17 Ronan

Early the next morning, Ronan was surprised when Spencer Stephens called. He had some things he wanted to talk over and wanted to stop by. Ronan agreed. The sooner they got through the three conditions in Aunt Effy Lou's will, the better.

Ronan agreed to meet Spencer in Cassie's bakery for lunch. Surprisingly, Spencer was on time.

"Hey, man. Good to see you."

Spencer held out his hand.

Taken aback by Spencer's promptness and sudden manners, Ronan shook his hand. "Let's grab some lunch. Cassie makes the best sandwiches in town. He ushered Spencer into line and gave the menu his full attention. Tennyson was a creature of habit, always ordering the same thing, turkey and Swiss on rye, while Ronan liked to mix things up. "Hi, Cass! Long time no see."

Ronan chuckled at his own joke. The last time he'd been in the bakery was two hours ago when he'd ordered a coffee.

"What can I get you?"

"I'll have the roast beef sandwich and a cup of the corn chowder."

Ronan turned to Spencer. "Plus whatever he wants."

"Everything looks so good. I'll have a tuna sandwich with tomato soup, please,"

Spencer said.

Grabbing the tray when the food was prepared, Ronan led Spencer to a booth in the back. Minutes later, they were joined by Fitzgibbon and Jude. "I hope you don't mind that the others are joining us."

"The more, the merrier."

Spencer offered both detectives a smile.

"Okay,"

Jude said, narrowing his eyes, "who are you and what have you done with Spencer? This is some Invasion of the Body Snatchers shit here."

Spencer took a bite from his sandwich, looking as if he was buying a little time to formulate his answer. "I did a lot of thinking about things last night and decided that Aunt Effy Lou is trying to help and not hurt me. I actually missed her ragging on me last night. Without her, the house was cold and lonely, which made me see things from her side of things. I've been a little shit. Didn't go to college or trade school because I thought Effy Lou would take care of me forever. Why did I need to get a job when she was paying for everything?"

Ronan was stunned by what he was hearing from Spencer. "It's great that you took stock of things and when you found yourself lacking decided to make a change instead of going on like you were."

He couldn't believe those words were coming out of his mouth. He'd thought the process with Spencer was going to take weeks, possibly months. "Do you have a plan on how you'd like to move forward?"

Taking another bite of his sandwich, Spencer nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I always like working on cars with my dad when I was a kid, so I thought I'd look into automotive programs."

"It's a good start,"

Fitzgibbon said. "Where are you with the three conditions of the will?"

"That's why I called Ronan. I've never donated money to anything or anyone but myself and have no idea what to do. I was hoping you'd have a suggestion or two."

Spencer's eyes moved between each of the three detectives.

"I might be able to help you with giving your time,"

Fitz began. "My husband runs the Tremont Street Mission. It's a homeless shelter in Boston. I'm sure he would be happy to have you on board for a day, serving food, wiping down tables, cleaning up from meals, or being a listening ear. What do you think?"

He pulled out his phone and looked to be typing a message.

"Your husband works with actual homeless people?"

Spencer asked, looking a bit confused.

"Did you think homeless people were fake?"

Jude asked, looking as if he couldn't believe he was asking the question.

"I don't know. I guess. It never really computed that there were people who actually slept on park benches or what not."

Spencer wore an embarrassed look. "I always had a house to live in, so I guess I just assumed everyone else did too."

"Jace said he'd love to have you down to the shelter this week. You in?"

Fitz asked.

Spencer paled, looking as if he'd bitten off way more than he could chew. "Uhhh…"

"I'll go with you,"

Ronan offered. "It won't be as scary if you're with someone you know."

"Okay, let's do it."

Spencer still looked concerned over the idea of spending the day at the shelter.

"All though, nothing could be as scary as the time Fitz and the governor were shot there,"

Ronan said, before having some of his soup.

"You were shot?"

Spencer asked, his eyes wide.

Fitzgibbon nodded. "Twice, as a matter of fact. Once while working with Ronan on a serial killer case. Ronan actually saved my life. The second time was at a fundraising gala when someone came into the shelter and started shooting. Ronan saved my life that time too."

"Are you sure Ronan wasn't the one who caused you to get shot in the first place?"

Jude asked with snarky grin.

"Bite me, asshole,"

Ronan muttered. "Do you have any idea what organization you'd like to donate to?"

