Chapter 14 - Monday Morning Money
Martin didn't offer vague encouragement. He had a contract, an actual budget, and a problem with a supplier in Dayton.
"Four weeks," he told Nate over the phone. "Remote most days, two site visits. I'd pay a rate that puts you close to your old salary if you kept working year-round."
"I don't want year-round."
"Then don't do year-round. I know why you left."
Nate could hear the warehouse radios in the background. He missed that sound so much it caught him off guard.
He told Martin he'd respond after talking with Leah. It was the first time he'd said those words without feeling he was asking permission.
Leah spread the proposed schedule over the kitchen table after dinner. "If you want the assignment, we can make it work for four weeks. I can move one late site visit. Your mom said she could help with Wednesday pickup. But we'd need after-school coverage Tuesdays."
"And I'd have to miss the event setup."
"You said Meredith's covering it."
"I know."
"Do you?" Leah studied him. "Because you're acting like being needed at school is the only thing that makes leaving the job worth it."
Nate watched Josie in the yard, teaching the dog to jump a broom laid between two flowerpots. She'd spent eighteen months learning he was the person who came when she called. He couldn't simply go back to answering every call from everyone else.
"I want to work some," he said. "I don't want to come home with my head still in the warehouse."
"Then tell Martin your hours before you say yes."
He called the next morning, asked for two weekdays with a hard four o'clock stop, and refused the Dayton site visit that overlapped with Josie's poem. Martin said he'd need to find someone else for that trip. Nate felt the familiar urge to volunteer anyway.
"That's fine," Nate said, surprising himself. "Then the project needs two people."
Martin was quiet. "Maybe you're better at boundaries now. I'll send a revised offer."
Later, Josie saw Nate typing at the desk. "Are you back at your old job?"
"A little bit. Four weeks."
"Will you still pick me up?"
"Not every day. Grandma will get you on Tuesdays. I'll get the others."
Josie turned that over. "Okay. I like Grandma. She always keeps gum in her car."
Nate waited for a more dramatic response. There wasn't one.
Then Josie said, "Will you still read the poem with me before the big night?"
He closed the laptop and moved to the couch.
May you like
The school called an hour later. A plumbing repair would close the library for the evening event, and all the plans now had to fit into the gym.
