by Rebeca Seitz
Jane unzipped the pocket in her tote that held ribbon and pulled out the black. She measured across the page and cut the ribbon to its appropriate length, then put the ribbon in the place Lydia had suggested.
“You’re right. That’s an improvement.”
“Good. Glad to help.” Lydia brushed the cookie crumbs from her lap and went back to her own layout.
“So, have we gotten any hits on the Sisters, Ink site?”
Lydia said.
Mac walked over to the laptop and sat down. “I’ll check. I was just on here last night, puttin’ in a new page about us. I thought other ladies might wanna know how this whole thing got started.”
“Good idea, Mac!” Jane said. “We’ll need to add Mari’s picture to our little group. Did you see where I put a picture of the United States on the site? I’m hoping we can add little scrapping groups all over the country, and people visiting the site can just click on their part of the country to find each other. What do y’all think?”
“I think whatever we’re doin’ is workin’. We’ve got fifteen women signed up already. How’d word get out that fast?”
Jane grinned. “I may have made a few phone calls to some scrapbook store owners I know.”
Lydia shook her head. “Our Jane, always the businesswoman.”
“It’s not just about business, though, Lydia. I don’t know how I would have gotten through the past year without you and Mac cheering me on. I didn’t realize how much I missed my girlfriends—needed my girlfriends—until I hooked back up with you gals.”
“Well, then, I’m glad we were here for you.” Lydia took a drink of milk. “So, Mari, do you know how long it will be until you get—what did you say her name would be?” Lydia reached for a package of silver baby booties to add to her page and pulled it open with her teeth. She picked out one of the pairs of booties and began running a pink ribbon through it.
“Andrea Marinilda. It’s a tradition in our familia. My mother goes by Andrea, mi abuela by Nilda. I remember when we named Esmerelda, my mom threw a fit because I was breaking the tradition. I always thought I’d just name the next one after us. Who knew I wouldn’t be able to have another? Anyway, now that we’ve gotten her picture, it won’t be long at all.” Mari kept sorting through pictures. “We should get our travel date in the next six weeks or so. Then we’ll travel to Chile about four weeks after that.”
“Wow! So you’ll have her sometime in late spring or early summer?” Lydia ran a blue ribbon through another pair of silver booties and began fastening them to the page underneath Oliver’s picture.
“Hopefully.” Mari looked up from her pictures with a dreamy expression on her face. “I can’t believe we’re almost to the end of this process. It’s been over a year since John and I first filled out the paperwork to adopt.”
“Have you talked to Emmy about having a little sister?” Jane asked.
“We’ve tried to.” A worried expression crossed Mari’s face for an instant. Then she smiled. “I don’t think she’ll understand until we actually have her little sister. We’ve told her, though, that we’ll all be going on a very long trip so that we can pick up her hermanita. And we’ve shown her Andrea’s picture.”
“Well, it sounds like you’ve covered all the bases,” Lydia said in a reassuring tone. She opened up a box full of alphabet brads and began picking out the letters to spell Olivia and Oliver. “I’m sure Emmy will welcome Andrea with open arms when you get to Chile.”
“I hope so,” Mari said. “She’s in that stage where everything is hers and no one under the sun can help her do anything. I’m a little worried about her sharing her room. We’ve told her, of course, but we haven’t put a baby bed or anything in the room yet, since we just got the details.” Mari reached for a cookie and nibbled at its edge. “We’ll pull Emmy’s stuff down out of the attic next week and set it up for Andrea.” She took a sip of milk.
“I think that might be the reality check for Emmy.”
“Now, there’s a scrapbooking moment. Setting up the nursery,” Lydia said. “Maybe I could bring the twins over just so Emmy gets an idea of what it’s like to have other kiddos in the house.”
“That might be a good idea. I’ll talk it over with John.
Gracias.”
“Done,” Jane said with satisfaction as she began putting her layout of Moving Day into page protectors.
“Ooh, can I see?” Mari asked. Jane turned the pages around to Mari’s side of the table and smiled when Mari pointed and laughed at Wilson’s expression.
