Chapter 2

Bob looked over as the door opened and Karen Ross walked in. She was dressed in a checkered shirt, jeans, and ankle high boots. The volunteers had learned a long time ago not to wear tennis shoes when working in the creek. It pulled them off of feet as if it had fingers.

He'd noticed Karen before, but hadn't given much thought to her. He'd assumed she was married, though no "Mr. Ross" had ever come with her on a work day. She was pretty in a plain kind of way. She wasn't wearing makeup, which seemed sensible. Her hair was pulled back into a long pony tail. She had a strong chin and high cheekbones. It made her look like she might have some Indian blood in her. His eyes decided that a little makeup could change her appearance dramatically. His eyes slid down to her chest, where twin points held the shirt away from her body six or eight inches. His eyes dipped, to take in rounded hips. He couldn't tell about her waist, because the shirt hid that. He looked back up to find her staring right at him. Busted! She started toward him.

"Mr. Thurlow," she said, approaching him.

"Bob," he said, automatically.

"Bob," she said, almost patiently. He expected her to say something about him ogling her, but that didn't happen. "My son tells me your daughter asked him on a date, and that you've agreed to chaperone." There was a frosty edge to her voice.

Bob went into teacher mode immediately. Tact was needed here.

"That is not factual, in the spirit of accuracy," he said.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"My daughter asked me if she could go on a date with a boy named Jack Ross. I assumed he was your son. I told her she could not go out unsupervised, because she's too young to do that. I have already told her she can't date until she's sixteen. But she wanted to negotiate and, in the end, it was discussed that if I went along to chaperone, she would not then be on an unsupervised date. I did not agree to these terms. I said I'd think about it, but that was all."

"Oh," said Karen. "That explains it, then. I kept expecting you to call, and when you didn't, I concluded you assumed everything would be fine on our end."

"Not at all," said Bob.

"Because I've told Jack he can't start dating until he's sixteen, too."

"A value we share in common," said Bob, still trying to be diplomatic.

"Like you, I told Jack I'd think about it," said Karen.

"My daughter jumped the gun," said Bob. "I'll talk to her about it, and make sure she doesn't do that to your son again."

"He is awfully excited," said Karen.

"I'll tell her to apologize."

What happened next was the result of Karen's ongoing evaluation of Bob Thurlow. When she'd approached him, she'd been angry, because she'd assumed he would contact her and discuss the kids getting together under conditions that were chaperoned. When he hadn't, she'd further assumed that he was the kind of man who thought that if he adjudged something as acceptable, he presumed everybody else would too, especially a woman. If she'd actually found him to be that kind of man, she'd have put her foot down and told him to keep his daughter away from her son.

But he wasn't that kind of man at all! In fact, he was erudite, and polite, and had good values. He was easy on the eyes, too. As he had taken for granted she was married, she made the same assumption about him. As she thought of that, she pushed his attractiveness back.

"How does your wife feel about this?" she asked.

"I'm not married," said Bob. He rarely trotted out the story of his dead wife. That was private.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Karen.

"Why would you be sorry that I'm not married?" asked Bob. Amanda had gotten her literal senses honestly. Bob viewed things literally himself, sometimes.

"That's not what I meant," she said, flustered, her cheeks turning pink. "I was married, but not anymore. It didn't end well. When you said you weren't married, I thought of that. Really, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it."

"So you're a single parent too?" asked Bob.

"Yes," she said.

"Something else we have in common."

"Yes." She still felt the heat in her cheeks. "Should we discuss this date our children want to go on so badly?"

"You think it's advisable to let them do it?" asked Bob.

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure that, if they like each other, they'll find ways to be alone together. That's what I did when I was her age. I met boys secretly."

"Did you now!" said Bob, smiling. "Do you think my daughter is doing the same thing?"

"I have no idea," said Karen. "But Jack was so excited at being invited on a date that the fact you were allegedly going to be there with them didn't bother him at all."

