CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
KATE
The weekend was great and it was over entirely too quickly. Monday morning I was back in my office when Grant, one of the senior partners walked in. “What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning out my office.” I looked at him curiously. Knowing Alexis well enough that she would have placed that call, demanding they fire me, I figured I’d go easy on the partners and begin packing my stuff before they even got around to telling me. Best case scenario, I could just unpack it all.
Grant looked at me as though he wanted to be sick. “I’m sorry Kate. I need to have security come in and help with that. Just so you don’t take any client files.”
“So, I really am fired then, huh?” I confirmed.
“There’s nothing I can do. You didn’t keep a huge client happy. What am I supposed to do? She called us all in this weekend. Threatened.”
“I don’t know,” I said sarcastically, “tell her to go to hell? I’m the best you’ve got and she is a cranky old woman.” It really didn’t matter what I said at that point. I was fired no matter what. Figured, I may as well tell it like it was.
“So you’re not even going to apologize?” He moved back toward the door, indignant.
“Why should I? She was using me as a personal assistant, not the marketing executive you pay me to be. I had a family trip to get home to. You know those kids are important to me. They have had rough time and I wasn’t about to abandon them, so no I will not apologize for doing the right thing.”
His mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. I picked up my little cardboard box and headed for the door. “I’ll make sure I let security search me before I leave. Wouldn’t want to steal any client information.”
I walked out of my office and headed for the elevator. Casey caught up to me with her purse in hand. “Casey, I can’t let you quit with me. I have no idea what I’m going to do now.”
“I told you, I can’t work for these misogynistic pricks.” She huffed and I rolled my eyes, trying to hold back my laughter. “The look Grant gave me as he walked to your office, I wanted to punch him in the nuts.”
I laughed out loud at that and shook my head. “Fine. I’ll try to find us something to do quickly so we’re not sitting on our asses.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said and looked at me. “There is a whole community of indie and self-published authors that could use help with marketing and graphics. Maybe we can do something with that?”
“That’s a really good idea. I’ll look into it.” I told her and then left the office I had worked at since college, for the last time.
**
The next couple weeks were some of the best weeks of my life. Adam and I got closer every day and the kids woke up every morning with excitement in their eyes.
One afternoon, I was walking down the hallway to my room and passed by the boys’ room. Jax was sitting on his bed singing softly, “On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling birds…”
I walked away quickly before he noticed me and got embarrassed. It was such a change from the kid that wouldn’t even talk only a month ago. It really seemed like Adam’s idea was helping them. I noticed April’s clothes had become brighter, though her hair was still pasty black. That couldn’t be helped, though. She would have to wait until the blonde grew out before we could fix it. It felt good to help them cope with what had happened. Jace had stopped getting in so many fights now that his brother was talking again, which was a huge relief.
It was three days before Christmas and we had decided on something a little different for our family outing. We were taking the kids shopping and they were each going to pick out one present for a child in need, and then we were all volunteering at the soup kitchen for the evening. We were hoping it would help them see what they had and maybe be grateful instead of scared. They were amazing kids and we just needed to remind them that giving was just as fun as receiving.
After a morning of shopping and wrapping presents the kids had picked out, we made it to the soup kitchen in time to help set up for dinner. There was a line around the building and Jax and Jace were looking a little sad. There were mostly women and children in line.
“You said that we were feeding the homeless,” Jax said to me sniffling.
“We are, buddy.” Adam bent as best he could so he was eye-level with him.
“But, there are kids out there,” Jace said, shocked.
“Yeah, that’s why we went and bought presents, and we are helping out here today. Not everyone has a home or food or presents. It’s important to be grateful for what we have and help others whenever we’re able.” Adam smiled at the boys, who both had little determined looks on their faces now.
“Okay Uncle Adam,” they said in unison and walked off to the end of the line where they would be handing out the rolls.
“I think we did a good thing here, Adam.” I smiled.
“Yeah, maybe we should make this a Christmas tradition.” He wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek.
“Definitely.”