She sighed heavily. “I should have known it wouldn’t last. I guess I’ll have to come clean about this sooner, rather than later. It’s not as if I don’t know already that this is something I want to pursue. I think I’m ready to do battle with anyone in the family who tells me I’m crazy or not thinking rationally or whatever.”
“I can’t say if this is the right career path for you or not, but I do know how great you are with kids,” Sam said. “If this is something that you believe will fulfill you, then I say go for it.”
“Could you put that in writing? Maybe if I have a few testimonials, my grandfather and my parents won’t go berserk.”
“Happy to do that,” Sam said. “Want to have a strategy session later?”
“Sam,” she protested.
“After Bobby’s in bed,” he persisted. “The suite’s big. We didn’t wake him up the other night. I’m very good at making pro-con lists.”
She laughed. “You haven’t met my twin. She is the grand master of the pro-con list.”
“I’ll bet I could give her a run for her money.” He thought of how frequently Laurel had forced him to sit down and evaluate decisions rationally, when he’d wanted to jump into something impulsively. He’d hated her for it at the time, but the skill had stayed with him.
She hesitated for so long, he thought he’d lost, but eventually she said, “Okay. Honestly, I could use the help to weed out the emotional arguments from the sound, rational ones.”
“Then I’ll make sure Bobby’s in bed by nine and asleep. I’ll ask Jess to send up some brain food for snacks.”
She laughed. “What on earth would that be?”
“You know...healthy stuff. Almonds. Carrot sticks. Whatever.”
“Maybe I should bring the snacks,” Carrie replied. “And the less Jess knows about this little get-together the better. The whole blasted family apparently knew about me being over there last night.”
“You could swear her to secrecy,” Sam suggested.
“It’s divulging secrets to the wrong people that got me into this,” she retorted. “I’m not telling my aunt a thing.”
He laughed. “I see your point.”
“Sam, thanks.”
“For what? Letting my nephew blab your secret?”
“For scrambling to make it right,” she corrected. “And for offering to help me sort this out.”
“Not a problem. See you tonight.”
He hung up and glanced over at Bobby, who was now covered with chocolate ice cream and giggling happily again. He was starting to see that the difficult moments in parenting were somehow balanced out quite nicely with moments just like this. He hadn’t felt this optimistic in weeks.
Even though a part of Carrie very much regretted being pushed to reveal her plans much sooner than she’d hoped to, she couldn’t help feeling a faint sense of relief that soon everyone would know and she could start moving on with her life.
She arrived at Sam’s with a grocery bag filled with her idea of appropriate snack food—chips, guacamole and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The combination was pretty sickening when she really thought about it, but it’s what had appealed to her when she shopped.
“Bobby asleep?” she asked, her voice low when Sam answered the door to his suite.
“In bed by eight-thirty and asleep a few sentences into his second book,” Sam assured her, then peeked into the bag. One brow shot up when he got a good look at the contents. “Seriously? Spicy guacamole and Chunky Monkey?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” she told him blithely.
“Well, one thing’s for sure, it ought to keep us wide-awake all night.”
“Maybe we should divide it up,” she suggested, rethinking the whole thing. “Dibs on the ice cream.”
“The chips work for me,” Sam said agreeably.
Carrie pulled her tablet out of her purse and curled into the same corner of the sofa where she’d sat on her previous visit. She’d have to compliment Jess on her furniture choices one of these days. This was much more comfortable than her sofa at home.
“Okay, Mr. Organization, where do we start?”
“Pros,” he said at once. “Let’s be positive.”
“Okay, then,” she said and typed that she loved spending time with kids at the top of the list. “And I’m good with them, too,” she added.
“Put that down, too. What else?”
“I’ve been getting practical experience,” she said. “Maybe it’s only a few days so far, but it’s been the best thing I’ve done in a long time. I’m truly happy at the end of the day. Julie already agrees I have a knack for working with kids, and she’s been at it for years.”