A Son's Tale

“There are a lot of ways to accomplish that.”

“I know. I’ve been working on it most of the evening. I’ve looked up the local Big Brothers organization and left a message on their voice mail, but it says that it usually takes a couple of weeks after the initial interview to find a good match. They don’t want to place him with just anyone on their

list. They try to find a man whose schedule not only matches Sammie’s, but who has similar interests.”

Bringing her knees up to her chest, Morgan hugged them against her. “I also looked at scouting, but Cub Scouts don’t meet during the summer, so Big Brothers is my best option. I’m worried about the two-week wait, though. We go to court in twelve days… .”

Cal was quiet for so long, Morgan wondered if the call had been dropped. She checked her phone’s display to see that their connection was still active. And then she was just plain embarrassed for having gone on for so long.

He was being kind and she was burdening him with every detail of her life.

“I have a proposal to make.” Tingles slid through her when his deep voice came over the line. “Hear me out, and if you feel in any way uncomfortable with what I propose, I trust that you will let me know.”

Heart pounding, she said, “Okay.”

“I’m being presumptuous here, but it occurs to me that we might be able to help each other.”

His words didn’t settle her heart any. “Okay.”

“For the next several weeks you’re still my student and I am very conscious of the boundaries that places on us.”

She was twenty-nine and in college. As long as he didn’t fudge a grade for her there would be no impropriety in them knowing each other.

Not that she’d thought about it or anything. Ha! Just a hundred times or so over the past four years.

“At the same time, I think you would agree that our relationship has changed over this past week.”

“I would, yes,” she said, echoing his formal tone.

Her mind was all over the place. Trying to figure out where this was going. She got stopped at the phrase “help each other.” What kind of help could Cal Whittier need?

Especially when he had a sexy, earthy woman like Kelsey offering to make him dinner?

“I told you that my father lives with me.”

“Right.”

“What I didn’t say was that he’s there because if I left him to live alone, he would sit in his chair until he died.”

Obviously he was exaggerating.

“My father is suffering from severe depression.”

“Is he on medication?”

“No. The one time I got him into a clinic to be evaluated, they prescribed an antidepressant but he refused to take it. He also refused to go back.”

“How can I help?” The question was natural. Automatic.

“I’m not sure, but it occurred to me, as I listened to you talk about Big Brothers, that maybe Dad and I could help you—at least until you can get a match for Sammie—and being with Sammie might help Dad, too.”

Morgan breathed her first easy breath since she’d left Leslie Dinsmore’s office.

“Do you think your father would be willing to spend time with Sammie? Shouldn’t you ask him before you commit him to something?”

“I think he will. And if he doesn’t, I’ll still do it. I could bring Sammie over here and if Dad participates, fine, and if he doesn’t, we tried.”

“I take it you’ve tried things with him before?”