all been waiting
for.”

The roomed buzzed with
anticipation.

“Korean Child Welfare has given Thayer House
the official go ahead to begin accepting adoption applications from
single parents, as of January 1.”

Molly’s heart leapt with relief. One obstacle
down, two to go. If only it could be as easy to keep Jake out of
foster care and available for adoption until approval came through
on Brett’s new application. Molly had gone over Brett’s application
carefully and couldn’t see any good reason why he wouldn’t be
approved. But—

“Hey, girl, that’s your ticket,” Charles said,
giving her a thumbs up sign.

“I sure hope, so,” Molly replied, buoyed by
Charles’ enthusiasm.

“Folks.” The director waited while the room
quieted. “I don’t have all the details yet, but I can try to answer
any questions you have about the policy change. Or should we move
on to our case discussions?”

Apprehension rippled through Molly. Being new
to the job, she hadn’t brought up a case for discussion before. Did
she want to lay Brett’s situation out before everyone and risk
censure for how she’d handled his case so far? She took a deep
breath and cleared her throat, “I have a case that will be very
much affected by the change. In fact, the whole adoption hinges on
it. . . ”

 
Molly left the staff meeting
with her prayers answered and her self-confidence restored.
Everyone seemed to be behind her. The director had advised her to
complete Brett’s home visit report today so it could go out Monday
with the regular bi-weekly packet to Korea. Several of her fellow
caseworkers had encouraged her to include a recommendation that
Jake remain with Brett until his new adoption application could be
processed. Maybe she wouldn’t be risking her job, after all, going
to bat for Brett.

She dropped her case files on her desk. They
could be filed later. What she needed to do now was call Brett.
Reaching for the phone, she noticed the flashing light. Instinct
told her the message was from Brett. Molly punched in her voice
mail code.

“Molly, this is Brett Cahill.”

At the sound of his deep voice, the tempo of
her heart picked up. She listened in a state of half dread, half
jubilance while the message continued.

“I want to apologize for storming out on you
yesterday. I see where you’re coming from. You have to do your job.
I can deal with that.” His voice became harsher. “But don’t
misunderstand me. I’ll fight for Jake with everything I have. If we
can’t work together, I’ll ask to have my case transferred to
someone else.”

What an easy out. She could call Brett back
and tell him he would be better off working with someone
else.

Brett lifted Jake from the car seat and
boosted him to his hip. Jake protested, chattering something in
Korean, then saying, “Me big, walk.”

Brett chuckled. “Okay, okay, but you have to
hold my hand tightly. The cars drive along here pretty fast.” He
made a whooshing sound to emphasize his point, prompting a giggle
from Jake. Brett gave him a hug, breathing in Jake’s baby scent. No
doubt about it, the kid was taking over his life. He gripped Jake
tighter as if that action could block out all possibilities of
losing him.

“Down, Unca,” Jake shouted directly in his
ear.

Brett put Jake down and smiled at him. Taking
the boy’s hand, he headed across the street to the row house
Thayer’s had recently acquired as a residence for some of the older
teens under their care. At Jake’s toddling pace the walk across the
street took twice as long as it would have taken Brett
alone.

“This is it, Bud.” Brett pointed to a brown
brick house.

“Unca fiss?” Jake asked.

“Yep, we’re going to fix it up.”

The house looked solid enough from the
outside, but Brett knew it needed complete renovation inside.
That’s what had brought him and Jake here, bright and early on a
Saturday morning. International Families United, a group of
families in the area that had adopted Korean and Chinese children
through Thayer, had organized a family workday to help with the
reconstruction.

Brett took a deep breath and pulled open the
heavy oak door. He wasn’t hot on belonging to organizations, but he
wanted Jake to have ties to his Korean heritage. He hoped
continuing contact with other Asian children would help Jake to
develop a good sense of self and feel good about his being
different from the other children in their small
community.

And, while he might be new at this
parenting stuff, he knew about home repairs. Over the years, he,
Kate, and their mother had completely redone the farmhouse Mom had
inherited from Grandpa, the house where he and Jake now lived. He
smiled remembering those family projects. Grandpa in his wheelchair
giving instructions on the early projects, Mom with her
handy
Readers’ Digest
home repairs book talking them through later projects, after
Grandpa was gone. Brett had agreed to lend a hand today, with the
unconscious hope of creating similar memories for Jake.

Brett and Jake stepped into the foyer of the
house. A tug on his hand and the smell of fresh paint brought Brett
back to the present.

“Unca, Unca see.” Jake pointed at a group of
people already busy working in the adjoining room.

“I see. They’re painting the walls blue. Let’s
get your coat and hat off and we’ll see if we can help.” Brett bent
to unzip Jake’s jacket.

“See Boo,” Jake said.

“Yep, blue.”

“See Boo,” Jake insisted, pointing
determinedly. Brett squatted and observed the room from Jake’s
perspective, but he still couldn’t figure out what had the little
guy so excited. Jake continued to point and talk, alternating
between Korean and English and punctuating every couple of words
with “Boo.” Understanding any two-year old’s speech was hard
enough, let alone one who used two languages interchangeably as
Jake did.

Brett managed to slip off Jake’s coat and hat
and started to remove his own leather jacket. Jake took off like a
shot, running into the next room as fast as his chubby little legs
would carry him. Brett quickly caught up with him at the base of a
stepladder.

“See, Boo. Hi Boo,” Jake called.

Brett followed Jake’s gaze up the ladder,
taking in a pair of legs and a nicely rounded behind. Here was a
woman made to wear black leggings. Interested to see if the face
matched the legs, he glanced quickly over the powder blue
sweatshirt and directly into a pair of disconcerting green
eyes.

“Molly!” He hadn’t expected to run into her
here. Brett watched her reaction carefully. She stood perfectly
still gripping the ladder with one hand and holding a paint roller
mid stroke with the other. Their unresolved differences hung heavy
between them.