Page 17 of Doctor Holliday

“Brutal,” he answered with an exaggerated frown. “Rube and I come here for lunch every other Sunday.”

Lucy turned her attention to Ruby.

“Hi.” She spoke to Ruby with her usual warm, friendly tone. “What’s your favorite thing here?”

“Grilled chicken tacos.”

“Mine, too!” The girl across from Lucy lifted her hand like she was giving Ruby an air high-five. Ruby giggled.

“This is Callie,” Lucy told them.

“I’m Ruby.”

“Do you visit Santa here, Ruby?” Callie tipped her head and quirked an eyebrow at his daughter. Keaton flinched. He held his breath, hoping Ruby wouldn’t say something rude.

“Eww.” She scrunched her nose up. “No. I’m ten.”

Callie laughed softly. “See, Mom?”

Keaton slumped his shoulders, relieved Ruby had been honest but not rude.

“I tease her every year,” Lucy told Ruby. “Try to get her to sit on Santa’s lap.”

The waitress appeared to take Lucy and her daughter’s orders, so Keaton turned back to his daughter.

“So, did you finish the homework you had? The science questions about the lung model?”

Ruby nodded and fidgeted with her fork. “Yeah. There were a lot of weird questions, though.”

“Like what?”

“Stuff about smoking and vaping.”

Keaton gritted his teeth. Maybe that was a good thing—surely, there were kids Ruby’s age who did those things or admired older siblings who did those things. And yet, there were other kids, like Ruby, who had no interest in those things. And Keaton felt like it was wrong to hammer on the topics to those kids who wouldn’t give them the time of day if the teachers didn’t focus on them.

Rock and a hard place, he supposed. Lots of that in education these days. But then, he wasn’t an educator. He was a parent, and his child was his most important concern.

“Can I go to the bathroom, Dad?” Ruby asked him. She had finished all but two bites of her tacos. Keaton often wondered if the whole body image thing would rear its ugly head with Ruby. She was an average sized little girl. His ex-wife had been slender when they met, but her body had changed slightly with age and of course, with the pregnancy. But Keaton wasn’t privy to the things Alyssa might have said about her body in front of Ruby. He was aware most children, most girls, picked up on body image from their mothers, the negative comments they made about themselves as well as others.

“Sure.”

After the waitress took Lucy and her daughter’s order, she collected his and Ruby’s empty plates and left the check for him.

“You’re not carrying many bags,” he commented with another look toward Lucy.

Callie laughed. “Mom’s a very particular shopper. She has to study everything ten times before she makes a purchase.”

“That true?” Keaton flicked his gaze from Callie to Lucy.

“Maybe.”

“You should see her in the grocery store. She can hold an avocado in her hand and study it long enough for it to ripen right there.”

He laughed with the two of them. Lucy’s daughter had dark hair and dark eyes like she did, but her cheekbones were softer and her forehead a bit wider.

“I don’t even know how to tell an avocado is ripe.”

“I’m guessing you don’t eat them.”