The Journey Collection (20 page)

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Chapter Five

The Turning of the Tides

Travis called Jack the next morning and accepted the job. The fear of failure was still present, but Max had inspired him to put himself out there and at least try. How could he teach his son to become a man if he was afraid to take chances? Jack and Coach Reynolds had agreed to hold off the announcement that he would be coming on board until after he became certified to teach. Though he’d never seen himself as a teacher, he was starting to feel excited about this new phase in his life.

In the weeks that followed, Travis and Penelope fell into a simple routine.

“Are you planning on staying up all night?” She slipped her arms around Travis’s neck from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder.

For the last three hours, he’d been studying algebra, almost to the point of being cross-eyed. “I was about to come in,” he murmured, covering her hand with his. The feel of the diamond ring on her left hand made him smile.

“How’s the studying going?” she asked, leaning away from him so he could stand up.

Turning off the light in the office, he slipped his fingers in with hers and started toward their bedroom. “It’s boring as hell,” he grumbled. “I know for a fact that there will never be a time when one of my students will need to know the quadratic formula.”

Penelope laughed. “True, but you still have to prove that you know it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Walking into their bedroom, Travis pulled off his shirt, tossing it into the hamper. “Two points!”

“Never gets old seeing you pretend that you’ve just made a basket with your clothes, baby,” she snickered, climbing into bed.

“Good, then you won’t mind me doing it again.” Just to prove his point, he balled up his sweatpants and tossed them into the hamper, bending two fingers like he’d just made two more points.

“You’re a rock star, babe, don’t let anyone tell you different,” Penelope said in a dry tone.

“Gee, I almost believe you.” He climbed into bed next to her, lying with his arm tucked up under his head. “Today was a long day.”

“It sure was.” She moved over and rested her head on his chest. “There was a note in Max’s homework folder. The fourth and fifth grade classes are having a dance next Friday. They were asking for volunteers to chaperone. Do you want to go with me?”

“Um, does Max have to wear a suit?” Travis asked. “Because I would pay good money to see him wear a suit.”

Penelope giggled. “They’re supposed to dress formally, which for ten and eleven years old means a nice suit for the boys and a pretty dress for the girls. He’ll need a new suit, seeing as he’s grown at least two feet this year. Anyway, do you want to go to the dance with me?”

Travis hummed and brought his finger up to his lips while he pretended to think it over. “I don’t know. I mean, do I have to buy you a corsage?”

“You don’t have to.” She smiled. “But if you’re nice to me, I’ll let you kiss me on the front porch.”

“Ah, baby, you know just how to sweeten a good deal,” he teased. “Of course I’ll go with you to our son’s elementary school dance.”

Yawning, Penelope snuggled closer to Travis. “Don’t let me forget to sign his paper in the morning.”

“I won’t,” Travis whispered. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” she mumbled.

~*~*~*~

The following Friday, Travis and Max stood shoulder-to-shoulder in his bedroom, while Travis attempted to show Max how to tie his necktie. Travis had offered to just do it for him, but Max insisted that he could do it himself.

“Okay, now you want to take the left side and bring it over the top of the right side,” Travis explained, smiling when Max did as instructed. “Good. Tuck the left one back under, but then, you want to pull it up between your neck and your chest.”

Max’s tongue slipped out from between his lips as he focused on what Travis was telling him to do.

“That’s it,” Travis said, trying to be encouraging.

They were on their fourth try, and Max had begun to get frustrated.

“Slide the tip into the hole, and pull it all the way down. Good. Now, grab the other one and push the knot up.”

“I did it!” Max cheered, looking up at Travis with pride.

“You sure did,” he laughed. “Now, we’d better get out there before Mom gets mad at us.”

“No kidding,” Max scoffed. “Women today.”

Penelope was standing in the living room with her camera in her hand when they came in. Travis bit his lip in an effort to suppress a moan, but she looked incredible. His fiancée had opted to wear a red, wrap-around, cap-sleeved dress that reached the top of her knees. She’d added a pair of black heels and had tucked up her hair in an elegant-looking bun. She was beautiful and his — all his.

“About time,” she grumbled, before looking up at them. All pretense of being upset melted when she shifted her eyes from Travis down to Max. “Oh, honey, you look so handsome.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Max mumbled, trying to hide the way his ears turned bright red. “Can we just take the picture so we can go?”

“Okay, okay; just keep your pants on.”

Ten minutes and two dozen pictures later, the three of them were on their way to the elementary school. Though she tried to hide it, Travis noticed Penelope wiping away a few tears from the corners of her eyes. Reaching over, he grabbed her hand. Max was growing up too fast.

Travis had barely managed to pull up in front of the school when Max threw open the door.

“Whoa, dude,” Travis hollered. “You’re gonna fall out. Wait till I’m in park, at least.”

“Okay, sorry,” Max muttered, closing the door.

Travis made a point of showing him that he’d put the car in park before he turned in his seat to face Max. “Why are you so excited?”

“No reason,” he answered. They all knew it was a lie. When Penelope had first told him that they’d be chaperoning the dance, Max had grumbled about not wanting to go and how dances were stupid. Then on Tuesday, Max had come home from school acting eager and excited all of a sudden.

“Somehow I don’t believe you, little man,” Travis scoffed. “But that doesn’t matter. Just use some common sense, okay? You could have gotten hurt.”

“I’m sorry.” Max shifted his eyes up to his father’s. “Can we go in now?”

“Yes,” Penelope giggled.

Max was out of the car and waiting for them on the sidewalk before Travis had even managed to unfasten his seatbelt. Sharing a look with Penelope, Travis climbed out and walked around to the passenger side, offering her his hand and helping her out. Max led the way into the building. When they walked into the cafeteria, Travis heard Penelope sigh.

