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He gave her a small wave as another customer came up to her register and took her attention. When she was able to look back out at the parking lot, he was gone.
Tim drifted back over to her station.
She asked, “So, Jake is your friend?”
She had a feeling that in high school, the hot Marine and Tim’s social circles had been very different.
Tim puffed up. “Oh, yeah. Me and Jake go way back. All the way to elementary school!”
“That’s nice.”
“He was in all my classes.” Tim loved to talk about how well he’d done in school, how much smarter he was than everyone else, how he’d attended college while she finished her GED in night school. So, Jake being in his classes was saying a lot. “He got a Purple Heart,” Tim told her. “Over in Afghanistan.”
Even though she didn’t know him, her heart suddenly went out to him. She couldn’t imagine going to war and being injured. She couldn’t imagine what his family felt. How scared he must’ve been.
“Earth to Hannah.” Tim waved a hand in front of her face. “Mr. Hannigan is waiting for his receipt.”
She shook herself out of her thoughts and handed the man his slip. “Have a great day, Mr. Hannigan.”
“Oh, I will. Got my Lutefisk, so I’m good to go.” He held up his bag, then scurried off.
“That much pickled herring cannot be good for anyone,” Tim mumbled, then climbed back up to the manager’s office above the courtesy desk, where his father stood overlooking the store below.
Hannah wondered if Troy would be waiting for her after her shift, and if he’d be even madder by then. She looked at the time, still hours until lunch.
She hoped the handsome Marine would come again.
* * *
“Hey, Ma,” Jake said as he walked in the side door, handing over the groceries she’d asked him to pick up.
“Thank you.” She kissed him on the cheek, then looked inside the bag. “Do you want anything to drink?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I can’t stay long.”
She gave himthe look, which always made him feel guilty. She knew he was avoiding Ted.
“He’s not here,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “They’re all at the club.”
“Oh.”
The grand Victorian had been updated to a modern luxury home, with a white marble kitchen that overlooked the St. Croix River. Jake sometimes wondered why he’d returned to Prairie Valley at all. He’d said it was his family, but his family was the reason he’d left in the first place. Unlike his brothers and sister, Jake wasn’t Ted’s biological son, which made him the unspoken outsider.
He stood looking out at the view, but his mind was really on the woman at the grocery store and her lunatic boyfriend, Troy Higgins.
“You okay?” she asked, opening the fridge to put the groceries away.
“Yeah, there was this guy and his girlfriend at the grocery store…” he paused, thinking about the incident, and why it had bothered him so much. “He reminded me of dad.”
Elaine didn’t have to ask what he meant by that. She was, after all, the one who had been on the other side of his abuse. She shut the refrigerator door. “What happened?”
He didn’t really know, and maybe he’d just been overreacting, but he’d barely been able to hold back his rage. He’d actually started to shake as he heard the little pipsqueak mouthing off at her. Hestillshook, just thinking about it.
“He started yelling at his girlfriend, and… I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It bothered me.”
She nodded but said nothing more. “How ‘bout some coffee?”
He tapped his fingers against the granite counters, then sighed. “Sure.”
