The Parent Trap(80)

“Thanks, Mom.” Casey hugged her, grabbed her books and dashed for the front door.

Sarah hoped they’d spend at least as much time on homework as they would on their scheme to find Kate’s father a fiancée.



AT THE SOUND of the front doorbell, Kate dashed down the stairs, narrowly beating her dad to the foyer.

“It’s Casey,” she said, flinging open the front door. “We’re going to work on a science report.”

Casey nodded in agreement, shrugging out of her jacket and tossing it on a hook in the closet. “It’s worth ten percent of our final grade.”

“And it’s due tomorrow.”

“Are you going upstairs or do you want to use the kitchen?” her dad asked.

“We’ll work upstairs. Have you already walked your dog?” Kate asked.

“No, my mom said she would take him since I have all this homework that’s due tomorrow.”

“That was nice of her.”

Right on cue, Casey smiled, totally sweet and innocent. “She asked me to tell you, Coach, that she’d be happy to have some company if you want to go with her.”

Her father gave them back-and-forth glances. Was he buying it?

“Sure. I could use the exercise. Is she going right now?”

“She was getting ready to leave when I came over here.”

Timing was everything, Kate thought, and they had timed this perfectly. They waited while her dad laced his sneakers and pulled on a hooded sweatshirt, watched him sprint down the porch steps at the same time Sarah and Petey were going down their front walk.

Kate closed the door and slapped hands with Casey. “Are we good or what?”

“We are awesome.”



SARAH WAVED AT him as he crossed the lawn.

“Nice evening. You look like you could use some company.” Judging from the girls’ cryptic comments, he had a hunch this was a setup. If Sarah had really wanted company, she would have asked him herself. Now that he was with her, he realized he could use the company, too. He just wouldn’t have asked.

They matched their steps and kept pace with the little dog trotting ahead of them.

“Did Kate tell you we talked this afternoon and I offered her a part-time position at the store?”

“It’s all she could talk about over dinner.” That and online dating, of all things. “Thank you again for doing this for her.”

“She seems really excited about it, and I know she’ll be great.”

He decided to take the plunge. “She’s worried about the custody hearing, though. We both are.”

Sarah took a pair of gloves from her jacket pocket and pulled them on. “I’m sorry this is happening to you. I feel awful about encouraging you to call Kate’s mom.”

Terrible enough to make it up to him? “This is not your fault,” he said. “I’ve gone around and around with this, and making that call was something that needed to be done. If anything like that happened while Kate was with her mother, I’d want to know right away.” And he was just as certain that Georgette would have kept him in the dark.

“Have you spoken to your lawyer?” she asked. “Do you know if they’ve set a date for the hearing?”

“Yes, and yes. Talked to him yesterday. He called again today but I was with a class so he left a message. The hearing is in a couple of weeks.”

“That soon?” she asked. “That’s...wow...that’s sooner than I expected.”

“Me, too. On the one hand, it doesn’t give us much time. On the other, I guess it’s just as well to have it over and done.”

They walked in silence for a bit. There wasn’t much else he could say to her on this subject, at least nothing appropriate, and he couldn’t clear his mind enough to come up with another topic of conversation.

“Have you noticed that the girls’ behavior has been a bit strange the past couple of days?” she asked.

So, she’d picked up on it, too. “I thought it might be my imagination.”

“It’s definitely not. They seem to think that finding you a girlfriend, or better yet a wife, will convince the judge to let Kate stay with you.”

He couldn’t very well tell her it wasn’t just the girls who were thinking along those lines. His lawyer had sent Jon’s thoughts in the same direction. “Kate asked if I had considered online dating.”

Sarah laughter was unexpected. “Casey mentioned that, too. But I think what they think is that you and I might...or that if we did...you know...”

Where was she going with this? “Are you saying you think that they think that the judge will think we’re a family if you and I were...” Okay, you can shut up now, he told himself.