"I could tell Amanda was pretty fired up about it too," admitted Bob.

"If they're going to find a way to get together, wouldn't it be better if one of us was there to make sure things went the way we want them to?"

Bob had been evaluating Karen too. The fact that she wasn't married put her into a different category than she'd been in before. He hadn't explored that category of woman for years, and hadn't planned to ... but now he found himself to be interested.

"What if we both chaperoned them?" he suggested.

She blinked. "At the same time?"

"Of course," he said, smiling again.

He had a nice smile. And such dark, brown eyes. Suddenly, Karen felt her nipples crinkle in the cups of her bra. It was shocking, almost electrifying. She hadn't been attracted to a man like this in a long, long time.

"A sort of double date," she said.

He hadn't thought of it that way, but the idea of it appealed to him.

"Yes," he said. "A double date, where we can teach them the dos and don'ts of dating."

"I like that," said Karen.

"I'll talk to Amanda," he said.

"And I'll talk to Jack," she responded.

They didn't have a chance to say any more, because Phil Solistra, the president of the organization, announced loudly it was time to get to work, and shooed everyone out of the building.

The first date was, indeed, a bowling date. There was much excitement as the participants all got ready. In a way, the preparations were quite similar.

For the kids, they were heading into the unknown. Their primary desire was for the other person to like them. Kids want to be liked, and their greatest fear is that that won't happen.

Bob and Karen, of course, had been on lots of dates. They'd both been in serious relationships. They'd both suffered the pain of loss, though it was different kinds of loss. Somewhat ironically, they wanted the same thing their children did. She hoped he'd like her, and he hoped she'd like him.

Another shared quality was that nobody was thinking long term. The kids didn't anticipate becoming high school sweethearts, who would stay together forever. The adults had no intent to cultivate a serious relationship. All of them were looking for short term gratification.

But there were differences as well.

The kids hoped they'd get to explore some intimacy. Not much. Maybe a little hand holding, and possibly even a kiss, though that left them both feeling a little unsettled. Neither of them had done much kissing, none outside a family setting in fact, and both were worried that, if a kiss did happen, they'd do it wrong.

The adults had no intent of any kind for intimacy to enter their relationship. They did not, in fact, assume any "relationship" would ensue from this double date they were going on. After all, the only reason they were going out together at all was to chaperone the young ones.

The kids had high anticipation that this would be the best night of their young lives. Kids are like that. Everything they experience, at least that they like, is "the best." They have a whole string of "best" friends. Each good movie they see is the "best". New foods are temporarily given "best" status, and each party they go to is better than all the rest. It's just a product of evaluating new things. But kids are aware that there are "worst" things too, and their unconscious fear was that this might turn out to be one of those situations. Their biggest fear was that they'd do something stupid, and ruin everything.

The adults were wary. Each had enough life experience to know that things might not go all that well. It might be boring, something to be endured, while the kids started navigating this kind of social interaction.

None of them knew that they were all wrong. And they were wrong about just about everything, as it would turn out.

Bob had taken Amanda bowling half a dozen times, as she was growing up. It was something they could do together which didn't last hours and hours. Not that he avoided spending hours and hours with her, but going bowling didn't completely consume their time like, say, camping might have.

Karen had been on too tight a budget to expose Jack very often to what she considered luxuries, such as bowling, movies, and the like. Instead, she and Jack had played board games, and made up games, such as reading to each other from the dictionary. She'd been bowling as a girl, but that had been a long time ago.

So the Thurlows assumed the roles of teachers. Together, they explained the scoring system. It was done automatically by a computer, which displayed the score on a big screen above their alley, but at least Jack understood why it looked like it did, as things progressed. Amanda took Jack to find a ball, and showed him how to approach the foul line and swing the ball. She didn't throw it. When he tried it, the ball slipped off his fingers and slammed into the gutter. His profuse apologies embarrassed Amanda, and all she could think of to say was, "That's happened to me zillions of times. You'll get the hang of it."

