“I’d like to meet him,” he said.
“You mean, more than you have?”
He nodded. “I’d like to spend time with him.”
“Fine,” she said. “I think he’d be happy to hear that.”
His gaze held an expression of almost swift relief at her words, and she realized just how much Jeremy was hoping that he wouldn’t be rejected. “He didn’t know about you,” she said quietly. “So there’s no rejection on his part.”
“Of course there is,” he said with the wave of his hand. “I can handle it.”
She kept her quiet smile to herself. “I’ll mention it to him. Do you want me to invite him over for the weekend?”
He looked at her in surprise. “You mean, for dinner or something?”
“Or even just coffee, if you want to start small.”
He thought about it and then said, “He might as well come for a meal. At least then it won’t feel quite so awkward.”
“Bonding over a meal is an age-old tradition,” she said with a bright smile.
“Can I bring Frank?”
She thought about it and realized that he was looking for support outside of her. Feeling a small twinge, she nodded. “I think that works,” she said. “How about burgers for four on Saturday?”
“That works,” he said. “Now I’m going back to bed.”
“I’m leaving soon. Have a good day,” she called out.
“You too, Mom.” And, with that, he disappeared upstairs. She tossed back the rest of her coffee, picked up her purse, and walked out the door. She didn’t know what the future held, but she could feel her son trying to find his way. But then so was she. With any luck so was Kurt. Nobody had answers to this mess. No matter how much they tried, there just wasn’t a perfect right or wrong answer in this scenario.
When she arrived at the coffee shop twenty minutes later, she wasn’t surprised to find him already sitting at a table against the window. He lifted his hand in acknowledgment, just to show her where he was seated. She walked toward him, the waitress already meeting her partway with the coffeepot.
She smiled and said, “Yes, please,” as she took her seat across from Kurt. After the waitress left, Laurie Ann asked, “How’s the shoulder?”
“It’s better,” he said. He gave a casual shrug with the other shoulder but kept that injured one still.
She studied him for a long moment. “Do you always have to be a tough guy?”
He laughed. “Goes with the territory.”
“Maybe,” she said, unconvinced. “I wanted to invite you for burgers tomorrow night, Saturday,” she clarified, “at the house.” She watched the surprise and then the joy light up his face.
“I’d be delighted.” Then he hesitated and asked, “Does Jeremy know?”
“Yes, and he would like to spend some time with you.”
“Good,” he said. “I’d like to get to know him.”
“I don’t know how much one gets to know anybody in a short time frame,” she joked, “but it’s a start.”
“And starts are all we have.”
She smiled. “You used to say the darnedest things sometimes,” she said. “You’d get all philosophical, and I’d wonder who this person was, sitting beside me, and then you would revert back to being just you.”
“It’s always just me,” he said, chuckling. “Every once in a while though, I’d start wondering about life, the universe, and what the heck we’re meant to do with our time here.”
“Well, if you ever find out,” she said, “please let me know.”
“Don’t you ever wonder if you’re on the right path?”
“All the time,” she said, “but my goals were ones I felt I needed to do right from the beginning. So, having made it this far, I can’t say I’m unhappy with where I’m at in life.”
“No,” he said, “I’m in the same boat. I wish I had skipped out on the accident and that I was still in the navy. I expected to be a career seaman, but life happened.”
“And you have to find something to replace it now,” she said.
The waitress returned with menus and topped up their coffees and left again.
Laurie Ann looked up at him. “Do you have any news on the War Dog?”
“No,” he said. “I stopped here last night on my way home, but it was noisy, noisy enough to scare off Sabine. A large group of people had what looked like barbecues going at several trucks on the tailgates. They were settled in, even though the truck stop owners didn’t appear to be too happy about it.”
“Ah, well, it’s not exactly what you would call a tailgate party, but maybe they were traveling through and didn’t really have a place to go.”
“Maybe. I thought I caught sight of the gang of kids as well,” he said, “but, when I headed in their direction, they scattered.”
“So it may have been them?”
“May have been. Yes, I did send Amos a text about it.”
“You told him that you got shot?”
He gave her a lopsided grin. “Nope, I didn’t. Do you think he would believe me or would he just put me in the troublemaker category again?”
“It’s been thirteen years,” she protested. “Surely every kid’s allowed to grow up.”
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “Small towns, once you are tarred and feathered with a certain brush, I don’t think they see you any differently.”
“That would be sad,” she said. “Everybody deserves a second chance.”
“Maybe, I certainly think so, but obviously your parents don’t.”
“I know,” she said, “but that’s their loss. They have no relationship with Jeremy either.”
“Does he ask about them?”
“He did at first, but I told him the truth, and now he doesn’t ask anymore.”
“Good,” he said, “he’s learning.”
“These are hard lessons though,” she said.
“They are, but those are the lessons that you and I both had to learn too.”
“I know.” She stared moodily out the window. “You always want to protect your kids, but it seems like there’s nothing that you can do to stop them from getting hurt, no matter how hard you try.”
“And I’m not sure we have that right,” he said slowly. “When you think about it, it’s usually through being hurt that we grow.”
Her smile peeped out. “There you go with that philosophical stuff again.”
“Yeah, sometimes,” he said, “but just think about it. I wouldn’t be who I am now if I hadn’t gone into the navy. It wasn’t easy, but I went there eagerly, knowing that it was the right thing for me. Maybe I knew I would end up with a bullet between my eyes pretty damn fast if I didn’t change. I don’t know. What one does has consequences. But what would have been the consequences if we hadn’t gone ahead and done what we did? Imagine if you and I hadn’t come together? Jeremy wouldn’t exist.”
“I know,” she said. “I thought about that a lot while I was struggling to pay the bills.”