Teaching Ms. Riggs. Stephanie Beck

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      After looking through the basket and finding a fifty dollar gift certificate from the chamber of commerce, Ben headed directly to the grocery store. She’d been prepared to live on cereal until her first paycheck, but with the discovery came the promise of protein, or at least cheap hotdogs.

      She grabbed a cart and smiled as she faced the familiar store. Everything was exactly where it had been the last time she’d walked the aisles nearly a decade earlier with her aunt. With a step much lighter than when she’d started her day, she headed down the first aisle.

      The packages were updated for the most part, but there was a bit of a time warp as she passed the more southern grits and in a real flashback to her childhood, lard. She hadn’t had lard fried chicken in years, and her butt thanked her for that. The grits though, they might be something she’d revisit soon.

      Trying to be practical, she bought better cereal, string cheese, milk, canned fruit, canned soups and bread because it was all easy and so far she didn’t have anything more than a small soup pan to cook in. With Thomas’s request staying in her mind and sounding fantastic she grabbed peanut butter and looked longingly at the jelly, but her budget didn’t allow it and her thighs didn’t need it.

      She loosened up her thigh and budget rules when she got to the freezer aisle. She allowed an indulgence because she was human and dealt with teenagers all day. A carton of double chocolate chip called her name, and she knew that at the end of the day it would be cold, sweet and chocolaty delicious. Ice cream was a perfectly respectable crutch for her at times. Even her Aunt Willy, the sourest woman Ben knew, never begrudged a little treat on occasion.

      She looked at the carton in her hand and frowned when she noticed the torn plastic around the edges. The next one in the case was ripped too. There was no way she was going to buy freezer burned ice cream. Ben leaned down and reached for the third in line. There were other options, but she still went for the good stuff. She could always try vanilla, but really. Why bother?

      * * * *

      Mark turned into the freezer section. His mental list hadn’t seemed that big when he’d left the house, but as he shopped he remembered how much food Thomas had gone through in the past three days. Since he was in town and at the store, he might as well re-stock the pantry.

      The six week reprieve while the kids had been in France with their parents had been nice in a few ways. The grocery bill and sheer amount of time he’d spent at the store had reduced drastically. But he was making up for it now.

      Thomas had grown six inches, all legs which were constantly empty, so there was never enough food in the house. Mark remembered those days, but still, the never-ending flow going into the kid astounded him.

      Not to be outshined, Kira had decided to become a vegetarian. A nine-year-old anti-meat eater who lived on a working dairy farm where they raised a few beef cattle for cash on the side was not ideal.

      Mark shook his head as he threw a bag of frozen cheese ravioli in the cart. He hoped the vegetarianism thing was a phase. There was nothing endearing about hearing every time he ate a steak that eating anything with a face made him a cannibal.

      He remembered potpies and headed down the second freezer aisle. When he looked up from tossing the pies in his cart he caught sight of a generous backside filling out a khaki skirt. Ben Riggs. Despite the recent and much too brief introduction, he’d recognize her anywhere.

      Part of him wished they’d known each other before she left Flathead Falls. She was quite СКАЧАТЬ