Season of Blessing Read Free Page B

to play with some of the other babies without you around. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s wonderful to have you there. I wish we had more mothers as involved as you. I’m just saying that maybe she needs to start socializing a little and learning to separate from you.”
    Tory knew that was true. Even now she had a hard time leaving Hannah with a baby-sitter, even at church.
    â€œI’ll need to think about it.” She got up, anxious to get back to the child. “I need to talk to Barry and pray about it some. Can I get back to you?”
    â€œSure,” Mary Ann said. “Take your time. I will need to hire someone by the end of August. But you were my first choice.”
    Tory ran the possibilities through her mind as she drove home that evening, and wondered if taking the job would indeed be good for everyone involved.

C HAPTER
    Four

    Cathy Bennet sat at her kitchen table, her patchwork family feasting on tacos, as if they had never been touched by divorce or remarriage or jail. Having her new family all together was a dream come true.
    She didn’t know why Mark had chosen to ruin it.
    â€œWhat do you mean, you don’t want to go back to school?” Her taco crumbled in her hand, and she threw it onto her plate. “Mark, I know you had school in jail, but you didn’t finish. You still need a diploma. I want you to go to college. I thought you were finally getting your head on straight.”
    â€œI am getting my head on straight, Mom!” Mark chomped into his taco, and shredded cheese and ground beef avalanched out.
    â€œThen what are you talking about?”
    Mark swallowed the bite in his mouth without enough chewing. “I didn’t say I planned to drop out altogether. I just want to get my GED, that’s all. Then I can go to college or get a job.”
    â€œA job?” Steve leaned up on the table, studying the boy who sat across from him. “Mark, what kind of job do you think you can get without an education?”
    â€œI have an education.”
    â€œA complete education.” Steve wiped his hands on a napkin. “Mark, you have to think of what kind of money you could make without finishing school.”
    Tracy tapped her spoon to the side of her glass, drawing all eyes to herself. “If he quits school, I get to quit, too.”
    Steve shot his twelve-year-old daughter a disgusted look. “You can think again, buckaroo.”
    â€œWhy? In some countries kids are finished with school before they ever get to my age.”
    Nineteen-year-old Annie pushed her food around on her plate. Since she’d come back from Nicaragua with Sylvia, she had gone on a health food kick and refused to eat anything that even looked like it had calories. “You should see the kids in Nicaragua, wandering the streets digging through trash for food. They’d kill to be in a school like yours.”
    Cathy turned her gaze back to Mark, her blonde ponytail waving with the movement. “Why don’t you want to go to school, Mark? I thought after being in jail for a year you’d want to go back to normal.”
    Mark dropped his taco and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Don’t you see, Mom? I can’t go back to normal. I’ve changed.
    I can’t go back to public school because the guys I got in trouble with still go there.”
    Cathy met Steve’s eyes. “Well, at least he sees that.”
    Steve leaned up on the table. “So why couldn’t you go back to home schooling with Brenda’s kids? She’s already said she’d take you back. And she needs the money we’d pay her.”
    â€œMan…” Mark propped his face on his hand. “I feel like I’ve grown up past that. Going to school with little kids and having her hovering over me. I don’t have anything against her. I really like Miss Brenda. I do. But I just need to get on with things, you know?”
    Cathy started to