COMPLETE ✓| Charlotte Hastings found herself between a rock and a hard place when she aged out of the foster system. With only a car to her name, she set out on the open road, hoping to find long lost relatives. Winter hits her hard. When she meets...
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN | A MOTHER'S ADVICE
Elijah Blackwood
I managed to push down all the complicated feelings from the night before as I drank my third cup of coffee on the road to drop Lottie off at work. She was dancing to whatever song was on the radio, as she always did. Something about what she told me the night before made me see her dancing in a different light, though. And I couldn't help but wonder if it was something she did to hide her pain or if she was genuinely happy here.
Is it wrong of me to hope it's the latter, not for her, but for myself? I parked my truck in front of the cafe and waited for the song to finish before I turned off the truck.
"Have you always done that?" I blurted out the question I'd been dying to ask for the whole trip to work, despite having planned to keep it inside. "I mean, have you always danced to whatever song came on the radio? You don't seem to have a preference. I l-" I stopped myself from saying 'love' and smiled to hide the nerves. "I like that you'll dance to whatever music I play."
She giggled before answering, "Force of habit I guess. I love to dance and in some of the foster homes I wasn't allowed to pick the music. If I waited for a song to come on that I liked, I'd never get the chance. So I decided I could make any song a dance song."
It wasn't the answer I was hoping for, but it sounded true. Finally getting her to tell me the truth had to count for something. "That makes sense," I replied when I noticed her staring at me. We were staring at each other, drawing closer with each breath. But we were interrupted by a knock on the window. I looked up to see my mom's face peering in as she waved.
"Can you roll down the window?" I asked Lottie. "I think my mom wants to talk to us."
Lottie did as I asked and as soon as the window was halfway down my mother made her reasoning clear. "I'm sorry to burst in like this, dear." She looked at Lottie. "I really need you in there for the breakfast rush."
"Oh." Lottie looked back at me before turning back to my mom. "I'll come right in. Of course."
"Bye, Lottie," I said, waving as she stepped out of the car. I adjusted the heat down as she left the truck, but the door didn't shut behind her. I looked up, thinking she wanted to say something, but I saw my mother standing in the doorway, climbing into the passenger seat.
"What are you doing?" I asked as she closed the door behind her.
"I just wanted to have a chat with my son," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Mmmhmm." I'd been her son long enough to know that was never the case. "So what is it actually?" I asked.
"I just wanted to talk to you and see how everything is going. I noticed Lottie's still around and I thought that was temporary. Do you know how long she'll be staying?"
