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“Not that I know of,” I say.
“Okay. Perfect. It will be here in twenty minutes.”
“I had no idea that you could order groceries and they’d come to the house.”
“Yeah. I hate grocery shopping. This is the best thing ever invented if you ask me.”
“I bet,” I say chuckling. “While we wait we could go through the list. It’s a big list.”
“Okay. What do you suggest?”
“I have a map of Texas and vital statistics. Maybe we can whittle this down some.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
After two hours, a delicious lasagna, salad, garlic bread. January brings out a pie. An honest to God homemade apple pie. I ‘ve never tasted anything so fucking good. She smelled like apples and cinnamon afterward and that made my mouth water even more for her. After going through this list, I’ve got cramped fingers, but we’ve gotten the list down from three hundred names to one hundred. I printed the list out by state at the VA.
“A hundred names sounds daunting, doesn’t it?” she asks, while we wash dishes.
“Yes, but we’ll take it one name at a time.”
“We. That’s right. I can’t believe that you want to help me.”
“I already told you why I want to help you, January. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t want to, trust me.”
She rolls her eyes, but smiles at me. “Where should we start?” she asks, and I look over the list until I find what I’m looking for.
“Austin. It’s the closet place on the list,” I tell her.
“Austin it is,” she says, smiling. “I should find a hotel.”
“Stay here tonight. We have the guest room.” I put my hand over hers.
“Here?”
“Yes, stay here,” Natalie says coming into the room.
“Have you been eavesdropping again?” I ask, laughing.
“Of course. I’m thirteen. That’s what I do.”
“We can do facials. It’ll be so much fun,” Natalie says, squealing. She runs down the hallway and throws open her bathroom door so hard it slams into the wall.
“She seems excited.”
“Yeah, she and my mom used to do facials and their nails every Friday night.”
“Aww, that’s adorable. She must miss her terribly. I’d be happy to do that with her.” She puts her hand on my forearm.
“Thank you. We can leave as soon as I drop Nat off at school in the morning. It’s her last day of middle school and she’s spending the night with her friends, so we can take our time coming back.”
“That sounds perfect. Thank you for doing this with me, Olllie. I really appreciate it.” No one has ever called me Ollie before, and I find that I like it.
“No problem, Jan,” I say, smirking at her. I look down at the list on the counter, locating the name of the man in Austin. “You’re going to meet Graham Parker tomorrow.” You ready for that?”
“I’m ready.” Her excitement is palpable.
Good thing because I’m ready for whatever the future may bring.
