Page 70 of Never Alone
Sean came up behind us a minute later, the girl behind him with her tube of caulk. He'd answered her one more thing. He stepped behind the register and started ringing me up.
"Trowel. Six bucks. Spacers. Three. Backer board tape, eight."
He ran the items through. The girl waited her turn behind us, polite, hands folded over the tube.
When Sean had everything punched in, she leaned toward me.
"Cute kid. Yours?"
"About to be."
It came out clean.
I had not thought about saying it. I had said it.
"That's seventy-two ten, brother," Sean said.
I ran my card, picked up the smaller bag, and handed it to Noah. Lifted the heavier one off the floor.
"Thanks, Sean."
"Anytime."
I had to pass the girl on the way out. She stepped sideways to let us through and put a hand briefly on my forearm.
"Thank you for your help."
"Don't mention it."
The bell went on the door.
In the truck, I set the heavy bag on the floor of the passenger side and got Noah buckled in. He was already turning a tile spacer between his fingers like a coin.
I sat behind the wheel for a second before I started the engine.
Women had come up to me before. It came with the uniform—a number on a napkin, a hand on the bicep at a fundraiser, the occasional civilian on a scene who held eye contact past help. None of them had stuck to me the way the woman at Sean's had.
I didn't know what was wrong about it. Something was wrong.
I started the engine and drove.
The court-monitored facility was a brown-brick building on Beaufain Street, two blocks off the courthouse. There was a sign with a bird on it. The bird was supposed to be reassuring. It wasn't.
I parked in the lot, killed the engine, and we got out.
The lobby was beige—two chairs against the wall, a receptionist behind a low counter with a sign-in sheet on a clipboard, a woman behind her at a desk who I assumed was the monitor, doing something on a computer.
I signed Noah in.
I crouched in front of him.
"Bud."
"Yeah."
"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here. Four hours. I'll be here when you walk out."
He nodded.
