Chapter 11
THEO
“And that’s why I never fly alone on the private jet anymore!”
Everyone laughed, Theo included. He was standing with a group of dads including Charles Ackley, Lucas Peters, and a third man, Samuel Li, who’d introduced himself as the head of a prominent Boston-area art museum.
Amazingly, all four of them were dads (or fake dads, in Theo’s case) of kids starting kindergarten.
“I wouldn’t either, in your shoes,” Charles said, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine.”
“Well, that’s what I get for being too cocky about my pilot’s license,” Lucas said with a shrug. “In my family, everyone gets a pilot’s license by the age of eighteen. It’s as normal for us as getting a driver’s license. In fact, the pilot license may be a little more important!”
Everyone laughed again, though Theo was started to get annoyed with Lucas. As usual, Lucas could only talk about how very rich he and his family were.
“How about you, Charles?” Lucas continued. “Are you planning to get your kids into the cockpit soon?”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Charles smiled. “My oldest, Lizzy, just turned fourteen, so she has a few more years to wait anyway. Also, I try to give them as normal a childhood as possible, so they grow up grounded.”
“That’s the way to go,” Theo jumped in. “It’s hard, because we want to give our kids everything we can, but that isn’t always good for them. Normalcy is important, too.”
“Exactly.” Charles nodded approvingly. “Sometimes, the best way to help your children is to make their lives normal and calm. They’ll have plenty of time to fly around in private jets and walk red carpets later in life. For now, they can focus on homework and hobbies and friends.”
“That’s my philosophy, too,” Theo said. “We have to create a scaffolding for them to make the right decisions, which means showing them how to work hard and think carefully.” He was blatantly stealing Nina’s words, but he hoped she wouldn’t mind.
“You seem knowledgeable about parenting,” Lucas cut in. “Which is especially impressive since I didn’t know you had a child. Where have you been hiding your son? Is this one of those situations in which you accidentally got some poor girl pregnant and didn’t know about it until now?”
Theo bristled, but he responded calmly. “No. Jack is actually my stepson. His mother and I have been dating for a while, but we only just moved in together. I haven’t been around for his whole life, but I love him with my whole heart.
” He wanted to add that perhaps Lucas was the one who should be worrying about the type of situation he’d mentioned, but decided to take the higher road.
Instead, he glanced over at the bouncy slide, where Jack and a few other young boys were playing and laughing.
“Well, Sam can’t say enough good things about Jack,” Charles said approvingly. “Apparently, he knows everything about superheroes.”
“That sounds like him,” Theo smiled. “And Jack can’t stop talking about Sam, either. The two of them spent recess on Friday pretending that the top of the play structure was a rocket ship, according to Jack.”
Charles smiled. “That sounds like Sam.”
“We’ll have to get them together for a playdate soon,” Theo added. He was worried he was pushing his luck, but Charles nodded.
“Let’s see about that.”
“I’m sure they’ve been talking about my son, as well,” Lucas said abruptly. “Scout.” He nodded to a young boy who was punching the side of the bouncy slide with his tiny fists, his eyes narrowed into a glare.
“Actually, my daughter, Sue, has mentioned him,” Samuel said. “It seems that he’s very good at sports.”
Lucas puffed up. “He is.”
“So, Theo,” Charles said, turning to him again. “I’ve heard on the grapevine that you’ve tried to get in touch with me about some product of yours. Unfortunately, my schedule was quite packed, but perhaps—”
“Theo!” Jack came running up to Theo, breathing heavily and grinning. “Can you come be a supervillain? Sam and Oscar and Yassar and I are superheroes!”
Annoyance washed through Theo. He was finally, finally, close to having a breakthrough with Charles, and Jack had chosen this exact moment to bother him?
But as Theo looked down at Jack’s bright, happy face, the annoyance disappeared.
Jack hadn’t known this was an important moment. He just wanted to play.
Theo glanced back up at Charles, who was smiling.
“I couldn’t keep you,” he said. “Play with your son. We’ll talk later.”
Theo nodded. He needed to show that he was a good parent to Jack — that was clearly important to Charles. And he didn’t want to let the eager little boy down.
“Come on, Jack,” Theo said. “I’m going to get you!”
“No, no!” Jack shook his head, grinning. “You’re going to take over the city, and we have to stop you.”
“Mwahahaha,” Theo said in his best supervillain laugh (a skill he’d never needed before). “I’m going to take over Boston!”
“Oh, no!” Sam cried. “Come on, SuperJack! We need to get back to Superhero Tower before him!”
“Run!” Jack added, and the four boys took off towards the bouncy slide. Theo followed after, more sedately. He had no idea how to play with kids this age, but he was going to do his best. It couldn’t be that hard.
Plus, a glance back at the other dads showed that Charles was watching him with a smile. On the other side of the yard, where she was sitting with a group of moms, Nina was, too.
“Come on!” Jack called out. He and his friends were climbing up the chunky rungs that led up to the top of the slide. Theo followed, taking off his shoes. The kids waited for him at the top, bouncing with excitement.
“I will rule the city of Boston now!” Theo said in his supervillain voice.
“Oh, no!” the boys shrieked.
“We need to get down from the tower and go to our command center,” Jack said importantly. Theo was impressed that he knew the phrase command center.
