Read Online Sterling's Reasons by Joey Light - Free Book Online Page B

by.”
    “The sun’s out,” he said as he squinted upward. “I guess if you promise the sun will shine and it does, I should trust your decision to eat at the picnic tables.”
    She casually hugged his arm to her as they went inside. He bent close to her ear and asked, “Aren’t you embarrassed to look this ridiculous?”
    “No.” She strolled up to the counter. “You do have carry-out, right? Good,”
    she nodded at the young man with the paper cap on his head and scanned the menu on the board above the stove, “I’ll have two hot dogs with ketchup and onions. No make that onion rings and french fries. Do you have the curly ones?”
    “No, ma’am,” the boy said as he looked at Joe for help.
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    Sterling’s Reasons
    Joe simply stood by silently and watched nonchalantly as the hapless creation of color and sound rambled on. When it was his turn he ordered two slices of pizza with black olives and pepperoni and two long necks.
    A little boy burst through the door of the restaurant, closely followed by his fussing mother. The child ran toward the counter, lickety split, and bumped smack into Sterling, propelling him backward and down to the floor with a thud.
    Without so much as a moment’s hesitation, the handsome little fellow jumped right back up, but Sterling knew he must have whacked his elbow pretty hard on the floor. She bent and picked him up, cradling him on her hip. “Whoa there, cowboy. Slow down. You’ll tire your horse out before the day is over.”
    The knowledge was immediate. It was a mistake. But one she couldn’t recognize until it was too late. It had simply been a natural reaction. Anyone would have done it. The wave of déjà vu hit her hard.
    It was so natural to have the boy in her arms. His face was gooey from the lollipop he managed not to drop through all this and he was smiling up at her with a cupid’s-bow mouth and bright, eager eyes. Memories flooded back.
    Pictures of her own child wavered before her eyes. A wave of pain washed over her again and again, so powerful that she reeled with it. She felt the hot sting of tears as they tried to force their way out and she squeezed her eyes shut tight for an instant.
    Blocking the memories as they seared painfully across her heart, Sterling took one more look at the baby hand that rested at her breast and then she set him down on his wiggly little feet and patted his head. She couldn’t control it much longer. She had to get out of there. This had never happened before and she didn’t know how to handle it.
    The child’s mother took the toddler’s hand. “I’m sorry, miss. He just runs everywhere he goes. I wonder how I’ll ever keep up with him.”

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    Joey Light
    “It’s all right,” she said, surprised that her voice sounded quite calm and normal. Sterling crouched down until she was eye level with the little boy.
    “Children have a way of rambling fearlessly through life.” His hair was so fine and soft. Her son’s hair had been that way. There were chocolate stains on his shirt from an earlier treat.
    “How many do you have?” the mother asked as she pried the lollipop from his hand. “It’s got dirt on it, Petey.”
    “None,” Sterling answered, standing up and feeling the razor cut of her own words. “Take good care of your mom.”
    “Joe,” Sterling turned her attention to him and said as brightly as she could,
    “would you wait for our order? I’ll find us the best picnic table out there.”
    Without waiting for his answer, Sterling was out the door and out of sight.
    Joe looked from her to the head of the small boy. What was that all about? He looked toward the door that Sterling had bolted through. That lady is so intense.
    Either intensely happy or intensely silly or intensely stubborn. Or intensely hurt.
    What was that he had seen on her face? His concern made him impatient with the blundering efforts of the young clerk behind the