Page 40 of Lone Star Longing
She expected more of an argument, to be honest, but he finally nodded, then stepped ahead to hold the door for her.
The inside of the restaurant was cool, with murals on the wall and street signs from around the city. The place was busy, but they’d missed most of the lunch crowd, so the hostess led them to a table right away, and handed them heavy menus with pages of options. Lacey hadn’t even let herself think about being hungry until this minute, and now she wanted everything on the menu. She perused the lunch specials, sipping gratefully from the glass of ice water.
“What do you get here?” she asked Beck.
“I like the prime rib.”
“I don't think I’ve ever had prime rib in my life.”
“First time for everything.”
When was she going to have another chance? She closed her menu. “I’ll do that.”
“So did everything go okay with the doctor?” he asked once the waitress had moved away to place their order with the kitchen.
“Oh, yes. I liked her a lot. And she did the sonogram. You want to see the picture?” She reached into her purse before he could answer.
“Sure.”
She leaned over the table, holding the picture in her hands. “Here’s how she explained it to me. He’s laying this way.” She pointed.
“He?”
Lacey shrugged. “Assumption. Way too soon to tell, which I knew anyway. So he is laying this way, and this is his spine, or what will be his spine. His head is this way and his butt is this way.”
“He looks just like you,” Beck said solemnly, and Lacey laughed, then sat back and tucked the picture away.
“He’s due on Halloween.”
“Aw, poor kid.”
“Or lucky kid, depending on your point of view. I’ve always loved Halloween, myself. When I was a kid and we were stationed in North Carolina, we lived on the best street for trick or treating. Mom made us costumes, you know, there were four of us, and oh my gosh, we couldn't wait to get out to the street and run door to door. We’d come home with bags of candy so full, we could barely lift them. And Mom would almost always let us skip school the next day.”
“Sounds like a great memory. We didn't celebrate Halloween.”
“No? Because you lived so far out, or...?” She knew some religions didn't celebrate the holiday.
“That was a big part of it. I mean, neither of my parents wanted to drive us into town to trick or treat, so my mom kind of frowned on it, being the devil’s birthday, all that.”
“So you don't like Halloween?”
“I like it fine, now, but it wasn't a big deal for us growing up. Yours sounds like the kids in the movies, you know, the ones who are always blissfully trick or treating while Michael murders everyone in the houses.”
She laughed again. “Do you like scary movies?”
“Oh, yeah. Now that, we spent a lot of time watching growing up. Chucky, Michael, Freddy.”
“I like the haunted house ones. I could not live out there in the middle of nowhere and watch them, though.”
“That makes them even better,” he said with a grin, tossing back a swallow of ice water.
They talked about their favorite scary movies until the salads came, something she never thought they would discuss. In fact, she hadn’t thought they would have anything in common to discuss, and yet one subject tumbled into another, until she looked around and saw the restaurant was almost empty, the waitress’s shift about to change.
She pulled herself together and motioned for the bill so the waitress could get her tip before she clocked out.
“You ready to go, then?” he asked, tossing his cloth napkin on the empty plate.
“I’d better...run to the restroom after all that water. Don't leave me,” she said, sliding out of the booth.
