The Denver Cereal

by Claudia Hall Christian

  When Aden dropped them at Denver Health, Sandy asked if he might take her to work. While Jill waved, Sandy made funny faces out the passenger window of his SUV. Smiling, Jill went into the hospital to see if Jacob was out of surgery.

  Maybe both Sandy and Jill could find love. Jill beamed with delight.

  Love.

  Yeah.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Mike was in a complete panic. Pacing back and forth in the Castle kitchen, his mind worked overtime to convince him that he was not right for Val. He was too ugly! Not Hollywood enough! Too hairy! Those stylists knew the truth. Valerie couldn’t be seen in public with him. Sure, they’d spent a lot of time together over the years. But it was always in private, away from the camera. Who wanted to be married to someone they couldn’t be seen in public with?

  With his panic, his rage grew.

  Why had he even tried? How could he ever believe she would be his partner? His wife? Who did he think he was? He wasn’t famous! He wasn’t a star or a producer or a model or anything but a fucked up traumatized asshole. Jerking open the liquor cabinet, he reached for a bottle of whiskey. With his hand on the bottle, he saw the phone number he had written on the cabinet for moments just like these.

  “Yeah.”

  “I need . . .”

  “Where are you?” she asked.

  “Castle,” Mike said.

  “We just got back. Meet us at the workshop. We can’t deal with the photographers,” she said. “Get going, Michael. We’re going to lunch.”

  Mike sighed.

  Alex Hargreaves’s voice always meant freedom and safety. Help was on the way. He wasn’t alone. Mike’s panic seeped from his pores. Alex would save him.

  Again.

  Mike almost skipped through the tunnels. He paced the workshop for five full minutes before Alex Hargreaves’s Jeep CJ screeched to a stop on Detroit Street. Alex, John Drayson, and a couple other guys piled out of the Jeep.

  “Annie’s for lunch?” Alex asked. She hugged him and kissed his cheek. “How’s Jake?”

  “He’s in surgery. He should be out in an hour or so,” Mike said. He pulled the workshop door closed. “But he should be home in a couple days.”

  “That’s great news,” John said.

  The men greeted him with hugs and pats on the back. Mike fell in beside them for the short walk to Annie’s Café.

  He was going to be all right.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “Hi.” Jill leaned over Jacob’s bed in the recovery room.

  “Hi. How did you get in here?” Jacob asked.

  “I told the nurse I was your wife.”

  “We got married? Did I miss our wedding night too?”

  Jill laughed.

  “Was I amazing?” Jacob asked.

