“Why such an extravagant tip tonight?” He asked in a tight voice.
If she was trying to impress him, she’d failed. Watching her throw money around wasn’t near as impressive as her persistence. It just proved his point that rich people thought they could say and do anything they wanted as long as they flashed enough money.
“Because it was Eli.” She said it like it should mean something to Austin, but it didn’t. “If Susan had sent any other busboy to make the delivery, I’d still have given a generous tip, but not as much as I usually give Eli.”
“What makes Eli special?”
Debbie shrugged. “He’s the oldest of six children, and he’ll be going off to college in the fall. He’s working three part-time jobs to save money.”
“Oh.” The tip still seemed excessive, but Austin had to admit he was more than a little impressed by the reason for her generosity.
Offering Savvy a full ride scholarship for painting a mural was apparently the kind of thing Debbie did every day. It put her so far outside his league he could never hope to measure up.
Why did that thought give him indigestion before he’d even eaten dinner?
CHAPTER9
Austin slowed his truck as traffic came to a standstill. He smacked the steering wheel with his palm. He was late getting away from work as it was, now he’d likely spend another hour in traffic.
Picking up his phone, he called Debbie.
“Hello.” Her breathless voice on the other end of the phone sent a ripple of warmth through him.
“Did I catch you at a bad time? No more fires or missing kids, I hope.”
Debbie laughed, and his stomach did that dip it liked to do at the light, musical sound of her laughter. “No, thank goodness. We just came in from the pool. You should have seen how fast your boys did their homework at the prospect of swimming.”
“Pool?” Alarm filled him. His boys knew how to swim—he’d seen to that—but they weren’t strong swimmers. “I sent soccer clothes with my boys, not swim suits.”
She chuckled again. “Which they are getting on right now. I keep swim suits on hand for my nephews. It wasn’t a problem finding something to fit your boys.”
A muffled sound filled the phone followed by, “No, Noah, that’s for dinner. We have to get dressed before we eat.” More muffled sounds, then Debbie huffed. “Sorry about that.”
“Sounds like you have your hands full, so I’ll make this quick, but first let me apologize.”
“For what?”
“For the favor I’m about to ask you.” Austin let out a sigh before explaining. “I got hung up at the construction site, and now I’m stuck in traffic.”
“Bummer. I’m guessing you need me to get your boys to their soccer game?” Debbie’s voice sounded more cheerful than Austin expected.
“Could you please? I hate being late for their first game, but I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“Sure. I can do that. I was planning on going to my nephews’ game this evening anyway, so it’s not a problem.” More muffled sounds filled the line along with Debbie saying something to Noah again.
Austin smiled. She sure had her hands full with that little ball of energy. Noah made Dallas and Cody look docile. At dinner last night, she put Noah back in his seat six different times before she finally gave up.
Debbie’s strained voice came back on the line accompanied by Noah’s cries. “Sorry, Austin, I need to go. What time are the boys playing? And what field will they be on?”
Austin checked the schedule on his phone as the traffic crept along at a snail’s pace. He gave her the information then laughed as she hung up to more cries of, “Noah, stop!”
Did Debbie regret becoming a foster mom yet?
Fortunately, traffic cleared up a short time later, and Austin made better time than he expected. He was still late, but not as late as he thought he’d be.
Austin appreciated the huge recreation complex as he crossed to join Debbie on the sidelines of field three. For a small town, Providence had a top-notch community center, city pool, and recreation complex.
Something tightened in Austin’s chest as he spotted Debbie tying Cody’s shoe. In order to keep the kids on the same team, so that he only had to worry about games twice a week instead of every night, he had Dallas playing down an age group and Cody playing up.
