Читать книгу His Surprise Son - Allie Pleiter - Страница 17

Chapter Five

Marvin’s Sweet Hearts Ice Cream Parlor looked frozen in time, as if Josh were on some midcentury movie set. Most of the “old-fashioned” ice-cream parlors he’d seen were shops dolled up to look nostalgic. This was nostalgia—and not by design, but by definition: the drugstore soda fountain, right down to the black-and-white floors and the red vinyl counter stools.

“What’ll it be?” asked the grandfather-aged guy in a white apron behind the counter, his scoop at the ready.

“Oh, give me a minute or two—I’m waiting for someone.” He nodded toward Violet, who was out front on a park bench sharing her entrée decision with Lyle on the phone. He was grateful the groom had called; he needed a minute to collect himself before Jean and Jonah walked through the door. He was going to have to tell Vi at some point, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it just yet, and the multiple levels of weird happening at this “innocent” meeting had him spinning like a hamster wheel. I’m about to meet my son. But not as his father. And I don’t know how to talk to him. I’m dying here, how do I do this?

His own father gave him nothing to go on—their last few conversations had all been arguments, and he wasn’t exactly swimming in happy father-and-son memories. Josh didn’t know anything about being a father, except that he didn’t want to be like his father. Jean had always talked lovingly about her dad. She had a model to work from, and it seemed Jonah had the advantage of a loving grandfather. Don’t muck that up, his gut told him. Try not to undo all the good Jonah’s had. Only...how?

Violet hung up with Lyle, a dreamy-eyed smile lighting her face as she pulled open the shop door. She looked around, the same “is this place for real?” wonder he’d felt upon entering visible in her expression. “Don’t you love it?” she continued. “It’s like some fifties movie.”

The guy behind the counter chuckled. “I get that a lot.” His face brightened. “Hey, you’re our bride, aren’t you?”

Violet beamed. “I am.”

“Well, sugar, your shake’s on the house, then. This the lucky groom?”

“No,” said Josh and Violet at the same time.

“He’s my brother,” Violet explained. “My husband-to-be is in the navy, and he’ll get leave just before the wedding. Until then, Josh is a stand-in and helper. We’re meeting Mayor Jean and her son in a few minutes.”

“Jonah,” said the man, whose classic plastic name tag identified him as Marvin himself. “Sweet kid. I made sure ‘which flavor’ were the first words I learned to sign, you know?” Marvin demonstrated as he spoke. “Well, that and ‘chocolate,’ since I knew that’d be his answer.”