The Denver Cereal Read Online Free Page A

nodded.
    “ She is very much like
your mother.”
    Jacob watched Jill through
the glass wall as she rode the escalator down from the Seawell
Ballroom.
    “ She’s really just
herself.”
    “ You are a damned fool if
you don’t snatch up that woman,” his father said under his breath.
His weeping daughter came over to him.
    “ Now, sugar,” he said. “I
told you not to gloat about stealing someone else’s
man.”
    “ But
Daddy . . .”
    ~~~~~~~~
    2 weeks later
     
    “ He’s been here every
night,” Candy said to Jill. They met in motion behind the counter
at Pete’s Kitchen.
    “ So?” Jill replied.
Leaning through the cook’s window, she pointed at the check.
“Jos é , can you
make sure those hash browns are a little crispy?”
    “ You should talk to him,”
Candy continued. She filled two coffee mugs and walked toward the
floor.
    “ I told you, Candy. He’s
in love with some married girl.” Jill called after her.
    Candy shook her head. She
was almost to the booth when she turned back to Jill. “Go talk to
him.”
    Jill straightened her
bright pink uniform with its little white apron and walked over
toward Jacob. He was reading the newspaper at the counter. He
looked up to watch her walk over to him.
    “ What’s up?”
    “ I was wondering if you
would marry me, but I’d take a date or a conversation or maybe
another kiss.” Jacob’s face flushed with emotion. “How was that?
I’ve been practicing.”
    “ Very smooth,” Jill
replied. “What about the married girl?”
    “ What married
girl?”
    “ The one you’re in love
with?”
    “ Oh, her. She’s
divorced.”
    Jill sat down on the
barstool next to him.
    “ Why aren’t you with her?”
She knocked him with her shoulder. “You should go get
her.”
    Jacob’s eyes held Jill’s.
In one fluid movement, he kissed her lips. Surprised, Jill pulled
back to look at him again.
    “ You okay, Jill?” A beefy
cook appeared across the counter. He scowled at Jacob.
    “ Yeah, Risto. Thanks. I’m
okay.”
    Jill smiled at Risto. He
leaned into Jacob and Jacob sat back on his stool.
    When the cook turned away
from them, Jill asked, “I’m the girl?”
    “ From the moment I laid
eyes on you nine years ago.” Jacob nodded.
    Blushing bright red, Jill
looked away from Jacob.
    “ I’m not very lucky at
love. But I guess you know that,” she said. “I promised myself —
well, and Megan — that I wouldn’t ever even date again, let alone
fall in love.”
    “ Give me one chance. We
don’t even have to call it a date. In fact, it won’t be a date. I
can take you to a movie or . . .”
    “ I’d like to go to the
zoo.”
    “ What if I take you and
Katy to the zoo tomorrow?”
    Jill blushed.
    “ I don’t know. I’ve read
it’s not good for babies to have other men around. But I can’t
really afford to take her, so . . .”
    “ No romance, no
hanky-panky, no date. Just the zoo. Well, maybe some lunch and the
zoo.” Jacob held his hand out for her to shake.
    “ Lunch and the zoo sounds
like a date, but okay.” Jill shook his hand.
    “ When do you get
off?”
    “ In an hour,” Jill
said.
    “ Can I take you home? I
mean, in my truck . . . I know you walk to work. Or
we could walk. I mean, it would be great if you would let me take
you to my home, but I don’t want to be too
forward . . . move too fast or
. . .”
    Jill laughed. Walking back
to her station, she said, “Sure.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    The non-date looms
     
    “ Four more
hours.”
    Jacob tapped his alarm
clock to make sure it was working. In four hours, seven minutes,
and thirty seconds, he would pick up Jill and Katy for a trip to
the zoo.
    Sick of staring at the
ceiling, Jacob got out of bed. Sarah, his three-year-old yellow
Labrador retriever, lifted her head from the covers to watch him
walk across the wood floors to the bathroom. Sarah’s tail thumped a
rhythm against the bed when he returned. He wandered across the
open space to the refrigerator.