“Ouch,” he said, “and I can only tell you that I would have been more than happy to help out.”
“And I think I was also being somewhat stubborn and trying hard to do it on my own, as if I wanted to prove to my parents that I didn’t need them either.”
“And that’s pride,” he said. “I understand that one fully.”
“Not too many would,” she said with a smile. “My sister didn’t. She thought I was being willfully difficult.”
“She was pretty difficult back then, as I recall.”
“Yeah, she was, but I still love her. She is my sister, and I love her even more because, even though she didn’t approve and didn’t agree with my decision, she sucked it all in and helped me out anyway.”
“And your parents still have nothing to do with you and Jeremy?”
“No, not really. Every once in a while there’s a phone call to make sure I’m alive on the planet. I still send them emails for their birthdays, but I don’t do anything more than that.”
“The fact that you even do that much,” he said, “is amazing, given the hardships they’ve put you through.”
“They didn’t put me through anything,” she said firmly. “I’m the one who got myself in this condition, and I’m the one who refused to go down their suggested pathway.”
“Well, you didn’t get there alone,” he said, “and I’m sure they have absolutely zero interest in seeing me, but I will try not to hold it all against them.”
“You don’t need to,” she said. “Jeremy’s thirteen now, and we’re doing just fine.”
“You’re doing more than fine,” he said warmly. “I’m very impressed.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know why,” she said. “He can be a handful sometimes, but he’s a good kid.”
“And that’s what you have to hang on to during the next four, five years. Could be interesting, but, as long as you never regret the decision you made, then that’s all that counts.”
“How can I regret it?” she asked. “He was the reason I kept going. Because of him I went to med school, following that dream. Back then I thought it was for me, but I also realized I couldn’t give him anything if I didn’t get a better education.”
“You’re also blessed,” he said with a smile, “to be absolutely brilliant. Not everybody could have made it through med school while raising a child.”
“I am lucky,” she said. “School was always easy, although med school was a bit of a challenge.”
“A bit?” He shook his head. “Most people would be screaming at you right now for that comment.”
She chuckled. “I know, and I did have some people who weren’t very happy with me finding med school somewhat easy,” she said with a shrug. “It’s a good thing it was easy because I don’t know if I would have made it otherwise. Keeping up all the studies and the exams, along with the demands of having a child, wasn’t easy. A couple other moms and dads were in my school. We tended to hang out, as we understood exactly the problems we were all facing. I was the only single parent though, and yet, because of my sister, I was doing almost better than they were.”
“Right, because a marriage can be a hardship to try to not blame the other person for.”
“Well, my sister already blamed me, so that was an easy one,” she said with a shrug. “But she was always there. When I needed a babysitter, she was a live-in babysitter. When I needed shopping done or groceries brought, she would stop and pick up stuff on her way home. We had two rooms in her house, almost like a suite but not quite. We shared the kitchen with her. She couldn’t be bothered to cook most of the time, preferring takeout, so that left the kitchen pretty well for me. I couldn’t afford the takeout, and I wouldn’t ask her for it. She was already keeping a roof over our heads without collecting a dime. Going to med school was already enough of a financial strain,” she said. She shook her head, looked at him, and said, “So enough about all of that. What about you? Where do you go from here?”
“Well, life’s looking up apparently,” he said. “I have a date for dinner on Saturday. I can’t remember the last time I went for a barbecue like that.”
“I’m sure you always had dates,” she scoffed. “You were an incredibly well-loved man when you were here. I’m sure it was the same in the navy.”
He laughed. “Well, let’s just say, an awful lot of willing females were in our high school. But, once I met the one, I never did stray.” He looked up at her, frowned, and said, “You know that, right?”
She nodded slowly. “It’s one of the things I never doubted, never questioned about you.”
“Good,” he said with a note of satisfaction.
“I don’t think anybody else around me believed it though,” she said.
He winced. “No. I’m sure they didn’t. It was much easier for everybody to blame me for all the ills that went around in the world and make me look even worse than I actually was.”
“You also played into that,” she accused him. “You loved that everybody thought you were such a badass.”
“I was a badass,” he said in protest.
She burst out laughing. “You were, indeed,” she said. “Now how about the dog?”
“Well, I got the staff here to agree to call me whenever they see any sign of her,” he said, “and I’ll meet Amos again in about an hour,” he said, looking at his watch.
She glanced down at hers and sighed. “And I’m off to work. I never did order breakfast.” She gathered up her purse to pull out some money for the coffee.
He reached a hand out and said, “Coffee’s on me.”
She smiled. “Thank you.” She stood and, with one last look, said, “Don’t get into trouble, huh?”
He smiled back and said, “Well, if I do, I know where to come to get patched up again.”
She shook her head. “Please don’t,” she said. “I had a lot of nightmares last night about you as it is.”
“Nightmares?” he protested. “You’re supposed to dream about me—but not like that.”
She burst out laughing and was still grinning when she made her way to her car and later into her office. One thing about the relationship with him, he’d always had the ability to make her smile. And a whole lot of worse things were in life than that, she reminded herself.
Kurt was just finishing his coffee, thinking about what to do for the next hour before his meeting with the detective, when his phone rang.
“Hey, it’s Jim down at the truck stop,” his caller said. “I think I just saw the dog in the back corner here.”
“I’m here already,” Kurt said. “Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the back section, doing inventory,” he said. “I just saw a huge golden dog. So, if you hurry, she’ll still be around.”
Kurt got into his truck and pulled in to the back and headed around to the gas station area, and Jim stood there, staring in the distance. Kurt parked beside him, hopped out, and shook his hand. “Thanks for the call,” he said.