SteeleKizz, Inc

Sean – Old Friends, Part 3

  Jack had dropped Sean and a very sleeping Cara off at their home.  Jack had carried her inside and let Grandma guide him to her room.  He placed her on the bed and headed out while Grandma tucked her in.  He headed back out ruffling Sean’s hair as he passed.  Sean gave a tired chuckle but passed to his room.  He stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at Jack.   

    “Heading out tomorrow?” Sean asked.

    Jack nodded his head.  “Yes, I am.  I wish I could stay longer, but I have things to take care of back home.”

    Sean answered in kind with his nod.  “Oh.”

    “I hope that you consider my offer.  I’ll make sure you’re both set up without worry or concerns.  I’ll start looking for jobs that give you that freedom to be you, Sean.  Think about it some more.  You’ve got, what, a few more months.  I’m just a phone call away, bud.”

    “Alright.  Good night, Jack.”

    “Good night, Sean.”

    Sean stepped into his room and pushed the door to, but not closing it all the way.  He could hear Jack and his grandparents talking in the living room.  He sat on the edge of his bed and thought over what all Jack had said.  It all sounded good, but he’d have to convince Cara next.  If she was welcoming to the idea, they may be there as early as summertime.  They hated being farther away from their grandparents, yet again, but knew they needed to go out and be on their own now.  He fell back onto his bed and before he knew it, he was asleep.

    Jack had walked down the hallway and saw Alec sitting in his seat standing when Jack had neared him.  Alec extended his hand out to Jack.  “It has been a pleasure to get to spend some time with you, son,” said Grampa Alec.  “It makes me feel good that you were there, even for a small portion of their lives, to relay messages between us.  It seems that they grew quite fond of you, Jack.  That soothes my weary heart about them there.”

    “It was my pleasure.  Sean was a key component in making sure I let you know their well-being.  If I could have known the true story behind what was going on, I’d have tried to do more.  I understand their father was still doing undercover work overseas, so his secrecy was possibly high clearance.  Keeping the kids hidden and shielded was important.”

    “What are your plans going on from here?” Grandpa asked.

    “Once I get back home, I have a bit of work to do by myself.  I’m contemplating finding a job more suited to what I wanted to do when I was the younger one.  If I can, I’ll be better off in my situation.  Things are a bit turbulent for me right now, personally.  This was a vacation of clarity for me.    Helped me see things that I may have been overlooking.”

    “Did my grandkids help?” he asked seriously.  Grandma had approached them with Grampa putting his arm over her shoulder.

    “Always,” Jack said.  “They remind me what it’s like to be young and free again.  Oftentimes, when you’re older, you forget what it’s like to be a kid again.  Or younger.  I needed it.  They certainly did help.”

    He looked at the clock on the wall and the sunlight creeping up over the treetops.  

    “It was a pleasure to be a guest in your home,” he said.  He extended his hand out to shake both of theirs.

    “Any time, Jack. You are welcome wherever we or our grandkids are.” Alec responded to Jack’s gratitude.

    “Call me Jaxon.  Jack is just a nickname.  I’m Jaxon Steele.”

    “Very well, Jaxon.  Come back and see us soon.

    Jaxon headed out the doorway before being bulldogged from the back end with a hug from Sean.  

    “Thank you again, Jack.”

    “No problem, Sean.  Call me Jaxon.”

    Sean let him go as Jaxon turned around to say goodbye to him a second time.  Sean put a rolled-up notebook in his hand.

    “This is something I want you to take with you, from me.  Take care when going home.”  

    Sean departed again and headed back to his room.

    Jaxon looked down at the notebook in his hand, clutched it tightly, then up to Alec and Loren shrugging but smiling at the younger man sluggish retreating down the hallway to his room.

    “Good night, guys,” he said, departing the house and to his car.

    Jaxon drove off back to the hotel for the day.  His next flight was just after sunset.  This would give him time to relax before heading back home to Kat.  

    At the hotel, Jaxon flipped through the pages of the notebook, instantly becoming intrigued with what all Sean had documented in it.  This was serious information.  He would talk to Nessa when he got back home and at their special meeting spot.

    The first week of school slowly approached.  Cara and Sean were mildly looking forward to it.  It seemed like it was the end to a part of their life, for all the good and bad things that happened.  Both wished that their mom was there to see how much they’d grown, but knew she was there in spirit if nothing else.  

    Sean hadn’t spoken to Jaxon since he left but knew that he’d have to talk to Cara to see what she thought was on it.  This was the toughest part.  Sometimes he never knew which way she would swing when it comes to decision making.

    One evening, they were both home, their grandparents had a social event they wanted to attend.  This left the kids home to fend for themselves.  Sean and Cara were excited about scavenging the fridge to make supper for themselves.  They’d already planned out what movie they were going to watch, had popcorn set out to pop; all reminiscent of many Friday nights with their mother growing up.

