attention went to Jean. “I heard you’re a dancer.”
“I take dancing. I’m not very good, though.” Jean stared at the tabletop.
“I take it too,” Lizzy proudly announced.
Stacey acknowledged her with a look of wide-eyed wonderment and asked, “You’re a dancer too? Awesome!”
Stacey’s focus was completely on his girls and it was genuine. They needed that in their lives. Their mother had never been there for them. The few women he’d had anything to do with in the years since his divorce had been more one-night stands than anything. He certainly had not brought them home to meet his daughters.
“That’s great. I never had a chance to learn.” Stacey leaned toward them as if enthralled with what Jean and Lizzy were telling her.
“Why not?” Lizzy asked, but Jean appeared uninterested.
“I moved around a lot and my mother didn’t put me in any classes.”
“You could come to ours,” Lizzy offered so emphatically that Cody couldn’t help but chuckle. The action felt good. He could only imagine Stacey in an eight and under class of girls in tutus.
“I think that would be fun but I don’t think I’ll be on Maple Island long enough to take lessons now either.” Stacey hadn’t taken her eyes off the girls, especially Jean.
“Where’re you going?” Jean asked, frowning at the tabletop.
“In a few weeks I’ll be going to Ethiopia after a quick stop to visit my mother for a couple of days.”
Jean sat straighter in her chair. “Ethiopia. We’ve been studying about that country in geography. It’s in Africa, isn’t it? That’s a long way away.”
For once his oldest was engaged in the conversation. Stacey had a carefree manner about her. That unique congeniality came from living life on the move with the ease of the wind. Her life was a complete contrast to his. Still, he liked her ability to interact with people as if she’d known them forever. He’d seen her use that skill with his patients and now with his girls. She never treated people as though they were strangers. That was a talent to admire.
“It is, but I’m looking forward to going,” Stacey said.
“Why?” Lizzy asked.
“Because I’ll get to help lots of boys and girls.”
“How?” Jean wanted to know, finally turning to study Stacey’s face.
“I’m a nurse. So I’ll help them feel better.”
Jean lowered her gaze again but stopped short of the table surface. With a tentative touch, she fingered the wooden bead bracelet on Stacey’s wrist.
“You like it? It’s from Bolivia.”
“Boo-liver-a,” Lizzy said.
He and Stacey tried not to laugh.
“Bo-li-via,” Stacey said slowly. “It’s in South America.” She turned back to Jean. “A girl about your age made it for me.” She took it off and handed it to Jean. “You can have it. I bet she’d like to know that a girl in America is wearing it.”
Jean looked at her father in silent question. He nodded. “If Stacey says it’s okay.”
“It is. I don’t get to wear it enough. If you have it, Jean, I’ll know it’ll be cared for.”
“Thank you.” Jean’s words were almost inaudible as she placed the bracelet on her slim wrist.
Stacey continued patiently engaging his girls in conversation until the drinks and pizza arrived.
“I hope you didn’t feel forced into eating this just because it was what we were having.” Cody put a slice on each of the girl’s plates.
“Not at all. I don’t always get pizza in the places I go.” Stacey gave Jean and Lizzy a conspiratorial look. “I have to fill up when I have a chance.” They nodded in simultaneous agreement.
Cody asked the girls what they’d done today, particularly how school had gone.
“I thought you stayed in the day care,” Stacey said.
“We do,” both replied at the same time.
“They go there before school opens, and then are transported to school and back again when school finishes.” Cody took a bite of his pizza.
“Nice and convenient.” Stacey pulled a second slice from the pizza sheet. Cheese strung out, breaking as she turned its triangle edge into her mouth.
Cody held his breath as the cheese landed on her chin. “That was the plan when Alex and I came up with the idea. So far it has worked out great.”
“You have cheese on your chin,” Jean pointed out.
“I do?” Stacey wiped her napkin across her cheek.
Lizzy yelped. “It’s still there.”
Stacey dabbed the napkin over her face again.
“You didn’t get it.” Lizzy giggled.
“Here, let me help.” Cody reached across the table with his napkin in hand. As he removed the cheese, his gaze rose to find Stacey watching him. Her eyes were a forest green, and there was a twinkle in them. They looked like an inviting place where he could go and forget his cares.
“Hey, Daddy. Can we go get an ice cream?” Jean asked, dropping a crust on her plate.
Jerked back to reality, Cody quickly returned his hand to his side of the table. “Yeah, sure,” he said before he’d thought about it.
“Yay,” both girls yelled.
He put a finger to his mouth. “Shush. Not so loud. We’re inside.”
“You want to go with us?” Jean asked as she and Lizzy turned to Stacey.
She looked at him briefly. He did his best not to react one way or another but he didn’t think that was a good idea. For him or the girls.
Finally, Stacey said, “I don’t believe so this time. I’ve had too much pizza. Maybe next time.”
To his amazement, Jean looked as disappointed as he felt. Why? he questioned himself on both accounts. Stacey had managed to forge some kind of relationship with his elder daughter who normally didn’t warm up to strangers, especially female ones. So, what was it about Stacey that had him and Jean doing and saying things they didn’t ordinarily do?
He paid for their meal despite Stacey arguing that she needed to cover her share. “Because of you we didn’t have to wait to eat. The least I can do is get your meal.”
“Thank you, then.”
They were exiting the bistro when Jean pointed out the poster about the island’s Founder’s Day Weekend taped to the glass window. “Daddy, Fleur has been teaching us dances at day care. She wants us to do them on Saturday of Founder’s Day Weekend. We have to have costumes.”
“Costumes. That sounds like fun. I love to dress up,” Stacey commented as she held the door open for the girls to exit.
Cody almost groaned out loud. Putting together costumes was his least favorite thing to do. Imagination wasn’t his strong suit. They’d had to have outfits for the library’s Fright Night a couple of months back. They had gone as trolls only because those had been the only costumes he could find in the store. He believed he should at least be allowed a full year before he had to come up with more. The side of his brain he used most held facts and numbers. He had to stretch to the other to be creative and inventive. Hopefully, Fleur, a recent patient and now the soon-to-be wife of Rick Fleming, a doctor at the clinic, would provide some guidelines or ideas.
They were out on the sidewalk when Stacey asked, “Founder’s Day Weekend.