Love From the Ashes by Cheryl Persons Page B

it was going to be okay.  She just had this nagging notion that she was going to disappoint Thomas.  She didn’t know why, but that was the biggest worry of all.
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    Thomas absentmindedly drove his squad car down the busy streets.  He hadn’t thought about much of anything else after the 3:20 time had hit.  He punched in Rebecca’s phone number and waited for her to answer.  “Hello?”  When her voice came on the line he had to take a moment.  He didn’t know why just hearing her voice did things to him that he hadn’t experienced in awhile.
    “H…hey; I was just wondering how your first day is going?”
    She laughed and he sensed the nervousness.  “Thomas, it has only been an hour.  Things are going well.  I was going to call you, though.”
    “Oh; you were?  Did you need something?”  He knew how that must have sounded.  If she was going to call him, of course she needed something.
    “I…I didn’t know what time you thought you might be home?”  She giggled and he laughed.  “You know what I mean.  What time you think you might be here to pick up the kids?”
    He was a little taken aback.  He had hoped he wasn’t inconveniencing her.  Now that she had asked that question, she seemed all to o eager to have the children out of her house.  “I’m sorry; maybe this won’t work out.  I could go back to the station, get my car, and be there in about 15 minutes?”
    “What?  You don’t have to…”
    “I was under the impression that maybe you had already had too much.”
    Rebecca laughed.  “Heavens no; I was just thinking that I didn’t know if I was supposed to cook supper.  I told you; I’m available as late as you need me to be.”
    Thomas felt like a jerk.  He had just accused her of trying to get rid of his kids.  He had to make her see that he wasn’t totally blind to how much she was helping him out.  However, he needed to first start off by showing her that he didn’t really think she was a flake.  “Oh; I apologize that I thought you were trying to get rid of my…”
    “Thomas, I understand.  You don’t need to say anything else.”
    He let out a sigh.  “Okay; thank you.  I will probably be there around 7 or 8.  If you could get them something to eat, that would be great.”
    “No need to worry; that’s all I needed to know.  We’ll see you whenever you get here.”  They said their goodbyes and he hung up.
    He needed to learn to just say thank you and to not think the worst of every situation.  He would have to work on that.
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    Thomas yawned loudly; he didn’t think the day was ever going to end.  He was excited about seeing his kids and hearing how their day had gone.  When he knocked on her door, she didn’t come for what seemed like several minutes.  He felt bad about barging in, but he figured they were in the back of the house and so he tried the door.  Sure enough, it was unlocked and so he opened it and entered the foyer.  He looked around; it was the first time he had ever been inside her house and he was impressed.  He didn’t see where they were, but he suddenly heard the faint sound of her voice coming from the back of the house.  He felt like a burglar as he made his way down the hallway and stopped outside of a door.  It was opened a jar and he peeked inside.  The picture made him smile.  He saw Rebecca sitting on a couch.  Joey, Judy, Kari, and Frankie were seated around her and Bethany was sitting on the floor with a notebook in her hand, and her pen poised.  She wasn’t looking at the notebook; instead she looked just as engrossed in the book that Rebecca was reading, as the younger kids did.  He thought about interrupting, but they appeared so enthralled in the story that he hated to ruin the moment.
    “That’s when all the children knew that they would always remember this day.  The end.”  She surprised him by kissing each of their heads.  “Did you enjoy the