Walters headed out of the store, and just Caelyn and I were left. I slid onto a stool at the counter. It was rare that I waited here for my food, but I couldn’t seem to resist the temptation today. I had this undeniable urge to make sure she was okay.
“So, what’ll it be? Some version of meat and cheese?”
I almost chuckled. Almost. “Sounds good to me. But I know you’ll sneak some vegetables on there somehow.”
“Gotta keep you from getting scurvy.”
I almost choked. “I thought that was from not enough vitamin C. I drink my orange juice.”
Caelyn shook her head and started pulling things out of a fridge below the counter. “There’s vitamin C in vegetables, too. And lots of other nutritious things you need.”
“Good thing I come in here a few times a week then.”
“Good thing.”
An idea was forming in the back of my mind. One that just might be the answer to helping Caelyn out of her predicament and giving me some nice benefits, as well.
The screen door banged open. “Cae Cae!” a young girl’s voice called out. Soon, there was a flash of movement past me.
Caelyn stepped around the counter and lifted the little girl into her arms as she hurled herself at Caelyn. “How was your day?”
“So good. I taught cartwheels at recess, and you left me my favorite cookie in my lunch.”
Caelyn laughed. “Sounds like a good day to me. Where are the rest of the tiny terrors?”
The little girl beamed up at Caelyn. “They’re coming, but they were being too slow, so I ran when I got to the parking lot.” Her gaze caught on me. “Whoa. Are you a giant?”
I wanted to laugh but seeing the easy affection between the girl and Caelyn stole my ability to speak.
“Mia, this is Mr. Griffin. Griffin, this is my little sister, Mia.”
The girl looked so much like Beth had at that age, I struggled to find words. “It’s nice to meet you, Mia.” My voice came out rougher than before, and I tried to force my lips into a smile, but the action felt foreign.
“Hey, sis,” a male voice called.
I turned to see a boy who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. As soon as he caught sight of me, wariness filled his features. He quickly crossed to his sisters, tugging another girl behind him. “Who’s this?”
Caelyn pressed her lips together as if holding back a laugh. “This is Mr. Griffin. Griffin, this is Will and Ava, my other two siblings. I hope you don’t mind, but they usually hang with me for thirty minutes before Molly takes over. Kids, you can go hang out in the office while I get Mr. Griffin’s sandwich ready.”
“I wanna stay with you and help,” Mia whined.
“I’ll go into the office,” Ava offered. She had taken a step behind her brother as if hiding from me.
“They can stay.” The words were out before I could stop them. Awkward and a little gruff, but Mia beamed.
“See, Mr. Griffin wants me to help make his sandwich.”
Caelyn shook her head. “Well, if that’s the case, we better wash our hands.”
Ava headed for the back office while Will took a seat next to me at the counter, eyeing me carefully. Caelyn helped Mia up onto a little stool by the sink, and they washed their hands, Mia singing some sort of song that counted off the seconds.
“All clean,” she called. “No germies can last to thirty.”
I couldn’t hold in my chuckle this time. “I guess they can’t.”
“I never thought I’d see the day,” Caelyn started, putting a hand over her heart. “I do believe you laughed, Griffin Lockwood. Who knew all it took was a seven-year-old singing about germs?”
3
Caelyn
I thought Griffin’s lip twitches packed a punch, but they had nothing on his chuckle. It was a little bit gruff as if coated in sandpaper, just like his voice. The tone seemed to skitter across my skin and sent a pleasant shiver down my spine.
“I like his laugh,” Mia chimed in.
Redness crept up the back of Griffin’s neck, and I felt a bit guilty for putting him on the spot. Mia held out her arm to me. “Can you dry my rainbow bracelet? I don’t want it to stay wet and fall off.”
Mia’s protectiveness over her bracelet sent a mixture of warmth and worry through me. I loved that she was so attached to what she had made a symbol of our family, but I feared the day she outgrew the thing. It was already looking a little tight. We’d just have to make some more soon. “Of course.” I carefully rubbed a towel over her wrist.
She held it up for Griffin to see. “This is my rainbow. Me and Ava made them. Caelyn helped. And we all have one. Even Will.”
Will stared Griffin down as if challenging him to find it odd for a sixteen-year-old boy to wear a rainbow friendship bracelet. Griffin nodded. “Uh, pretty.”
Mia beamed. “Thank you.”
“Come on, Mi,” I said, trying to shift her focus elsewhere. “Up on your stool. I need you to put the salami on the sandwich.”
She climbed up onto the stool and eyed Griffin. “You like salami? It’s my favorite.”
“It’s one of my favorites, too.”
I’d never heard so many words out of Griffin on one visit before. I sent him a grateful smile for putting up with Mia’s chatter.
“Do you like cheddar cheese or American?” she asked.
“Cheddar.”
“Me, too.” She beamed. “Cats or dogs?”
“Hmmm…” Griffin took an exaggerated amount of time considering the options. “Dogs. Definitely dogs.”
Mia shook her head. “I want a cat. I’ve been asking forever. She’d sleep with me, and I’d dress her up, and we’d be best friends.”
A ghost of something that looked a lot like pain flashed across Griffin’s features. “You’ve got it all planned out.”
Mia’s shoulders slumped. “Except we can’t have pets at our house. The mean landlord says.”
“Mia,” I chided. “The landlord isn’t mean. She just doesn’t want animals on her property.” Pinpricks of guilt seemed to dig into my skin. I’d worked so hard to give these kids a normal childhood—one full of all the things I’d never had. But pets hadn’t been something I’d been able to make a reality. Ava always looked longingly at the dogs at adoption fairs. And Mia full-out begged for a cat regularly. But when I could barely keep my head above water on the bills we already had, saving for a house of our own wasn’t exactly on my radar. “Maybe one day.”
“One day is so far away,” Mia whined.
Griffin met her disappointed stare. “But think about how much you’ll appreciate it when it finally gets here.”
“Kinda like how I only get pancakes on weekends?” Mia asked.
Griffin grinned, and it was truly devastating. “Exactly like that.”
Mia nodded and got to work laying pieces of salami on slices of rustic sourdough. Griffin’s gaze shifted to mine, and I mouthed, thank you. Who knew? Apparently, Griffin was the child-whisperer.
“About ten more minutes on the steaks,” Crosby said as he picked up his beer from the picnic table and took a pull. The table was one Bell had helped me haul from a garage sale and refinish so it was no longer a splinter-filled mess but instead a smooth, warm-hued masterpiece.