Promises to Keep - Ann Tatlock [70]
He laced and unlaced his fingers on the tabletop. A half-empty coffee cup sat nearby. “Can I get you something to eat then? A hot dog or something?”
I thought a moment. “No, thanks. I don’t think I need anything.”
“Aw, come on. How about a shake? A chocolate shake would taste good, wouldn’t it?”
I lifted my shoulders. “I guess so.”
He waved a hand and called out my order to the waitress behind the counter. There were a couple of other people in one of the booths, but they were halfway through their hamburgers and deep in conversation. With nothing else to do, the waitress moved to make my shake right away.
I looked back at Daddy. “Thanks for the Halloween candy,” I said.
“So you got it okay?”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“I know how you favor those Sugar Daddies, so I wanted to get you a bunch of those.”
I nodded again. The waitress brought my milk shake, plucked a straw out of her apron, and set them both on the table in front of me.
“Thanks, Darlene,” Daddy said.
“Sure thing, Nelson,” she responded with a nod. “Can I warm up your coffee?”
Daddy stared at the cup by his right hand, as though wondering where it came from and how it got there. Then he said, “Sure, why not?”
“And listen, you must be hungry. How about something to eat? I could holler to Joe to rustle up a couple of cows and make ’em cry.”
Daddy looked at me. “You want a hamburger?” he asked.
I shook my head slowly.
“We’ll pass on that, Darlene. Just the coffee.”
“All right, Nels, honey. Be right back.”
When she walked away, I leaned over the table toward Daddy. “Why’d she call you Nelson?”
“She thinks that’s my name.”
“Don’t you want to tell her what your real name is?”
“Naw.” He waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Well, what does it mean to rustle up a couple of cows and make them cry?”
“It means to serve up a couple of hamburgers with onions.”
“Oh.” I leaned back against the padded bench and looked hard at Daddy. He was gazing intently after Darlene, watching as she moved behind the counter, where she pulled the coffee carafe from the burner. She was young and pretty, with wide blue eyes and heavily sprayed blond hair that turned up into a perfect flip at the ends. She moved with an ease and a confidence that told me she’d been doing her job for a long time, though she couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. Probably not even that old.
She carried the coffee back to our table and filled Daddy’s cup almost to the brim. As she poured, she indicated my presence with a quick roll of her eyes in my direction. “Your niece is real cute, Nelson. How old did you say she is?”
Daddy rubbed his cheek thoughtfully. “She’s eleven,” he said at length. “She’ll be twelve in May” – he looked at me – “right, honey?”
I nodded. At least there was one accurate statement floating around the table.
“Well now, she’s going to be a real heartbreaker one day. You’d best keep your eye on that one once the boys start coming around.” Darlene’s full red lips turned up in a smile, and she actually winked one blue eye at Daddy.
“That’s what I aim to do, if I have any say in the matter,” Daddy said.
“Sure I can’t get you some cream for that coffee?”
“No thanks, Darlene.”
“All right. You just holler if you need anything.”
The front door opened and a trio of teenagers came in; Darlene turned her attention to them.
I looked at Daddy questioningly. “She thinks I’m your niece?”
He shrugged, took a sip of the hot coffee. “People get confused. It’s hard to remember one customer from another.”
“Oh.” I finally unsheathed the straw and stuck it in my milk shake.
“So listen, Roz,” Daddy said, “how is everyone? How’s your mother?”
I stopped sucking and swallowed hard. “Mom’s not so good right now.”
He looked up at me abruptly, his brow heavy with concern. “How come? What’s the matter?”
“It’s Wally,” I blurted. “He ran away.”
Daddy’s eyes searched my face a long time, as though looking for evidence that I was lying. Finally he repeated what