The Pacific Beach Street Fair was an annual even that
closed off 10 blocks of the main streets in the area. They
had live music, food and drink, stalls with crafts, games and
the works. It was only a few blocks from the Jobson's house
so they walked the few blocks. Stanley was a bit concerned
about Holly's distant behaviour in the last few days and was
pretty sure that it was due to his hectic schedule in the
shop. He specifically hired Brett, a local college student
to work weekends to free him up a bit and have some quality
time with his daughter. The 6 months on the road had brought
them closer together and he knew Holly was missing that
closeness now that she was in school and he was so busy with
work. He planned to spend the whole day with Holly and he
was looking forward to mingling among the locals. In the
month he had been running the shop, there were a few regulars
and people recognized him and said hi. He only wished Holly
could experience something similar.
Josh and Rachel came to pick up Emma, Kyle and Melody...much to Kyle's dismay. He wasn't thrilled about the prospects of spending the day with his mom and sister, and although he thought Rachel was cool, he saw her enough during the week, he didn't need to see her on the weekends. But she was his mom's only friend.
"Mom, why do I have to go?"
"Because we never do anything together anymore. I want us to have some family time. Do things together like other families do."
"We are hardly like other families, are we?" he commented.
Even though 2 years had passed since the divorce, Emma still had a hard time dealing with the disolution of her family. She fought it every step of the way. Maybe there was no father present, but she was determined that they still be a family in some way. She craved what it once was, and she knew it could never be again...but she still had dreams of having that close knit family unit. Rachel noticed her spacing, and knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Kyle, get into the car. We are going and you are going to have fun. It's Pacific Beach, remember..blonde babes on every corner." Kyle knew he had upset his mom and turned to her.
"I am sorry, Mom."
"No, you are right. I have to stop having these disolutions of the perfect family and what it would be like." She put her arm around him, "We have a pretty good thing going here. I should be happy with it."
Rachel held the car door open and Melody got in, "Are you two coming or are we going to have one of those reflective moments."
They smiled at each other and climbed in the car.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When they arrived at the fair Josh and Rachel were off for a beer right away, leaving Emma and the kids to stroll around the stalls. Just as they were handed their beers, Rachel heard her name,
"Ms. Jacobs, Hi."
Rachel turned and saw Holly Jobson standing behind her and immediately her eyes found the nicely filled out pair of jeans next to her, her eyes slowly looked up his body and was finally face to face with a fine looking man, who was presumably Holly's father. She realized she was blatantly staring at him and averted her gaze to Holly.
"Hi, Holly, how are you enjoying the fair?"
"It's okay. By the way, this is my dad." She then turned to Stanley, "Ms. Jacobs teaches 6th grade at my school."
Stanley acknowledged her with a nod, but felt awkward with the way she was looking at him. Josh put his hand out and introduced himself and nudged Rachel. Rachel snapped out of it.
"It was very nice meeting you both. I did promise Holly I would try my luck at winning her a stuffed dog,"
"Oh, don't let us keep you. Have a good time."
They started to walk away and Josh gave her a look, "Rachel, what is with that stare. That poor guy, you looked like you were checking him out."
"Maybe I was. Jealous."
He rolled his eyes, used to Rachel's flirtiness. "I don't think he's interested. You made him extremely nervous."
She grabbed his hand, "Come on , we have to go find Emma."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Rachel finally found them they were looking at a stall full of Japanese trinkets. Kyle and Melody both enjoyed anything Japanese. Kyle was mostly interested in the replica Samarai swords, Melody the fans and good luck cats. Rachel grabbed Emma's arm from behind and startled her.
"For gosh sakes, Rachel. You don't have to sneak up on a person like that."
"Sorry. I just had vital information to pass on to you."
"And what is that."
"Stan the computer man is definitely hot."
"What are you talking about?"
"Stanley Jobson, Emma...Holly's dad, remember him?"
"I am not likely to forget."
"I agree with that. He is the type of man, one does not forget. I just ran into him and Holly, and he is so hot."
