Page 2 of Something New

"I got dumped," Sara said.

John-Michael made a frustrated sound. "That guy was a clown."

"Yeah, but it was like a year ago," Jenny said.

"I don't see you dating anyone," Sara said to Jenny.

"None of us need a partner like JJ does," Jenny said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" John-Michael asked.

"You know what it means. You have Ethan. Mom and Dad are going to be gone, now that they're moving. You need a partner. You need someone to help you."

John-Michael laughed at that. It was a confident, secure laugh, assuring Jenny and his other two sisters that they had absolutely nothing to worry about. But Jenny had spoken the truth. He needed help—at least a new babysitter.

Ethan was three years old, and it had been two years since his mom passed away. John-Michael had help from his family, but he gave a lot of himself to being a dad.

His life had been on a completely different path before he learned that his girlfriend was going to have a baby. He partied a lot. He played college baseball and hoped to go pro.

However, the minute he learned that he was going to have a child, he began putting all of his time and energy into other things. He quit the baseball team and went full steam ahead with an idea for an app that he would launch with someone in his math class. John-Michael put all of his time and effort into packaging and marketing a math app that his friend came up with. The app helped students learn and study mathematics. They could import photos of problems, and it would explain how to solve them.

The thing that made it popular, though, was its ability to turn any phone into a cheat-proof scientific calculator. The app would lock students out of other parts of their phones while testing. It was called Testmode, and it was now the standard for most high schools and universities.

John-Michael was tech-savvy and he was a good designer and salesman. It was a perfect partnership with his friend who had been the brainchild and coder. They sold the company for eight million dollars only two years after launching the app.

John-Michael was also a professor now. NC State hired him as a lecturer working part-time while he was finishing his doctoral program. He was almost done, and at that point, he would either take a full-time position as an assistant professor or look for something else.

He was a good teacher, and he enjoyed the classroom environment. It wasn't the best pay, especially since he was working part-time, but he enjoyed teaching, and money wasn't as important anymore since he set himself up with the sale of that app. John-Michael was smart with his money and he had invested most of the profits. His money was already making money, and a college teaching gig seemed like a fulfilling, manageable lifestyle. Once Ethan started school, they would be able to take breaks at the same time. The two of them had a nice house in Raleigh close to campus, and they would be able to spend holidays on Kerr Lake with his parents at their new home.

It was true about John-Michael needing help, though. Especially since his parents were about to move. They had always lived in Wake Forrest, which was only fifteen or twenty minutes from Raleigh, and now they were moving to some property that was an hour away.

"Mom moving is going to change things for Ethan and me, but it's no reason for me to go off and try to get romantic with someone. I don't need to get married, I just need a good babysitter."

"Yeah, that's not romantic," Jenny said.

"I know. I felt like such a fraud last night. Your friend was really nice, and I was nice to her and everything, but I was not even trying to date. I was thinking about Mom and Dad and this new house. We ended up talking about that the whole time. She was asking me questions about it."

"I wish I would have been there to hear it," Molly said. "I know nothing about Camp Eden."

"What? How could you know nothing?" Jenny said. "We went there like five different times when we were little. Remember, they had those trails and the gigantic campfire? Oh, man, that thing was huge."

"I do think I remember the big campfire," Molly said. "But that's about all. I don't remember there even being a house. I thought there were only those cabins with bunk beds. I barely even remembered those. I was only five or six the last time we went there."

"It's where Mom and Dad met," Sara said.

"That's the whole point of them buying it," John-Michael added. "If it weren't for them meeting out there and loving it so much, they'd never move from Wake Forrest. They've been in that same house since I was in sixth grade."

"I was too little to appreciate Camp Eden," Molly said.

"I sort of remember that blue house, but not really. I don't even recall there being a lake," Sara said.

John-Michael shook his head. "You and Molly stayed back with Mom because she was scared about y'all not being able to swim. But there's a lake. Dad took us over there. They had a whole set of canoes."

"I remember that," Jenny said, smiling. "How far is the lake from the camp?"

"We walked there," John-Michael recalled with a shrug. "It was a little hike through the woods. It seemed long, but it must've been less than a mile. Mom and Dad have that map sitting on their dining room table. You can kind of see how the property is set up."

"I saw the map," Jenny said. "I can't believe they have a soccer field and a baseball diamond in their yard."

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