“Is the house going to be done in time?” Laine asked.
Cooper appeared in the doorway. “The way she’s riding the contractors, they’re afraid for their lives. They’ll make it. Something to drink, Laine?” he asked.
“Whatever the big girls are drinking, I’ll have one.”
He ran a hand over Sarah’s shoulder. “Honey?”
“Water?” she asked, looking up at him sweetly.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead and all the women said, “Awwww” at the same time.
Sarah looked over her shoulder, following Cooper’s departure back into the bar. Then she leaned close to the women to share. “Have you heard of those pregnant women who just crave sex all the time?” she asked in a lowered tone. They all leaned forward expectantly. “I’m not one of them,” she said.
And they came apart in laughter yet again.
“How about the baby daddy?” Lou asked.
“He hasn’t changed,” Sarah said. “You think he’d be intimidated by this big mound, but no.”
“We have to talk about the shower,” Gina said. “We haven’t had a really good party since their wedding.”
“What kind of shower?” Sarah asked.
They all looked at her very strangely. Cooper chose that moment to bring her a water and Laine a glass of wine. “Baby, Sarah,” he said. “Baby shower. You’re pregnant.”
“I mean, just for girls? Or for men, too.”
“Aw, please,” Cooper said, pathetically. “For girls. Please.”
“But sweetheart, I want you to be involved, to be able to play all the baby games!” she said.
“Oh, God,” he said, turning away. “Can’t you just shoot me?” he was heard to mutter inside the bar.
When he was gone the women were laughing again. “You have no idea the strain Cooper is under,” Sarah said. “He’s trying to do everything he can to make me happy, to help me, and a couples shower might put him over the edge. Right now he’d give anything to trade places with me. For one pass on a baby shower, he’d be willing to carry her and push her out.”
An hour later Laine and Devon were walking back across the beach together. Lou was dropping off Gina at home, Carrie was hanging around the beach a little while to talk to Rawley about his deli orders for the rest of the week, Ray Anne was off in her fancy little car to get a little work done.
“Do you have to go back to work?” Laine asked her.
“Scott’s holding down the fort. I’ll at least check appointments, messages and ask him if anything’s going on before I head out for the day. Spencer is coaching track and field till the end of term so he won’t be done early and I have kids to pick up in an hour. How about you? Done for the day?”
“Except to check the computer to see if I have any emails. Not urgent. A night like tonight deserves something on the grill. I think I’ll run by the station and see what Eric is in the mood for.”
“Tell him I said hi.”
They parted in the street. Laine took her car from the front of the diner while Devon went into the clinic. She drove the short distance to the garage, but parked in front of the big doors and not at the pump. She went inside to find that Eric was leaning into an engine and the long legs sticking out from under the car must have belonged to Al. Eric ducked out from under the hood and looked at her. He grabbed a rag from the back pocket of his coverall. His eyes sparkled and he smiled as he wiped his hands.
She had found him in January, moved him in with her in February. It was the middle of April and he still looked at her as if she were brand-new. It hadn’t been that long, really, but still... There was something about that look, that twinkle, that smile that promised he would see her that way forever.
She had not known she could have this kind of life.
* * *
The next day Eric had errands in Bandon—he was in search of some new tires for a customer and a haircut for himself. He stopped at a small market on the edge of town—his assignment from Laine had been baby blond potatoes, Vidalia onions, two large carrots, frozen peas, sour cream and Dijon mustard. He had no idea what this would become, something that was going to combine with chicken, but his mouth watered just the same. She was so right about him—it turned him on to see her cook. What a throwback to an earlier time he was. Also on his list was a box of tampons. He figured that was some kind of test, like a husband test. He laughed at himself. He should bring home a boat and rod and reel instead, like the old joke—guy goes into a store for tampons and comes home with a bunch of sporting equipment because the salesman convinced him, Well, you might as well go fishing....
He didn’t even have the first item in the basket when he saw Justin. He was alone, pushing a cart away from Eric.
It was probably the sight of Justin’s shaggy haircut that caused Eric to run a hand around the back of his neck. He’d just gotten himself a nice trim and suddenly he knew quite a few things. Justin wasn’t getting a haircut in a barber shop, he wasn’t in school, he was shopping for food for the family. Was he the man of the house, with his father gone and his mother unemployed?Eric followed him a little, pretending to look at certain items, glancing out of his peripheral vision to see where the kid was headed. It didn’t take him long before he was checking out. He used some kind of credit card. This didn’t take a brilliant investigator—the cashier didn’t smile, Justin looked down, the total was reached, Justin bagged his own groceries and took back the card and the receipt. It had to be a voucher for food, the new form of food stamps. But what was he doing way over here? There was a grocery store in Thunder Point.
