Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106346 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“I’m not crying,” she says and steps out of my grasp. “It’s just I usually do things on my own.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I say, then look in and see that the waitress is there with the food. “It doesn’t make you less of a person to accept help. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that kid can eat everything I ordered, so I think we should go in and make sure he doesn’t.” I walk away, and when my hand touches the door handle, she speaks.
“Thank you,” she says softly, and I turn back to see her standing there with her hands in front of her. “I don’t know what your reason is, but I want to just say thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Caroline,” I say to her softly, and my heart speeds up. This tiny woman who comes at me with guns blazing and ready to go to war doesn’t even know how much she is worth.
Chapter Six
Caroline
“Thank you.” It’s the only thing I can say to him. My heart is beating so fast I can’t even focus on anything else. From the minute I saw him standing there waiting for us, my knees have been shaky. I didn’t know what he was doing, and I have no idea what’s going on. It’s just too much.
“Let’s go eat,” he says, and I have to stop looking at him because all it does is make me want something I can’t have. He holds the door open for me, and I walk in with him following, and he is not wrong. Dylan is already eating one waffle and is grabbing a pancake to add to his plate. The syrup is already in front of him, and there is syrup on his plate.
“I was going to wait,” he says to me with his cheek full of food as he takes another bite. It looks like he hasn’t eaten in a month.
“Oh, I forgot to order bacon and sausage,” Justin says, sitting down on his side of the table. He holds up his hand, and the sleeve rises and shows his arm muscle, and I suddenly wonder how many people got lost in those arms. Is he with someone right now? Did he have to sneak out to come and pick us up, or did he tell her all about the poor lady with the kid whose car broke down? “Can we get some bacon and sausage?”
“Coming right up,” the waitress says, and I look at the full plates of food on the table. I don’t even know what to eat first when I hear him.
“Eat.” Justin’s voice makes me look at him, and I roll my eyes, taking my empty plate and filling it with some scrambled eggs and then a slice of toast. The waitress comes over and adds two more plates to the table. “Meat,” he says, grabbing the plate of bacon and putting some on my plate and then on Dylan’s. “Have some sausage,” he says, putting two on my plate and then two on Dylan’s, who just nods his head and eats another pancake.
I pick my fork up and scoop up some eggs, and they melt in my mouth. We rarely, and by that, I mean never, go out and eat. So this little diner is everything. “Are we going to be on the ice again today?” Dylan asks Justin, who is eating from his own huge plate. Between the two of them, there is barely any food left, and I eat the little I have slowly so Dylan can get the rest if he wants it.
“Yeah,” Justin says, drinking his orange juice. “We are making new groups today. After the evaluations yesterday, we are going to make new groups every week,” he says. “And there is a special surprise today.”
I look over at Dylan and see that his eyes are as big as saucers. “More surprises?” He looks at me and then at Justin. “What is it?”
“I can’t tell you that.” Justin smiles at him and takes the last drink of his juice and then looks at me. “Did you eat enough?”
“Yeah,” I say, looking down at my empty plate. I don’t grab the last piece of toast, and it’s a good thing because Dylan snatches it up and then turns to me.
“Can you put peanut butter on this?” he asks, and I lean over to grab a small square plastic container, then peel the top off and spread it on the toast. “Thanks, Mom,” he says as he bites into it.
The waitress comes over. “Well, I take it the food was good?” She stacks the empty plates to clear the table, and I smile at her. When she walks away, Justin gets up and follows her, and I know he’s going to pay the bill. I’m trying not to think about how much it is, but I can’t help it. When I pulled out the menu, my heart sank at the prices. The lowest was six dollars for the two eggs plate. I grab the menu now and try to do a quick calculation in my head, but my mind starts to spin when I get past the fifty-dollar mark.