“And what is that?” They’d reached the top of the stairs and hepaused.
“Social worker.” If he was going to communicate in one sentence responses so would she. Besides, she was the one that should be asking questions, nothim.
Faith yanked her hand and gestured down the stairs, rubbing herbelly.
“Come on, we’re almost there.” King descended the stairs, and Laura followed silently behind him. She had plenty of questions all right, but they could wait until she had Faith tucked inbed.
King led the way into a massive kitchen with two full-size ovens and refrigerators, both with double doors. Beautiful dark wood cabinets topped with black veined granite stretched out before her. There was no way a place like this had frozen corndogs. She half expected professional chefs to come walking through those doors in a second. Instead King had crossed to the closest refrigerator, opened the door, and pulled out a bag of frozen minicorndogs.
He caught her surprised stare. He shrugged. “We don’t do a lot of cooking aroundhere.”
Well, that answered her question about the personalchef.
“How many can she eat?” King pulled out a paper plate and a bottle of mustard, ripped open the bag and stood waiting foranswer.
“Two orthree.”
He dumped out about twelve, shoved them into the microwave and hit start. After tying a knot in the top of the bag and tossing it in the freezer, he waited on the food to finish cooking, extracted the plate and came to stand across the massive island counter. Three feet of slab separating them wasn’t nearlyenough.
Steam rose from the mini corndogs, which completely covered the paper plate. “Um, she’s not going to eat allthose.”
“I’ll finish them.” King went back to the refrigerator and opened the doors. “What do you want her to drink? Coke? Dr. Pepper? Rootbeer?”
“Only if you want to send her into a sugar high. How about somemilk?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot kids can’t do sugar right before—” King stopped talking abruptly. He yanked out a full carton of unopened milk, grabbed a cup from the cabinet beside him and resumed his position across from them. “Milk,” he saidgruffly.
When Laura made to reach for the full jug, he pulled back and opened the lid, carefully pouring the cup to about one fourthfull.
She took the cup and placed it in front of Faith, a good distance from the edge of the counter. “Thanks.”
Instead of saying you’re welcome, he frowned and stalked off, only to return with two more paper plates. And then King picked up one of the many corndogs and broke it in half, testing its heat with his massive fingers. “They’re still hot, but I think she’s safe to eatthem.”
He broke another one in half, placing two total mini corndogs on the plate, and slid them over to the girl. His movements were almost robotic like he was suddenly unsure of himself. Laura squeezed the mustard onto the plate he’d placed in front of Faith. She barely cleared her hands before Faith dove in and inhaled the corndogs and gulped down the milk, splattering mustard and milk on her T-shirt.
“Great, we have no clean clothes.” Lara absentmindedly picked up a miniature corndog, dipped it into the waiting mustard on Faith’s plate, and took a bite. The delicious sweet bread crust filled her senses and awakened her hunger. She grabbed another one, eating almost as fast as Faithhad.
“If you’ll tell me what you need, I’ll get it.” King leaned back against the opposite counter, loosely crossing his arms over hischest.
She wanted to scream at him to put on a shirt so she could stop staring. Instead she focused on keeping her mouth full of food so she didn’t say anythingstupid.
She managed to eat two more of the mini corndogs before answering. “If you could find something for us to sleep in tonight? And some soap and shampoo so I can wash herhair?”
Laura turned to Faith only to see Kitty propped on the stool in her place. Faith had begun an impromptu practice of cartwheels down the length of the long kitchen. “Faith, notinside!”
Of course Faith kept going because she didn’t hear her. They’d only recently had her cochlear implant processor replaced, and it was now smoldering in whatever ashes were left of her house. So, Laura rushed after her before she could crash into thewall.
“She’s full of energy,” Kingremarked.
“And you wanted to pump her full of sugar,” Laura replied, catching Faith before she crashed into thewall.
“Lesson learned. Do you think she’s still hungry?” Kingasked.
Laura gently steered Faith back to her seat. “She’s done. Me too. I didn’t realize I was thathungry.”
She’d practically inhaled three corndogs. Apparently near-death experiences triggered her sugarcravings.
King picked up the plate, and devoured the remaining corndogs. Laura counted eight in total. After that he poured himself a full glass of milk and downed it without spilling a drop. Then he tossed the paper plates in the trash and stashed the remaining half jug of milk into the fridge. “Let’s get you back to your room and I’ll see if Melissa’s got some girlsoap.”
