That I was currently contemplating whether expired hot dogs qualified as actual food?
That I’d been wallowing in self-pity all afternoon while my daughter tried to turn the neighbor’s dog into personal transportation?
Me: Just trying to figure out dinner. The pantry situation is . . . dire.
The response came back almost immediately.
Postie: How dire are we talking? Like “order pizza” dire or “call the food bank” dire?
A grin so wide it hurt split my lips.
Me: Somewhere between “peanut butter pasta” and “teach Debbie to hunt and gather.”
Postie: Yikes. That IS dire.
Postie: Sounds like you need a knight in shining armor.
Me: More like a DoorDash Delivery Dude in Shining Armor.
Postie: Do you both like Chinese?
Me: God, I could eat all of Beijing right now. And Debbie loves it more than me, especially crab Rangoon. She could eat her weight in deep-fried cream cheese.
My phone was silent so long I wondered if Jeremiah had run away or decided to end the conversation.
Then the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” Debbie’s yell was followed by the rapid patting of tiny feet against hardwood.
Before I could round the corner, I heard, “Willie Wee!” followed by a deep, rumbling laugh. By the time I reached the front door, Debbie was already pulling Jeremiah inside by his free hand.
“Uh, hey,” I said, suddenly very aware of my own bare feet that were probably black from the yard and floor, and I was sure my hair looked more like a Chia Pet than anything resembling an adult’s hairdo. “Were you . . . texting from my porch?”
Jeremiah grinned and nodded. Then, ignoring me completely, he kneeled before Debbie, mussing her already mussed hair, and held up a plastic bag I hadn’t noticed. “I heard somebody likes crab Rangoon. Guess it’s good I got two orders of them.”
Chapter 17
Theo
Icouldn’t move.
Couldn’t think.
Could barely process what I was seeing.
Jeremiah was kneeling in my foyer, promising my daughter double orders of her favorite food, and I was pretty sure my brain had just short-circuited. He’d been textingfrom my front porch, which meant he’d already been here when he’d asked what we were up to.
A knight in shining armor, indeed.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I managed, though my voice sounded strange to my own ears.
“I wanted to,” he said, meeting my eyes over Debbie’s head. “Besides, I was in the neighborhood.”
“The neighborhood” was a twenty-minute drive from where he lived, but I didn’t point that out.
“Can we eat now?” Debbie asked, tugging on both our hands. “I’m so hungry I could eat a whole dragon!”
“A whole dragon?” Jeremiah raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of dragon. Good thing I brought enough food for a small army.”