“It looks so sweet!” she gushed, gesturing to all the decorations.

There were pink, red, and white balloons taped to the walls, with crepe paper streamers run along every available surface. Across the back wall, there was a table full of food, with everything from mini corndogs to finger sandwiches and two bowls of punch. From the looks of it, almost all of the fourth and fifth graders and their parents had already arrived. Most of the kids were divided into two groups: the boys and the girls. Every once in a while, one of the girls would look over at the boys and wave, making all her friends giggle. Travis had to bite back the urge to laugh several times; though they had better toys and more electronics than he’d had when he was their age, kids were still pretty much the same. The boys were shy, and the girls loved to torment them about it.

He looked around for Max, almost choking on his tongue when he spotted his son standing next to a little girl with dark, auburn hair.

“Penelope, who’s that girl?” he asked, trying to keep from laughing when Max ran his nervous fingers through his hair.

“That’s Jana Crosby,” she murmured. “She’s a fifth grader, and it would appear that our son has a bit of a crush on her.”

“Clearly,” Travis snickered.

Before he could say anything else, the sound of someone thumping a microphone echoed throughout the room. Everyone turned their attention to Mr. Nickels, who stood at the head of the room with Mrs. Sheldon, one of the fifth grade teachers.

“Thank you all for coming,” Mr. Nickels said, smiling. “Our annual fourth and fifth grade dance is always a lot of fun. We’d like to take a moment to say a special thank you to our fifth grade parents, who accepted the task of making tonight special. You did a great job, so thanks!”

Everyone applauded.

“Without further ado, let’s dance!”

Moments later, music began pouring out of the speakers, but none of the kids moved an inch. Travis watched as Max looked around at the other kids and then closed his eyes tight for a moment before turning to Jana. He was too far away to hear what Max said, but he knew when his son held his hand out to Jana that he had asked her to dance. Jana’s cheeks turned bright pink, but she nodded her head and placed her hand in his, allowing him to lead her out into the middle of the room. It was lucky that the song was an up-tempo number so Max and Jana could shuffle from side-to-side rather than having to put their hands on each other for a slow dance.

“Our little Casanova,” Penelope murmured.

Some of the other kids joined them on the dance floor. Travis laughed and turned to her. “He’s smooth, very smooth.”

“He reminds me of you,” she teased, sliding her arm in with his. “Guess Jana explains the sudden shift in his mood.”

“He likes her,” Travis commented. “A lot. Look at the way he’s watching her.”

While most of the boys were laughing and talking to each other rather than the girls they were dancing with, Max’s attention was on his little date. It was both sweet and nauseating.

“Oh, God, he’s only ten!” Penelope groaned and turned her body toward Travis.

“He’s almost eleven,” he snickered.

“No!” She laughed. “I don’t want him to be!”

“Baby, you don’t have a choice,” Travis said.

“I know,” she sighed.

For the next three hours, they watched Max trying to woo Jana. He got her punch and held her hand. Jana’s parents, Mark and Heather, came over to them, both amused with the situation, though Mark had tensed up when Max reached over and brushed Jana’s hair out of her face. Heather laughed and placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. After all, the kids were just ten years old, and it wasn’t as though they were doing anything inappropriate.

Once the dance was over, Travis and Penelope helped clean up everything and put all the tables back where they were supposed to be. Max insisted on walking Jana out to her parents’ car, so Travis and Penelope, along with Jana’s parents, followed the kids, trying very hard not to gush when Max once again held Jana’s hand.

“So, um, I had fun tonight,” Max mumbled.

“Me, too,” Jana chirped. “Meg and Sammie were saying it was gonna be lame, but I had fun.”

“Maybe you can come over sometime,” Max offered. “I have a lot of toys.”

“Sure, you have my number, so call me or whatever,” Jana chimed.

“What?” Penelope hissed, too low for anyone other than Travis to hear.

“Cool.” Max opened the backdoor for Jana and waited until she’d climbed in before shutting it. Turning to her parents, he nodded his head to each of them and walked toward where Travis had parked earlier.

“Travis, not sure I trust that kid of yours,” Mark said, laughing. “He’s a little too polite for a ten-year-old.”

Smiling, Travis replied, “That he is.”

~*~*~*~

The drive back home was made in silence. Travis watched Max in the rearview mirror, noticing the way his son couldn’t stop smiling. When he parked in the driveway, Max grabbed the door handle and opened the door, but before he climbed out, he said six words that shocked both of his parents: “I’m gonna marry Jana one day.”

He was out of the car and halfway to the porch before Travis or Penelope could take as much as a breath.

“What the . . .” Penelope brought her hands up to her temples. “He’s just ten, he’s just ten, he’s just ten,” she chanted.

“Baby, I don’t think that will help,” Travis teased.

She growled and looked over at him. “He’s talking marriage!”

“Yeah, so?” He turned in his seat toward her. “If I remember right, you were eight when you told me that we were gonna get married. Look, we’re there.”

She sighed and smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

“Did I tell you that you look amazing tonight?” he asked, bringing her hand up to his lips.

“No,” she cooed and shook her head. “You look very handsome, but then you always did look good in a suit.”

He grinned. “Not as good as you look in a pretty dress. Like on prom night.”

“Prom night,” she murmured. “You got me in trouble that night.”

“It wasn’t
my
decision to stay out all night,” Travis exclaimed. “You were the one who insisted that we go hang out at the lake.”

“It was an amazing night,” Penelope mused. Biting her lip, she looked up at him from under her lashes. “Travis, I know we’ve been tossing around a lot of dates and you have your exam coming up next month, but I was thinking that we could get married on June first. I know it’s just a few of months away and we’d have so much planning to do, but I don’t want to wait.”