Page 122 of The Birthday List (Maysen Jar 1)

She looked up and nodded. “Once in class.”

“All right.” I dug out my recipe card from the stack on the table and handed it over. “Show me what you’ve got.”

By the time five o’clock rolled around, meal prep for the next two days was nearly complete. While I’d been distracted—trying to get tidbits of information from Belle—she’d focused completely on cooking, cranking out every recipe card I handed her with utter perfection.

“Thanks for all your help.” I handed her a towel to dry her hands. “You’re welcome here anytime. You’re a natural in the kitchen.” So much so that I was going to talk to Molly about hiring her part-time. At least that way, we could guarantee she was feeding herself and her baby.

“Thank you. I had so much fun.” Belle beamed until she glanced at the clock above the sink. “But I’d better get home.” The word “home” sounded like she was swallowing nails.

As she pulled on her coat and slung her backpack over her shoulders, I went to the kitchen door and surveyed the restaurant. Helen was helping a customer at the register and a couple of the tables were full, but we still had an hour before the dinner rush.

My eyes wandered to the windows up front. It was getting dark, the winter light not lasting long these days, and it would be cold for Belle to walk. The wind was picking up too.

“Belle, let me give you a ride so you don’t freeze.”

She shook her head, pulling on a pair of mittens that had seen better days. “I’ll be okay.”

“Please?” I begged. “I’ll worry about you all night.”

She walked by me and through the door, but stopped when her gaze hit the windows and she shivered. Her beautiful eyes came to mine. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” I smiled. “Come on, I’m parked out back.”

I told Helen I was taking Belle home and left her in charge of the restaurant while I grabbed my coat from the office. When I opened the back door, the cold air hit me hard in the face and it only took seconds for my nose and ears to sting. I had no idea how far away Belle lived, but just a block in this weather and she would have turned into an icicle.

“I like your truck,” Belle said as she climbed inside, running a hand along the leather seat.

“Thank you.” I turned the key and fired up the heat. “So where to?”

Belle gave me directions as we drove, and as we got closer and closer to a sketchy part of town, the knot in my stomach tightened. Had she been walking home in the evenings all this way? Through this neighborhood? We were miles from the restaurant. We were miles from her school.

By the time I pulled into her trailer park, I’d made a decision. Molly didn’t need to pick a stranger to receive a free car.

I was buying a vehicle for Belle.

“It’s the last one on the right.” She pointed down the dead-end road that led through the trailer park.

Belle’s arms were wrapped around her belly as she huddled against the door. She did not want me seeing where she lived. The only reason she was letting me drive her home was utter desperation.

Just as the last trailer down the road came into view, Belle’s arms shot out. “Stop!”

I slammed on the brakes, jolting us both forward. “What?” I turned to her for an explanation.

“Can you just park here for a sec?”

“Um . . . sure.” I pulled to the side of the road.

Her trailer was three down from where we were parked, close enough to see the siding was falling apart and two of the windows were covered with plywood. I was assessing the shiny black car out front—one that was much too expensive for the owner of that trailer—when a man stepped through Belle’s front door.

The guy was tall, kind of lanky, and had perfectly styled dark hair. If not for the cigarette in his mouth, I’d consider him good-looking. Was that Belle’s dad? If it was, why wouldn’t she want to go home before he left? “Do you not want your dad to see that I drove you home?”

She shook her head. “That’s not my dad. That’s his friend Tommy.”

The color drained from her face as Tommy got into the shiny black car. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know she was terrified of him. The air in the truck turned cold with fear.

As Tommy pulled away from her house, Belle covered her belly and ducked down low below the dashboard. Only when Tommy had raced past us and his engine could no longer be heard in the trailer park did she finally sit back up.

“What’s going on?”