Second Time's the Charm

He was silent, as though waiting for her to ask about the truth. She wasn’t tha

t tired.

“The truth is, I couldn’t marry her, or anyone, because I’m still in love with you. I told her so the night I left.”

Lillie’s jaw dropped.

* * *

WOULDN’T YOU KNOW it, the boxes of farina were all gone. Staring at the bottom shelf in the grocery store with a hungry boy kicking his feet back and forth in the cart after work on Thursday, Jon considered his options. He’d used up the last of their hot cereal that morning. He and Abe lived on the stuff. Mostly because it was Abe’s favorite.

He glanced at his watch. Six-thirty. He had to be at Lillie’s at seven to measure for the tile backdrop she wanted along the counter in her bathroom. And to install the second safety catch he’d picked up during lunch that day to install on her sliding glass door.

No time to get to the store outside of town for cereal.

“Eat!” Abe’s voice was loud, even for him.

“I know, son,” Jon said, smiling at the pudgy-cheeked little boy. Abe’s hair was getting a little long, curling along his forehead. He liked it. “We’ll splurge on a grilled chicken sandwich at the drive-through just as soon as we’re done here. We’re going to see Lillie tonight.”

“Illeee,” Abe said, kicking his feet harder against the cart. Leaning over, he reached for the colorful box of breakfast treats closest to his line of vision.

There’d been another break-in the night before, which made Jon tense as hell. He’d been a thief once. And if people knew that...

If Lillie knew that...

She wouldn’t let him in her home to measure her backdrop. He had to get over there to ease his mind.

“Daddy just has to find some cereal for us to have in the morning,” Jon said, confident that Abe’s reach wouldn’t quite make his target. He and Abe were experienced shoppers. Jon had learned the hard way how to measure shelf and cart distances.

“And then we’ll go see Lillie.” He used the mention of the name shamelessly. Sometimes a guy had to do what a guy had to do.

“Illeee,” the boy said with another, harder kick.

Abe had it bad for Lillie.

Bending down again to the yellow “on sale” ticket sticking out from the empty shelf space, Jon continued, “Let’s just hope there’s some farina hidden in the back.”

Abe had had two tantrums at day care that week. Jon wasn’t going to risk having the boy be upset before he even left the house in the morning.

Even if it meant he was coping, rather than teaching his son to cope. A guy walking a tightrope could only do so much teaching.

Score. One lone box of farina lay on its side in the very back of the bottom shelf, one corner of the box a little bashed in. He’d take it.

“Good news, buddy.” He talked to his son as the top half of his body disappeared under the shelf above the cereal. “Daddy found a box of cerea?”

“Nooooo!” The shriek was unmistakable. Jon still had a foot in front of the cart. He knew it hadn’t moved. No one had come near his son.

Hitting his head as he jerked out from underneath the shelf, he stood in one motion, reaching for Abe with both hands. “It’s okay, Abraham,” he said firmly, right in the boy’s face, as Lillie had taught him to do. Get Abe’s attention, she’d told him that morning when, after dropping Abe off for day care, the boy had lost it in the reception room again.

Lillie had been in the back room, waiting for a little girl whose father had just left her mother and would be attending day care for the first time.

“Nooo!” Abe’s screams pierced the entire store as the boy expressed his displeasure, apparently because he’d been unable to reach the box of breakfast cereal. A woman at the end of the aisle stood, cart in front of her, staring at them. People wheeled past the aisle, no doubt on purpose, just so they could see what was going on.

He recognized a girl from one of his classes.

He leaned down to stick his face nose to nose with his screaming toddler. “Abe, use your words,” he said, enunciating clearly.

It’s my fault, he wanted to announce over the store’s loudspeaker. His son had a problem because he had avoided exposing Abraham to crowds. Too many people around meant too many opportunities for someone to snatch, or otherwise hurt, his son.