Waif

She opened the refrigerator and looked in. "Oh, my God," she said. "I... you have... all this food and stuff!"

I almost cried again. This girl was breaking my heart. She was digging ice out of the compartment in the freezer, and I went over and took the glasses, closing the door and showing her how to get ice through the door. Evidently, she'd never seen that before, and she had to try it. She had pomegranate juice, and I had Dr. Pepper.

We finally got down to business with dinner, and I heaped her plate with food, giving her a little bowl for her tartar sauce. "I like to dip my fish in that," I said.

"What does it taste like?" she asked.

"Well, tartar sauce. Kind of like ranch, or something."

She dipped one of her pieces of fish in and took a bite. A look of bliss spread over her features. "Yum! I like tartar sauce."

We both laughed and devoted ourselves to eating. We talked while we ate, mostly me asking her questions and her answering.

"Where did you and your mom live... before," I asked.

She swallowed some potatoes. "Encanto," she said. "We kinda lived in a dumpy apartment. These potatoes are delicious."

"One of my favorites," I said. "If I ate them very often, I'd be too fat to walk, but you can use the calories. You're skinny as a string. Stick with me, kiddo, and I'll have you waddling around with me."

She laughed, and it was one of the most delightful sounds I'd heard. That was the first time I'd heard her laugh, and I decided I was going to make her do it a lot.

"Did your mom work?" I asked.

"Yeah, she had a job working for a little Mexican restaurant. She could cook Mexican food. She didn't make a lot, though."

"She was Hispanic?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes. She told me my dad was black, but I never met him. He took off before I was born."

I wanted to hug her, but I didn't want to scare her. "I'm so sorry, Maia. I feel terrible for you. Do you think it would be okay if I hugged you?"

She looked up at me and those huge obsidian eyes had tears pooling in them. She nodded, those curls bouncing, and I leaned over and pulled her in. She buried her face in my shoulder and began to sob. It was tearing my heart out.

"Hey, we have food to eat," I said. "Eat first and cry later, okay? I even have some key lime pie, for dessert. I'm sorry for making you cry, Maia."

I got a watery little chuckle and she looked up at me again, tears streaking her smooth brown face. "I need a tissue," she said.

I jumped up and grabbed the box, and she composed herself. We went back to eating and I tried to think of something to say that wouldn't make her sad.

"Did you go to school?"

"Yes. I like school and I get really good grades, but I kinda... had to drop out, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," I said. "Do you think you'll go back?"

"I want to," she said. "I don't know how I will, though. I need to get a job, but it's hard when you're 17 and don't have like parents to sign stuff. It's hard when you don't have a place to live, Rogers. I feel like I'm always dirty, and no one wants to hire you when you aren't clean and you have dirty clothes."

I had no idea, honestly, never having been remotely in her situation. I could see the vicious loop, though. "Yeah, I guess I see all that."

"If I ever have a chance, I'm going back to school, but it won't be until after I turn 18 and have enough money. I want to go to college, Rogers, but I don't know how I'll ever do it."

"Hey, you keep those dreams," I told her. "I think you'll find a way."

She smiled up at me. "Thanks. What are these little crunchy bread things with the onions in them?"

"Hush-puppies," I said. "Mom was a Southern girl and it's her recipe. Do you like them?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Can I have some more?"

"You don't have to ask," I told her. "Eat everything here you want. If you see something in the fridge and you're hungry or thirsty, eat it or drink it. Anything you need to use, just do it, okay?"

She nodded. "Thank you, Rogers. I'll try to pay you back someday."

"No, you won't," I told her. "I work and make lots of money so I can have things myself, and help people I like. I definitely like you. I don't even want you to think like that. I'm not loaning you anything. I'm giving it to you, okay?"

She nodded and teared up again. "Don't start that!" I said. "We have pie!"

She had to giggle. "I don't think I can eat pie right now," she said. "I'm stuffed." She had made quite a dent in the dinner, there were three stripped corn cobs on her plate and I had no idea where that skinny little thing put it all.

"I have an idea," I said. "Do you like coffee?"

"Do you have creamer?" she asked.

"Oh, my God. Not creamer," I protested.

She laughed, and that thrill shot through me again. "Yass," she said.

I made a pot and dug out some creamer I always kept around for Sarah, we got big mugs and I asked her if she would like to walk down by the river with me.

