The Good Son by Carolyn Mills (best novels for teenagers .txt) 📕

the ground. It was a long, slow project that took me an entire week, in the fading light after work, to complete. During that week, I sealed Champ’s doggy door and asked Mom to come over in the afternoons while I was at work to let him outside, supervised. Amazingly, during the time that he was trapped in the house, he didn’t have a single accident. Not one. But as soon as the backyard project was done, and he was expected to use his doggy door to get outside on his own, he peed on the floor right in front of the back door.

I loved that dog, but damn he could be annoying.

WHENEVER MOM TALKED ABOUT US, her kids, to other people, she would go on and on about Richard’s success in real estate and his life in Toronto. Her big-city son. I wanted to remind her that when Ricky was my age, he was working at the Future Shop in Leeville, renting a room in a disgusting house, but I guess my accomplishments paled in comparison to her shiny firstborn with his embossed business cards and expensive suits. Plus, he had Lauren.

Even Walter’s girlfriend turned out to be more than a fleeting interest. He brought her to Dunford to meet his parents, which suggested a seriousness I hadn’t anticipated when his dad first mentioned the fact of her existence. Walter actually stopped by to introduce her to me, which completely shocked me given how little we talked anymore. Maybe he wanted to flaunt her in my face, but I couldn’t see why there’d be any point to that, so I invited them in and we sat in my living room awkwardly trying to come up with things to say.

“I won’t be in Dunford over the Christmas break this year,” Walter told me. “I’m going to Vancouver with Jiwan.”

“Oh? Wow. So, obviously that’s where you’re from,” I said, turning to face Jiwan.

She nodded. My impression was that she was shy and sweet. I could see why Walter was drawn to her. Like him, she was studying math, so in addition to being very quiet, they probably had a lot in common. I imagined the two of them bending their heads together to solve complex equations as a way of getting turned on. It was uncharitable of me, to think of my former best friend and his girlfriend as such ridiculous stereotypes, but, with Jiwan in the picture, Walter really had no use left for me. After that visit, we fell out of touch completely. If he did come back to Dunford to see his parents, he never bothered telling me.

His parents built a house out on Lake Erie and, once they left town, any news of him I might have gathered vanished. I figured he’d graduated, but for all I knew, he had up and married Jiwan and was living in British Columbia. Or, they’d broken up, and he was living in his parents’ basement out at the lake. We had become less than strangers; we no longer existed for each other at all.

Yet there I was, still in Dunford, still working at the plant, and still single. Bobby, one of the guys I worked with, cornered me at the coffee machine one day. “Hey Zoe, would you ever consider going on a date with my nephew? He’s a nice guy and I think you’d get along real good.”

“Uh …”

“His name’s Jonathan. He lives out in Boelen. Works as a bartender right now, but wants to open a hockey camp for kids one day.”

I didn’t know how to say no to Bobby without seeming rude, so I agreed to meet Jonathan for coffee at the Dunford Donut Diner.

“You’re perfect for each other,” Bobby said. “You’re down to earth and not all prissy like the girls he usually dates. I swear, they may be pretty, but not much between the ears, if you know what I mean.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that, but I was interested in the idea of meeting someone new. I was beginning to worry about my single status. Tommy was the only person I’d ever dated, and we’d never done more than grope each other with our clothes on. In the last six years, I hadn’t met anyone worth dating in Dunford, and I didn’t have the energy, or the desire, to start going to bars in Leeville or anywhere else so random strangers could hit on me. At the same time, I didn’t exactly want to turn into an old maid who’d never had sex either.

I got to the Donut Diner ahead of schedule and then wasn’t sure what to do. Should I get a table? Would it look strange if I was sitting at a table without having ordered anything? But if I ordered before he arrived, that would be rude, wouldn’t it? I was sort of hovering by the doors, trying to make up my mind about what to do, when a cute guy in a navy sport coat glanced in my direction.

“Jonathan?” I asked, although I knew from the picture Bobby had shown me that it had to be him.

“That’s me. You must be Zoe.” He laughed. “Nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it awkwardly before we stepped into line to order. “Uncle Bob kept telling me there was someone at work he wanted me to meet and at first I thought he was kidding around, but here we are!”

At first glance, I was glad I’d agreed to meet Jonathan. He had an athletic build and a sweet smile. I could immediately see why women would be attracted to him. My worry was that if he usually dated girly girls, like Bob had hinted at, he would quickly be disappointed by me.

While we were sitting across from each other in one of the booths, with our Donut Diner mugs positioned in front of us like chess pieces, I wondered if Jonathan was as nervous as I