"Your idea of hot is not necessarily mine, in fact I think it is completely opposite."
"Well, you can judge for yourself", Rachel looked over Emma's shoulder, "They are heading our way."
The last thing Emma wanted was a face to face confrontation with Holly's dad. But she had to admit she was curious. She slowly turned to where Rachel was looking. It wasn't at all what she expected. Holly and her dad were standing at a game stall across from where they were. He had just won her a fairly good size stuffed dog. He was leaning over her and smiling, there was a closeness between them she really wasn't expecting. The way they both looked at each other. It was the type of father her ex husband had never been. Rachel saw Emma spacing out again, something she did every so often...Rachel called them her reflective moments..and felt a lot of these so called refelctions were more harmful than good. She quickly tried to get her out of this state.
"So was I right or what?"
Emma didn't want to admit to Rachel that she found him attractive and it wasn't just a physical attraction. She would never hear the end of it. Emma had never been one to be attracted to men physically, it took so much more for her to be interested, and she was rarely interested. She tried to act non chalantly and turned around away from Holly and her dad. Looking at a Japanese fan.
"I suppose he's alright. But remember he hung up on me."
"Oh, come on, you aren't still fretting about that."
This got her riled up and she raised her voice, "He was rude, Rachel. Down right rude, and I would be the last person to nominate him for father of the year, just because he takes his daughter to a fair."
Rachel went silent, no comment whatsoever. And Emma was surprised. Rachel always had something to say. Then she realized why she reacted the way she did, when she heard a voice from behind her, "Hello, Ms. Heyward."
Emma must have turned 3 different shades of red, as she turned slowly and smiled sheepishly at Holly...not knowing what she had heard. When she finally had the guts to look at her father, he looked slightly upset She was glad to be interupted by her son, to break the horrible silence.
"Mom, I really would like this sword. I will reliquish the next few months allowance for it. Please, will you get it for me."
She snapped, "Of course not. Don't be stupid. That's a real sword and the price alone would buy me groceries for the next two months. Put it back." She didn't mean to sound so cross, but it just came out that way and Kyle looked annoyed.
"You buy Melody everything she wants...and I rarely ask. It's not fair."
"Life isn't fair, Kyle." He stormed off and she realized everyone was looking at her, Stanley looked rather pleased with this display.
"Obviously Mother of the year isn't in your future either." he said smuggly.
Rachel felt a war of words coming and grabbed Emma's arm tightly before she had a chance to say anything back. Holly didn't know what to make of this scene. She hadn't heard Emma's comment and now her dad was saying horrible things to her teacher and she felt embarrassed, she took hold of his hand.
"Dad, I am hungry."
"You didn't introduce us, Holly." He eyed Emma.
"Ms. Heyward is my teacher, you know that, Dad."
Emma tried to make ammends and held out her hand to shake his, but he didn't offer his hand. The way he looked at her made her feel about 2 inches tall. But while he looked at her, he realized she was nothing like he expected. He had pictured some prim and proper school teacher. He had to admit he liked the fire in her eyes when he had commented about mother of the year, and she was obviously a single mother, there was no wedding band...she had a real relationship with her son, that seemed obvious. She cared about his daughter. These were all things he found appealing and he had to admit she looked pretty nice in jeans and a Tshirt, his own attire of choice.
She finally addressed Holly, "Holly, it was nice seeing you but I have to go find my son. I will see you in class on Monday." She turned to walk away, Melody followed, when Stanley shouted at her.
"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Heyward, hope we have this opportunity again." he said sarcastically.
Emma fumed as she walked away.
Holly looked up at her dad furious, "Why did you act like that, Dad?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"The way you talked to my teacher. Why were you so rude?"
"I wasn't rude...I told her it was nice meeting her."
"but you didn't mean it, did you?"