“I’ve never seen a dog with such an expressive face. He looks like he just lost his best friend. Were you going on a trip?”
“I was packing up and moving,” Jane explained. “This was the day after I found out Bill had an e-mistress and the afternoon of the morning he decided to go to her. I just couldn’t stomach staying in our home another night, so I packed it all up in a day and left that night.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Mari’s face radiated concern. “Que idiota soy. No puedo creer que dije eso.
”
“Um, I was with you there until the end.”
Mari smiled and ducked her head. “I was reminding myself I can be an idiot sometimes.”
“No, it’s okay. It’s been a year, and I’m pretty sure I’m over the worst of it. Wilson and I are settling into our new life. I can’t say I’m loving it yet or anything, but at least I have the bed all to myself, and if I want to dance naked in my living room, I just remember to close the blinds.”
“Did you have kids?”
“Nope, just Wilson and me. It’s the only thing we fought over when we split—who got to keep the dog.” Jane smiled ruefully.
“Well, I’m glad you got him.”
“Me too. He keeps my feet warm at night.” Jane began putting her things away. “Speaking of which, I hate to run, but I need to get home and let him outside.” She stuffed boxes of eyelets into the zippers on the side. She also needed to get to work on Sonya’s fund-raiser.
“No problem,” Mac said. “You know, you can bring him with you whenever you come to scrap. I’m bettin’ we’ll be spendin’ lots of hours on this site”—she nodded at the lap-top—“ in the coming weeks.”
“I hope you’re right.” Jane put away the last of her stuff and zipped up the tote. “Well, ladies, it’s been a pleasure as always.”
“Wait.” Lydia put out her hand to stop Jane’s exit. “We need to figure out when we’re scrapping again. Is Friday okay with everybody?”
“I can’t,” Mari said. “That’s John’s sci-fi night, and I’ll need to watch Emmy so he can watch his shows.”
“John’s a sci-fi guy?” Jane said.
“Chica, like you wouldn’t believe. I’m just happy all the shows come on together in one night.” Mari put the lid back on her now organized box of photos. “Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, then Battlestar Galactica and his television watching is all filled in one night.” She patted the top of the photo box.
“What is it with guys and sci-fi?” Jane ran a hand through her hair. “I have to watch SG-1 with my neighbor on Friday. I think he might be as fanatical as John.”
“You’re watching sci-fi with a man?” Lydia asked. “Explain, missy. Who’s the mystery man?”
“Remember the guy I hit in the parking lot? The guy that lives in my building?”
“The one whose cat your dog terrorized?”
“He did not terrorize that cat.” Jane smacked the tabletop.
“I’m telling you, the cat should have been on a leash.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Mac put her hands up to stop the volley of conversation. “I think Mari and I are a bit behind. What man? What cat? And why is this the first I’m hearing of either?”
Jane explained to them her mishaps with Jake. “So I agreed to watch sci-fi with him this Friday,” she finished.
“You’re watching sci-fi? Seriously? Have you gone over to the Dark Side?” Lydia asked, her voice ful
l of disbelief. “Can’t you find some other way to befriend a man? Maybe take him cookies or something? I’m sure any guy would carry Wilson’s dog food if he tasted your homemade lasagna. Or take him some of Mac’s cookies.” She gestured to the plate that now held precious few cookies. “Though you’d have to make some more to go with these.”
Why didn’t I leave that part out?
“It’s not just that. It’s a free dinner on Friday that I don’t have to clean up after. The thought of not having the Inner Dinner Debate for one night is nothing to be sneezed at.”
“Inner Dinner Debate?” Mari said.
“You know, ‘Do I go out? Or do I stay in and try to make something, then have to clean it all up?’”
“Sure, sister, that’s why you agreed to watch television with a guy whose rear end you’ve already decided isn’t hard on the eyes,” Lydia said. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave.”
“You checked him out?” Mari asked incredulously. “You left that part out.”
“No, I did not check him out.” Jane glared at Lydia. “I categorically deny any and all references I may or may not have made to this man’s body. He’s good-looking, yes, but I am only doing this for the free meal.”