She liked that idea, and we found her a pair of Anna's old flip-flops to wear. We carried our coffee down to the dock, and I felt her little hand slip into mine. She looked up at me. "Is it okay?" she asked.

"It is. Very okay," I told her. "I always want to hold hands with beautiful girls."

A peachy blush stole over those gorgeous features and she got very shy. "Do you like boats," I asked quickly.

"I don't know. I've never been on a boat," she said.

"Well, you, me and Tally will go out tomorrow," I said. "You can decide when we go."

We sat in camp chairs on the dock and watched the river while the sun set. "It's beautiful here, Rogers," she said. "How long have you lived here?"

"Well, I've owned the place for like 15 years, I said. "I've only lived here full time for about six months. I'm going through a divorce, Maia."

She visibly shrank. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay," I said. "I'll tell you if you want to hear it. If you stay very long, you are going to know. Talley will spend the week with her mom when school starts and I won't have her all the time. That's what hurts me the most, you know?"

"Do you think it would be okay if I hug you?" she asked.

We both burst into laughter as she echoed my earlier words to her. "Yeah, I think so," I said.

She set down her cup, stood, came and pulled me to my feet, pulling me into a tight hug, nuzzling her cheek into my chest. We hugged for a very long time, just two slightly broken souls sharing a touch.

She sat back down and took a sip of her coffee. "What happened with your wife?" she asked.

"Well, we'd been married almost 10 years," I said. "Talley is eight. We are originally from the Denver area. We moved here when we graduated from college. She was having a thing with her sister and a bunch of old school friends back in Colorado. I didn't know it at the time, but one of those "friends" was her old boyfriend from high school. They decided to reenact their old hookups. They went at it hot and heavy for a week, then she came home and thought everything should be okay."

"How did you find out?" she asked.

"I have old friends back there, too. One of them sent me a video of a party," I said. "It was kinda X-rated."

She blushed. "Wow! What did you do?"

"Well, we had this place," I said. "I moved all my shit, sorry, all my stuff, here and I was gone when she got back. She called, wondering where Talley and I were, and I dropped Talley off with Mom and met her at a restaurant."

"What did she say?"

"She was sort of like she had all these unresolved feelings from how they broke up. She got caught up in it, made a huge mistake, got all the issues with herself settled and now she was back to being only mine."

"Bullshit," Maia said. She giggled when I shot her a look. "Umm. I hate to tell you, Rogers, but I cuss a little," she said.

"I am shocked, shocked," I told her.

She laughed. "Well, get used to it. Talley is going to cuss, too, when she's my age."

"The youth of our country are deplorable," I lectured her. "Drinking whiskey, cussing, God knows what you'll do next."

She burst out laughing, and it took her a minute to get over it. She got serious after a minute. "I... I do worse things," she said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

"No, not really, but you should know, I used to smoke weed sometimes with kids from the apartments. Since I ran out of money, I... I've stolen things, food, water. I was going to try to steal something from that store today."

She made a little choking sound, and she was sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Rogers. I hate it, but I was so hungry and thirsty. Please don't hate me."

I moved quickly to kneel in front of her, pulling her forward to crush her slender form against me. "Noo, I can never hate you, Maia. I know. I might do the same thing in your place. You don't need to do that as long as you're with me, understand?"

She nodded, sobbing into my chest. "I'm afraid," she managed. "I can't just stay here and sponge off you and Talley. I'll... I'll..."

"Stop, please, Maia. You're killing me here. We'll figure it all out," I said. "I promise, whatever happens, you won't go back to the street. I promise. Do you believe me?"

I took her little pointed chin with my finger and pushed it up until she was looking at me, her beautiful sad features streaked with trails of tears. "Do you believe me?" I asked again.

She nodded against the pressure of my finger, and I squeezed her again. "Now, it's going to be dark in a minute. This is today. What do you need today?"

"I can stay?" she asked.

"You can stay," I answered.

"I don't need anything, then. Oh, I need some toothpaste, please, Rogers. I... ran out."

I thought for a minute. "You remember that Target where we were sitting when we called Talley?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Let's go back there and get you anything you need," I said. "Toothpaste and anything else."

"Noo, you've done so much already," she said.