"Well, I am not sure what I meant actually." Stanley was put on the spot. He wondered himself why he had been so sharp with this woman. This person he didn't even know. He realized Holly had not heard the comment about father of the year, and it had definitely rubbed him the wrong way. He had been trying so hard, and he knew he had a lot to make up for. When anyone commented about his abilities of being a father it infuriated him. Couldn't they see how much she meant to him? Everything he did was for her. He looked down at his daughter, who looked very disspointed.
"I am sorry,baby. You are absolutely right, I was rude and there was no reason for it."
"You need to tell her that, not me."
"I promise I will."
"When?"
"Monday...I will take you to school."
"You promise not to make a scene at school? Dad, it's bad enough there."
"What do you mean by bad?"
"Just that...it doesn't matter. Just promise me you will be nice."
He wished she would talk to him, but still had a hard time getting her to open up totally to him. "I will be nice, I promise. Hey, how about an ice cream?"
"Do you think she is okay? You made her really mad."
Stanley was now feeling pretty bad about the whole incident, sprouting off like that without even thinking.
"I am sure she is fine. I am just another irrate parent, I am sure she has had run-ins much worse than myself."
"This is her first year teaching, Dad."
Stanley was feeling worse by the minute, "Really? I just assumed she had been doing it for ages." He thought about everything he had said and wondered if he should go find her now and try to apologize.
"I think it's hard being a teacher, Dad."
"Yeah, you are probably right." As he thought about this he thought about how hard it was to be a parent, a single parent. "Is your teacher married?"
"No, divorced. So it's harder for her."
"Okay, I get it. I have been a complete and utter jerk. I have totally crushed this woman, and I will sort it out on Monday."
"She might have a really bad weekend, because of you."
"Holly, let's drop it. I promise to take care of it on Monday. Come on, I am ready for that ice cream."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma stormed off, Rachel, Josh and Melody trying to catch up. Melody questioned Rachel, "What is with mom and that guy?"
"Nothing, they just met."
"I don't like him."
"Obviously your mother doesn't either."
When Emma finally slowed down, Rachel went up to her, "That was interesting."
"Rachel, don't even mention what just happened, whatever it was. I am so mad, I could scream."
"You do like him." Rachel smiled.
"Hardly, in fact, I take back what I said about him earlier, he is not a jerk, he is an asshole.."
Melody and Josh were now in hearing distance, "Josh, take Melody for an ice cream or something."
Melody knew she wanted rid of her, "I don't want an ice cream. Can we just go home."
Rachel gave her a look, and handed her a $10 bill, "Go buy that good luck cat you were looking at."
"Really" She looked from Rachel to her mom, and she nodded. "Thanks Rachel. Don't you think I should get something for Kyle too?"
Josh held up his wallet, "I got it covered, ladies. See you in a bit." And they walked off.
Emma and Rachel sat down, "You aren't going to like what I have to say, Emma."
"Then don't say it. Don't you think I have had enough crap for today?"
"There was definitley chemistry."
Emma laughed, "That was chemistry...not in my book."
"I have never seen anything like it. Two people who have never met, and the way you looked at each other."
Emma stood up, "You are crazy. He looked at me like I was a fool and I looked at him like...well, like he was an asshole."
"Why are you so upset about this?"
"It was insulting."
"As I recall, you insulted him first."
"You are on his side,and that is only because he looks great in a pair of jeans."
"Aha, now we are getting somewhere...you think he looks great in a pair of jeans..."
"No, you do."
"That isn't what you said."
"you are twisting my words, and just confusing me."
"Normally you don't get yourself all worked up by something like this."
"Normally I don't have some stranger treat me so badly."
"It was kind of cute actually."
"Rachel, really."
"Lighten up. Come on, tell me the honest truth...you find him kind of attractive in your Emma sort of way...he is a good father, whether you want to admit it or not, and he says what he feels, which is a trait you yourself are known to partake in, and he looks good in a pair of jeans..."
She didn't say a word, and didn't have to. Rachel saw it written all over her face. "Come on, let's go have some fun...maybe we will run into Stan the computer man again..."
