Family Recipe

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

Streetlights slid up the windshield of their neighbor’s car as they drove through town. Justin sat in the back of the car, holding a whimpering Scarlett, as the neighbor drove. They didn’t have a car seat—another thing for Justin to feel like a failure about, since he could have brought the one from his shitty car—but at least they were on their way to the hospital now. Wyatt and Harper were in the back with him. Harper was staring resolutely out the window at the closed up storefronts they passed.

Justin cleared his throat. “Thank you. Thank you for doing this.”

“It’s not a problem,” the guy said, and Justin wished he could remember his name. Was it Dale? Darryl? He’d said it, back at his house, but Justin had missed it because he’d been having a goddamn breakdown or whatever the f**k that was. The guy had a nice voice, low and calm like he was talking to some spooked animal, and Justin wondered if it always sounded like that, or if Justin really was that pathetic. Yeah, probably the second one.

Justin sneaked a glance at the guy as they passed under another streetlight. He was maybe in his late thirties, though Justin was never great at judging age. He had a dark beard that hid the planes of his face, and long hair pulled back into a messy bun. More hipster than biker though, Justin decided. His dark hair was a little gray at the temples, and there were flashes of silver in his beard.

The guy caught Justin’s gaze in the rear view mirror and Justin looked down, his face burning, and rubbed Scarlett’s back gently.

He had nice eyes, Justin thought. Kind eyes.

It was only a short drive to the hospital. Nothing in Enterprise was far away from anything else.

“Thanks,” Justin said when they pulled up in front of the entrance, expecting the guy would just drive off again. Instead, the guy turned the ignition off and got out of the car.

He was taller than Justin, and broader as well, and Justin felt like a little kid as the guy ushered them into the hospital. He felt, not small exactly, but safe, like with this guy beside him everything would be okay. And that had to be his sleep deprivation and his stress talking, because Justin had been on his own since he was fifteen. He wasn’t a little kid who needed protection from the big bad world. He hadn’t been that in a long time.

Tonight was the f*****g exception, okay? Tonight had been a disaster, but usually Justin wasn’t like that. His stomach clenched and his face burned at the thought of how he’d basically collapsed in a puddle of tears on his neighbor’s front porch, but from now on he was keeping his s**t together.

A woman in pink pastel scrubs met them in the waiting room and thrust a clipboard towards the neighbor.

“She’s sick,” Justin said. “She didn’t stop screaming for hours, and now she’s like this.”

“Okay,” the woman said. She looked at the neighbor. “You get started on these forms, and we’ll take a look at the little one.”

The neighbor opened his mouth, and then closed it again and nodded. He took a seat in the waiting room. “Go on,” he said to Justin. “We’ll be waiting right here for you.”

Justin trailed after the nurse, throwing a worried look back over his shoulder. The neighbor was sitting in a chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his clipboard discarded on the chair beside him. Wyatt was sitting in the chair beside that one, silent and watchful as always. Harper was pacing, her face like thunder.

Would they…would they be okay with the guy?

“Okay,” the nurse said, leading Justin around a corner. “Let’s get you ready for the doctor, little one.”