"Yes," I insisted. "You need things. I need to pick up a couple of things. It will make me so happy, Maia, to do this for you. You may not know it, but one of the best feelings in the world is when you help someone who needs help. I promise. Sometimes it's an inconvenience and you don't do it, but it always, always, makes you feel good when you do. It will make me like myself. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I guess," she said. "I mean, I do, but I've never been able to help anyone, so I don't really know."

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

She hesitated. "I haven't known you for very long," she finally said. "Yes, I do trust you, Rogers. Anyone who has a daughter like Talley and a mom like yours is a good person, I know. You have been so nice to me, and you don't even know me."

"Well, let's go to Target, then," I said.

She held my hand again on the way back to the house. I grabbed my wallet and keys and we were off. She tried to do voice commands to my phone, and finally got some music playing. It was the Lumineers, she told me, and it wasn't bad. We bounced along and we had time for two songs before we got to Target.

She looked adorable in her too big clothes, too big flip-flops, but she wasn't the least bit self-conscious, and she grabbed my hand and swung our arms in cadence to our steps.

"You look like you're marching me in here," I said.

That got her laughing and happy. "I am," she said. "I hope your credit card is prepared to meet its doom."

We walked in together, and the security guard smiled at her. "Dragged Dad in for some shopping?" he asked.

"Hey, he's my sugar daddy," she said. "What's with the 'Dad' shit?"

He looked shocked, and she got a big kick out of it. "Just kidding," she said. She looked up at me with a mischievous glint in those dark eyes. "What should we get first, Daddy?"

I had to laugh at her antics. This was a far cry from the shy, dirty, sad waif I'd met less than a day before outside Quick Mart. "Well, let's grab a cart," I said. "We know we need toothpaste, so we can start over there."

She wanted to push the cart, and I strolled along with her. I got a snap from Talley and checked it while we were walking. "Everything okay?" It showed her and Mom snuggled up on Mom's couch, with Dad asleep beside Talley. Typical.

"Yep, we're shopping at Target," I sent back.

"Hey, I wanna go to Target," she sent.

I showed Maia. "Tell her we can come with her, too," she said.

That got me a big heart emoji, and an "I love you, night. Night, Maia."

Maia didn't want just any toothpaste. It had to be Crest Minty Fresh in a little bottle, with Scope. "I like this one," she said.

"Well, you have beautiful teeth," I said, "so that must be the one. Do you have a good toothbrush?"

"Mine's kinda worn," she said.

She had a special one of those she wanted, too. I discovered quickly that she didn't approve of my bath products. "I've got different kind of hair and skin than you or Talley," she said. She got all kinds of products and a pack of five little hat looking things.

"What are those for?" I asked.

"I wear them at night," she said. "It keeps the product in my hair and off the pillow." Who knew? I certainly didn't.

She looked down at the little mound of things she had and frowned. She picked up two tubes of something and started to put them back.

"What are you doing, Maia?" I asked.

"It's too much," she said. "Imma put this back."

I grabbed her. "No, you're not," I said. "You need it, I want you to have it."

She acquiesced, reluctantly, and we walked through the food. Several times she asked if we had any of something. Sometimes we did, but not always. "Will you let me cook for you, Rogers?"

"If you want to," I said. "I cook for myself, and I'll make you food. It isn't fancy, but you'll have a fat butt in no time eating my cooking."

She laughed. "Fat is not something I struggle with," she said.

"I can tell. Get what you want. I'll eat it."

We wandered past the electronics, and I asked her if she wanted a phone. "Noo, they cost too much," she said. "I have one, but no minutes."

"How about if we get you one, not a break the bank one, load it with minutes and you tell me when you run out," I said.

She pulled me into an aisle. "I'm kinda scared," she said.

"Of what? Phones?"

She laughed. "No, silly. Rogers, you sound like you're thinking I'll be staying a while with you."

"Do you have somewhere to be?" I asked her.

She giggled. "Yeah, I have a big mansion in Sun City I'm missing. Really, though, Rogers. You'd just let me stay a while?"

I made up my mind, right then. I'd have to clear it with Talley, but I knew she'd be ecstatic. "As far as I'm concerned, you can stay forever," I said. "I'll never make you leave, Maia. If you do dumb shit, I won't like it and you may want to leave because I'm disappointed with you. Are you going to do dumb shit?"

"No, never," she said.

I laughed. "Don't kid me. I know you will. I will, too. So will Talley. We have a rule, Maia. If you do something stupid, you don't argue or try to justify it. You just apologize, stop it and we never mention it again, okay?"

