Page 44 of James

“He hasn’t mentioned it, but I’ve noticed that, too.”

“He’s lost weight, but his appetite has never been better,” Suzie went on fretfully. “And he acts happy, but a little too happy. And when I try to talk to him about it, he changes the subject. I catch him looking at me sometimes and he looks worried. Do you think… Do you think he’s sick?”

“Okay, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Laura said.

“I just remember how Richard was, before he told us.”

“I understand,” Laura soothed. “But there are a lot of reasons why someone might lose weight.”

“It’s just so out of character.”

“Is it, though? Suzie, Dad’s been depressed for a long time, ever since Mom died, but that’s not ‘normal’ behavior either. Everything he’s doing now, he did when we were kids, and it wasn’t alarming then, was it?”

Suzie breathed into the phone for a while, then tentatively said, “You think he just, what? Got therapy?”

“Maybe. Maybe his poker friends have been talking him through some things. They’re coming around more often and most of them are widowers, too. Maybe seeing Tim and Abby just reminded him he still has a lot to live for. To be honest, sis, I don’t really care about the why. I’m just so glad he’s happy.”

They spoke a bit about the children, the bonus Suzie was expecting from work and if Laura’s employer would finally agree to build the new website. After they’d finished up, Laura’s thoughts went to James. She considered inviting him along to the Thanksgiving dinner, but reluctantly decided against it. Her sister, knowing some of what went on their bedroom, might feel awkward. Her father might think she was hijacking a family occasion he'd organized to make it all about her and her boyfriend.James might feel like an interloper. And anyway, he’d mentioned that he and Chris usually kept each other company on holidays. Except Christmas, when Chris went to visit his parents in Arizona. Maybe that would be a better time to introduce James to her family. As Suzie was so fond of saying, she’d just have to wait and see.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Thanksgiving afternoon found James folding his body into a scuffed brown booth. The Golden Corral wasn’t his favorite restaurant, but it was Chris’s turn to pick and he always went for buffets. James had to admit that did suit their need for calories to sustain their large bodies and there was quite a variety of food available. Chris was already scanning the other tables, hoping for a woman to impress, no doubt, even in this sea of senior citizens. Incorrigible flirt. Just then, James’s attention was caught by a throaty laugh he thought he recognized, and he whirled around in the booth.

There she was – his Laura. She sat a few tables over, facing away from him, but it was her, no doubt about that.

His gaze lingered on her companions. There were two other adults, an older man who must be her father and a woman her age, who must be the sister. She looked familiar, but it was the prospect of meeting Laura’s father that really hooked him. There had always been a shift in Laura's demeanor whenever she talked about him, fromanimated excitement to a hint of worry, although he looked fine to James.

Should he go over and introduce himself? Was she ready for him to meet her family? Would it be awkward if he invited himself to their table? Would it be less awkward if he didn’t and she noticed him not wanting to come and say hi?

He waited so long that Laura got up and went to the restroom, giving him a moment’s reprieve from the agony of indecision.

But only a moment, because a familiar happy squeal rang through the restaurant: “Ring Mister!”

He turned – everyone turned – to watch an adorable little girl in a turkey sweater running toward him, the same little girl he’d last seen snuggling a prize plush pony with a rainbow tail.

“Abby!” a boy called after her, and it was him, too, the generous and protective older brother from the fundraising festival. And that woman next to the Laura at the table, that was their mother. No wonder she looked so familiar! But did she remember him?

As the little girl hopped up into James’s booth, her brother caught up with her. “Abby, you can’t run up to strangers. It isn’t polite or safe.”

James approved. “Your brother is right, little missy. You can’t trust just anyone.”

The girl, Abby, her brother called her, and Tim – his name was Tim – pouted prettily. “But this is the man with the rings, he’s nice!” In the same breath she turned back to James. “The pony is perfect. I called him ‘Dash,’ because he looks like Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony. He sits on my bed with Fuzzy Wuzzy.”

“Who’s Fuzzy Wuzzy?” James inquired, taken with the spirited little minx.

“My bear, of course,” Abby said matter-of-factly.

“Of course,” Chris piped in with a look of winking disapproval. “Imagine not knowing who Fuzzy Wuzzy is.”

Abby looked over at him curiously and Tim eyed him with suspicion, not to mention everyone at Laura’s table and quite a few people elsewhere in the restaurant. Time to make some introductions.

“Chris,” he said. “Let me introduce you to my two friends, Abby and Tim. We met at the festival. But they’re also related to —”

Before he could finish his sentence, a woman’s voice sounded, “Abby, Tim! Who are you talking to?” Laura’s sister came over, only to step back in surprise when she got a good look at James’s face. “Oh, it’s you!”

“This is the man who helped me win my pony,” Abby told her mother. “We weren’t bothering them. He was inter-, intro-” She chewed her bottom lip.

Helpfully, Tim supplied, “Introducing.”

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