No Longer a Daddy's Girl [Christian Fiction]

Part 3 - Bianca

***

The country breakfast restaurant was so crowded that Lonette, Bianca, and Elena had to wait almost twenty minutes for a table. To Lonette, the wait would be well worth it. She hadn't enjoyed a good country breakfast since leaving her father's house. She couldn't believe how much she missed him, a feeling she was constantly trying to suppress.

Once they were seated, they were waited on and served quickly. Lonette had a bacon and eggs platter while Bianca had a ham, egg, and cheese omelet. Elena, who was not a big eater, would nibble off Bianca's meal.

Bianca looked up at Lonette before she dug in. "Do you pray?"

Not lately.

"Yes, I do," Lonette answered.

"Do you mind if we pray over the meal?"

Lonette answered by lowering her head. After the prayer, Lonette started digging in without hesitation. Bianca watched her for a moment while feeding morsels to Elena.

"I want to thank you again for helping my daughter," Bianca said.

"No problem," Lonette responded. "Anybody would have done it."

"I don't know about that. There are some real mentally disturbed people that try to hurt kids. I'm glad God sent my daughter to your door."

"Yeah. Last thing Elena needs is some crazy getting a hold of her."

Now Bianca started to eat. "I prefer not to use the term 'crazy.'"

"Well, nuts, bonkers, same thing."

"I don't use those terms either."

"Why?"

"Has a lot to do with my job."

"Which is?"

"I'm a psychologist and licensed Christian counselor."

Christian counselor, huh? Lonette was tempted to look around and see whether her dad was somewhere hiding in the decorative foliage, goading this woman on what to say, like in a TV sitcom. It was much too coincidental that she was having breakfast with a woman that would fit in very well in Dad's world.

"Hmm," was all Lonette could manage before a slice of bacon in her mouth gave her an excuse to stop talking.

"In fact, that's the other reason I invited you to breakfast."

"What's that?"

"You looked hurt, lonely."

"You can tell that from looking at me?" Lonette tried not to sound defensive. "You don't know me."

"No, I don't. And I didn't know if I was right or not. I could only tell you what I saw."

Lonette's pride kicked in. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"I don't know. You're very young to be living in a hotel room."

"How do you know I'm living in a hotel room?"

"I don't know. And again, I could be wrong. But when you said you did not have a car, and you insisted on my driving you instead of walking just two blocks in very nice weather, it sounded like someone who is trying to hide. And the fact that you accepted my invitation so quickly tells me that you have a desire to be connected to something safe, and my child and I represent that for you."

"Or maybe I just wanted a free breakfast," Lonette said, snarkier than she intended.

"You turned down my offer of money," Bianca noted. "If you were destitute, you would have accepted my money in a second. And those fairly new-looking Roberto Cavalli's you have on tell me that you're used to finer things."