"Rachel"
"Only kidding. We will stay away for the time being...let things settle. Let him stew as well, I bet he feels like a real shit for being such an ass to you. Especially in front of Holly."
"You have this all worked out don't you?"
"NO, not really...but it sounds good doesn't it."
They both laughed and Emma cheered up a bit. Rachel had been right. She found herself thinking about this man she knew nothing about and it concerned her but also gave her a bit of excitment she had been lacking for far to long.
Josh and Rachel came to pick up Emma, Kyle and Melody...much to Kyle's dismay. He wasn't thrilled about the prospects of spending the day with his mom and sister, and although he thought Rachel was cool, he saw her enough during the week, he didn't need to see her on the weekends. But she was his mom's only friend.
"Mom, why do I have to go?"
"Because we never do anything together anymore. I want us to have some family time. Do things together like other families do."
"We are hardly like other families, are we?" he commented.
Even though 2 years had passed since the divorce, Emma still had a hard time dealing with the disolution of her family. She fought it every step of the way. Maybe there was no father present, but she was determined that they still be a family in some way. She craved what it once was, and she knew it could never be again...but she still had dreams of having that close knit family unit. Rachel noticed her spacing, and knew exactly what she was thinking.
"Kyle, get into the car. We are going and you are going to have fun. It's Pacific Beach, remember..blonde babes on every corner." Kyle knew he had upset his mom and turned to her.
"I am sorry, Mom."
"No, you are right. I have to stop having these disolutions of the perfect family and what it would be like." She put her arm around him, "We have a pretty good thing going here. I should be happy with it."
Rachel held the car door open and Melody got in, "Are you two coming or are we going to have one of those reflective moments."
They smiled at each other and climbed in the car.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When they arrived at the fair Josh and Rachel were off for a beer right away, leaving Emma and the kids to stroll around the stalls. Just as they were handed their beers, Rachel heard her name,
"Ms. Jacobs, Hi."
Rachel turned and saw Holly Jobson standing behind her and immediately her eyes found the nicely filled out pair of jeans next to her, her eyes slowly looked up his body and was finally face to face with a fine looking man, who was presumably Holly's father. She realized she was blatantly staring at him and averted her gaze to Holly.
"Hi, Holly, how are you enjoying the fair?"
"It's okay. By the way, this is my dad." She then turned to Stanley, "Ms. Jacobs teaches 6th grade at my school."
Stanley acknowledged her with a nod, but felt awkward with the way she was looking at him. Josh put his hand out and introduced himself and nudged Rachel. Rachel snapped out of it.
"It was very nice meeting you both. I did promise Holly I would try my luck at winning her a stuffed dog,"
"Oh, don't let us keep you. Have a good time."
They started to walk away and Josh gave her a look, "Rachel, what is with that stare. That poor guy, you looked like you were checking him out."
"Maybe I was. Jealous."
He rolled his eyes, used to Rachel's flirtiness. "I don't think he's interested. You made him extremely nervous."
She grabbed his hand, "Come on , we have to go find Emma."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Rachel finally found them they were looking at a stall full of Japanese trinkets. Kyle and Melody both enjoyed anything Japanese. Kyle was mostly interested in the replica Samarai swords, Melody the fans and good luck cats. Rachel grabbed Emma's arm from behind and startled her.
"For gosh sakes, Rachel. You don't have to sneak up on a person like that."
"Sorry. I just had vital information to pass on to you."
"And what is that."
"Stan the computer man is definitely hot."
"What are you talking about?"
"Stanley Jobson, Emma...Holly's dad, remember him?"
"I am not likely to forget."
"I agree with that. He is the type of man, one does not forget. I just ran into him and Holly, and he is so hot."
"Your idea of hot is not necessarily mine, in fact I think it is completely opposite."
"Well, you can judge for yourself", Rachel looked over Emma's shoulder, "They are heading our way."
