7

Over the next few weeks, Jack and I saw each other regularly. On weeknights, we met at places halfway between my town and his, so we each only had to drive about a half hour to see each other. On most weekends, he spent his time with his son, though on any weekend he was free, he drove out to visit me. Other times we simply talked on the phone, or texted, or video chatted.

And the more time that passed, the more I felt I was craving his company each and every day.

Once we were sure the relationship was actually going somewhere, Jack brought up the idea of me coming down on one of JJ's visitation weekends.

"He really likes you," he said over the phone, while I sat in my apartment, working on a painting. "He keeps asking about you, and he's excited that I have a boyfriend."

"Oh, I'm your boyfriend now?" I laughed as I teased him. "That's the first time you've called me that."

"Well, it's true, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said a rather pleased smile on my face. "Yes, it sure is."

"So, you should come down this weekend."

I thought about it. Weekends could be an iffy time for me. I worked a lot of weekends, since that was when the museum was busiest. But I could easily get a day off. I'd been working so many extra hours over the last few months, keeping up with all the extra work we had while we were short-staffed, that I had earned some time off.

"Are you sure you want me intruding on your father/son time?"

"I'm sure," Jack said. "And so is JJ. He keeps asking when you'll be coming down. He wants to spend some time with you."

"All right then," I said. "It's a date."

That Saturday, I drove down to visit with Jack and JJ. We took JJ out to lunch, then to the movies. I suggested the latest Disney film, and pretended I'd chosen it for my own sake, not that I didn't enjoy a Disney film on occasion.

After the movie we went back to Jack's place. He had a two-bedroom apartment; he'd let his ex-wife keep the house after the divorce, so that JJ would have a good, stable place to live with her. Jack ordered a pizza, and while we ate, JJ bombarded me with questions about my work.

"Have you fixed that big clock yet?" he asked. "I've been reading about clocks online. Did you know that there's an atomic clock in Colorado?"

"I've heard about that." I wiped my fingers with a napkin. "But as for our clock, no. I asked at the museum, and they said it's going to cost something like fifteen or twenty thousand dollars to fix it. We don't have that kind of money." If we did, I silently added, we could afford to hire a second janitor.

"Can't you do like, a fundraiser or something?" JJ asked. "We did a fundraiser at school to get a new auditorium."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Jack said. "If you generate some press, you could raise enough money to pay for the repairs. I might be able to help with my industry contacts."

I thought it over, toying with the napkin between my fingers. "Actually, now that you mention it, there's one thing that might work. I'm going to the Steampunk World's Fair in a few weeks. I bet I could find a lot of people there who would want to help fix the clock tower."

Jack smiled and said, "You could do a Back to the Future theme. 'Save the clock tower!'"

"Back to the Future III was kind of steampunky," I said, mulling it over. "I'll have to make a few phone calls. I know some people at the fair, since I always rent a vendor table there. I could probably add the fundraiser to my table. And I'll add the sales from my paintings to the proceeds." I didn't make a fortune off my paintings, but I always came back from the fair with a few hundred dollars at least.

"Run a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe, too," Jack suggested. "Get people at the fair to tweet about it. You'll raise money in no time."

"Hmm." I chewed on my lower lip. It wouldn't be easy, but the boys were certainly on to something. "You know what? You're right. Let's do it."

"Awesome!" JJ said, throwing his arms in the air.

"We'd be happy to lend a hand," Jack said.

I reached over and took his hand, giving it an affectionate squeeze. "That'll be awesome. Seriously. You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yes we do," JJ said, quite adamant. "If we don't, who will?"

We spent the rest of the night going over the details.

After JJ went to bed, Jack and I did some online research into crowdfunding. By the end of the night, we had a long list of ideas. I could get the museum to put up a plaque with donor names. We could offer free tickets to the museum to people who donated. And with official backing from the museum and from the city of Brandenburg, something I was positive I could get, we actually had a decent shot at this.

On the drive home I felt more excited than I had in a long time. I went to bed that night dreaming of clockwork machines, and thinking that for once, I'd be taking that pile of parts and turning it back into the beautiful machine it was meant to be.