“And possible future heavy lifting,” Lydia added with a smirk.
“Yes, and that.” Jane pulled the retractable handle up on her tote. “So I can’t scrap on Friday because I’ll be busy securing a solution to my future heavy-lifting needs.” She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “So how about Saturday?”
“Saturday works for me,” Lydia said. “We’ll of course want to know all about your nondate on Friday.”
“Saturday’s good,” Mac said. “Let’s say ten?”
Everyone agreed, and Jane made her way to the stairs, her Tutto trailing along behind.
“Have a good week, y’all.”
“You too,” they chorused, and Jane began walking down the stairs, realizing halfway down that balancing her vacillating emotions required much more skill than the tray of glasses had on the way up.
chapter 8
Jane opened the freezer door and reached in for some ice cubes just as the beginning notes of the UK song sounded. She’d been home from Mac’s for an hour and had made some pretty good headway on the fund-raiser for Sonya, even settling on a jungle theme. Maybe ignoring the call would be the best option. She dropped cubes into the glass, then pulled a pitcher of tea from the refrigerator door. Getting back into work and ignoring her personal life felt good.
A quick glance at the caller ID made Jane change her mind, and she snatched up the phone just as it was getting to the good part. “Hello?”
“Hey, Jane. It’s Lydia.”
“Hey, girl. Still scrapping?”
Lydia laughed. “I left Mac’s about three minutes ago.
That’s why I’m calling. I was wondering if you were home and would like some company for a little while.”
Jane set her cold glass on the counter. Why wasn’t Lydia going home after—Jane glanced at the clock on the wall—two and a half hours of scrapping at Mac’s? Didn’t the twins need to be fed? Or was there trouble in Lydia’s paradise?
“Sure, I’m here the rest of the day, trying to get caught up with work. Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s fine. I’m just needing a little more girlfriend time before heading home to Mr. Sports, you know?”
Jane remembered all the nights she had stayed up late with a book, waiting for Bill to come to bed and knowing it would be hours before he was finished with whatever computer game he was playing or sci-fi show he was watching. “Gotcha. Head on over.”
“Great, thanks.” Lydia’s voice was full of relief, and Jane’s gut twinged a bit. There was trouble in paradise.
Twenty minutes later, the knock at Jane’s door set Wilson off to barking.
“Hush, dog.” Jane dashed down the hallway from her office. “It’s just Lydia. You know Lydia.” Wilson held his position by the door, his wagging tail incongruous with a fearsome bark that reverberated off the walls. “You know, one of these days you really will scare off an intruder.” She smiled at the dog and opened the door.
“Hi,” Jake said, taking Jane’s breath with his unexpected presence. “I was hoping you’d be home by now.”
Okay, nevermind. He has a cat, and if it didn’t work out, you’d have to move. “Oh! Yeah, I’m home. Just, you know, getting caught up on work.” Jane cringed at her own ineptitude. Why did all ability for intelligent conversation leave her mind the moment this man stepped into her sight?
Jake smiled and Jane fidgeted. “Was there something you needed?”
“What?” Jake’s gaze traveled back up her body, and he shook his head as if coming out of a fog. “Yes, uh, I came over to see if you like garlic.”
“Excuse me?”
“For our dinner. On Friday. Sci-fi. Remember? I’m making spaghetti, which means spaghetti bread has to be made, which means I need to know if you like garlic.”
Jane stifled a giggle. Yes, he was rude, but he was also cute when he wasn’t acting all sure of himself. “Yes, I like garlic.” And I love how it takes away the question of a good-night kiss. Thank you, Jake.
Jake began backpedaling toward his own apartment door. “Great. Well then, I’ll see you on Friday, I guess. I’m going to go back on in now.” He jerked his thumb toward his door. “Major Carter’s in there all by her lonesome.”
“And the couch is in danger, I remember.” She couldn’t hold back a smile. “See you Friday.” She watched as he went back into his apartment, shaking her head at his clumsiness. Where was Mr. Suave and Debonair from that morning? Was he feeling the same crazy flutters she had?
