Read Online Small-Town Mom by Jean C. Gordon - Free Book Online Page B

nibbled her pizza slice. The prayer had been one of her favorites, at one time. She’d learned it as a child. Jamie placed her pizza on her plate. That she and her kids no longer said grace as a family was her call. But she wasn’t going to make an issue of it with Eli. Not in front of the kids. She glanced around the table to see all three of them absorbed in eating their dinner.
    Eli caught her gaze, and the lull in conversation became deafening.
    She searched her mind for words to fill the silence. Where was Opal’s constant chatter when she needed it? “I wanted to thank you for having Sara walk Opal back up the hill. I hated to impose on you and Drew to watch her while I took Rose to Urgent Care.”
    Eli and Opal shared a silent exchange.
    He cleared his throat. “I—”
    “Mr. Payton didn’t ask Sara to bring me back. I asked her to.”
    “Did you tell Mr. Payton you were going with Sara?”
    Opal pushed her pizza crust around on her plate. “No.”
    “We’ve talked about this before. Mr. Payton must have been looking for you.”
    Eli gave Jamie a curt nod.
    “He was probably worried about you.”
    Opal looked past her to Eli.
    “I was concerned and relieved when Drew told me Sara had brought you to your mother.”
    “Sorry.” Opal’s gaze dropped back to her plate.
    “Apology accepted.”
    “If you’re done with your pizza, you and Rose should go upstairs and put on your pajamas. Then you can watch the movie.”
    “Okay.” Opal and Rose slipped away.
    “I hope Opal didn’t give you too much trouble this afternoon.”
    “No, it was okay.”
    “Even her pitch to take her to the school dinner-dance?”
    “She told you about that?” The smile lines on either side of his mouth deepened.
    “Yes. I’m a bit embarrassed,” Jamie admitted.
    “Don’t be. She’s what, six? And I’m sure she misses her daddy.”
    “Seven. Don’t let her hear you saying six.” And I’m not sure she misses John as much as she simply misses having a daddy.
    Eli moved his chair back, and a compulsion to make him stay, to not have an empty seat at the table, washed over Jamie.
    “Where are my manners? Would you like a drink? We have milk and iced tea. I’m afraid Myles finished off the soda.”
    Her son pulled his attention from his food. “There wasn’t that much left.”
    “I know.” She didn’t want the good day and her good mood broken by an argument with Myles. “I could make coffee if you’d rather have something hot.”
    “Milk is fine.”
    Jamie rose and crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator.
    “I’m going to work on my computer.” Myles tossed his paper plate in the trash and put his glass in the sink. “Talk to her about what you told me,” he said in a lower voice as he passed by Eli at the table.
    “Something I need to know?” Jamie placed Eli’s milk in front of him and sat with her tea.
    “Thanks.” Eli shifted in his seat, and she couldn’t get past the similarity of his demeanor and Myles’s when he and Tanner were cooking up something.
    “I was talking to some of the guys in the youth group about the teen programs at the American Legion.”
    Jamie tensed. So much for her pleasant day. “I see.”
    “I told them I would talk with their parents and give them more information.”
    “Good move. I won’t need any more information.”
    Eli inclined his head. “I understand how, given the circumstances, you might not want Myles involved in an American Legion program.”
    He had that right. She’d meant it when she’d told him the military had killed John. And she didn’t want Myles anywhere near anything or anyone who would encourage him to follow in his father’s footsteps. She couldn’t lose her son, too.
    Eli hesitated as if remembering their last meeting and her displeasure at Myles going to the youth group meeting and Eli driving him home. “As I said, I was talking to the group, not just to Myles.”
    Jamie was torn between anger at Eli for including Myles in his