by Abby Tyler
She tried to trap the ball against her chest, smearing Vaseline up the front of her pep squad shirt, but it shot into the air again.
This time, Jack got it, only to have it slip down the front of his football jersey.
This went on for about three more tries before the rest of the pep squad joined in, all trying to get the greased ball under control.
As the young people dashed around trying to capture the ball, Jack and Louisa backed away.
“I think I’ll let them bruise up their knees instead,” Louisa said.
“I’m with you,” Jack said.
“Are you?” Louisa said. “Didn’t you organize this?”
“I did,” he said. He let out a long rush of air. “Louisa, I’m not a man of many words. I couldn’t even fill out my own florist card. But I wanted to show you that I was willing—” He cut off, biting his lip, his Adam’s apple bobbing like he was trying to control himself.
What was this? Jack Stone, emotional? Louisa led him out of the gym into the brilliant sunshine. The pep rally noise faded into the background.
“Willing to what?” she asked. Her heart felt as bruised as her knees after the calamity in the gym. If he had something good to say to her, he had to say it all the way.
He hesitated, his fingers reaching out to squeeze hers. Even that simple touch made her heart leap.
“I wanted to show you that I was willing to make a fool of myself for you.”
Well, that did it.
“You never intended to throw me that ball?”
“I did not,” he said. “I was only going to make a fool of myself. I had no idea you would try to save me.”
“I think you’re the one who saves people,” she said. “Even old ladies who scratch up their own store locks to call you out.”
Jack shook his head. “They sure went to a lot of trouble to get us back together.”
“They did. Do you think they know us better than we do?”
“It’s possible they can see things a little more clearly. It’s easier when your own emotions aren’t caught up in it all.” He hesitated. “Or you weren’t sure you had any to begin with.”
So he was figuring things out. “So now what?”
“I don’t think we need to plan it,” he said. “Just live one moment to the next.”
She let out a little laugh. “What? Did I just hear Applebottom Police Officer Jack Stone say that he didn’t need to plan every moment of his life? That he didn’t need to make decisions with objective facts and a goal to work steadily toward? That he could just be spontaneous?”
Jack gave her a little grin, and her heart fluttered.
“I should tell you about this time when I bought an entire bedroom set for a baby by choosing a number written on a Kleenex.”
“I would never believe it,” Louisa said.
“Except you were there,” he said.
Back in the gym, the band started up again, and soon the kids would start pouring out and interrupt their quiet moment.
Jack pulled her close to him and lifted her chin with the gentle pressure of his finger. “If what it takes to be with you is to choose furniture by chance, I’ll do it every single time.”
His mouth closed over hers. The sunshine warmed her, and Louisa felt like she was glowing. It was starting all over again, right here on the grounds of Applebottom High School, just outside the space where she’d once humiliated Jack Stone. Where he’d tried to humiliate himself to prove he was willing to set aside the past, and she’d tried to save him.
And she knew that their time had finally come.
Chapter 22
Sunlight poured through the large open windows of the waiting room as Jack held a very squirmy baby Ella in his lap.
She’d gotten quite strong at six months, and her preferred way of being held was by the hands while she bounced on her surprisingly sturdy legs. Jack was proud of how well she was doing. So far, she’d hit every milestone right on time.
They were waiting for Jenica to come to the visitors’ lounge of the rehabilitation center. This was their first time seeing Jack’s sister since she’d been released from prison. The social worker had arranged for her to be transferred to a support facility in hopes that she wouldn’t immediately return to the people who could derail her life yet again.
Louisa leaned into his shoulder. “How’s her diaper?”
Jack deftly transferred Ella to one arm and squeezed the pink bloomers beneath her dress. “All good.”
Ella protested this position, so Jack returned her to standing.
“Do you think this means she’s going to walk early?” Jack asked.
“I don’t think so,” Louisa said. “She’s strengthening her legs, but the balance part is what she has to master before she can actually walk.”
Ella’s face lit up with a huge baby smile as she giddily stood tall. When her legs unexpectedly gave way and she crashed onto his lap, she instantly rearranged her feet and pushed right back up again.
“She’s a determined little thing,” Louisa said.
“She knows what she likes.”
A door on the back wall of the room opened, and a slender brown-haired woman came out. It took Jack a second to recognize his sister since he was used to the duotone hair from prison. But she’d cut off the old bleached part since he’d last seen her.
They hadn’t let her have any visitors for her first few days in rehab. He was anxious to see what she would be like now that, technically, she could check herself out of this facility anytime she wanted.
Jenica walked a little uncertainly across the room, looking over her shoulder as if she expected she would still be escorted everywhere she went.
She wore a pair of loose jeans and a plain white T-shirt provided by the rehab. If she did well, in another two weeks he could transfer money into her account to buy a few things of her own choosing.
“Hello, sis,” he said as she sat down in an armchair adjacent to the sofa.
“Hi.”