"I like that rule," she said. "I'll try really hard not to do stupid shit."

"Are you going to fight with Talley?" I asked.

"How can you even ask that? No, of course not. It would be like fighting with a kitten. She's too adorable to fight with, Rogers."

I laughed. "No, she isn't, but she is adorable and she doesn't like to fight. Okay, it's settled. You can stay until you're ready to leave. Deal?"

She threw herself on me and kissed me. "I can't believe... you're so... I didn't think I'd ever... ever find anyone like you. I'm going to be so good, Rogers. I'm going to make you proud of me."

"I already am," I assured her. "Now, people are starting to stare."

"I don't care." She kissed me again and turned to the cart. We got her a phone. It wasn't an iPhone, but it wasn't the cheap one, either. She couldn't wait to use it. "I want to have Snapchat so I can talk to you and Talley," she said.

"If you use the WiFi at home, it won't use your minutes, either," I told her.

"Dope," she said.

I made her buy clothes, enough so that she could go a week without having to wash, and we got her new sneakers, flip-flops that fit and a pair of black flats she liked. She really had very simple tastes, and even Target was a big deal to her.

"Rogers, can I go off by myself for a minute?" she asked.

"Are you going to run away?" I asked.

She looked hurt. "No. I need some... girl things."

I laughed. "I was married for a decade, baby doll. I know what tampons are."

She was blushing furiously. "I'll even buy them for you if you need me to," I said.

"Oh, my God. Really?"

"I've done it dozens of times," I said. "I'll need explicit instructions, though. I once asked Anna if she wanted the lemon or the lime, because the boxes were yellow and green."

She got a good laugh out of that, and led me away to the feminine products aisle. She still blushed when she put the box in the cart, and it was a very interesting effect on her brown glow. She took on a little peachy tint, and it was about the cutest thing I had ever seen.

We were finally ready to check out, and we made quite a dent in my debit card. I heard her gasp when the guy told me the total. I reached over and squeezed her and she relaxed.

When we got to the truck and got all the stuff inside, she sat there for a minute, saying nothing. "Buckle up, girl," I said. "It's the law."

"Rogers, are you rich?" She looked at me seriously. "I mean, you have that dope-ass house, and I know you had another one. You have this truck, a boat, jet-skis and you act like us spending all that money in there wasn't a big deal."

I had to chuckle. "I don't even know what 'rich' means, Maia. I'm not going to miss $300. I won't miss 3,000, or 30,000. If you spend 300,000, we'll have to do some things."

She gasped. "Oh, my God!"

"Don't worry about money," I said. "I own my own business and it makes a ton of money. I sell flooring, all kinds, but mostly to big industrial clients. I sell to warehouses, wholesalers, big installers, and I have over 100 people working for me."

Her eyes were as big as saucers. "You mean, like carpet?"

"Well, yes, but other stuff people put on their floors, too."

"Will you give me a job?" she asked.

"Yes, when you're 18," I said.

"Let's go home," she said. I liked that very much. She said "home," and it sounded so right I couldn't believe the feelings I had when she said it. A wave swept through my body and I sat there for a minute.

"Home," she said, and I laughed.

"Home it is."

We went home and finally had that piece of key lime pie.

*****

Talley came bursting through the door Sunday about noon, Mom following at a more sedate pace, befitting her status as the family matron. "Where's Maia?" Talley could hardly contain herself.

"She is sleeping in," I told her. "She's really tired, baby. You know she hasn't had a bed and has been sleeping outside. We have to let her get rested up."

She looked thoughtful. "Yes. I know that wouldn't be very fun. How late do you think she'll sleep?"

I had to chuckle. My baby was full of enthusiasm and life, and everything had to be done at breakneck speed. "I don't know," I said. "She'll get up when she gets up. You, me and Gram can just talk until then, okay?"

She nodded and went off to get a bowl of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. I hugged Mom and we sat at the bar while Talley devoured her cereal.

"What did you guys do while I was gone?" she asked.

"Well, we talked a lot," I said. "We went shopping at Target, as you know, and got her some stuff she needed. Talley, I have to talk to you about something. How would you feel about Maia staying with us for a while?"

She squealed. "Really? Oh yeah, I would love that. I really, really like her, Dad."