West had eaten every single French fry and licked each individual particle of salt from his McDonald’s lunch. With nothing but the discarded pickles from his burger left on his tray, he was already asking for dessert.
No surprises there.
If West stayed where he was on his growth chart, he’d be taller than his dad before he graduated high school. Steve had been a football star before a back injury kept him from playing college level. He was proud of the life he’d made as a Boston attorney, but Justine knew he still had hopes that West would follow in his athletic footsteps. Genes were on West’s side, and if you could judge by their grocery bill, her son already had the appetite of a teenage athlete.
“Look, Mama.” West pointed at a little bakery halfway down the terminal from their gate. “Donuts. Can we get some? I’m hungry.”
Of course he was hungry.
Well, their flight wasn’t scheduled to take off for another hour and a half. Dumping a ton of sugar into his system was probably easier now than trying to keep all his extra energy corralled at the gate.
Justine picked up her purse, and West gave a preemptive squeal of excitement. “Think they’ve got sprinkles on them?” he asked while jumping from one foot to the other.
Justine was fumbling through her wallet, trying to decide if it would be easier to just pay with cash than credit. West was so excited he started to dash out of the gate when he bumped into a white-haired woman wheeling her carry-on to a nearby seat.
“Be careful!” Justine snapped at her son. She reached out her arm reflexively to catch the old woman in case she stumbled.
“Oh dear,” the stranger exclaimed in a smiling voice. “I’m afraid I wasn’t looking where I was going. That could have been trouble.”
“No,” Justine corrected and gave West an angry glare. “My son should have been more careful and should have remembered not to run when there are so many other people around.”
West stared at his feet and mumbled a half-apology. Justine doubted the woman even heard.
“Are you all right?” she asked. The woman looked frail enough that a fall might have resulted in a broken bone or worse.
“I’m fine, thank the dear Lord,” she replied, dusting off her pants. “I’m just worried that I hurt your little guy there. Is he all right?”
“Yes.” Justine was still upset with West and was debating whether or not she was going to keep him from getting any donuts after all. If he was still so hungry, he could eat a veggie tray or something that wouldn’t send him into a sugar craze when he was already too energetic. When she’d convinced herself the stranger was fine and unharmed, she gave one last apology and prepared to leave, but the woman grabbed her by the hand.
“You have a lovely child,” she said. Her grip was twice as strong as Justine would have expected.
“Thank you,” Justine answered, somewhat flustered.
“Children truly are a gift from the Lord, aren’t they?”
Justine didn’t know how to respond. It was a saying she’d heard before at church and knew was there somewhere in the Bible, but on days like this, she didn’t exactly feel like West was as big a blessing as everyone else made him out to be.
The old woman smiled and let Justine go.
“I’ll see you two soon,” she said with an air of certainty that struck Justine as slightly creepy.
She offered a noncommittal smile and took her son by the wrist.
“Ow,” West complained, straining against her hold.
Justine made him apologize once more, and then she led him down the terminal in search of something to eat.