Second Time's the Charm

He’d offered to hit another item on her list, but he really wanted to talk about Abe.

“That’s right. My friends, Mark and Addy, have Abe. They usually take him one night a week.”

“All night?”

They’d offered. More than once. “No. I usually pick him up around ten.”

“Does he normally stay up that late?”

Was she checking up on him?

Paranoia, familiar and debilitating, knocked. Briefly.

Lillie had given him a key to her home. She trusted him.

And he’d confirmed that her interest in Abe was just as she’d said, through Bonnie Nielson.

“Jon?”

“Yeah, sorry. Abe goes to bed at eight every night. He goes down at Mark’s,” Jon said as his fear slid to the back of his psyche once more. “He does much better when I keep him on schedule,” he added, just in case.

“Is he cranky when you pick him up?”

“Nope. He doesn’t usually even wake up.” Campus was well populated, but what Jon saw was mostly couples. Men and women forging bonds. “Mark and Addy bathe him and put him in his pajamas,” he continued, and wasn’t sure why. Because he liked talking about his son to someone who seemed to be genuinely interested in the day-to-day business of his life? Or because he was still watching his back and wanted to make sure she knew that Abraham was well cared for.

“I secretly think they’re using my son as practice for having a child of their own.” He sat back on the bench, his ankle crossed at his knee. “Mark and Addy are engaged and in the process of finding a house.”

“When’s the wedding?”

“I’m not sure. Soon. Probably over Christmas break.”

She sighed. Smacking him in the gut. He sat up. “Is it too late to start on the faucets?” he asked, switching mental gears.

She’d emailed her choices and he’d picked them up at the newly opened home improvement store out by the highway on the way to work that afternoon.

Her pause made him uneasy. Standing, Jon hitched his backpack up onto his shoulder and headed to the sidewalk. He was an idiot. A woman as beautiful as Lillie, as sweet as Lillie, wouldn’t be spending Friday night alone.

“Or I can just go ahead on to the library like I’d planned and catch you later this weekend.”

“I was actually going to ask if you’d like to go get something to eat. You said in your message that you wanted to talk about Abraham and I haven’t eaten since eleven o’clock this morning.”

She doesn’t have a date should not have been the first thought that crossed his mind.

“Sure,” he replied. “Do you want to meet someplace?”

The Shelter Valley Diner and campus eateries were the only non-fast-food places he knew of in town.

He suggested the small on-campus pub that served food until midnight. “I discovered early in the semester that the place is virtually dead this time of night. Apparently kids don’t start partying until after ten.”

“I was one of those kids not so long ago,” she said with a chuckle, telling him that she’d meet him at the pub in fifteen minutes.

There was a new bounce to Jon’s step as he made his way across campus.

* * *

SHE ORDERED A salad. Jon went for the barbecue chicken burger. He longed for a beer. Longed to be just a guy out on a Friday night. But only for a second. Until he pictured the young man playing happily—he hoped—just a few blocks away who’d be a passenger in his truck in a couple of hours. Iced tea was just fine.

And he was not on a date.