“What would you like?”
Shrugging, she keeps her eyes down and frustration gnaws at me. She’s letting this woman treat her like she doesn’t exist and I don’t like it.
“We’ll have two cheeseburgers with everything on them and two vanilla shakes?” She nods her head and I sigh again. Thewaitress leans over again and taps her fingernail on my arm, smiling.
“Can I get you anything else, Stone?”
Shaking my head, I wait until she leaves and then I lean over and grab Posy’s hands, holding them tight when her head whips around and she mewls and tugs so hard that I almost lose her.
“You need to realize something, Sugar. I’m not interested in that woman. She’s too obvious. I like a woman who at least tries to pretend that she’s not an easy mark.”
She shrugs and flushes. “She’s pretty.”
“She’s nothing on you, Sugar.” She huffs and I smirk at her, tugging her hands up until I can kiss one palm and then the other. “I’m yours, Sugar. Stop looking like she stole your dog…or cat.”
Her eyes flick down to the kitten where it’s nestled against her body and she smiles. I don’t think this little girl is going anywhere.”
“Neither am I.”
“At least until this is all over and we break up.”
My heart clenches and my fist bunches up on the table. “We don’t need to talk about that. We’re just having fun here. Messing with my mom a little bit because she’s messed with both of our lives.”
She nods and then they bring our food and we settle down, chatting like two people who know next to nothing about each other but want to learn.
She’s an orphan. She went through the system. The thought of that little girl lost in some strange system that doesn’t care about her personally, just provides the bare bones until she’s an adult. It’s enough to make me want to hug the hell out of her.
“Didn’t you ever have someone that was interested in adopting you?”
She hunches forward and sighs, her body almost bending in on itself. “Yeah. For awhile when I was fourteen I was staying with this woman. Eleanor.” She pauses, smiling. But there’s pain behind it and I want to tell her to stop.
She takes a deep breath. “We had gotten all the papers signed and everything and I was going to go home with her in a week. I was so excited. She even gave me some new clothes. They were the fanciest I ever had.”
Sorrow clings to her like a death shroud. “She got ill. They took her to the hospital.” Another deep sigh. “She had cancer. It was stage four breast cancer. All of a sudden everything had to be changed just in case she didn’t make it. And she wasn’t capable of taking care of anyone else while she had chemo and such. The state backed out. Argued with the judge that it wasn’t a safe environment for me.”
It’s like a punch to the gut. She almost had a mother. Almost had a home. And then it just disappeared with one diagnosis and the blink of an eye.
Life sucks.
And yet, she smiles. “I got to keep the clothes. And I saw her a few years later. She finally went into remission. I was so happy for her.”
“Why didn’t you go back with her then?”
“I was sixteen by then. They said I was a problem child because I had trouble sleeping and was constantly sneaking out of bed to wander the building. They didn’t like that.”
“Idiots,” I huff. “You’re not a problem. I don’t know what’s wrong with people.”
She grins at me and cheekily crunches a fry. “I have been working on a list.”
I lean back, laughing. “I’ll just bet you have.”
“How about we get out of here? We need to get that little girl home.”
She nods and slips out of the booth. Then after dropping my money on the table, I slip my fingers around hers. She jumps and looks at me, confused.
I don’t know what’s going on either. But I want to touch her. I’m desperate to touch her.
Her skin is so warm and soft in mine. Tingles run up and down my arm and I can smell that sweet candy scent that clings to her.
