Page 5 of Infected By Virus

RAE

“Here you go, hun, burger and fries.” The waitress set the plate in front of Rae, then ruffled Adam’s hair. “And pancakes for my most handsome customer today,” she announced as she set the plate in front of Adam.

Rae reached over to cut his food for him, only to see that it was already done. She smiled up at the older lady in the uniform. “Thank you.”

“Of course, hun. Raised three boys. One thing I learned was men, even the young ones, have zero patience. If it’s in front of them, they’re gonna grab it and stuff it in their mouth, no matter if it fits or not. My youngest used to pick the whole thing up and bite it. Bigger than his head, didn’t matter.”

Sure enough, Adam was already on his third bite by the time she finished talking.

The waitress, Nana, according to her name tag, gave Rae a sympathetic look. “Besides, you seem a little overwhelmed.”

That was the understatement of the century.

“Raising kids is the best part of life, but it’s tough. I imagine doing it all by yourself is even harder.”

Rae had no intention of raising Adam all by herself, as Nana put it. She looked at Adam instead of providing any sort of answer. He reminded her of her greatest love and greatest pain. Of course, she wasn’t going to spill her life story to a waitress she’d just met. Instead, she smiled and thanked her again.

“I’ll swing back by and check on you in a few. Just holler if you need anything else.”

She took a bite of her burger and looked over at Adam as she chewed. He gave her the biggest smile she’d ever seen, and her heart swelled and broke in half at the same time.

Her stomach roiled and her appetite fled. Adam was the spitting image of his father.

That innocent face was how she found herself back in Utah. When she drove away years ago, she silently swore she’d never cross that state line again. A promise she’d broken, and it wouldn’t be the last one on this trip either. She’d also come face-to-face with Darrin.

She’d already been in Provo for too long without getting up the nerve to break that promise, but she had no choice. She had to do it—and soon. Running around town with his carbon copy was dicey.

In her delusional mind, she thought she’d get to Provo, meet with Darrin, hammer out the terms about Adam, and settle things between them once and for all. Get some closure so she could finally, truly move on emotionally.

Who was she kidding? Things would never be settled between them. Some things could never be settled. People just found a way to live around the pain and deal with life.

Sadly, Rae’s way had included locking her heart away from everyone and anyone for the first few years, including a string of way too many meaningless sexual encounters. But that got old real fast. Then she had a failed halfhearted attempt at a relationship with someone she never viewed as more than a good friend. That crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.

Yeah, that’s a healthy way to cope.

Tracking Darrin down hadn’t been too hard, he was all over social media. Her friend Harmon, who she was staying with indefinitely, knew exactly where to find the RBMC too. Seemed he’d made himself unforgettable on the internet to throngs of thirsty women. He’d joined the Royal Bastards shortly after she hightailed it out of the state.

“I’m just stalling the inevitable, huh, Adam?”

“Umhm.” He made a sound of agreement, or maybe it was the child equivalent of damn, these pancakes are fire. He didn’t know what was going on in her head. All he knew was he’d be meeting his dad soon. For being hit with all that, he seemed to be coping better than her.

Even so, she wasn’t really asking a six-year-old for life advice, was she?

Wetting the napkin in a water glass, she wiped away some syrup on his mouth.

“Of course, at this point you couldn’t do any worse at adulting then me, huh, cutie pie? You had the brilliant idea to have a breakfast food for lunch. I’d say that was a great choice.” Looking down at the syrup on his shirt, Rae blew out a breath. “Where did the napkin I tucked in there go?”

“It fell,” Adam proclaimed and pointed under the table before shoveling in another bite.

She tried every stretch and yoga technique Harmon taught her to retrieve said napkin with dignity, to no avail. “You owe me big time, little buddy.”

Ass all the way in the air with her head under the table, she finally touched the sticky cloth with her fingertip.

“Ah, ha, I got it,” she shouted from under the table.

“Damn, I got something too, sweetheart,” a deep voice proclaimed loudly. Lower, that same voice said, “Keep wiggling it just like that and Santa’ll put you on the naughty list.”

Rae hit her head on the bottom of the table.

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