The Bachelor's Sweetheart. Jean C. Gordon

twelve, his alma mater. He signed in at the main office with Thelma Woods, who’d been the office manager for as long as he could remember.

      “The third grade room is the same as it’s always been,” Mrs. Woods said.

      “Okay, and I’ll be taking Hope home after school.”

      She leafed through a small pile of papers clipped together. “Yes, I have the note from Becca right here. You’ll need to sign out before you leave.”

      “Will do.”

      “Josh.” Hope called to him as he left the office.

      He waved at his sister.

      A middle-aged woman was leading a group of kids including Hope down the hall past the office. She stopped. “Mr. Donnelly?”

      “Josh.” He offered his hand.

      “I’m Merilee Bradshaw, Hope’s teacher. We’re on our way back from lunch. You can walk with us.”

      He stepped in line with Hope.

      “Is that your daddy?” the little boy in front of her asked.

      “No,” Hope huffed. “Like I told everybody, Josh is my brother. I have three big brothers. Jared, who I live with. He talked to our class last year. Mrs. Bradshaw said we had to have different people this year. Connor. He’s the pastor at my church and on his honeymoon with Natalie, so he couldn’t come today. And Josh.”

      Josh shook off the pang of hurt that he was apparently Hope’s third choice. “Who’s your friend?” He nodded at the little boy.

      “Owen Maddox, and he’s not a friend. He’s a boy.”

      “Can’t boys be friends? Tessa is my friend, and she’s a girl.”

      “You’re a grown-up, and she’s your girlfriend. That’s different.”

      “No, she’s just a friend who’s a girl.”

      Hope looked skeptical. Gram at the wedding, now Hope. What was so hard for everyone to get about Tessa and him being friends, not a couple?

      “Our room is the next one,” Hope said.

      “I know. It was my third grade room, and Jared and Connor’s, too.”

      Mrs. Bradshaw stood at the classroom doorway, counting heads as the kids filed in. She closed the door behind her last student. “Everyone put your lunch boxes in your cubbies, so we can hear Mr. Donnelly’s talk.”

      Josh waited for his sister and, when she finished, she led him to the middle of the room. “This is my desk, and this is my friend Ava.”

      “Hi,” the little girl at the desk beside Hope’s said. She eyed his laptop. “Are you going to show us racing videos like Hope’s other brother did last year? They were really cool.”

      Yeah. Josh was sure they were. Jared was cool. “No, we’re going to design a solar-powered go-cart.”

      “But you didn’t bring any wood or stuff.”

      “On the computer. You’ll see everything we do on the screen up front.” Josh had thought the kids would like brainstorming ideas for a go-cart and using the computer-aided design program to draw plans. His talk was hands-on. He planned to let the kids come up and use the program to add their details. And he’d gotten permission from his boss to print out copies of the plans at work for Hope to bring in and hand out to everyone on Friday.

      “Oh,” Ava said.

      “Mr. Donnelly, we’re ready.”

      Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Hope’s friend Ava, the talk went as well or better than Josh had hoped. The kids had some great and outlandish ideas. And Josh seemed to have made a friend in Hope’s non-friend, Owen. The little boy latched on to him to the point of asking if he wanted to sit next to him at his desk for the second job presentation of the afternoon. With Hope’s permission, he did.

      “Class, let’s thank Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly for talking to us today,” the teacher said when the other speaker had finished her presentation.

      “Thank you, Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly,” the classed chimed.

      A bell rang.

      “That means the buses are here,” Hope said.

      “Everyone get your things together and line up,” Mrs. Bradshaw said.

      She led the queue of third graders to the main door while Jared and Hope headed to the office to sign out. Owen trailed behind them.

      Josh stopped. “Owen, don’t you need to get on your bus?”

      “No, I wait for my mom in the office. She’s a teacher’s aide. Can I ask you a question?”

      “Sure.” Josh hoped he wouldn’t regret his hasty agreement.

      “You know a lot about go-carts. Have you ever made a Pinewood Derby racer?”

      “No, I haven’t. I wasn’t a Boy Scout. But my nephew made one.”

      “I want to make one, but Mom doesn’t know anything about building things.” Owen stared at his feet. “And my dad’s at Dannemora. We moved here so it’s not so far to drive to visit him.”

      Josh swallowed the lump in his throat. The maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility. Although his father had never been in more than the county jail for a few days, Josh could certainly relate to an absent father.

      “With all the stuff you know, we could make a winner.”

      He squatted to Owen’s level. “I can’t make any promises, but who’s your Scout leader?”

      “Mr. Hazard.”

      “I know Mr. Hazard. I’ll talk with him and see what I can do, okay?”

      A smile lit Owen’s face. “Okay!”

      “I’ll have to have your mother’s permission to help you.”

      “You can wait with me now and talk to her today.”

      Josh stood. “No, I want to talk to Mr. Hazard first.”

      “All right.” Owen took a seat in the office, and Josh signed Hope and him out.

      “Bye,” Owen said as they left. “See you tomorrow, Hope.”

      “Bye, Owen.” Hope’s goodbye sounded friendly enough. If it hadn’t, he would have had to have a talk with her, which wouldn’t be in sync with the fun-brother persona he cultivated. Hope’s situation as the new kid last school year hadn’t been a lot different from Owen’s.

      “Can we build something, too?” she asked as he made sure she had the seat belt buckled across her booster seat correctly.

      “What do you want to build?” If he didn’t watch it, he’d have so many projects going he’d have to take a leave of absence from his real job to do them all.

      “A castle in the backyard at my house.”

      “I’ll need to talk with Jared and Becca about that one.”

      “All right, but I’m sure it will be okay.”

      Josh wasn’t as sure. “I missed lunch. What do you say to an ice cream sundae at the diner while I get a burger and fries?”

      “I say yes. Becca and Jared only let us get cones.”

      Score one for big brother Josh. Since he didn’t plan on having any kids of his own, didn’t have it in him to be a husband and father, he figured it was his place to spoil Hope and Jared and Becca’s family and any kids Connor and Natalie might have.

      Hope caught him up on everything third grade while he ate his late lunch.

      “Be sure to talk to Jared,” Hope said when he walked