  “I hope so,” Jill said.

  ~~~~~~~~

  “Chocolate chip?” Delphie asked.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes! Can we make brownies? Mommy likes brownies and I like brownies and I bet my Jacob likes brownies and I bet my new Auntie . . .” Katy stopped talking. Her face scrunched up in puzzlement.

  “Valerie?”

  “Right, Valerie, likes brownies and I can bring some to Aunt Meg’s house tonight. I go to Aunt Meg’s house every, every, every Friday night. THIS time, I’ll bring brownies!”

  Delphie lifted Katy onto the counter in the main kitchen of the Castle. Delphie had retrieved Katy from school early so they could spend some time together.

  “I thought you wanted cookies,” Delphie said.

  “Aren’t brownies a kind of cookie?” Katy asked. She took a sipper cup of milk from Delphie.

  Delphie nodded her head at Katy’s logic. Moving around the kitchen, Delphie pulled all the ingredients for brownies from the cupboards and refrigerator.

  “Would you like to crack the eggs?”

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Katy clapped her hands and bounced on the counter. “I never get to really cook. They say I’m too little but I’m FOUR. FOUR is not too little to do anything.”

  Delphie held Katy’s hand and they cracked an egg together. Katy squealed with delight when the liquid dropped into the bowl.

  “I wanted to ask you about being four,” Delphie said. She gave another brown egg to Katy. “Together?”

  Katy bashed the egg against the bowl. The egg crushed in her hand.

  “Ooh, not so hard,” Delphie said. Using a dish towel, Delphie wiped the egg from the girl’s hand.

  “I’m sorry!” Katy’s dark eyes filled with tears. “Did I ruin the brownies?”

  “No, honey,” Delphie said.

  “Oh, good.” Katy held her hand out for another egg and Delphie laughed.

  “Yes, just like that. Tap, tap, tap,” Delphie said. “You’re three years old.”

  “I AM NOT! I AM FOUR!” Katy shouted. Her lip vibrated and tears dropped from her eyes. “I’m no baby! Three-year-olds are babies. I’m a BIG girl.”

  “Katherine, you can only be what you are.”

  “NO! Don’t say that! NO! NO! NO! I’m FOUR.”

  Delphie raised her eyebrows at the little girl. While Katy worked through her tantrum, Delphie set up the blender. She plugged it in next to Katy.

  “Would you like to blend?”

  “Yes.” The storm of emotion left Katy’s face bright red. “Are you mad at me?”

  “No, honey. I don’t understand why four is better than three,” Delphie said.

  “It just is.”

  “Hold it steady.” With on hand on the blender and one arm around the child, Delphie reassured her. Katy leaned into Delphie’s warmth.

  “I had a daddy . . .” Katy whispered.

  While tears dropped from Katy’s eyes, Delphie’s hand moved softly over Katy’s back.

  “He didn’t love me . . . I tried to be really, really good, but he didn’t even like me . . . even one bit. He was always mad . . . at me.”

  Delphie turned off the blender. Keeping her arm around the little girl, she dug in the bag for a handful of chocolate chips. She opened her hand to the crying girl. Katy took one chip after another until Delphie’s hand was empty.

  “He didn’t want a stupid baby like me. He made Mommy so sad. She cried forever.” Katy shifted away from Delphie. She whispered, “and it was all my fault.”

  Delphie held Katy in a tight hug.

  “I woke up in that place . . . that hospital place? And I thought Mommy left me too.”

  “Your Mommy will never ever leave you.”

  “But she might if she finds out I’m bad.”

  “Oh, honey, how are you bad?”

  “I’m a needy, whiny, stupid baby.” Katy’s voice was barely over a whisper.

  At her statement, Delphie heard a snort and felt movement behind her. Delphie stepped aside to let Jill hold Katy. While Delphie finished preparing the brownies, Jill and Katy cried and whispered back and forth. Delphie was about to leave the kitchen when Jill stepped away from Katy.

  “She’d like to ask you something,” Jill said.

  Katy’s hand twirled in her hair. She whispered into Jill’s ear.

  “Ask her, Katy-baby,” Jill said. “She won’t lie to you.”

  “Do you think I’m a needy, whiny, stupid baby?” Katy asked.

  “I think you are a beautiful, funny, smart girl. It’s a pleasure to know you,” Delphie said. “But I also think you’re three years old.”

  “But do you think I’m a needy . . .”

  “No, Katherine. You are not a needy, whiney, stupid baby.”

  Katy’s face scrunched up as if she was thinking about something hard or complicated.

  “Mommy says sometimes people don’t know what they’re saying. She said my old daddy wasn’t telling the truth when he said that about me,” Katy said. “Do you think my Jacob wasn’t telling the truth when he said he would be my daddy?”

  Delphie laughed. The timer rang for the brownies and she pulled the pan from the oven. She tossed several handfuls of chocolate chips on
top of the hot brownies. Holding another handful of chips out to Katy, Delphie said, “I’ve known your Jacob a long, long time. I’ve never known Jacob to say something he didn’t mean.”

  “He said, ‘No matter what.’ And we pinky swore. Does ‘No matter what’ mean that when I’m a needy, whiney, stupid baby he will still be my daddy?”

  “No matter what,” Delphie said. “I think that’s true for all of us.”

  Delphie made a movement with her hand. Valerie came into the kitchen from the sitting room where she had been secretly listening.

  “I’ll be your auntie forever,” Valerie said.

  “I’ll be your mommy all of my life,” Jill said.

  “And I’ll be your Delphie.”

  Katy nodded her head.

  “Okay, I’ll be three.”

  ~~~~~~~~

  He hadn’t meant to kiss her. But she leaned in, and . . . Aden could barely breathe. Desire pumped through him like he was fifteen again. With effort, he stepped back. Jill said go slow, but oh my God . . .

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Tomorrow is a very big day for me. And . . .”

