“Give me an example,” he said, steering the boat along the coastline. More surfers were gathered at the breakers and, on shore, towels were scattered across the sand like brightly colored jewels dropped by a careless hand.
“All right,” she said and straightened her shoulders as if preparing to defend her position. Her voice was stronger, colored with the determination she felt to run her own life. “At home, I volunteer with a program for single mothers.”
Her expression shifted, brightening, a smile curving her mouth. Enthusiasm lit up her eyes until they shone like a sunlit lake. When she started talking, he could hear pride in her voice along with a passion that stirred something inside him.
“Many of the women in the program simply need a little help in finding work or day care for their children,” she said. “There are widows or divorcées who are trying to get on their feet again.” Her eyes softened as she added, “But there are others. Girls who left school to have their babies and now don’t have the tools they’ll need to support themselves. Young women who’ve been abused or abandoned and have nowhere to turn.
“At the center, we offer parenting classes, continuing education courses and a safe day care for the kids. These young women arrive, worried about the future and when they leave, they’re ready to take on the world. It’s amazing, really.”
She turned on the bench seat, tucked one leg beneath her and rested one arm along the back of the seat. Facing him, she looked him in the eye and said, “The program has grown so much in the past couple of years. We’ve accomplished so many things and dozens of women are now able to care for their children and themselves. A few of our graduates have even taken jobs in the program to give back what they’ve received.”
“It sounds great.”
She smiled to herself and he saw the well-earned pride she felt. “It is, and it feels good to do something to actually help, you know? To step outside myself and really make a difference.”
“Sounds like you’re doing a good thing,” Garrett said quietly.
“Thank you.” She shrugged, but her smile only brightened. “I really feel as though I’m doing something important. These women have taught me so much, Garrett. They’re scared and alone. But so brave, too. And being involved with the program is something I’ve come to love. On my own.”
She sighed then and beneath the pride in her voice was a wistfulness that tore at him. “But my parents, sadly, don’t see it that way. They’re happy for me to volunteer—organizing fundraisers and writing checks. But they don’t approve of me donating my time. They want me in the family business and don’t want me, as they call it, ‘splitting my focus.’”
“They’re wrong,” he said and cut back enough on the throttle so that they were more drifting now than actually motoring across the water. “You are making a difference. My mom could have used a program like that.”
“Your mother?”
Garrett gave her a small smile. “Oh, my mom was one of the most stubborn people on the face of the planet. When she got pregnant with my brother Nathan, she didn’t tell our father.”
“Why ever not?”
“Always told us later that she wanted to be sure he loved her.” He smiled to himself, remembering the woman who had been the heart of their family. “She was alone and pregnant. No job skills. She supported herself working at In and Out Burgers. Then, a week before Nathan was born, my father showed up.”
“Was he angry?”
“You could say that.” Garrett laughed. “Mom insisted later that when he walked into the burger joint and shouted her name, there was steam coming out of his ears.”
Alex laughed at the image.
“Dad demanded that she leave with him and get married. Mom told him to either buy a burger or get out of line and go away.”
“What did he do?”
“What any man in my family would do,” Garrett mused, thinking about the story he and his brothers had heard countless times growing up. “He demanded to see the owner and when the guy showed up, Dad bought the place.”
“He bought the restaurant?”
“Yep.” Grinning now, Garrett finished by saying, “He wrote the guy a check on the spot and the first thing he did as new owner? He fired my mother. Then he picked her up, carried her, kicking and screaming the whole way, to the closest courthouse and married her.”
He was still smiling to himself when Alex sighed, “Your father’s quite the romantic.”
“More like hardheaded and single-minded,” Garrett told her with a rueful shake of his head. “The men in our family know what they want, go after it and don’t let anything get in their way. Well, except for my uncle Ben. He didn’t marry any of the mothers of his kids.”
“Any?” she asked. “There were a lot of them?”
“Oh, yeah,” Garrett said. “That branch of the family still isn’t sure they’ve met all of the half brothers that might be out there.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that,” she admitted.
“No one does.”
“Still, passion is hard to ignore,” she told him, then asked, “are your parents still that way together?”
“They were,” he said softly. “They did everything together. Even dying. We lost them about five years ago in a car accident. Drunk driver took them out when they were driving through the south of France.”
“Garrett, I’m so sorry.” She laid one hand on his arm and the touch of her fingers sent heat surging through him as surely as if he’d been struck by lightning.
He covered her hand with his and something…indefinable passed between them. Something that had him backing off, fast. He let her go and eased out from under her touch. “Thanks, but after the shock passed, all of us agreed that it was good that they had died together. Neither of them would have been really happy without the other.”
“At least you have some wonderful memories. And your family.”
“Yeah, I do. But you’re lucky to still have your parents in your life. Even if they do make you nuts.”
“I know,” she said with a determined nod. “I just wish I could make them understand that—” She broke off and laughed. “Never mind. I’m wasting a lovely day with complaints. So I’m finished now.”
Whatever he might have said went unspoken when he heard the approach of another boat. Garrett turned to look and saw a speedboat seemingly headed right for them. As casually as he could manage, he steered their boat in the opposite direction and stepped on the gas, putting some distance between them.