AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh? Because yellow is my favorite color?”
He shook his head. “Because while I’m freaking out over there about the fact that he doesn’t know what a color is, you are calmly teaching him things.”
I turned my head and stared at him. “You can do the same thing.”
“Maybe.” He exhaled loudly and stepped away. “What are you going to do to the lemon?”
After Harley stirred the sugar, I showed him how to spread it, and then he covered three more pieces of bread. Then we sprinkled sugar over the other four pieces, and Mike gave me an odd look.
“See this wedge of lemon?” Harley nodded. “You squeeze it so that the juice comes out like this.” He watched me do it, and then I handed him the used wedge. Take a little taste of that.”
Harley put the lemon to his mouth and touched his tongue to it, instantly puckering his mouth and closing his eyes. “What is that?”
Mike and I laughed. “That’s a lemon, and the flavor is tart.”
He shivered, but instead of putting it down, he took another taste and didn’t react quite as erratically. “I like lemon!”
“Well, good.” The oven beeped, and we finished putting the lemon on the bread, then slipped it into the oven. I made Harley stand back as I did that, and he commented on how hot it was from the opposite counter. I used that as a teaching moment to talk about the dangers of the stove. Mike joined in that conversation as he spoke about the stoves at the tavern.
I poured coffee and milk for Harley while Mike scrambled some eggs for us. It was not lost on me how domesticated my kitchen was at the moment or how much I was enjoying it. I knew it wouldn’t last, but I would enjoy it for now.
When breakfast was made, I gave Harley the plate of toast to take to the table, and he set it down carefully before scrambling into a chair. “Can I have one?”
I set a piece of each toast on his plate, then scooped a little bit of egg and put it there too. He scrunched up his nose. “I like yellow, but I don’t think I like that.”
“Those are eggs, and I want you to take a bite and taste them. You don’t know what you like or don’t until you taste something new.”
He grabbed the piece of lemon toast and took a big bite. “I like this,” he said happily, and Mike took a bite of his.
“I have to agree with him. I thought you were crazy, but this is good.”
“My mom used to make it all the time for us. We used to call it cinnamon and lemonon toast.”
Harley held up the cinnamon toast. “I like this one, too.”
“Good, now try the eggs,” Mike said.
And true to any child of the world, his shoulders dropped, and he whined, “Do I have to?”
“Yes,” Mike and I said in unison.
Mike continued. “If you don’t like something, it is fine, but you must try new things, Harley.”
“Okay,” he said in a melancholy voice and picked up a piece with his fingers and squished it.
“Hey,” I said, and his eyes rounded and jumped to mine. I smiled to tell him I wasn’t mad. “Don’t play with food. See the fork beside your plate?” I pointed to it. “Use that to pick up the eggs and put them in your mouth.” I demonstrated it, and then he tried it.
His brow furrowed as he chewed it, and then he looked thoughtful. “It’s okay. I like the lemon toast better.”
“Thank you for trying,” Mike said as he continued eating and winked at me.
In the end, Harley ate his eggs and asked for more, and we were happy to make him some. He also polished off three pieces of toast and two glasses of milk. As he bounced into the living room to watch some television, I realized that this might have been the first time in a very long time that his belly had been full—especially of anything remotely healthy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
MICHAEL
Icouldn’t remember the last time I had woken up next to a woman, but after seeing Harley wrapped in Candy’s tight embrace, there was no way I could go to my room and sleep alone.
