Free Food for the Soul by Ceri Grenelle

neighborhood originally, though her family had long ago moved away to a safer area.
    “I was twenty-one. I’d been alone for a while at that point.” Callie had been dead by then. Harper wouldn’t talk about her or the night she died, not to Theo and Flynn. At least not yet. The only person she’d ever spoken about it with was the therapist she’d been mandated to see. After that cathartic yet gut-wrenching session, she’d never uttered a word about her long-lost friend ever again. Her street-urchin buddy. Shit, Harper missed that girl.
    “Harper?” Flynn broke into her memories.
    The server was back, placing a massive plate of fries on the table, three ramekins of her favorite condiments on the side of the wide white plate. The fries smelled good, making her stomach rumble in anger that she hadn’t fed it yet. She dug in, always going for the ketchup first. Need to start with the classics.
    “Good?” Theo asked with a smile as he watched her devour the fries.
    She nodded, her mouth too full to answer. The honey mustard was the good kind, sweet with the perfect amount of kick the mustard provided.
    “Want some burger?” Theo offered her the piece he held. It was cooked medium rare and stacked to the brim with all the fixings. Her mouth watered.
    She leaned forward and took a huge bite right out of his hand.
    “Thank you,” she mumbled around the amazing food. “How did you find this place?” she asked Flynn. “The food is good.”
    “Ben was a fitful infant. He used to keep me up late into the night, and I would get bored at home, so we went for drives. It seemed to calm him. I found this diner in the middle of the night when I needed to change him. The waitresses played with him nearly the entire time we were here, and I was able to get a little work done on my computer. Instant babysitting. We’ve been coming here ever since.” He turned his gaze toward the rest of the dining room, then back to the open-concept kitchen. “They’ve watched him grow up, are still watching and caring. Ben loves coming here.” He grinned. “He’ll be annoyed when I tell him we were here without him.”
    This was a special place for Flynn’s little family, and Harper felt honored that he’d wanted to take them here.
    “Thank you for bringing us here,” Theo said before Harper could swallow her food to get the words out. “I see how much it means to you. That you brought us makes it important to me as well.”
    “To us,” Harper agreed.
    Flynn nodded briefly, his mouth shut tight.
    “Would you tell us a bit about Ben?” she asked.
    “Don’t think you’re going to distract us from your financial troubles.”
    She waved Flynn’s concerns off. “We can talk about that later. I want to talk about something happy. Your son seems like quite the little guy.”
    Harper knew she hadn’t fleeced the men, but she was being honest. Discussing the details of her dream going up in flames would put her on edge and ruin the night. This outing was supposed to be about getting to know one another past the need and the lust they all felt, and Ben was a large part of Flynn’s life.
    “He is something else,” Flynn said. “The love of my life.”
    “As it should be with fathers and sons,” Theo said. He looked down at Harper and bumped her shoulder. “Fathers and daughters as well.”
    “At least when they’re children,” Harper conceded, hoping Ben wouldn’t become as crazy as she had been as a teen.
    “He’ll be a good kid as he grows, I can tell. He’ll try to outsmart me any chance he gets. He’s already doing that. The other night we had a ten-minute debate on the benefits of him staying up late. Of course, he was able to stay up ten minutes later by taking the time to argue with me. I didn’t realize it until after he was asleep. The kid is tricksy .” Flynn sighed, a warm smile lighting up his features. “I wouldn’t have him any other way.”
    “His mother?” Theo asked gently. “You don’t have