5. Tag

5

TAG

T ag left the ice cream shop and headed down Maple Avenue to his truck, hoping he wouldn’t bump into anyone and get roped into a conversation. He was feeling out of sorts, but not for the usual reasons.

Tag was used to the worries and frustrations of the farm. Those came as regularly as rain, even if what was going wrong at any particular time was always a surprise. And of course he worried pretty much constantly about Chance and Olivia, and whether he was giving them the life they deserved.

And he knew that he should really be worried about the ice cream shop right now, and the hapless young woman who seemed determined to hurt herself or at the very least, destroy the store.

Instead, all he could think about right now was her smile.

Most people just smiled with their mouth, a tense thing if they didn’t mean it. His mother smiled with her eyes, that twinkle of blue telling you that she was amused or proud.

But Charlotte Kendrick smiled with her whole body.

He pictured her covered in strawberry ice cream, trying her best not to laugh, with her eyes dancing above the hand that stifled her smiling mouth. And when the laughter finally did bubble out, the sound of it had been like a rainbow, making the faded colors of the shop’s interior brighter for a moment, and making Tag himself feel warmer, like holding his hands out in front of a crackling fire.

Beautiful…

The thought came out of nowhere and he tried to crush it down immediately.

Sure, he had thought she was gorgeous when he’d bumped into her at the gas station yesterday. Clumsy and a little silly, maybe—but completely stunning with her long, dark hair and green eyes. And that car… it was the exact Mustang he’d always fantasized about owning, himself. What were the chances?

He’d let himself get a little lost that first time, just for a second, since he was pretty sure he’d never see her again.

But now those thoughts were coming to him unbidden, and he was going to have to put a lid on them. She was working for the family, and besides, he didn’t actually want a relationship. He’d had Iris, and that was enough for a lifetime.

He made up his mind not to think any more about it. The hardest part would be hiding from Allie that he’d ever had these thoughts about the girl.

His baby sister was practically a mind reader, and she would definitely try to kill him if she thought he had designs on her poor, injured best friend.

Serves her right for thinking I wasn’t a threat , he thought to himself grimly.

But he didn’t mean it. Like all his brothers, he adored Allie, and never wanted to disappoint her. She was the light of the Lawrence household, and when she was unhappy, everyone felt it.

Pulling up at the elementary school, he shot Allie a text to let her know he was picking up the kids himself today.

Normally, once she was done at the high school, Olivia walked over to the elementary school and waited for Chance. She would usually take him out to the playground, or read with him until Allie was done for the day and could drive them back to the farm where Tag would be wrapping up his day with the herd. Or if Allie was having a long day, the kids would take the bus home.

Tag hadn’t been planning to spend so much time in town today, but he’d been thrown off track by Charlotte, and he figured he might as well pick up the kids before the second milking.

He swung out of the truck and headed onto the elementary school lawn, where a few other parents were waiting.

Olivia stood under a tree, her nose in a book. But she looked up before Tag got to her, as if she had her Aunt Allie’s extra sense.

“Dad,” she said, looking surprised. “Why are you here?”

Whenever Olivia looked up from a book, she never failed to remind him of her mother. Iris had worn glasses that gave her a naturally wide-eyed look, like the one Olivia had now.

“I had to help out Aunt Allie’s friend over at the ice cream shop,” he told her. “I figured I’d come get you two today, so you wouldn’t have to wait.”

He expected Olivia to be excited to get home earlier, but instead she frowned at him and cocked her head to the side. The bell rang as she studied him, signaling that the children would soon be out.

“What’s she like?” Olivia asked.

“Allie’s friend?” he asked, surprised.

She nodded.

He frowned, trying to find a way to actually describe Charlotte.

Beautiful, funny, awkward, frustrating, annoying, dogged, clumsy…

“She’s a mess,” he heard himself say after a moment, shaking his head. “At least, she made a mess…”

“ Dad ,” Chance yelled as he ran out the front doors of the school, saving Tag from continuing to ramble. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

“Hey, bud,” Tag said fondly, as the boy wrapped himself around his waist. “I had to help the new girl at the ice cream shop.”

“Were you nice to her?” Chance asked, pulling back and eyeing his father suspiciously.

“What?” Tag asked.

“Aunt Allie said you might not be nice to her,” Chance said in a slightly hushed voice. “And you have to be nice to her because she’s been through a lot this year.”

“Wow,” Tag said. “Where did you hear all that?”

“Aunt Allie was talking to Grandma,” he said, shrugging.

There was no denying that Chance had grown up an awful lot in the last year. At four, he wouldn’t have been interested in that conversation. Today, he was pretty much mimicking his aunt’s confidential voice perfectly, and he had obviously been paying attention to what was being said if he could repeat it word-for-word like that.

Allie came out talking to another teacher, and one of the parents who had been waiting jogged up to talk to her. Tag waved to her, wanting to make sure she’d seen his text before he disappeared with the kids. She nodded to him and winked.

“Are we putting up the tree tonight?” Chance asked.

“Not tonight, bud,” Tag told him, taking his hand as the three of them headed for the truck. “It’s not time yet.”

“But you said after Thanksgiving,” Chance argued, as Tag opened the door and helped him into his booster. “And it’s after Thanksgiving.”

Olivia chuckled quietly.

“This weekend, I think,” Tag told him, wondering if the kid was going to be a lawyer one day as he closed the door and headed to his side.

“Okay,” Chance said when Tag was seated. He still sounded a little disappointed.

Tag felt a pang of familiar guilt. He honestly hadn’t been that pumped up about the holidays since losing Iris when Chance was barely two. He did his best for the kids’ sake, but that stuff had really been Iris’s department, so all the shopping, wrapping gifts, decorating, and cooking special foods only made him feel inadequate.

Chance had no idea, of course. But Tag was pretty sure Olivia noticed. At least they all lived on the farm and Mom and Dad still hosted the big meals and traditions—those things hadn’t changed.

“Where are we going?” Chance piped up from the back.

It was a good question. Tag scowled as he realized he’d headed back on Maple toward the village instead of taking Fox Hollow Road up to the farm.

He put on his signal to go left on Moose Avenue, but he couldn’t help glancing in the window of the ice cream store on his way past.

Charlotte stood by the big front pane like she was waiting for him. But her gaze was fixed on the park. She held an enormous creemee, and he would have bet anything it was dripping all over her hand as she stood there dreaming about who knew what.

He felt the corners of his mouth pulling up in spite of himself, and shook his head.

What am I thinking? She’s been through a lot. So have I.

He put his eyes back on the road where they belonged, but he couldn’t help catching Olivia glancing over at him.

Excuses as to why he was looking at the girl in the ice cream shop window, and promises that he would never replace her mother crowded his mind, but he couldn’t seem to let them out of his mouth. So he and his quiet daughter sat in silence as he made his way back to the country road that would take them home, where they all belonged, and where nothing was so confoundedly complicated.