She seemed really subdued, nothing like the overly animated, loud talking woman he’d seen during their visits back in jail.
He glanced over at Louisa, and she lifted her eyebrows in surprise. She had not seen Jenica any of those other times. His sister had never added Louisa to the approved visitor list.
Louisa broke the quiet. “You look really good, Jenica. I don’t know if you remember me. I was a grade above you in high school.”
“I remember,” Jenica said. She kept her hands folded together in her lap.
“Do you want to hold her?” Jack asked. “She’s a lot more wiggly than the last time you saw her. She likes to stand up in your lap now.”
Jenica looked at Jack, then to Louisa, then finally, at the baby. “I don’t know.”
“If you don’t want me here,” Louisa said, “I can wait out in the car. I know it might feel uncomfortable to have someone who’s practically a stranger visiting you here.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t control anything anymore. Not even my visitor list.”
“That’s not strictly true,” Jack said. “This isn’t jail. You don’t have to see us at all if you don’t want.”
Jenica drew in a long breath then she said, “So when are you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“That you’re going to steal my baby and adopt her yourself.”
Louisa drew in a sharp breath. “We’re not going to do that. You’re Ella’s mother. We’re trying to help you.”
Jenica’s voice rose in pitch. “Then why did you stick me in here?”
Jack tried to keep his voice under control. “We didn’t stick you here. The caseworker felt it was a smart idea to put you directly into a rehab facility as a transition before you tried to navigate the real world again.”
“You put me here so you could keep my baby,” she said.
Jack and Louisa exchanged another glance. Jack never thought that Jenica would assume this.
“We’re here rig
ht now,” he said. “Ella needs to see you. But taking care of a baby isn’t easy. You need to be on solid ground.”
“I am. I’m not going to go back to that life.”
“Unlike the other four times you did?”
Jenica stared at him stonily. “How long will I be here?”
“Until the therapists say you’re ready.”
“And then I’ll get my baby?”
“Then you’ll live with me and Ella. She’s still under State supervision with me as her guardian until the judge approves your custody again.”
“But I’ll get her if I prove myself.”
“Yes.”
After a moment, Jenica seemed to be unable to resist anymore and held out her arms for Ella. Jack passed the baby over. Jenica tried to hold her in the crook of her arms like she had when they had last seen her, but Ella immediately protested.
“Stand her up,” Jack said. “It’s the only thing she’ll tolerate right now.”
Jenica shifted the baby on her lap, putting her hands underneath the baby’s arms to hold her steady. Ella immediately rewarded her with a giant laugh. She started bouncing up and down.
“She’s getting so strong,” Jenica said.
“She is,” Louisa said. “And she’s been approved to start eating solid food.” She glanced over at Jack, and he nodded.
“We wanted to save feeding her solids for the first time for when she was with you,” Louisa said. “I have some things here if you want to try it.”
Jenica immediately brightened up. “Really? Her first real food? I get to do it?”
“Yes,” Louisa said. “We’ve brought a little rice cereal, and we have two types of jar food. We’re not sure what she’ll like. We’ll all find out together.”
The change in Jenica was remarkable. She smiled and stood up. “Let’s go over to the table.” She lifted Ella to her face and rubbed noses. “You ready to eat real food?”
Jack gathered their things and followed his sister to a round wooden table surrounded with chairs.
“Can she sit up on her own?” Jenica asked.
“Yes, but she’s still pretty wobbly,” Louisa said. “Jack can help keep her steady while you feed her.”
They took a moment to get everything ready while Jenica played with the baby. Louisa mixed a little rice cereal, and Jack pulled out the bib, a burp cloth, a little spoon, and the two jars Louisa had packed.
“Which one would you like to try first?” Louisa asked.
“I don’t know. What’s the best one?” Jenica smiled just inches from the baby’s face, and Ella grabbed Jenica’s ears.
“I’d do the rice cereal first,” Louisa said. “It’s mixed with formula, so it will taste the closest to what she’s used to.”
It took a moment to convince Ella to actually sit on the table instead of stand. Louisa affixed the bib around the baby’s neck, and Jack held on to her waist to keep her in place.
Jenica slid the bowl closer to her, nearly creating a disaster when Ella’s foot kicked it. Jenica quickly caught the bowl. “That was almost a big mess,” she said with a laugh.
“I think we’re about to go into a really messy phase in Ella’s life,” Jack said. “But we have a high chair that will hopefully minimize it at home.”
Jenica shifted the bowl a good distance away and dipped the spoon inside.
Ella stopped wiggling as the new object moved toward her face. She watched it with fascination.
“Open wide,” Jenica said. At first, Ella didn’t know what to do, but when Jenica opened her mouth Ella did as well.
Jenica slid the spoon against the baby’s tongue.
Louisa stood behind, holding up her cell phone to video the moment.
Ella’s face contorted with confusion.
“I don’t think she likes it,” Jenica said.