    Cara was working on dicing up chicken tenders into cubes while Sean worked on the salad.  He’d already set out a buttered dish for the chicken and rice to be put in for baking.  Sean nervously broached the subject of Jaxon and his idea, leary of her having a knife in hand.  

    “Cara?” he asked slowly, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

    “Yeah, Sean,” she replied, focusing intensely on her cuts.

    “Well, I have something I want to ask.  I need your thoughts on this before I give Jax-, Jack an answer to his question.”

    “Okay.  Shoot.  What is it?”

    “Well, I know you’ve been talking to Grampa about going back east for college.  That you have the opportunities for scholarships to some high-end business colleges.  I was wondering if you were still planning or wanting to move out east.”

    She quietly kept busy with her work.  She looked up at him for a moment trying to figure out what he was trying to get out.

    “Yes and no.  I do, but I don’t.  I feel that there’s a better opportunity for me out east than here is here, especially with the field I want to go into.  No, because, well, I’d be leaving you three here.  I feel bad about wanting to leave everyone.”

    “Well, I don’t plan on you going alone, Cara,” Sean said, catching her attention.  “If you go out east, so will I.  I don’t want to leave them either, but I know they’ll understand.  It’s not like last time, where we couldn’t call or visit.  This time, we can.  Plus…”

    “O-okay,” said Cara, her pitch going up a notch.  “Plus, what?  Spit it out, Sean Reese Hadley.  You know I don’t like beating around the bush.”

    Sean rubbed the back of his neck only to get smacked on the same hand and motion to wash them before fixing the salad again.

    “Go on,” she added.

    He washed his hands and swallowed down a big ball of nerves before finishing his thought.

    “I told Jack your plans.  He said, that, if you did want to go to school on the East Coast and if I wanted to come too, he could set us up with a place and give me a job while you go to school.”

    Sean cowered slightly as he finished up his quick ramble.  He moved over to the salad grabbing the head of lettuce and cucumber for safety in each hand.  He thought he could protect himself from her attack if he prepared himself.

    She stopped what she was doing and carefully laid the knife on the counter.  The look on her face he couldn’t decipher.  “Really?” she asked inquisitively.

    Sean paused, relieved that she didn’t react another way.

    “Yeah,” he answered.  “We would have a place to stay, I would have a job, and you could go to school without worries.  Yes, I know we would be away from our grandparents, but we can always come back.  We have that freedom.”

    Cara tapped the countertop before dashing off to her room.  Sean put down the items he held and started working on the salad again.  He let go of the breath he’d been holding. 

    When she returned, she had a folder with different pieces of information in it and letters.  She sifted through them quickly.  When she came across what she looked for, she gave a cheerful ah-ha.  She dashed around the corner from the kitchen table to Sean.  She put the piece of paper in front of him.  It was on a clear plastic sheet, but he could still read it.  

    “This, this college has already offered me a scholarship all based on my second place win at the Beta convention.  They had college recruiters there.  The recruiter saw my piece on establishing a business that benefited everyone allowing everyone as an equal partner.  Allowing all benefits to be divided among employees equally.  I got this letter a week later.  A week.  So yeah.  If you want to move east, I can follow up with them accepting their offer.”

    Sean looked over the paper and down at Cara.  “Really?”

    She nodded back.  “I have scholarships ready to be approved with my acceptance into their school.  Three in total, one-two to three hours away in the state, two back east, just an hour away from where we used to live.  Tell Jack, yes.  We’re game. Just as long as he keeps his word.”

    Sean laughed.  “Yea, I’ll call tomorrow night.  I think he was worried, like me, you’d say no.”

    Cara smiled and went to put the paperwork back in her folder.  “I kept praying that something good would come to me.  A sign on where we need to go.  I guess this is as big of a sign as I’m going to get.  Not only for the opportunity, but we never really got the chance to explore the east coast.  We were sheltered and hidden away from everyone and everything.  I’ve read all the fun stuff that we could have done, had Dad let us.  We were within walking distance of the Naval base.  It was right out our front door and neither of us knew it.”

    “Wow,” Sean said elated at her response. “East Coast here we come, again.  I’m a bit curious what type of job Jack has for me that he can line up.”

    Cara put the folder in the middle of the table away from where they would be eating.  She shrugged her shoulders and started to laugh.  "Hopefully not as head chef at some big man’s restaurant.  You’re slower than a snail and messier than a pig."

    Sean looked down at his salad area.  Lettuce was in each of their bowls, on the counter, on the floor, and even one or two pieces on his shoes.  Not counting the other vegetables and shredded cheeses he’d fixed in the bowls scattered about randomly.

    After cleaning up their messes, eating, and watching their movie, they talked about how they were going to break the news to their grandparents that they would be leaving their nest again.  What was she going to say to the college in her acceptance letter?  What job Sean would like to do?  And what places would they like to go to before college starts next year?  They had a whole list of things to say or do by the end of the night.Chapter 13 – Old Friends, Part 3