Shoe Strings

a plan.”
    “So that makes Jesse what, thirty-two?”
    “Just,” Cal said as the sun dipped below the mountain in the
distance.   He reached over and
turned on an old lantern Lita hadn’t noticed earlier.   “I’d come in from his birthday lunch the
day you called.”
    Seventeen.   That
was the same age Lita had been when she’d gotten pregnant.   But her baby hadn’t lived and she still
couldn’t see God’s plan in that.
    “It must have been hard, for all of you.”
    Cal sighed.   “Hard,
yes.   But nothing worth having’s
easy.   He’s a good boy, Ty, and
having him around is one of the purest joys of my life.”
    She couldn’t ask any more questions about the boy.   It was too much like the flip side of
what her situation had been, in more ways than one.   He had lived and thrived in the bosom of
his family.   Her baby had died,
alone except for his grieving mother.   She blinked away the threat of tears and tried to focus on Jesse.   This was a side of him she hadn’t
anticipated.   “So is Jesse married?”
    “They were, for a bit.   Fought like cats and dogs, he and Kerri Ann.   Too much alike to be together.   I think they were waiting for college to
put an end to their romance, but her pregnancy changed everything.   They married not long after they told us
about the baby and divorced eight very long years later.”   Cal stood up from the chair and turned
to Lita.   “It’s gotten chilly since
the sun went down.   I’m going in for
a sweater.   Can I bring you out a
blanket or something?”
    “No, I’m good, thank you.”   She heard the screen door open and close
and stared across the sky as the first stars began twinkling.   So, Jesse was a young father with a
teenaged son.   She couldn’t see it,
she just couldn’t see the man she’d dismissed as a no-strings loner as someone’s
father.
    Cal returned a few minutes later wearing a worn cardigan and
carrying a plate of cheese and crackers.   “Thought you might be getting hungry.”   And she was.   She’d been too angry after her outburst
to stay in town and enjoy a nice lunch like she’d planned and then she’d been
too wired to eat and started pulling weeds.   It was too late in the evening to dice
and sauté the ingredients for the elaborate chicken recipe she’d downloaded
from the Internet.   And as she’d
learned two nights ago, cooking for one wasn’t all that much fun.   So she indulged in more wine to go with
her cheese and crackers and enjoyed Cal’s stories of the great loves of his
life:   his wife Ellie, his son
Jesse, and grandson Ty.  
    Hours later, when she slipped between the sheets of her bed,
slightly buzzed and high on the aftereffects of an enjoyable evening, she felt
blessed for being included in the family of Cal Bloodworth, if only for a
little while.

 

 
    Chapter 4
    Someone, somewhere, had just cut their grass and the
fragrant smell of the newly mown blades made Kerri Ann smile.   She closed her eyes for just a moment as
memories of summers spent running through her neighborhood came rushing back in
her mind.  
    “Mom,” Ty screamed from the passenger seat.   “Did you seriously just close your
eyes?   Jesus, and you say Dad’s a
bad driver.”
    “I just shut them for a second.”   She gripped the wheel extra tight and
made sure her hands were at ten and two to set the right example for Ty.   “Do you smell that grass?   Sure a sign as any that spring’s on the
way.”
    “Yeah, well, we won’t get to enjoy spring if you run off the
road and kill us.”
    “I’m a better driver with my eyes closed than your dad ever
was, so please don’t insult me by comparing our driving.   You know that gets on my nerves.”   And even more lately, she admitted to
herself.   Maybe it was because she
and Ty couldn’t be alone for five minutes without Jesse’s name popping up one
way or another.   Yes, he was the
world’s worst driver, but couldn’t Ty have compared her to her own father?   Pops had just last week rear-ended the
neighbor’s mailbox.  
    “Why are you on Dad’s case all the time?”
    She had to stifle a snort before answering.   Since when did he become so
perceptive?   “I’m not on his case.”
    “Could’ve fooled me.   Even Bryce noticed.”
    “Bryce?”   Kerri
Ann whipped her head around to look at him.   “When did you talk to Bryce?”
    Ty shifted in his seat.   He’d segued into his least favorite topic:   his