Ella’s tongue moved back and forth, pushing some of the cereal out. Jenica caught it with the spoon. She started to pull away, but Ella leaned forward and clamped her mouth over the spoon again. Her legs kicked furiously.
“Actually, maybe she does,” Jenica said. She removed the empty spoon and dipped it in the bowl again.
This time, the baby instantly opened up to receive another bite.
“She does like it!” Jenica cried.
Jack glanced up at Louisa, and they shared a smile. This had gone as well as they could’ve hoped for.
When Ella began turning her face away from the cereal, they tried the apricots, then the peas. Both were hits for a few bites, anyway.
When they were done with that, Jenica carried the baby happily through the waiting room and suggested they take a walk through the back garden.
Jack and Louisa fell well behind mother and daughter as they wandered the paths in the large yard.
“She seems happy now,” Louisa whispered, her head close to Jack’s.
“She does, finally. I didn’t anticipate she would think we were trying to steal her baby.”
“I didn’t either.”
In fact, Jack had just put in an offer on a larger house in Applebottom. This one had three bedrooms instead of two. One would be set up for Jenica, and the other for Ella’s nursery. His mother had flown back to Florida a month ago to see if she could bring their father around for when Jenica came home.
His parents still weren’t living together, his mother renting a small apartment a few miles from the condo, but she said they were seeing each other several times a week, and his father had agreed to visit a counselor.
“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t take any of those terrible jobs since Jenica won’t be here for a while,” Louisa said.
“There’s bound to be something out there if you want to keep looking,” he said.
“I turn forty-one in a couple of weeks,” she said. “I swear all the good places want cute young things at their front desk.”
Jack nudged her with his shoulder. “But you are a cute young thing.”
She sighed. “At least somebody thinks so.”
Jack put his arm around her and they waited on a bench while Jenica walked the paths with Ella. He thought back to what the caseworker told him on that early visit. If Jenica would be saved, it would be her child that did it.
It would take more than just Ella, though. He knew that from experience. The baby had nearly tanked him when she first arrived. Jenica would never manage alone.
They had a plan to support her. A place for her to live. The most toxic family member was tucked away until he got some help. Jenica would have her mother, a brother, and a family friend in Louisa. And Louisa would soon become family, too, if Jack had anything to do with it.
“When she transitions out of rehab, we’ll definitely want the two of you watching Ella together,” he said. “I’m not sure how easy she’ll be.”
“Jenica or Ella?” Louisa asked with a laugh.
“Both.”
“I can handle it. I don’t think I ever pulled any nasty pranks on your sister, thank goodness.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“I guess I could go back to school once Jenica takes over,” she said.
“Maybe so. Your future is all yours.”
“If I sold the house, I could definitely afford tuition.”
“That’s an option.” He didn’t want to give any of his own plans away.
She laid her head on his shoulder. “For now, it’s enough to make sure the two of them are okay.”
He couldn’t agree more. “I’m really lucky, you know,” he said. “You’ve been instrumental in this whole thing. And you will continue to be critical as we try to help my sister out.”
“That’s always been something I did well,” Louisa said. “First dad. Then mom. Then Ella.”
“Don’t forget about me,” he said.
Louisa laughed. “Most of all you.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist and slid her closer to him on the bench. “Nobody would’ve ever guessed that we would make such a good team.”
“I know,” she said. “But the best families aren’t born, they’re put together with hard work and determination.”
Jack couldn’t have agreed more. And Louisa definitely made their family complete.
Epilogue
This pizza order was going to kill her.
She quickly texted Jenica. How are yours coming?
Jenica texted her back. Two cooked, third one almost done.
Thank goodness.
Louisa flipped on the light in the oven to check on the two that would complete the order. Eight pizzas at once. It was a record for her. To make sure they all got there hot and fresh, she would package up the five she had, go to Jack’s house to get the three with Jenica and deliver them all to the covered picnic tables at Applebottom Park.
The party there had requested—begged, actually—for Louisa to make all eight.
Business was definitely booming. She’d streamlined her process and cut expenses. She was doing okay, and with Jenica helping out when the pizza business got busy instead of turning down orders, she was making a better run at being a small business owner than she had before. If she wasn’t quite sure she’d make her bills, she took on some typing assignments to pick up the slack.
She liked making pizzas. And she really liked delivering them. It was a way of taking care of people in town without having to give up her own independence. After the disaster of a string of terrible temp jobs, including two positions she accepted and then quit, she’d given up and returned to what she did well.
The timer went off, and she quickly slid the last of the pizzas into boxes. She didn’t have enough carriers for all the pizzas, so she loaded what she could and covered the others with towels in the back seat of her car.
Then raced over to Jack’s new house.
Jenica waited just inside the door. There were still unpacked boxes sitting around, but Jack was content to unload them over time. His perfectionist tendencies had greatly reduced with his sister and a baby living with him.
Jenica definitely had setbacks. At least twice, so-called friends from her past had come to visit, and only the forceful intervention of Jack in full police regalia had kept them away.