The last thing Emma wanted was a face to face confrontation with Holly's dad. But she had to admit she was curious. She slowly turned to where Rachel was looking. It wasn't at all what she expected. Holly and her dad were standing at a game stall across from where they were. He had just won her a fairly good size stuffed dog. He was leaning over her and smiling, there was a closeness between them she really wasn't expecting. The way they both looked at each other. It was the type of father her ex husband had never been. Rachel saw Emma spacing out again, something she did every so often...Rachel called them her reflective moments..and felt a lot of these so called refelctions were more harmful than good. She quickly tried to get her out of this state.
"So was I right or what?"
Emma didn't want to admit to Rachel that she found him attractive and it wasn't just a physical attraction. She would never hear the end of it. Emma had never been one to be attracted to men physically, it took so much more for her to be interested, and she was rarely interested. She tried to act non chalantly and turned around away from Holly and her dad. Looking at a Japanese fan.
"I suppose he's alright. But remember he hung up on me."
"Oh, come on, you aren't still fretting about that."
This got her riled up and she raised her voice, "He was rude, Rachel. Down right rude, and I would be the last person to nominate him for father of the year, just because he takes his daughter to a fair."
Rachel went silent, no comment whatsoever. And Emma was surprised. Rachel always had something to say. Then she realized why she reacted the way she did, when she heard a voice from behind her, "Hello, Ms. Heyward."
Emma must have turned 3 different shades of red, as she turned slowly and smiled sheepishly at Holly...not knowing what she had heard. When she finally had the guts to look at her father, he looked slightly upset She was glad to be interupted by her son, to break the horrible silence.
"Mom, I really would like this sword. I will reliquish the next few months allowance for it. Please, will you get it for me."
She snapped, "Of course not. Don't be stupid. That's a real sword and the price alone would buy me groceries for the next two months. Put it back." She didn't mean to sound so cross, but it just came out that way and Kyle looked annoyed.
"You buy Melody everything she wants...and I rarely ask. It's not fair."
"Life isn't fair, Kyle." He stormed off and she realized everyone was looking at her, Stanley looked rather pleased with this display.
"Obviously Mother of the year isn't in your future either." he said smuggly.
Rachel felt a war of words coming and grabbed Emma's arm tightly before she had a chance to say anything back. Holly didn't know what to make of this scene. She hadn't heard Emma's comment and now her dad was saying horrible things to her teacher and she felt embarrassed, she took hold of his hand.
"Dad, I am hungry."
"You didn't introduce us, Holly." He eyed Emma.
"Ms. Heyward is my teacher, you know that, Dad."
Emma tried to make ammends and held out her hand to shake his, but he didn't offer his hand. The way he looked at her made her feel about 2 inches tall. But while he looked at her, he realized she was nothing like he expected. He had pictured some prim and proper school teacher. He had to admit he liked the fire in her eyes when he had commented about mother of the year, and she was obviously a single mother, there was no wedding band...she had a real relationship with her son, that seemed obvious. She cared about his daughter. These were all things he found appealing and he had to admit she looked pretty nice in jeans and a Tshirt, his own attire of choice.
She finally addressed Holly, "Holly, it was nice seeing you but I have to go find my son. I will see you in class on Monday." She turned to walk away, Melody followed, when Stanley shouted at her.
"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Heyward, hope we have this opportunity again." he said sarcastically.
Emma fumed as she walked away.
Holly looked up at her dad furious, "Why did you act like that, Dad?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"The way you talked to my teacher. Why were you so rude?"
"I wasn't rude...I told her it was nice meeting her."
"but you didn't mean it, did you?"
"Well, I am not sure what I meant actually." Stanley was put on the spot. He wondered himself why he had been so sharp with this woman. This person he didn't even know. He realized Holly had not heard the comment about father of the year, and it had definitely rubbed him the wrong way. He had been trying so hard, and he knew he had a lot to make up for. When anyone commented about his abilities of being a father it infuriated him. Couldn't they see how much she meant to him? Everything he did was for her. He looked down at his daughter, who looked very disspointed.
"I am sorry,baby. You are absolutely right, I was rude and there was no reason for it."
"You need to tell her that, not me."
