before nightfall. Maybe we can bag that stag we saw last night.”
Tommy happily started chattering about their trip back and what animal he wanted to hunt as they headed back down the main street to the hotel. Willy swiped at his face with his hands and then his nose with his sleeve before Will could produce a handkerchief.
“Where’s your kerchief?” he asked.
“I forgot, Pa.” Willy blew his nose soundly.
“I ain’t got no kerchief, Pa,” Tommy reminded him. “You were gonna give me one and then you forgot.”
“Sorry, son. We’ll get you a few at the house.” At least he hoped that there were still some hankies somewhere in the house.
A few minutes later, Will and the boys sat at a table in the dining area of the hotel, perusing the menu. “Pa, what are you going to eat?” Tommy’s questions never stopped. Without letting his father answer him, he launched into his own opinion of the food, what he wanted, and ended with another question. “Why don’t you cook like this, Pa?”
“Well, son,” Will hedged. “I guess some things I just haven’t learned yet.”
“Maybe our auntie House...I mean our Miss Auntie could do it better,” Tommy reassured him.
“Don’t you understand anything!” Willy yelled at his brother. “She’s not coming!”
“But I want her to,” Tommy whined. “I want someone to cook better than Pa and fix my clothes so we could go to the meeting with nice clothes like Jill.”
“Boys!” Will exclaimed, glaring at his offspring. He gave a short lecture on the right way to behave in public. Even as he was speaking, he remembered his father saying something very similar when he was young. When both boys calmed down, he nodded approval.
The waitress came and took their order, smiling and teasing the boys before she left. Comfortably plump, the woman looked to be about Will’s mother’s age. “Maybe we can ask her if she wants to be our auntie... How do you call it again?” Tommy quizzed his brother when the waitress left.
Before Will could stop the conversation, Tommy turned his attention to the door. Standing up in his chair, he grinned, pointing and then waving at someone who had entered. “There she is, Pa. That lady that you caught at the train. Maybe she’ll be our—”
“Tomas, sit down and put your arm down!” Will was about to pick both boys up and take them to the wagon. It was downright embarrassing that he had come all this way for nothing, and now the boys were making a ruckus here.
“But she’s here, Pa. She looks really nice,” Tommy whispered this time, dropping back into his seat but still staring at someone behind Will.
“I’m sorry, miss,” he could hear the waitress answering the woman. “We don’t have any jobs here. There are hardly any customers except on the days the train comes through. Why don’t you come in and have a bite to eat and maybe by then the lady you’re waiting for will come by?”
Since his back was to the two women, Will wasn’t able to see what happened next, but the expression on Tommy’s face brightened. Before he could stop his son, the boy shot off his chair toward the stranger.
“Come sit with us, lady. You look nice. We need someone to teach us how to eat nice and not like a bunch of wild hogs.”
Will turned in his chair and caught the surprised look on the woman’s face. She quickly disguised it with a smile. “Well, hello to you, too, little man.” She crouched down and looked into Tommy’s eyes while she spoke.
Will was taken by her soft, sincere voice. She sounded as though she actually enjoyed talking to the little boy. Will opened his mouth to call Tommy back to the table, but the words died before reaching his lips when he saw the rapture on his son’s face.
“I’m not a little man, I’m just a boy. My brother says I haf’ta be more’n eleven to be a man. He’s gonna be a man soon ’cuz he’s already nine,” Tommy informed her, holding out eight fingers until she helped him lift one more.
“That’s nine.” She smiled, ruffling his hair.
“I just got my hair—”
“Tomas.” Will didn’t know what to do with his son. He seemed bound and determined to get the whole town laughing at his antics. “Leave the lady in peace and come back to the table.”
“But, Pa, she don’t have nobody to sit with and we could learn how to be gent’men if she were at the table,” Tommy argued, taking hold of the woman’s hand.
“Tomas, you need to heed your father, dear.” Her melodic voice soothed some of Will’s embarrassment, and her eyes sparkled with delight. She straightened back up and led Tommy to the table without withdrawing her hand from his.
Reluctantly, Tommy sat down and let her go, but as she turned to leave, she suddenly turned back to look closer at Will. “Oh, my! You’re the one who—”
“Yeah,” Tommy answered for his father, “he caught you at the train. You were gonna fall on your face.”
“Yes, I was. I don’t think I had a chance to thank you, sir.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m glad you didn’t get hurt,” Will mumbled uncomfortably. It had been years since he was in polite company.
“Can she eat with us, Pa? Please.” Tommy pushed the issue.
“She probably wants some peace and quiet after her train ride, Tommy.”
“Yeah, you talk too much,” Willy whispered to his brother. Tommy’s face fell and he bit his lower lip.
“I’d love to eat with you, young man. You’re the most handsome gentleman who’s ever invited me to sup with him. I’d be honored, but your pa might want to have you boys all to himself.”
“It would be our pleasure to have your presence at our table,” Will responded, belatedly standing in the presence of the lady as his mother had taught him. “Please, have a seat, if you’d like.” Even as he stepped around to hold out the chair between Tommy and Willy and opposite his, he wondered what he was thinking. The young woman had just given him the perfect out and instead of taking it, he asked her to join them and endure his sons’ antics. Maybe it was just the idea of talking to another adult or maybe it was the worried look she was trying hard to hide from the boys.
“Thank you again,” she murmured. The waitress set a menu in front of her and soon returned with a glass of water for everyone.
“Well, my young friend.” She smiled down at Tommy. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. My name—”
“I’m Tommy,” he interrupted, “and I’m six years old.” He held out his hands and this time he had managed to get six digits to stand in the air.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Tommy.” She grinned and shook his hand as if he were a grown man.
“And you would be...?” She turned her attention on Willy.
Will did