  “What is it?” Sandy said.

  “I can’t have anything in my life right now that’s not one hundred percent,” Aden said.

  He took her hand and led her from under the bright porch light to the porch steps.

  “What do you mean?” Sandy asked. She sat next to him on the step.

  “There’s not one thing I’d like more than to.. be.. with you . . . tonight.” Aden fumbled for words. “That kiss was . . . incredible.”

  Sandy blushed. She took a few slow breaths to slow her panic-filled heart.

  “Why don’t we go inside?”

  “Because . . . I . . . I can’t,” he said.

  “We don’t have to do anything. I mean, Jill and Jacob just slept in the same bed. We could . . .”

  “I don’t have that kind of self-control,” Aden said. “No, Sandy. I can’t do that.”

  “Why is tomorrow such a big day?” Sandy asked.

  “Tomorrow is the first day I will act as the head of Lipson Construction. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Jacob set this up to get me out there.”

  “Head of Lipson Construction? I thought you were an assistant.”

  “I’m supposed to take over the running of Lipson Construction in January,” Aden said.

  “Oh,” Sandy said. Her heart sank. He was saying she wasn’t good enough for him. “I can see why you don’t want to . . .”

  “I want to. You have no idea how much I want to.”

  Sandy turned so she could look at his face. Her eyes reviewed the shape of his brow, his eyes, and the set of his mouth. There was no lie in Aden Norsen’s face.

  “What’s going on?” Sandy asked.

  “I’d like to date you, see if we work — you and I — and go slow. As much as I wish I did, I don’t have Jacob’s skill at figuring the future. I have to go one tiny step at a time.”

  “Date?”

  “Yeah. Date . . . exclusively. Like, I hoped you might be my date to Valerie’s party next week,” Aden said. “And I wondered if you were available for dinner tomorrow night.”

  “You want to date,” Sandy said. “Me?”

  “I’m not much of a catch,” Aden said. “I have two small kids and I work a lot. You’re young. You should enjoy your unfettered time.”

  “Porn? Prostitutes?”

  “I got over porn decades ago,” Aden said. “I’ve never paid any woman for sex. Before you ask, I’m only attracted to women.”

  “Diseases?”

  “They check us every year at Employee Health. I’m clean. No diabetes, either. You?”

  Sandy shook her head. She didn’t make her usual “just boy crazy” joke.

  “Other girlfriends?”

  “Not in years,” Aden said. “I have two small kids. I’m their only parent. And I work a lot.”

  “Date?”

  “Exclusively.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, Sandy.” Aden flushed. Humiliated, he was about to get up when, for no reason at all, he said, “Dinner tomorrow? I’ll be exhausted. It’s my long day.”

  “Saturday is my long day too,” Sandy said. “I’d like to see your house. Before I decide, I’d like to see your house.”

  “I’ll make dinner. Can I pick you up?”

  “I get off at six,” Sandy said.

  “I’ll pick you up at work.”

  “Great.”

  Smiling and blushing, they stood in front of each other. Aden kissed Sandy’s cheek and went to his car. Sandy stood on the porch waving until he was out of sight. Turning into her building, she took the stairs two at a time to her apartment. When her black-and-white cat, Cleo, gave her a scolding, she started laughing. She laughed as she fed Cleo and changed for bed. Staring at the ceiling, she absolutely beamed.

  Aden wanted to date . . . her . . . exclusively!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Where you belong

  Saturday morning, 3:30 a.m.

  Jill spun the empty ceramic mug on the table in the main Castle kitchen. Not wanting to bother anyone, she sat alone in the dark. Without work or Katy, Jill felt lost. Mike and Valerie had even taken Sarah and Scooter to the fishing cabin overnight.

  And Jacob was out of the picture. The nurse caught him working yesterday afternoon and called the doctor. They sedated him until Sunday just to keep him still long enough to heal.

  For the first time in her life, Jill just had Jill to think about.

  “But Jill is so boring,” she said.

  “Is she?” a male voice said from behind her.

  Jill turned to see a man come into the kitchen. He retrieved a mug from the cabinet and poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “You’re Celia’s hot boyfriend. That’s what she called you. Her ‘hot boyfriend,’” Jill said. “I used to see you guys walking when I got off work.”

