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Prosper did not know it then, but that one conversation served to help him navigate the trajectory of Raine and Claire’s lives.
There was a small glow of light in the kitchen when Prosper pulled up to the house. He grabbed the purchases out of the saddle bags and untied the cake and cupcake. Then precariously balancing everything in one hand, he reached out to turn the knob of the kitchen door. The door suddenly opened and Raine was standing there in her little daisy pajamas.
“Hey, little darlin’! How come you’re not in bed?” Prosper asked as he moved into the kitchen to put the teetering items on the table. He glanced over at the clock, noticing it was just after midnight and much too late for a child to be up.
“Mamma wasn’t feeling so good, so I stayed up and read to her for a while from some of my books. She fell asleep on the couch.”
“Where’s your dad?” Prosper frowned.
“Daddy took his special pills and went to bed.”
“Hisspecialpills?”
Raine crooked her finger at Prosper. When he was down at her level, she leaned in and whispered, “Mamma says they make him feel better and so that’s okay.”
“Do you think they make him feel better?” Prosper asked her because bullshit that Raine and Claire should have a drugged-out father staggering around the house no matter what Maggie said.
Raine nodded vehemently. “When Mamma started getting sick, Daddy started getting grouchy and drinking a lot of beer. I heard Mamma tell him ‘it’s better to have a happy, drugged-out Jack around than to have a miserable, falling-down-drunk Jack around.’”
So, it had come down to that, had it? Prosper scrubbed a hard hand over his jaw and wished he had come back a lot sooner.
Then as Raine looked over at the table, her eyes grew wide. Befitting for a seven-year-old girl about to turn eight, her focus shifted immediately. “What’s all that stuff for?”
“Hmmm, I hear that someone around this house is having a birthday tomorrow, so I figured I should probably buy a cake.” Prosper was happy to steer the conversation in a more positive direction.
“It’s me! It’s me!” Raine jumped up and down. “It’s my birthday tomorrow!”
“Yours? How can that be?” He pretended to ponder. “No, nope. It can’t be you. I heard that the birthday girl was turning eight. Aren’t you like eighty-five or something?”
Prosper’s heart filled to just about bursting when Raine started to giggle. Then she threw her arms around him and whispered, “I’m so happy you’re here, Prosper.”
“I’m happy I’m here, too, little darlin’.” He hugged her back.
For the next hour or so, Raine and Prosper went through all the birthday items one by one and every time she smiled, Prosper felt joy right down to his very soul.
Raine made a little pile of all things purple and put them aside. “Claire goes crazy over purple. We have to save these for her.”
She frowned though when she got to the chocolate bars. “Mamma will never let us have all this candy.”
“Well, let’s take care of that right now.” Prosper loaded up all his pockets with candy bars. All except for one, and that one he unwrapped, broke off a piece of it, and popped it into his mouth. “Now it’s my candy, and I’m just sharing it.” He handed Raine the rest of the bar. She took it and smiled around the chocolaty piece of goodness in her mouth.
“Alrighty then, you need to go brush your teeth and hit the hay,” he told her.
“Okay, but can I open my present first?” she asked shyly.
Prosper made a great deal out of spinning on his heels and looking all around the room. “Present? What present? I don’t see a present!”
Raine giggled with delight. “You can’t see it because it’s in your back pocket!”
“Ah, so it is. How about that?” Prosper plucked the small gaily wrapped gift out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Raine gave Prosper another big hug. “You’re the best!”
He’s the worst.
Pinky couldn’t believe that Prosper had stood her up like this. It wasn’t as ifshehad asked him for a ride. And it wasn’t as if she was even in a nice place to wait it out. Pinky was standing in a deserted, dark, and dirty parking lot with not even a bench to sit her skinny ass down and rest her tired feet.
“Hey, Pinky. You need a ride?” Denny called out to her. He was on the closing shift and was the last one to leave for the night. Pinky didn’t know him well. The shifts she picked up at Raising Cain weren’t usually the closing ones. She supposed Denny was okay despite his Rico Suave swag, “hey baby” eyes, and the fact that he liked nothing more than to show off his gym-manufactured biceps. Tonight, she had caught him looking at her ass a few times, which had made her eyes roll. But really, compared to some of the guys who’d crossed her path, Denny seemed harmless in comparison. And besides, with her damn rust bucket on the fritz again, she had no other choice. If Pinky didn’t catch a ride with Denny, she’d be stuck here for … god only knew how long.Probably until sunrise, Pinky thought with exasperation. It was one forty-five in the morning, and she was past giving Prosper the benefit of the doubt.
