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I’m not sure what to say to that, so I keep quiet and pass him a hundred-dollar bill.
“I remember you,” he says, taking the money. “You gave me that fifty-dollar bill. Why’re you so generous?”
“Because I can be,” I reply. And it reminds me of a darker time in my life when I felt helpless. I shove those thoughts back where they came from.
He nods like my answer satisfies him and heads back outside.
“It’s freezing. You should find a shelter,” I urge him as a strong wind blows our hair all over the place.
“I will for the night. Prefer to spend my days outdoors,” he says.
Now it’s my turn to nod. “Take care, Jim.”
He takes up his spot on the sidewalk again under a section of the eave that sticks out, and I head back to my car, feeling defeated. Skylar doesn’t want to have anything to do with me, but now that I’ve seen her, I can’t unsee her. She’s taking up all my thoughts. Hell, I’m pretty sure I had a dream about her too. She may be angry with me, but I can tell her plans for school didn’t work out. That she’s struggling to get by, and I can’t have that. I don’t know how to get through to her, but I’m persistent, and I’ve gotten this far because of it. I just can’t back down.
CHAPTERSIX
Skylar
I fall back on our living room couch and watch my son building a plane from Lego.
“I want to play hockey. Brandon and Hunter both play, and they say it’s so much fun,” Crew says, watching me with his sweet, innocent face.
“Hockey can be a dangerous sport,” I retort. The problem is when my son wants something he doesn’t back down, and I can’t blame him because I used to be the same way.
Crew goes to a private kindergarten, his friends all come from money, which means the parents are sending them to all kinds of after-school programs I can’t afford. As it is, we just get by on what I make, and that’s because I usually work sixty hours a week.
“It’s safe, Mommy. I’ll be wearing a helmet,” Crew assures.
Patty comes through the door. She still has on her jacket, scarf, and hat. “I thought Chicago was supposed to be the Windy City. It’s blowing like crazy out there.”
“Tell me about it. I was hanging on to Crew for dear life. Felt like we were going to blow away,” I say.
“Hi, Crew,” Patty says, and my son gives her a big smile and bounces on his behind.
“I want to play hockey like Kevin,” he says to Patty.
Patty’s eyebrows rise, and she gives me a look. She knows I want my son nowhere near that sport.
“What about soccer?” she suggests to him. She rubs her hands together and walks over to the couch and throws a blanket over her legs.
Crew shakes his head. “Hockey.”
“Let me think about it,” I say to my son. It’ll buy me some time but not a whole lot.
I yawn.
“You look exhausted,” Patty observes.
I nod. “It was a busy day at the diner. Liam decided to stop by for lunch.”
Her blue eyes widen. “He came back to the diner?”
“Yup, he brought Jim, the homeless man, with him. Treated him to lunch.”
“Wow. The guy has brains too,” she snorts.
I give her a WTF look. “Are you on his side or mine?”