  “We walked you home a number of times,” he said. “I’m Sam. Sam Lipson. We passed in the hospital, but with emotions high, I imagine you don’t remember much.”

  He held his hand out for her to shake. Jill shook his hand.

  “You’re Jacob’s father.”

  “Valerie’s too,” he said. “It’s nice to see you again. Celia was in so much pain those last months. The only thing that helped was walking. We’d walk for hours. Celia was always excited to walk you home. You brought her a lot of joy that year.”

  He held up the coffee pot and Jill nodded. He filled her cup and then sat down next to her.

  “You don’t seem very happy,” he said. “I can explain all the complications, but my guess is that you aren’t sitting in the dark here wondering about my life.”

  “Oh.” Jill nodded. “Yeah.”

  “What’s wrong, Jill?”

  Jill looked at the man sitting next to her. His eyes held the same patient, receptive quality she found so attractive in Jacob.

  “It’s been a tough week,” she said.

  “You mean your normal doesn’t include your child almost dying, losing your job, injuring yourself, and seeing your boyfriend attacked?” Sam laughed.

  “What boyfriend?” Jill asked.

  “Well, that too,” Sam said. “I bet last week at this time you were in a very different place.”

  Jill nodded. She glanced at Sam. He easily summed up how she felt.

  “I’m not working. And have no idea when I’ll work again. Katy’s gone. I don’t cook or clean for myself here. I can’t go home because Trevor’s stalking the apartment until he gets married to some other girl and leaves for his honeymoon tomorrow. I’m supposedly engaged to this guy that I don’t even know. My best friend is appropriately caught up in her own world.” Jill stopped talking as abruptly as she started. After a few moments of silence, she took a breath. “I can’t even work out!”

  “Why don’t you come with me today?” Sam asked. “I spend Saturdays going from
site to site. You could come along with me. You’d learn a little bit about our business. Maybe you won’t feel so strange.”

  “Is there a lot of walking? I tried to shop and couldn’t really do that.”

  “No,” Sam said. “Do you need to rest?”

  Jill shook her head. “I think I’ve slept more this week than I have all of my life.”

  “I need to say goodbye to Ruth. Why don’t I meet you here in ten minutes?”

  “Oh, that’s why you’re here . . . you and Delphie?”

  “I live here,” Sam said. “I have a room on the ground floor. We’ve just missed each other this week. But, to answer your question, Delphie and I are seeing each other. We have for the last few years.”

  “What about your wife and kids?”

  “Surely you know that my children live at the Castle, Jill. As for Tiffanie? My marriage-in-name-only will end soon. Thank God.”

  Sam looked toward the door, where Delphie stood in her bathrobe. He stood to hold her. They were still talking when Jill returned from Jacob’s apartment where she and Katy were staying. Delphie hugged Jill and went back to her apartment.

  Because Valerie made a big show of leaving for the mountains, the paparazzi had retreated from the Castle. Sam and Jill went to his Lipson Construction truck parked in the driveway.

  “Ruth thinks you should go ahead with your plan for the walls,” Sam said.

  Jill blushed. “How did she know I was doing that?”

  Sam laughed.

  “She thinks, and I agree, you will feel more at home when you make it homey,” Sam said.

  “That’s assuming this will be my home.”

  “It’s odd for you and I. Val too. We fight against accepting what’s right in front of us. But be honest, Jill. Don’t you feel like this is exactly where you belong?”

  In answer to his question, Jill buckled her seat belt.

  “I’m glad you came along today. Saturday is my favorite day. We start with breakfast at four. Aden and Blane will meet us at the Gyro Palace. Although, now that you and Jacob are an item, we can go back to Pete’s Kitchen. Jacob could never handle a workday after seeing you.”

  “He really likes me?”

  “He’s crazy about you, Jill.”

  Jill smiled.

  “You’re right. I feel like I belong. But . . .”

  “But?”

  “I’m not sure why.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Sam laughed.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Saturday afternoon — 3 p.m.

  “Who are you?” Mike asked.

  He walked into the kitchen, where a short, slim blonde woman was riffling through the cupboards. The woman made a disgusted sound and began tossing box after box of cereal into a five-gallon trash can.