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“Did you quit?” he asked, suddenly remembering his early morning conversation with Becky.
“No.” She looked down at the ground, digging a toe into the dirt. “She wouldn’t let me.”
He laughed. “She wouldn’t let you? Did you find someone who is more stubborn than what you are? I think I need to meet this woman.”
“Shut up, Dixie.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s not nice to say shut up?”
“I can say a lot of other words that would make your ears turn purple and fall off,” Becky said, sticking her nose up in the air at him and treating him like he was two instead of six years older than she was.
“Why don’t you take me to see your sister?” he said suddenly, not wanting to go in the diner and eat. Even though the pastry that he’d had on the way hadn’t even come close to filling him up.
“No. Miss Kim made me go and sit down at her table and eat.” Becky said it like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
“Oh, you poor thing. She made you eat. She probably said you’re skin and bones, and it was probably delicious.” Miss Kim looked like someone who knew how to cook.
“She asked me to hold her baby.” Becky said that a little bit more slowly, and it made Rodney notice. It meant something to Becky.
He peered at her.
“She trusted you with her baby?” he said, and there was no sarcasm in his voice. This was important to her.
“She did. How could I quit after that?”
“You couldn’t.” He knew sure as he was standing there that Kim had probably earned Becky’s undying loyalty with that one small gesture. Trusting her with a tiny life that was the most important thing in the world to Miss Kim. Giving it to Becky to hold. Becky wouldn’t take that lightly. Rodney knew that for sure. He loved that about Becky too. How fiercely loyal she was. How tough she acted, but how sensitive she actually was on the inside.
“Becky!” a voice said, startling Rodney. For some reason, he had the urge to run. Probably because for some reason, he had been sure it was going to be his dad coming around the corner of the building, and Rodney hadn’t figured out how he was going to handle the new information.
It could be nothing. He tried to convince himself of that.
“Yes, ma’am,” Becky said, straightening, with the cloud coming over her face that always seemed to surround her when she was dealing with adults. Like she couldn’t be her true self.
Rodney was cognizant enough to know that she was too little to be so hard.
But he didn’t know what to do about it. Other than be the kind of friend that she could always depend on. As much as he could anyway.
Even though he felt like his own world had been shifted in a very deep and disastrous way.
“I’m so glad that was you. I was pretty sure I saw you disappearing around the corner of the diner.”
Rodney recognized Clara, one of the Landry kids. Mrs. Landry owned the bed-and-breakfast on the edge of town, and her kids owned and worked on the farm. Except for Clara, who worked for some bigwig in Chicago. But she was normally around on the weekends. Being that today was Saturday, it shouldn’t be a shock to see her. Rodney figured he was just jumpy.
She didn’t wait for Becky to say anything but kept talking, holding up the casserole dish in her hand.
“I hope you were on your way to work at Davis and Kim’s. And I was wondering if you could take this down to them. They have all the ingredients to make the breakfast casserole in this dish, and Griff wanted to send it on down, since Kim had asked for the recipe.” Clara grinned. “It’s just like Griff to go over and above what anyone would be expected to do and not just give her the recipe but all the ingredients as well. That’s Griff.” She shook her head with a fun smile on her face.
Everyone in town loved Griff. Even though he did look rather scary and didn’t always talk a whole lot. Rodney was coming to believe that he was one of the nicest people in town. He also overheard all the gossip about Griff having a thing for the diner owner.
That was too bad, because she seemed to not even notice that he was alive. He did so much for her, and she really didn’t appreciate it at all.
Becky didn’t mention to Clara that she had already been to the farm and completed her work.
That didn’t surprise Rodney. Becky acted all tough and everything, but she really just wanted someone to love her.
Rodney could see under her gruff and tough exterior to the softy that was underneath. Maybe it was the nights that they’d spent together where she curled up next to him, as though she wanted to borrow from his strength and presence.
Not that he felt strong in any way.