"I promise I will."
"When?"
"Monday...I will take you to school."
"You promise not to make a scene at school? Dad, it's bad enough there."
"What do you mean by bad?"
"Just that...it doesn't matter. Just promise me you will be nice."
He wished she would talk to him, but still had a hard time getting her to open up totally to him. "I will be nice, I promise. Hey, how about an ice cream?"
"Do you think she is okay? You made her really mad."
Stanley was now feeling pretty bad about the whole incident, sprouting off like that without even thinking.
"I am sure she is fine. I am just another irrate parent, I am sure she has had run-ins much worse than myself."
"This is her first year teaching, Dad."
Stanley was feeling worse by the minute, "Really? I just assumed she had been doing it for ages." He thought about everything he had said and wondered if he should go find her now and try to apologize.
"I think it's hard being a teacher, Dad."
"Yeah, you are probably right." As he thought about this he thought about how hard it was to be a parent, a single parent. "Is your teacher married?"
"No, divorced. So it's harder for her."
"Okay, I get it. I have been a complete and utter jerk. I have totally crushed this woman, and I will sort it out on Monday."
"She might have a really bad weekend, because of you."
"Holly, let's drop it. I promise to take care of it on Monday. Come on, I am ready for that ice cream."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emma stormed off, Rachel, Josh and Melody trying to catch up. Melody questioned Rachel, "What is with mom and that guy?"
"Nothing, they just met."
"I don't like him."
"Obviously your mother doesn't either."
When Emma finally slowed down, Rachel went up to her, "That was interesting."
"Rachel, don't even mention what just happened, whatever it was. I am so mad, I could scream."
"You do like him." Rachel smiled.
"Hardly, in fact, I take back what I said about him earlier, he is not a jerk, he is an asshole.."
Melody and Josh were now in hearing distance, "Josh, take Melody for an ice cream or something."
Melody knew she wanted rid of her, "I don't want an ice cream. Can we just go home."
Rachel gave her a look, and handed her a $10 bill, "Go buy that good luck cat you were looking at."
"Really" She looked from Rachel to her mom, and she nodded. "Thanks Rachel. Don't you think I should get something for Kyle too?"
Josh held up his wallet, "I got it covered, ladies. See you in a bit." And they walked off.
Emma and Rachel sat down, "You aren't going to like what I have to say, Emma."
"Then don't say it. Don't you think I have had enough crap for today?"
"There was definitley chemistry."
Emma laughed, "That was chemistry...not in my book."
"I have never seen anything like it. Two people who have never met, and the way you looked at each other."
Emma stood up, "You are crazy. He looked at me like I was a fool and I looked at him like...well, like he was an asshole."
"Why are you so upset about this?"
"It was insulting."
"As I recall, you insulted him first."
"You are on his side,and that is only because he looks great in a pair of jeans."
"Aha, now we are getting somewhere...you think he looks great in a pair of jeans..."
"No, you do."
"That isn't what you said."
"you are twisting my words, and just confusing me."
"Normally you don't get yourself all worked up by something like this."
"Normally I don't have some stranger treat me so badly."
"It was kind of cute actually."
"Rachel, really."
"Lighten up. Come on, tell me the honest truth...you find him kind of attractive in your Emma sort of way...he is a good father, whether you want to admit it or not, and he says what he feels, which is a trait you yourself are known to partake in, and he looks good in a pair of jeans..."
She didn't say a word, and didn't have to. Rachel saw it written all over her face. "Come on, let's go have some fun...maybe we will run into Stan the computer man again..."
"Rachel"
"Only kidding. We will stay away for the time being...let things settle. Let him stew as well, I bet he feels like a real shit for being such an ass to you. Especially in front of Holly."
"You have this all worked out don't you?"
"NO, not really...but it sounds good doesn't it."
They both laughed and Emma cheered up a bit. Rachel had been right. She found herself thinking about this man she knew nothing about and it concerned her but also gave her a bit of excitment she had been lacking for far to long.