“Let’s go!” Sam agreed.
One by one, the four boys slid down the slide, giggling loudly.
Once they were safely at the bottom and running towards the play structure, Theo followed.
It was surprisingly fun to whoosh down the steep incline and bounce at the bottom.
It reminded him of childhood days with his friends at Springfield’s Fourth of July party.
At the bottom, he looked around. The kids had sprinted off to the play structure and were now in a huddle at the top. Theo approached slowly and heard a few of their whispers.
“We’ll go invisible,” Yassar suggested.
“Yeah!” Jack agreed.
“We’re invisible now!” Sam yelled down to Theo.
“I can’t find them anywhere!” Theo said to himself loudly.
“Maybe they’re invisible!” He scanned his eyes over the playground, passing right over the boys.
They all giggled loudly, which he pretended not to notice, too.
Then they sneaked off the play structures, tiptoeing and giggling, and hurried off to the bounce house.
Theo wasn’t sure how long he should wait before following, so he looked at the play structure a while longer.
“Mr. Supervillain!” Jack called. “We’re over here! You can see us now!”
“I’ve finally found those pesky superheroes!” Theo announced. “Now I can stop them, and Boston will be mine!”
“Oh, no!”
The game continued, with Theo chasing the boys all around the play area. Finally, they set a “trap,” luring him to the top of the slide and pretending to push him over. Theo lay at the bottom as they slid down and jumped around him.
“We won!” Jack yelled. “Yay!”
“Yay!” The other boys added. Then all four of them ran off to play some other game. Theo got up, dusted himself off, and headed back towards Charles Ackley and the other dads. He was about halfway there when Nina appeared in front of him.
“I saw that.”
“Saw what?” He smiled at her. “My astonishing defeat at the hands of five-year-old superheroes?”
“Exactly.” Nina smiled. “I saw you playing with them. They all looked so happy, Jack especially. Thank you.”
“It was… fun,” Theo said, realizing he’d genuinely enjoyed it. He looked down at her. “How are you doing? Are the moms nice?”
“Um…” Nina glanced over her shoulder at a table of women. They were laughing, too, though not in the same carefree way the kids were. “Sort of. It’s fine.”
It doesn’t matter if she isn’t having a good time, Theo told himself firmly. What matters is that I talk to Charles.
Yet it wasn’t true, even if he’d have liked it to be. Theo knew how hard and discouraging it could be trying to befriend the generationally wealthy.
“How about we head home?” he suggested. Nina’s eyes widened.
“No, I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’m sure you still have tons of networking to do.”
“Nah,” Theo said. He’d never said nah in his life, but something about this situation brought it out in him. “Leave them wanting more, you know? And I think Jack’s getting tired.”
Sure enough, Jack and the other boys were now lying on the grass, yawning. It was late afternoon, and all the running had hit them hard, it seemed. Theo smiled fondly at Jack.
“You like him, don’t you?” Nina asked. She nudged his shoulder, grinning as slyly as if they were middle schoolers talking about a crush.
“Jack?” Theo asked.
“Yeah.”
“I do.” Theo smiled, “He’s a really good kid.”
“He likes you, too,” Nina said. “Last night, he wanted to wait and have dinner with you when you came home. I kept telling him you’d be late, but he wanted to wait up. Finally, he agreed to go to sleep when I told him he could have breakfast with you first thing today.”
“Really?” Theo glanced down at Nina. “In that case, I’ll try to be home for dinnertime more often.”
“Oh, you don’t have to. I know you’re busy.”
“Maybe I can’t make it every night, but at least sometimes. Now, let’s load up our superhero and say our goodbyes.”
Theo and Nina went to collect Jack, who grumbled a little about leaving his friends but eventually agreed to go with the promise of a movie night later that evening. Together, the three of them walked over to say goodbye to Charles.
“It was a pleasure talking to you today,” Charles said. He held out his hand, which Theo took. When he pulled his hand back, he saw that Charles had slipped him a business card, which he deftly tucked into his pocket to look at later. Theo grinned internally. Everything was falling into place.
“You too,” he said.
“Nice to see you,” Nina added.
“Bye,” Jack said, perhaps a little rudely, but Charles smiled down at the boy.
“See you all later.”
The trio headed to the parking lot. Halfway there, Jack got tired and tugged on Nina’s arm, so she lifted him up, and he rested his head on her shoulder.
Theo smiled at the touching image of the boy’s eyes growing heavy.
The little lad had run around with such abandon while playing with him, but he was so adorably tired now.
They loaded Jack into the car and drove home, mostly in companionable silence. When they were almost there, Theo showed Nina the business card.
“Good for you,” she said. “I guess Jack and I are doing our jobs.”
“You sure are,” Theo agreed. “I can’t thank you enough.”
“The money is enough of a thank-you,” Nina said.
She was clearly joking, but the words made Theo’s heart heavy.
He’d almost, almost, forgotten that this was all a temporary arrangement and that Nina and Jack would be leaving sooner or later.
And that they were only here because he’d promised them money.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you a card, too,” Theo said, joking along with her instead of admitting the strange heaviness in his heart.
“That sounds great.”
That night, Theo stayed for the movie night, though he worked a little on his laptop during the slower scenes of the animated movie. They all had dinner together, then he headed off to work more. It had been a good day.