Bob and Karen watched, smiling. The interaction of their kids brought back sweet memories. They didn't know it, but their body temperature climbed a degree, as adrenaline seeped into their bloodstreams.

"I haven't done this for years," said Karen.

"Just like riding a bicycle," said Bob, looking at her with interest. He'd been right. She'd put on some makeup and her plain features had been transformed into a face that was decidedly pretty. "Want me to help you pick out a ball?"

"I'm not completely helpless," she said, but smiled.

"No problem," said Bob, and unzipped the case he'd brought with him, pulling his own ball out.

"Oh, a ringer," said Karen. "You brought us suckers here so you could fleece us."

Her use of the word "suckers" zipped into Bob's brain and he was unable to avoid thinking of another situation in which a woman might be called a "sucker." It was his turn to blush as he reacted. His private embarrassment caused him to flirt, instead of backing away.

"What do you have I might be able to fleece you out of?" he asked, arching one eyebrow.

Guys flirted with Karen all the time at the auto parts store. As the only female on staff, she got a lot of attention. The problem was that none of it was from men she was interested in. She tended to be intentionally un-interested in most men. She had decided long ago that she didn't need a man in her life, that they were more trouble than they were worth.

This time, though, she reacted differently to his obvious innuendo. This man she had positive feelings about. And it was harmless. They were on a double date, but it was a date in name only. The kids were right there. What could happen? She hadn't flirted in years. And flirting could be fun.

"Why, suh! If I didn't know better, I might think you had unseemly intentions," she said, trying to affect a southern drawl.

Bob was startled. This was the first time he'd seen Karen be anything but sensible and serious. This was a very pleasant surprise.

"I'll go easy on you this first time," he said. "I wouldn't want to be labeled a cad on our first date."

She laughed. "Cad? Who uses that word these days?"

"English teachers do," he said, grinning.

"Are we going to bowl, or are you guys going to flirt all night?" asked Amanda, who appeared, suddenly, beside them. Jack was with her, and was staring at his mother. He looked curious.

"We are going to bowl," said Bob, holding up his ball. "Prepare to be destroyed!"

He won, but he didn't destroy anybody. The only reason he had his own ball was because a girl he'd dated in college had insisted he get one. She was the better bowler, and was avid about the sport. She turned out to be too avid. Bowling was all she ever wanted to do, and Bob had eventually drifted away.

It is fair to say a good time was had by all. Jack and Amanda got to chat, indeed getting to know each other better, and finding that they did, in fact, like each other. Jack accused Amanda of being bossy, to which she simply said, "Of course I am. I'm the boss."

Karen and Bob fared much the same way. What had begun as a chore turned into something both of them had needed for years, but hadn't known they needed. There was no romance, at this early stage of the game, but simple companionship with a member of the opposite sex is something all of us are driven to find, and they were no different.

A turning point in all of their lives came when Bob dropped Karen and Jack off at their house. They all went up to the door together, after Bob said, "It is polite to walk your date to the door."

Once there, Jack turned to the adults and asked, "Do we get to kiss goodnight?"

"I don't think so," laughed Karen.

"Please?" begged Amanda. "Just one kiss? I've never kissed a boy. And this is my very first date."

"You want to kiss him?" asked Bob.

"Of course I do," said his daughter. "It's my first date!"

"So that's the only reason you want to kiss him ... because it's your first date."

Mandy looked confused.

"Well, yeah," she said.

Bob looked at Karen. "Can you believe it? It's suddenly mandatory to kiss on the first date." She smiled.

"You can kiss my mom," suggested Jack, helpfully.

"Is this a bribe?" asked Karen. "You're bartering me away?"

"Not away," said Jack. "Just for one kiss. Come on, Mom. It's not like we're going to ask them to stay over."

Karen was shocked. "Where did you learn anything about staying over?"