“Yes, Sweetheart. Go get your hairbrush and the butterflies and I’ll brush your hair while you eat breakfast.” Grace looked at the clock on the microwave. “We’re late, so we have to hurry.”
“I made Lily a breakfast sandwich to eat in the car,” Reno responded. “And I can drive if you want to ride in the back and do Lily’s hair on the way, while she eats.”
Grace blinked, looking nearly as surprised as Lily. “Uhh, yes. I guess that works.”
“Great! We have a plan.” As he headed for the back door and passed by Grace, he reached out with one finger, put it under her chin lightly, and closed her gaping mouth.
She followed him outside and helped Lily climb into the back of the truck while he put Lily’s backpack and Grace’s shoulder bag on the floor in the front seat. She still looked gobsmacked in the rearview mirror as he pulled out of the driveway. He smiled to himself and drove without interrupting Lily’s steady stream of narrative about how weird it was to eat a sandwich for breakfast because those were for lunch and supper.
* * *
Cobbler Cove at this time of day was so quiet it was hard to believe two thousand people lived here. There was no traffic. No street noise. Just lights in a few kitchen windows here and there. Stillwater Lake was black and still off to the left between the houses.
At Buns ’N’ Roses he idled at the curb and watched her unlock the front door, step inside, and lock it behind her. The lights came on and her shadow moved past the front window.
He pulled out his phone and opened the security camera’s app.
She was on screen one, washing her hands at the prep sink. Screen two: the front door, locked. Screen three: the back alley, empty. Screen four: the back door, locked. He watched the alley for thirty seconds. Nothing moved.
He parked at Lily’s preschool and walked her inside. He had a quick word with the teacher, who assured him they hadn’t seen anyone fitting the description of the fake utility man around the building, and the woman thanked him for arranging to have a deputy outside during school hours, just to be safe.
He drove over to the hardware store and sat out front until it opened at seven. Inside, he bought a couple gallons of waterproof deck sealer and a roller brush to apply it. While he was at it, he bought white exterior house paint. The trim paint under Grace’s eaves was starting to peel, and if it didn’t get redone soon, water was going to reach the wood and start rotting it.
The day passed uneventfully, as did the evening. Grace told him about her day, and he told her about seeing the first V of geese flying north for the summer. Lily told them both with great enthusiasm about the opossum a nice lady from an animal sanctuary had brought to their school. Reno was pretty sure Lily repeated verbatim every single fact the woman shared with the kids about the creatures. The child had a future in law with a memory like that.
The next morning, Lily came down the hall at six-forty-seven in a pink nightgown with a stuffed seal under each arm and her hair sticking up in a way that suggested she’d slept aggressively on it.
"Mornin', Miss Lily."
"Where's Mommy?"
"At the bakery. She said for me to tell you she'd be home for supper and that you and I are in charge of our own breakfast."
"What are we having?"
"What would you like?"
"Pancakes."
"I’ll do it, but fair warning. My pancakes are a tragedy."
"What's a tragedy?"
"It's something that turns out very sad. Like when a person makes pancakes and they come out perfectly flat and grey, and one of them sticks to the ceiling."
"You stuck it to the ceiling?" Lily exclaimed.
"Yep."
"Can you stick one to our ceiling?" she asked hopefully.
“Do you think your mom would get mad at me?”
“Oh, noooo,” Lily answered in an exaggeratedly casual tone.
He shook his head. “I’d better not.” He thought for a minute. “I do make a decent omelet, however. Do you like those?”
“Uhh huh. With pieces of ham and lots of cheese, and little pieces of green stuff and white stuff.”