Justin left the store and Eric finally got around to getting the rest of the items on his list. He was back at the garage just after lunch. It wasn’t unusual for Al to be there already, though he was early. During the morning and early afternoon Eric could leave the station in Manny’s capable hands with either Norm or Howie or both to help him, while the afternoon and evening were his with Al, sometimes Justin and one of the old boys.
Eric put his vegetables in the refrigerator they kept in the garage. He went to talk to Al.
“So, what can you tell me about Justin?”
“Kid’s doing great,” Al said. “He’s keeping up with his regular work, learning new things, writing up invoices and even helping with ordering parts. He’s a whiz on the computer. He likes it, his mood is civilized, he’s good with customers. He’s happy twenty-five percent of the time, which for a seventeen-year-old boy is very positive.” Al grinned. “He has a lot of family responsibility—two younger brothers and a mother who isn’t well too much of the time. I noticed that’s typical around here.... Not sick mothers, but kids with a lot of family responsibility—they help on family fishing boats, they help farm or deliver produce, they take on part-time jobs to help out, to pay for extras, like their own underwear. It’s like where I grew up in Boone. We thought it was normal.” And Al smiled his friendly smile.
“You have any idea what’s wrong with his mother?”
“No idea,” Al said. “Sounds like she’s got some kind of chronic thing—Justin said she has regular bouts and the doctor looks after her, but she needs the kids to help with chores. With all he’s got on his plate, he’s holding up real fine.”
“My part-time job was my undoing,” Eric said. “It went too well. I dropped out of school because I thought I was making the big bucks. Justin wasn’t in school today. I saw him in a grocery store over in Bandon. I don’t like the idea he’s skipping school. That could lead to him skipping too much school...”
“Want me to talk to him?” Al asked.
“Nah, let me. He likes you better—keep it that way. Stay on his good side. Let me be the bad guy, see if I can figure out what’s going on with him. Then you can pick him up, dust him off, talk sense to him.” He took a breath. “Al, it’s not good for him to quit learning so early....”
“He’s learning,” Al said with a frown. “He’s growing in this job. He’s got good instincts, good hands.”
“I’d like him to have better odds than I did.”
“You landed on top, man,” Al said. “Twice!”
“I was lucky. If you don’t have luck along with determination, it can get bleak.”
When Justin came in, Eric tried to talk to him, but it was a waste of time, except to make Justin pretty mad. “My mom’s doing great, but she needs our help. She’s in a wheelchair and if you know anything about people in a wheelchair, they’re pretty easy targets for falls, for things like pneumonia, that kind of thing. And she takes medicine, so someone needs to be close by in case she needs help with something. She can’t be cooking and shit like that. She can’t drive anymore. So, that enough information or does my job require copies of medical records?”
“I just want to know if there’s any way I can help,” Eric said in frustration.
“Yeah. Gimme hours. She doesn’t work, doesn’t get support from my dad, and we’re stretched pretty tight. If you’re not gonna give me hours, stay outta my personal life. Do I ask you about your personal life?”
Eric shrugged. “Sometimes,” he said. “And it doesn’t really piss me off as much as this pisses you off.”
“Tell you what,” Justin said. “If I need anything, I’ll let you know. For right now all I need is hours. I’ll take whatever hours you can give me. After three in the afternoon, at least after two, and all day and all night Saturday and Sunday. That’s what I need.”
“You skipped school today,” Eric said. “I saw you at a grocery store near Bandon.”
“That’s right, dude. I had to take my mother to the doctor. I stopped to get a couple of things. She was still in the car, waiting.” But when he said that, he flushed. “We get along fine. Leave it alone.”
And so Eric said to Al, “I can’t crack that one. He’s all yours.”
* * *
Later that same day when Eric had gone home, Justin said to Al, “Any chance you can tell me how to replace break shoes?”
“Tell you?” Al repeated. “What good is telling you going to do?”
“The breaks on the van are slow and sometimes they cry. I’m going to have to do something.”
“You’re the only one who drives the van, right?”
“Yeah—the boys are too young and my mom can’t drive anymore. But I drive everyone everywhere.”
“At seven, when the place slows down, go get the van and bring it to the garage. We’re gonna do brakes. We’ll call it on-the-job training.”
“I need to do it myself,” Justin said. “We’re on a tight budget. I can get parts cheaper somewhere else....”
Al put a hand on his shoulder. “Kid, we’re gonna do it here. We’re gonna do it on the house. Now go home and get the van. Tell the boys you could be a little late tonight. We’re gonna service that vehicle, check everything, change the oil, give it a lube, go down the checklist, make sure you have first-rate transportation....”
“I can’t,” he said. “I can’t do that. If Eric finds out and thinks I’m taking freebies from the station...”
“If you asked Eric he would be glad to help. You asked me and I’m glad to help. We’re not going to cover it up—I’m going to tell Eric we worked on your van. We’re going to document it. I’m going to train you and Lucky’s will be glad to eat the cost of parts because Eric is good to his employees. I work on my truck right here, Manny takes care of his vehicles here.”