Read Online The Denver Cereal by Claudia Hall Christian - Free Book Online

kids so they just cared for her.”
    “ Was she all right?” Jacob
asked. “Did they hurt her?”
    “ No, she was healthy. She
has a scar on her leg and the doctor says her leg had been broken
and set. She wasn’t malnourished. Except for the leg thing, she
wasn’t hurt . . . in any way,” Steve said. “She was
kind of blank. She still gets like that when she gets really
freaked out.”
    “ She went blank today,”
Jacob said.
    “ Freaky, isn’t it?” Steve
smiled at Jacob’s nod. “She was blank for a while, then wham , she was Jill
again. She didn’t remember Mom and Dad were dead, where she had
been all that time, nothing.
    “ I’ll tell you this,”
Steve continued. “Mike’s looked for this farmer and can’t find him.
He’s looked for the friar and can’t find him either.” Steve shook
his head. “It’s like they never existed.”
    “ Now that IS freaky,”
Jacob said.
    “ I guess I’m telling you
all of this so you can understand. We are very protective of Jill.
She’s like a special gift from our dead parents. They were great
parents . . . really great.”
    “ She’s very
special.”
    “ Trevor couldn’t stand us.
He used to harass Jill to pick between us and him. He told Mike
that he abandoned Jill and Katy because of us! Prick.”
    Jacob shrugged his
eyebrows at the obvious.
    “ We couldn’t stop her from
being with Trevor, but . . . We’re always here for
Jill.”
    “ I wouldn’t expect less,”
Jacob said.
    “ Good, then why were you
running away?”
    Dustin brought three
plastic bags filled with calzones, salads, and breadsticks to the
table.
    “ Here’s the tea and the
Raspberry Decadence,” Dustin said. He set a separate brown bag
down. “Dude, you’ll let me know about Katy?”
    Steve and Dustin did a
complicated little hand shake that ended in a fist bump. “Yeah,
I’ll let you know.”
    Dustin grinned at
Jacob.
    “ Thanks,” Jacob
said.
    “ No problem, man. Any
friend of Steve’s and such,” Dustin said.
    The men began walking back
to the hospital with the food.
    “ Running away?” Steve
asked.
    “ I got overwhelmed. My
sister and I are . . . not close. She does her thing
in Hollywood and I do mine here. I guess your parents’ death pulled
your family closer, while my mother’s death drove me and Val
apart.”
    “ It’s a lot,” Steve said.
“If you stay with Jill, are you going to get rid of us?”
    “ I don’t have any problem
with Jill having a family. I left my life and business in Maine to
help my father. I know what it means to have family,” Jacob said.
“I . . . This was our first
date . . . It’s not even a date. We called it a
‘non-date.’ Just the zoo and lunch. The hospital wasn’t
planned.”
    “ My sister’s a pricey
date,” Steve laughed.
    “ I’d rather buy Christian
Louboutins,” Jacob said.
    Steve laughed. “Lots of
guys try to get with Jill. If she’s willing to go on a non-date
with you, she must be pretty interested.”
    “ Or desperate to get to
the zoo,” Jacob said.
    “ I think she likes you,”
Steve said.
    Approaching the hospital,
Jacob saw Jill talking to Dr. Drayson outside the hospital. When
she saw Jacob, she beamed. Jacob grinned in response. Even with his
hands full of food, he managed to hug her hello.
    “ Katy’s going to be all
right,” Jill said into his chest.
    “ I’m so glad,” Jacob said.
He kissed her cheek.
    “ Me too,” Jill
said.
    “ We brought dinner,” Steve
said. “Your tea and Chocolate-Raspberry Decadence, sir.”
    “ Thanks,” Dr. Drayson
laughed.
    “ Would you like to eat?”
Jacob asked.
    Jill nodded.
    Stepping back from Jacob,
Jill was about to kiss him when Steve said, “Come on, Jilly. No
making out on the sidewalk.”
    Jill laughed. She caressed
Jacob’s cheek and then followed the men inside for
dinner.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Valerie Lipson opened the
door of her Malibu condominium — their Malibu condo — and walked into
the hall. Standing at the