“Good grief, that man is into you.” Jane turned to see Lydia coming down the breezeway. “Is that Jake?”
“Yep, Mr. Sci-fi Cat Lover himself.”
“And future carrier of all things heavy,” Lydia reminded with a grin.
“Exactly. So, what’s up at your house?” Jane motioned for Lydia to come in and make herself comfortable.
“I’d rather talk about you and that man.” Lydia settled herself on the couch, kicking off her shoes and putting her feet up on the coffee table. “Nothing major happening at my house. I just needed a little more girlfriend time before heading there.”
“Too much baby time, not enough woman time?”
Lydia nodded. “Exactly. I love the twins to death, but sometimes I forget I’m a woman, too. Now, quit skirting the issue and tell me everything about that beautiful specimen of manhood and why you’re not over at his apartment right now.”
“Well, let’s see.” Jane held up her fingers and ticked off the reasons. “He’s a cat lover. He’s a sci-fi fan. I’ve only been divorced a year and barely dated anyone besides my ex, so I have no idea how to do it. My dog hates his cat. If it didn’t work out, I’d have to move, and I’m just getting settled in. How’s that?”
Lydia nodded. “Some of those have merit, sure. But I just saw how he looked at you, and that’s not something to be taken lightly.”
Jane sighed and sat down on the couch by Lydia. “You did?
What’d you see?”
“Nothing you don’t already know is there. Now, are you going to admit this dinner on Friday might be a date?”
“Do you think he thinks of it as a date?”
“Could you sound any more like we’re back in high school?” Lydia laughed, and Jane fell back into the couch cushions.
“I know. This reminds me of why I dated only Bill in high school and college. It’s too much work to go out with new people all the time.”
“Yeah, and that thought really made for an exciting, wonderful marriage, didn’t it?” Jane shot Lydia a mean look, and Lydia held up her hands in defense. “I’m just saying, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?”
“You’re quoting Garth Brooks now?”
Lydia grinned. “I’m fairly certain he got it from someone else, and, besides, th
e best quotes usually come from country songs.”
“No they don’t.”
“Sure they do. Think about it. Love can build a bridge, the Judds. There’s gotta be something more, Sugarland. Nothing ’bout love makes sense, Lee Ann Rimes. Ain’t no road too long when we meet in the middle. I forget who that one was.”
“Okay, okay, you win. Country songs hold all the wisdom for life. Ooh!” She sat up and turned toward Lydia. “We need music on the Sisters, Ink site! You know, music to scrap by or something.”
“Good idea! Love music to play if you’re putting together a wedding album, fun dance music if you’re just getting together with the girls. I like this idea!”
“We need to call Mac. She’ll have to figure out how to put it on the site so the sisters can download it.” Jane jumped up and headed for the phone.
“Hey, Jane?”
“Yeah, Lyd?” Jane dialed and looked at Lydia.
“I think you’re doing a good thing here with Sisters, Ink, you know. Girlfriends are important, especially when the chips are down.”
Jane held up a finger. “Hold that thought.” She turned back to the phone. “Mac? Lydia and I have an idea for the Sisters, Ink site, and I’m wondering if you can figure out how to make it work. Can you find a way to put music on our site so that scrappers can download appropriate music to play while they’re scrapping?” She listened for a minute.
“Yeah, that’s the idea. We can come up with a list of songs and themes this weekend, okay?”
“Mmm-hmm. Sounds good. Thanks, Mac!” She hung up and returned to the couch.
“Mac will find out how to offer music on the site and what kind of cost is involved. Now tell me why the chips are down.
Something wrong with Dale?”
“I don’t know. I think so, but then maybe it’s just my hormones still being out of whack, or me making a mountain out of a molehill. He’s fine so long as there’s not a game on.” Jane grimaced at the loneliness in Lydia’s voice.
“Isn’t there always a game on somewhere?”
“With the number of sports channels we have now, yes.”
Lydia waved her hand as if shooing a fly away. “I’m sure it’ll work itself out, though. I’m just in the doldrums. I need some chocolate and to cuddle my babies. Just making something out of nothing here.”