Page 112 of Back To Our Beginning

“Let’s eat before the food gets cold,” I said as I took the plastic bag from his hand. “Bring the plates back to the kitchen, and I’ll plate the food. I didn’t really think it through when I put the plates on the table.”

I had the containers all out on the counter when Beau came in and I was just putting the vanilla ice cream that Polly had packed separately with ice cubes, into the freezer. I liked my apple pie à la mode, and I didn’t have any vanilla ice cream here at the house.

“I’ll leave the pie in the kitchen and we can warm it up later. The food seems to be warm enough right now,” I said as I put everything on plates.

Beau carried the plates out to the table and we sat down.

I was a third of the way through with my chicken-fried steak and well into my mashed potatoes before I realized neither of us had said a word. When I looked up, I saw Beau smiling at me.

“What?”

“Nothing. I’m just enjoying watching you.”

“You enjoy seeing me eat like this is my last meal?”

He frowned. “Did you eat anything today besides breakfast?”

I put down my fork and sighed. “No. My stash in the Jeep was empty. And things got away from me. But I did have a root beer as soon as I got home. That counts, right?”

“Maddie, I’ve cut up cantaloupe and bought raspberries and string cheese for you. It’s all there right by the root beer. Those would have been better choices. I worry about you.”

I felt my heart melt. “You did?”

“You saw me cut up the cantaloupe. I know that your favorite fruits are cantaloupe and raspberries. I should have put together something for your car.”

“Beau, you’re amazing.” I said. And I meant it.

“You’re not going to get out of this conversation by complimenting me. I’ve seen you close to hitting the wall when you haven’t eaten. I’ll put some protein bars in your car tomorrow. Do you promise you’ll eat them for lunch from now on?”

Okay, now he was getting annoying. “I hear you, Mr. Marine. You don’t have to run this into the ground. I’ll eat something during the day. Okay?”

He gave me a long assessing look, then smiled. “Okay.”

I looked down at his plate and saw that he was more than halfway through. “What about you? Did you eat lunch? You’ve sure eaten fast.”

“Yes, I’ve eaten lunch. I’m just a growing boy.” He smirked.

I rolled my eyes.

I took a bite of my mashed potatoes and gravy. Polly sure knew how to make good food.

“So how was work today?” he asked.

“It was pretty damn good. I spent time with Eli today. I got him to talking. He tried to teach me how to play Paw Patrol on his PlayStation. I sucked.”

“He’s liking it with the Pattersons?”

I nodded as I swallowed some steak. “Yeah. Better yet, I got him to tell me about what Bruce had done to him. First, he told me what Bruce had done to Sparks, but then Eli confessed what Bruce had done to him.”

“That’s good news, right? You told me how the D.A. didn’t have a case against Bruce and he’d probably go free.”

I nodded. “I called Oliver. He thinks that with Eli’s testimony and the hospital records of how Eli had been abused, it will be a slam dunk. He’s going to call Bruce’s public defender and see if Bruce will just take a deal, so Eli doesn’t have to testify.”

“That is good news.”

“What about you? How did you spend your day?”

“Went for a run with Kai, then went back to his place and we talked for a quite a while. I can’t tell you how weird and great it is to have a brother after all these years.”