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Her expression sour, she threw her palms up. “Do you expect me to trash them?”
“No.” Ignoring her bout of anger, Tim bundled them under one low price and offered them to the first woman who looked at them with interest. “We need to close. It might rain soon. You can have all of these for $15.”
“I’ll take them.” She paid Erin and left.
He carried over the folding tables they’d used to display the smaller items to Erin’s van. “Is there anything else you want us to do before we leave?” he asked.
“No, we’re all done.” She pulled the money from her pocket and counted it. “Wow, I can’t believe we made $500.” Her frown faded, and a smile finally cracked her strained face.
“Great job. Let’s go.”
Right at this moment, a new van stopped in the driveway and their own children jumped out, screaming. Teresa slid out of the driver seat.
“Good God, what are you doing here?” Erin blurted.
“The children wanted to say goodbye to their old house, so we brought them.” Teresa turned toward Russell chuckling.
“Whose car is that?” Tim didn’t recognize the large, shiny Jeep.
“This is Teresa’s new car,” Russell said. “We got rid of her old piece of junk. I wanted her to drive something safe. Now get the twins out before they demolish her new jeep.”
With a grin he couldn’t hide, Tim opened the back door and collected the screaming toddlers, hugging them both and receiving bear hugs and wet smooches. He met Teresa’s triumphant stare, shrugged, and turned his back.
Inside the house, he turned the boys loose. There was nothing that could hurt them or they could destroy. As expected, they ran to the stairs and climbed up on all four the way Becky had demonstrated under Tim’s supervision a month ago.
Tim dug out his phone and videotaped their exploit.Upstairs, he took a shot of Debbie and Brianna, hugging and jumping in excitement, and of Rachelle contemplating her room with a nostalgic gaze.
“Do you miss your room, Rachelle?” The ten-year old was a spitting image of her mother with her pale blond hair and dark blue eyes.
“Not exactly. I’m so glad I have my new room, but I’ll never forget the good time I had here. Coach Tim, can you take a picture of this room? I want to keep it as a souvenir.” Wise girl who welcomed the future with appreciation but kept the good memories in her heart.
“Sure.” He snapped several pictures of her in the empty room.
“And the four of us here as we were last year, please.”
He shot more pictures.
David came to him. “Where’s Dad’s old desk?”
“Sold.” Tim observed the boy’s reaction.
“But it was my Dad’s.”
“It wasn’t in a good shape. Where were you going to put it? You already have a desk in your new room.”
“Huh…in the family room, or in... It’s just that I want a souvenir from my dad.”
“I understand. Why don’t you ask your mom if you could have your father’s soccer trophies in your room?”
David’s eyes sparkled. “Do you think she’d let me?”
“Ask, and you’ll find out.”
“Thanks, Coach Tim.” The boy hugged him. Feeling a stab of remorse, he hugged him back. Here he thought he wouldn’t be able to look at David because of his resemblance to his father. Yet the boy considered him his big friend and mentor, even his surrogate father.
Tim promised himself to forget his misplaced anger and act as a real father for the fatherless children who needed him and had already adopted him as a dad.
Teresa asked for pictures in the kitchen, but Erin didn’t want any pictures of herself in the old house. “Let’s go home, please. I’m tired.”
