When We Met (Fool's Gold #13)(21)
Denise walked back to the head of the table and faced the group. “Thank you all for coming today. As you know, Marjorie has run the Grove Council for several years now and has done an excellent job.”
Angel saw Mayor Marsha’s assistant sitting near the front of the table. She waved when her name was mentioned. While she was still obviously upset, she wasn’t currently crying, which Angel appreciated.
“With her moving to Portland, there was an opening on the council,” Denise continued. “All three of my girls were once members of FWM.” She smiled. “Although it was a long time ago, I still remember their excitement as they grew from Acorns to Mighty Oaks. FWM was a positive influence on them in so many ways. So when I was asked to take over Marjorie’s position on the council, I said yes.”
Everyone applauded. Angel joined in. To be honest, it didn’t matter who was in charge. Not when he’d just learned he was going to be responsible for girls. What happened to the teenaged boys? That he could handle.
“Angel, you’re going to be starting with our newest girls,” Denise said with a smile. “You can figure it out together. I think that always works best. While your commitment is year to year, I hope we can count on you to stay with your grove until they, too, are Mighty Oaks.”
All the women in the room were staring at him, nodding and mostly smiling. A few looked doubtful, which made sense. He was doubtful, too. Or screwed. It kind of depended on how he looked at things.
Denise went through the rest of the “growing season.” The other groves had started in September. Only his would have a short season to get them used to the program. She mentioned a few all-grove events, then answered questions.
Angel tuned out the conversation and reached for the notebook. The pink notebook. He flipped it open and scanned the table of contents. There were sections on each level of the FWM along with subheadings.
He read the mission statement, then discovered that the Future Warriors of the Máa-zib marked their progress by earning small wooden beads after studying different areas of life. Some lessons were practical like learning knots and reading maps. Some were related to community. His girls were expected to take on a short-term civic project. There were also beads for family and friendship.
He kept turning pages and saw there were girlie activities like face painting. He wondered if there was a bead for style and if he could get Taryn to be a guest speaker.
He could do this, he told himself. Maybe just for the couple of months required for this season. Then he would explain to Denise and the mayor that he wasn’t an FWM kind of guy. No way he could take his grove through—
He turned the page and came to a stop. He swore silently, then began to look for an exit. Holy shit. There was a bead for the feminine cycle. What had the mayor been thinking when she’d suggested this was where he should volunteer? Was the old woman starting to lose her marbles? He couldn’t talk to a bunch of—he checked which year that happened in and did the math—ten-year-olds about menstruation.
He carefully closed the notebook and stayed in his seat. When the meeting broke up, he headed directly for Denise. He waited until the other women had left, then faced Ford’s mother.
“I can’t do this,” he said, putting his notebook down in front of her. “I’m not the right person for the job.”
She surprised him by smiling. “Done in by the feminine cycle?”
He felt himself flush. “Look, I’ve faced a lot in my life. There are things I know, things I’ve done. Camping, sure. Knots and map reading, I’m good. But the rest of it? No way. These are little girls. They need a woman. Or at least a man with a daughter.”
Denise’s mouth straightened. “Angel, I understand your fear.” She paused. “All right, I don’t, but I believe it’s real to you.”
Talk about not being very supportive, he thought grimly.
“Most of the girls who have signed up for FWM this year come from either broken homes or they have suffered some kind of loss. While I want to believe nothing bad ever happens in Fool’s Gold, that’s not true. Mayor Marsha and I talked about this at length. We believe you’re the right man for the job.”
She put her hand on his forearm. “You said you’d take this on and I’m going to hold you to your commitment. Not only do I think it will be good for you, but there isn’t anyone else I can get at such short notice. Please take the grove through this first short season. If at the end of that you want to be done, you can walk away.”
He hesitated, torn by guilt. He had given his word, dammit. “Fine. Two months and then I’m done.”
“We’ll discuss that when the time comes.” She pulled an index card out of her handbag. “In the meantime we’ve come up with what we think will be an excellent civic project for your girls. Max Thurman runs K9Rx Therapy Dog Kennels just outside town. Have you heard of it?”
He nodded slowly. “Dogs that visit sick people. Stuff like that.”
“It’s slightly more complicated, but that’s close enough. Max has a new litter of puppies that need to be socialized. I think seven-year-old girls are perfect for the job. My daughter Montana works for Max. She’ll be in touch with you to set up the schedule.”
She rattled off a few more bits of information. Angel made note of them on his phone, then, when they were done, grabbed his pink notebook and escaped.