Page 27 of Second Chance Fate

She told him the truth; it was because Martin wasn’t a very nice person. He didn’t respond, just hugged her. From that day forward, unless he was ill or his hands were full, he opened every door for her.

On the short walk to the car, Owen asked, “Are you working tomorrow? Am I walking here after school?”

“Yep. Tomorrow and the day after that.”

She was happy that Owen liked going to the coffee shop. She was also happy the walk from his school was only a couple of blocks, it was safe, and he’d made a friend who had walked with him.

When they got in the car, she sank into the driver’s seat. Her entire body ached. She hadn’t realized just how out of shape she must have become, or how little brainpower she used on a daily basis, if this was how exhausted she was after one shift.

As they pulled out of the parking space, the kid who she’d seen Owen walking with waved from across the street. He was in front of the fire station playing with a yellow Labrador retriever.

Owen waved back.

“Who’s that?” Taylor asked as she pulled up to the four-way stop on Main Street.

“It’s Jonah. His dad isGabe Maguire.”

The way Owen said Jonah’s dad’s name made Taylor think she should know who he was.

“Oh, wow.” Taylor tried to sound adequately impressed, although she had no clue what she was impressed by.

“You have no clue who that is, do you?” Owen saw right through her pitiful attempt.

“No.” She shook her head. “I do not.”

“He’s the MMA fighter who had cancer. Remember, I watched that documentary on him.”

“Oh, right. Yes, I do remember now.”

Owen gravitated toward true stories of athletes who beat the odds, faced adversities, and conquered them, especially if they had anything to do with battling health issues.

“Jonah invited me over this weekend.”

“Oh, he did?”

“Can I go?”

“Um…” This was all moving so fast. First, he was back in school and walking to her job. Now he wanted to go over to a friend’s house. Logically, Taylor knew that going over to a friend’s house was typical preteen behavior. Unfortunately, her anxiety wasn’t on speaking terms with logic at the moment. It had kicked logic out a long time ago and invited its friends panic, paranoia, and irrationality to the party.

“Do they have cats?” Taylor was grasping at straws for excuses to deny his request for completely selfish reasons. She didn’t want to spend the six to eight hours over the weekend being terrified over whether or not he was okay.

“Oh, um…” Owen’s brow furrowed as his shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

“Well, find out if he does.” That bought her some time at least. She’d use that time to do a Google deep dive into Gabe Maguire to find out if he had any skeletons in his closet. For now, she wanted to change the subject. “Did you finish your homework?”

“I just have math left.”

Math was Owen’s worst subject, and unfortunately, she was the tree that the apple hadn’t fallen far from. She was decent when it came to basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, and fractions. But once letters were introduced, even in basic algebra, she might as well have been vacationing in the Bermuda Triangle; she was lost. Geometry might as well be another language with shapes,angles, areas, and volumes. And calculus…I mean, was it from another planet? Probably. She’d managed to squeak by in high school, but Algebra I and II were the only classes she didn’t get A’s in.

By the time they pulled to a stop in front of the quaint storybook cottage they called home; dusk had begun to settle over the sky in brilliant shades of purple and orange. As she turned the ignition off, Taylor stifled a yawn as she mentally pumped herself up to rally. She needed to make dinner, do the dishes, shower, and then she could collapse.

Beside her, Owen’s energy was the yin to her yang. He unbuckled himself and sprang out of the car like a Jack-in-the-Box. One second, he was seated beside her; she blinked, and he was standing outside of the car; she blinked again, and his backpack was trailing behind him in a blur as he beelined toward the door.

He managed to unlock it before she’d even made it to the walkway. Taylor felt as if she was walking in quicksand as her muscles protested with each step she took. She made a mental note to look up an inexpensive multivitamin. Her own health had been on the back burner since Owen was born, and she was thinking she must be in some sort of deficiency to be running this low on fumes.

The second the door opened, Owen was greeted with a very happy, very slobbery Sir Casper Wiggle Butt the Fourth. Owen’s backpack hit the floor only a second before his knees did as Casper reared up on his hind legs and put both of his paws on Owen’s shoulders, giving him a doggy hug as he whined and covered his cheeks in wet kisses.

"I missed you, too.” Owen laughed as he wiped his face and hugged Casper back.

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