PRESENT TENSE
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
June 1, 2009
Perris, California
Rose practically skipped from the parking lot
to the apartment door, her grocery bags bumping against her legs. Her hands too
full to get out her keys, she tapped on the door with her foot, calling,
"Jack! Let me in!"
A moment later, the door flew open. Lizzy
stood before her, a goofy grin on her face. "Mommy! Guess what?"
"What, Busy-Lizzy?"
"Daddy’s going to college!"
Rose froze, the smile fading from her face.
This could be a problem.
Jack came out of the bathroom, taking the
grocery bags from Rose and carrying them into the kitchen. Rose followed him,
not sure how to tell him about her job offer.
"I hear you’re going back to
college," she told him, beginning to put the groceries away.
Jack raised an eyebrow at Lizzy. "I
thought I told you to let me tell her."
"Sorry." Lizzy looked a little
sheepish, but she was too excited to really be sorry.
"Congratulations," Rose told him
hesitantly, knowing how much it meant to him to be able to go back to college.
The new job meant a lot to her, too, but she knew that there would have to be a
compromise made somewhere.
"You don’t sound too enthusiastic."
"I’m sorry, Jack. It’s just…that caller
who you had call the cell phone…"
"Yes?"
"She offered me a job as an local
feature writer for a regional newspaper."
"You could work from home…right?"
"Actually, she wanted me to work at the
office."
"And did you accept the offer?"
"Yes."
"Shit." He sat down at the table,
drumming his fingers against the wood. "We’re going to have make a
compromise here."
"Yeah." Rose sat down across from
him, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"Rose, this is a great opportunity for
me. I’ve been admitted to the Psychology program at the University of Wisconsin
in Eau Claire, with a full-time, paid internship and a partial
scholarship." He sighed. "I suppose that I could apply with another
college—I have a good enough record to go almost anywhere—but it would probably
take an extra semester or quarter to get in, and I’d have to find a new
internship."
Rose’s eyes had widened at the mention of Eau
Claire. Leaning forward, she asked, "Jack, how far apart are Eau Claire
and Chippewa Falls?" It hadn’t seemed very far when they had visited a few
years earlier, but appearances could be deceiving.
He gave her a confused look. "Eleven or
twelve miles. Why?"
"Because the job offer was from The
Chippewa News—based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin."
Jack gave her a stunned look. "You’re
kidding.” He frowned. “Don’t you mean The Chippewa Herald?"
"No, The Chippewa News. They
started up a few years ago to compete with The Chippewa Herald, and have
been expanding to fill the gap as other papers go bankrupt. Apparently they’ve
expanded quite a bit, and they saved the resume I submitted a few months ago. I
guess they liked what they saw, because they offered me this job."
"But your degrees are in music and political
science, not journalism."
Rose shrugged. "I’ve done quite a bit of
writing. I guess it was enough to convince them that I was the person they
wanted to hire."
Jack sat back, still amazed. "Well, I
guess I won’t have to worry anymore about you delivering pizzas all over
town."
Rose grinned. "You mean newspaper
reporters never find trouble?"
"Be careful, Rose. I don’t know why, but
if there’s trouble in a twenty mile radius, you always seem to find it."
Rose looked insulted for a moment, then shook
her head ruefully. “That tendency saved your life once. Anyway, the job sounds
like a good opportunity, and I’m going to take it. I’ll try to stay out of
trouble, but I won’t make a promise I can’t keep.”
"I do worry about you, but…I also know
you have a good head on your shoulders, even if you do get yourself into sticky
situations.” Jack picked up Lizzy and put her in his lap as she wandered up to
the table. “Since Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls aren’t too terribly far apart,
we can both take what was offered to us. It would be a short commute, doable
even in bad weather—usually."
"So…I guess it’s off to Wisconsin,
then."
"Yeah, I guess so." He paused for a
moment, thinking, then grinned, banging his fist on the table and startling
Lizzy. "I’m going home!"
Enthusiastically, he stood, setting Lizzy
down and pulling Rose out of her chair. He whirled her around while she
squealed and giggled. Jack pulled her close and they kissed, enjoying the
moment until Lizzy’s voice interrupted them.
"Ew! Gross! You’re kissing!"
Jack patted Lizzy on the head, chuckling. The
child had recently developed an aversion to her parents’ displays of affection.
"So we are." He turned back to kissing Rose as Lizzy ran from the
kitchen in disgust.