“Only Nome, huh?” she bantered.
“Well, he wasn’t much for expansion,” Stanley said, lifting his cup to take a sip.
“Hard to outrun the law with sled dogs, I suppose,” she said, lifting her own cup in a silent toast.
He shook his head as he beamed a smile at her. “I suppose so.”
“You could teach Nova. Seems something like that shouldn’t be forgotten,” Noni said, hiding her mouth behind her mug.
“Noni! I’m not doing that,” I said, lightly smacking the table to make my point.
The two of them laughed at me.
“Couldn’t help you even if I wanted to. My dad never did get around to showing me. I think he was afraid I would try to outrun the law with a dogsled team,” Stanley said, winking at me.
“He was probably right. If trouble didn’t find you, you found trouble.” Noni tapped the edge of her plate. “It’s a good thing you found better things to do with your life.”
“Why thank you, Noni. I’ll take that compliment,” he said, pushing up from his seat, and then collecting both our empty plates.
“It was really good, Mr. Lewis. Thanks,” I said, scooping up our silverware and setting it on the top plate.
“It’s Stanley, young lady. How many time do I have to tell you that? Yet you still call me Mr. Lewis,” he said, giving me a hard time.
“That’s because she was raised with manners. I saw to that,” Noni answered, beaming.
“You did a fine job, Noni. A fine one. Now, I best get these dishes washed and ready for the dinner crowd. Have a good day, ladies. Come back soon,” he said as I fished out some cash from my wallet and dropped it on the table because he never billed us when we came in.
He always saw me do it. And he always shook his head when I told him to put it toward one of those Alaskan sea cruises where he could whale watch. It was our running joke since he couldn’t step foot on a boat without turning green, or so he said.
“You up for the walk home, or should I see if Jan will give us a ride?” I asked Noni as I helped her into her jacket.
“A little fresh air won’t hurt us. Especially you since you ate so much lunch,” she said, poking my jacket in the vicinity of my stomach.
“You ate as much as I did,” I said, opening the door for her.
She loved to banter, which was probably where I got it from. “Well, I suppose we’ll be a pair won’t we, waddling down the road.”
“You mean teetering? You’re the one who had a nip,” I reminded her.
“Probably could have used another one for the road,” she said, stuffing her arm through mine as the wind tugged at our clothes.
“Did I ever tell you how you got your name?” Noni asked.
“Once. A long time ago,” I answered, unable to look at her. She’d told me, but when I asked my mom, she laughed and called Noni an old fool because it wasn’t why they, my mother and father, chose to call me Nova.
“I always thought of you as my brand-new star. My Nova. You’ve brought such joy to my life throughout the years,” Noni said.
I bit my tongue. There was no way I’d tell her what her own daughter said to me.
“I heard her that day, and she was wrong to say it to you,” Noni said as if she’d plucked the thought right out of my head.
“Heard what?” I asked, because it was possible her thoughts didn’t run alongside my own. After all, my mother had been known to be more than a little jealous of me. Now and then, she’d find a way to try to tarnish a good memory.
“I named you. Me. Because the two of them were too busy mourning their old lives to take care of the one they created. So you were my Nova. My new star. My darling granddaughter, who I’d see raised right no matter what,” she said, giving a sharp nod of her head. “Your mother would have told you just about anything to cause a rift. So, no, you weren’t named after the supposed car you were conceived it. I should know since neither of them owned a car, nor did any of their heathen friends.”
I thought about it for a minute before asking, “Do you think that maybe some people just aren’t meant to be parents?”
She pulled her arm free of mine and put it around me. As she hugged me with a strength that surprised me, she said, “More often than not, honey. But that’s no fault of the child, and really, they’re better off without that kind of raising. Too many displaced kids and not enough love. I wonder what’s worse…” she added. “Parents who cast children off, or parents who give their children gifts instead of their time? Either way, it’s a shame to see it happen and not be able to do anything about it. But I could with you, and so I did.”
“That you did, Noni,” I said, wrapping my own arm around her as we trundled up the walkway to her house.
www.sonyaloveday.com
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Books by Sonya Loveday
The Casted Series
Casted
Spelled
* * *
The Six Series
The Summer I Fell
End Note
Relevance
If Ever I Fall
The Vows We Make
All We Are
Under Northern Lights - Coming 11/16/17
* * *
Sweet Southern Romance
What It Takes
* * *
Game of Hearts Novels
Sonya Loveday & Candace Knoebel
Love Always
Runaway Heart
When Two Hearts Collide
All We Are (The Six Series Book 5) Page 21