"Your daughter was talking about her school library not having enough copies of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. Could I give them money to buy more books?"

Spencer asked. "Or could we buy the books and donate them to the school?"

"I think that's a good idea,"

Ronan agreed.

"Is that little Christenson kid still taking that book out every week?"

Jude asked with a snort.

"Yup!"

Ronan agreed. "He turns the book in when library time starts. It gets reshelved during story time and he always manages to race to the stacks to grab it before anyone else can."

"Why doesn't someone just buy a copy for Christmas or his birthday or something?"

Fitzgibbon asked.

Ronan shrugged. "No clue, but every single Library day Everly comes home in a snit because she couldn't take the book out of the library."

"Why don't you just buy her a copy?"

Jude offered.

"We're trying to teach her about money not growing on trees and encouraging her to get books through the library. Although, to be honest, I'm about at my breaking point. Today is library day. Maybe I'll run out and grab her a copy."

"If toady is library day, why don't we go buy a ton of books and bring them to the school?"

Spencer suggested.

"Sounds good to me,"

Ronan said. "How much are you looking to spend?"

Ronan grimaced at his question. How much Spencer donated was really none of his business. Effy Lou hadn't stipulated an amount to donate in her will, so the decision lay with Spencer.

"One thousand."

Spencer's gaze was on Ronan, as if he were waiting for the detective to give him a yay or nay."

"That's great. Why don't we head to the bookstore now?"

Ronan finished the rest of his soup and got up to throw out the trash.

"Let's do it."

Spencer turned to Fitz and Jude. "You guys wanna come too?"

"If we hurry, we can buy everything and be to the school in time for the kids' library time,"

Jude said. "I want to see the looks on everyone's faces."

"Me too,"

Fitz said. "I'll drive."

Ten minutes later, everyone was loaded into Fitzgibbon's SUV heading for the closest book store. Ronan had sent a quick text to Miss Fowler, the kids' new first grade teacher to let her know what was going on and also called the librarian to let her know about the donation. Lastly, he messaged old friend Principal Max Preston to give him a heads up as well.

When they got to the store, Spencer jumped out of the SUV with obvious excitement. "Aunt Effy Lou always bought me books for my birthday and Christmas. I always thought they were stupid presents because I wanted action figures or video games, but she really wanted the best for me."

"We buy our kids books all the time and spend about a half an hour or so before bed reading to them,"

Ronan said.

"Everly sounded excited for story time the night I had dinner with you guys."

"She can read on her own, but still loves listening to me tell stories. It will break my heart when the day comes that she doesn't want me reading to her before bed. We also talk about our day or something we're looking forward to the next day. I think it keeps us close."

If Ronan kept going on about this, he was going to start bawling in the middle of the bookstore. He held the door open for everyone and grabbed two baskets before leading everyone to the kids section.

It didn't take long before all the baskets were full.

"This was a lot of fun,"

Spencer said, lugging his load toward the cash registers. "I feel good knowing that we're doing something to help the kids."

"I thought you'd feel that way once we got into the spirit of things. The best thing about being an adult is being able to do anything we want whenever we want to do it. We can be completely selfish because the only person we're affecting is ourselves. All of that changes when you get married and now you're looking out for someone else, wanting them to be happy and to feel safe. It all changes again when you become a parent. Everything you do is for your kids. If Everly needed a heart, I'd cut my own out of my chest for her. You're growing up right before my eyes. Aunt Effy Lou would be proud of you."

Ronan patted Spencer's shoulder.

"Do you think she's here with us right now?"

Spencer turned to look behind him, as if he expected to see Effy Lou standing in line with an armload of romance novels.

"I hope so."

Ronan grinned. "It would be a shame for her to have gone through all the trouble of asking you to do things in her will and not be here to see your moment of triumph."

"I told Tennyson to ask Aunt Effy Lou to stop coming to see me at the house."

Spencer's face reddened with obvious embarrassment. "Can you ask him to speak with her and tell her it's all right to come around?"

"You got it!"

Ronan beamed with pride. Spencer had come a long way from the sniveling man-child of a few days ago to the young man he was blossoming into today. Ronan hoped Effy Lou had been around for the start of her nephew's transformation. He had a feeling this was going to continue tomorrow at the shelter.

Fingers crossed.