taxi driver.
But a few minutes later, when the cashier pushed out a cart of bagged groceries, he told Donae to keep the change before loading them in the back of Molly’s hatchback.
Kaleb was often reminded of the fact that he was the shortest of all the Chatterson brothers, yet he still had to slide the driver’s seat back to accommodate his six-foot frame. He started the car and the stereo shot to life. If the booming bass of hip-hop wasn’t loud enough to wake Molly up, the vibration of the cheap speakers through the vinyl seats would’ve done the trick.
“This is for when your levels stabilize.” He tossed the wrapped sandwich on her lap and asked, “So how do I get to the baseball park from here?”
“This bread has seeds in it,” Molly said as she examined the turkey sandwich he’d given her. She was already dehydrated and couldn’t afford to use the little saliva she could muster to swallow some tasteless looking cardboard.
“It’s whole grain.” Kaleb spoke slowly, as though he was explaining jet propulsion to a kindergartner. “It’s one of those complex carbs you’re supposed to eat once you drink enough fluid to flush out all the excess sugar from your system.”
Her unsolicited rescuer was sure turning out to be quite the know-it-all.
“I’m well aware of what I’m supposed to be eating and drinking.” As if to prove it, she took another long swig of the water he’d thoughtfully purchased after she’d already downed an entire bottle.
“Forgive me for doubting that when I overheard you asking some clueless teenager at the juice bar if the strawberry-banana smoothie was low in sugar.”
“Well, I will be aware. As soon as I meet with the nutritionist at Shadowview.” Molly actually had several appointments at the nearby military hospital, but she’d been putting them off. She could only handle one tailspin at a time.
“So you are in the military.” It was more of a statement than a question.
Technically, she was. But she didn’t know for how much longer. Ever since the flight surgeon wrote up a medical board determining that her recently diagnosed condition made her ineligible to fly, Molly had refused to think about where her career was headed. So instead, she changed the subject. “You can stop looking at the map on your phone. I know where we’re going.”
“But my GPS is saying it’s quicker to take Snowflake Boulevard to Lake Street.”
“Does your GPS also say that Lake Street is blocked off today because the high school drill team is practicing for next week’s Sun Potato Parade?”
“Hmpf.” His hand reluctantly dropped the fancy high-tech device into the center console, then loosely gripped it, as though he might need to grab it again at any second. “It probably would if there was a Sun Potato Parade app available to download.”
“You can talk to my nephew about inventing one. He lives for dorky tech stuff like that.” Molly saw Kaleb’s hand clench tighter around his phone and she wondered what she could’ve said to annoy him. If she wasn’t so exhausted, she might’ve asked him. She pointed to the next stop sign. “Make a left up here.”
“Speaking of your nephew, won’t he think there’s something wrong if you show up with a stranger?”
“I’ll tell him I had too much to drink.” She felt the deceleration of the car before she realized he’d completely taken his foot off the gas pedal. She let her head roll to the side, which was a mistake since it only afforded her a full view of his handsome—and doubt-filled—face.
“You’d rather people think you were drunk than diabetic?” His incredulous tone hit her in the belly with a force. Or maybe she was still sore from where she’d given herself that shot. “Are you seriously that desperate to keep this from your family?”
“Desperate is a strong word,” she said cautiously. In fact, it sounded a lot like weak. And she was neither. “I’m simply protecting them from worrying about me. And I didn’t mean alcohol. His mom warned him not to have too much soda this weekend because it would give him a bellyache. So I was going to go that route.”
He made a weird mumbling sound as he pulled into the parking lot. All the other kids must’ve already been picked up because poor Hunter was the only boy waiting by the bleachers. She curled her fingers into her palm, unable to release the guilt building inside her. Molly came from a big, busy family with at least one parent usually off on deployment. Getting forgotten at school or left behind at soccer practice was an all too familiar feeling and she hated that her condition was now affecting others.
She leaped out of the passenger door before Kaleb had even put the car in Park. Well, she didn’t leap so much as stumble on shaky legs, feeling as if she’d just stepped onto solid ground after a ten-hour flight in a cramped cockpit.
“Sorry I’m so late, buddy,” she said, wrapping her twelve-year-old nephew into a bear hug, made all the more awkward by the fact that he’d shot up a couple inches taller than her this past winter and was carrying a duffel bag in one hand and a batting helmet in the other. As well as by the fact that she’d just seen him less than two hours ago. “Have you been waiting all by yourself?”
“No problem, Aunt Molly. Practice has only been done a few minutes and Coach Russell is still here chalking the base lines for tomorrow’s game.” Hunter untangled himself from her overzealous greeting and opened the rear door to toss his gear into the back seat. “Hey! You didn’t tell me Kaleb was coming with you!”
“Hunter, my man,” Kaleb said casually as he pivoted in the driver’s seat and did a complicated fist bump with her nephew.
“What?” Molly fumbled with the door handle. “You guys know each other?”
“Pfshhh,” Hunter responded. “Anyone living in the twenty-first century knows Kaleb Chatterson.”
“Oh, hell.” She inspected her grocery store hero through squinted eyes. “You’re a Chatterson?”
“That’s another dollar for my swear jar, Aunt Molly.”
“According to my birth certificate.” Kaleb shrugged, then put the car into gear. “The DNA tests are still in question.”
A throb started in her temples and Molly had to wonder if her visit to Sugar Falls could get any worse. She pulled her wallet out and tossed a ten dollar bill onto Hunter’s lap. “Consider me paid up until Sunday.”
* * *
“But you said you were from Seattle,” Molly accused through gritted teeth as she latched her seat belt.
“I am.” Kaleb was doing her a favor. Why was he the one being put on the defensive? “And would you mind telling me where I’m supposed to take you?”
“I’m staying at my sister’s apartment. But I guess you knew that all along.”
Whoa. This lady was coming at him with guns blazing. If that wasn’t discomforting enough, a twelve-year-old kid had his seat belt stretched to the limits as he practically leaned between their two
