Page 1 of July (New Orleans #7)

J ill sat at the table, waiting for Melinda and Rory to join her.

Melinda wanted to go on Rory’s first cemetery tour with her to make sure that she was ready to do that one on her own, which meant that Jill had gotten to do one of her favorite tours: the food tour.

With that tour now over and her customers sharing their goodies with her, Jill was stuffed, but they’d decided to meet at Café Du Monde to give Rory and Melinda a chance to grab some beignets for their girlfriends and themselves.

As much as this place was a busy tourist destination, and locals pretended like they avoided it for just that reason, practically everyone in this city stopped by at least a few times a year to get themselves a warm, sugary beignet.

Sometimes, with a cup of coffee. Sometimes, without.

Some locals preferred Café Beignet instead, and others avoided both due to the massive popularity.

Jill liked being in the thick of it, so Café Du Monde was her preference.

She hadn’t joined the line yet, so taking a table when the place was slammed was basically illegal.

The employees would typically kick people out for sitting without buying because they needed the tables, but Jill was a regular.

So was Melinda. They all knew them here and also knew that they sent tours to this café every day, so keeping a table for a few extra minutes while she waited for her friends was fine as long as she ordered soon.

Jill wished she had a girlfriend to bring beignets back to.

She was twenty-six, almost twenty-seven, so she wasn’t a million-years-old and still single or anything, but she’d had a rough year or two where love was concerned.

She’d watched all of her old and new friends go from being single to being in a pair, and it was as if the universe was conspiring to keep her the only single one among them.

Sure, she’d met Enid not that long ago through Rory, and they had had a couple of good dates, but that had been after Jill had had a tiny crush on Rory first, only for Rory to meet Logan before Jill had taken a shot and asked her out.

She’d gone for Enid next, and Enid had been great while it lasted.

They had made out, and Jill had wanted to take things further, but Enid had been dating Caroline at the same time, which had presented its own challenges.

Jill hadn’t expected them to be exclusive so early on or anything, but when Enid had chosen Caroline over her, it had stung.

She had handled it the best she could and now considered Enid to be one of her closest friends, but it was just yet another example of a coupled-off friend in her friend circle.

Of course, all of this had happened after Melinda and Kyle had met, and they were now engaged and planning their wedding.

Bridgette and Monica had found each other next, and they were getting married soon, too.

It had taken Sophie and Bryce a year to find each other again after they’d somehow had that instant connection thing that no one really got anymore these days, and while Jill had been happy to have helped reunite them, that had crossed another single friend off the list. They were still long-distance, but it was likely that Bryce would be moving to New Orleans within the next few months.

Then, through work, Jill had met Linden and Asher.

She’d actually made out with Linden on the dance floor one night, thinking they could maybe have fun, even if it wasn’t going to last forever, but Linden and Asher had finally figured out that after ten years of friendship, it was supposed to be them in the end.

Asher was now running her own wedding planning company while Linden continued to work at their old company, and Jill was convinced that the competition between the two of them was really merely foreplay.

Rory had met Logan next, introducing Jill to a single-at-the-time Enid, but the joy of having another single person in the group hadn’t lasted all that long, and Enid was with Caroline now.

While those two were a bit different because they hadn’t yet declared their undying love like all the others had, Jill had spent some time with them recently, and they seemed to really get each other.

They’d gotten apartments about ten minutes away from each other, planning to go back and forth for some time, but Jill knew that, inevitably, they, too, would move in together. Then, there was Jill.

“Alone, as always,” she said to herself because there was no one sitting at the table with her, and she was, unfortunately, starting to get used to that.

Still, she liked her life. She loved her job as a tour guide, and Melinda, her boss, was about to promote her to manage the office in the French Quarter while she looked into leasing another one in the city that Enid could potentially run once it opened.

Jill wasn’t making the kind of money she could retire on any time soon, but she had fun at her job, and not many people could say that, especially at her age.

She wasn’t sure if she’d give tours or manage the office forever, but she loved working outside, walking around, and showing off her city to tourists who had never been before and some who came back time and again.

She also had a new apartment she’d spent a lot of time putting together over the past couple of months, and she had great friends.

It felt like there was one thing missing, though. She no longer wanted to kiss someone on the dance floor and have that be the end of it. She didn’t want to date around or be one of a few women that someone else was dating while they contemplated their choice. She was ready for something real.

When her phone rang, Jill expected it to be Mel or Rory telling her that they were on their way or running late, but she was very surprised to see that it was her mother.

“Hey, Mom,” she said.

“Hi,” her mom replied in a clipped tone.

“What’s going on?” Jill asked.

“I need you to take care of your sister for me.”

“Okay. Um… When?” she asked, thinking she would need to pull up her calendar on her phone to see if she was available for whatever her mom needed.

“Now,” her mom replied. “Well, in a couple of hours or so.”

“Oh,” Jill said, putting her finger in her ear because the café was crowded, and excited tourists were noisy. “I’m on a break, but I have another tour to give before I’m off work for the day.”

“Can you be here in a couple of hours, Jill?”

“Yeah, I guess. What’s going on, Mom?” she repeated.

“Your grandparents are both sick,” her mom said.

“What?”

“I’m not sure what’s going on. Mom got it first, but Dad got it after.

Now, they’re both down for the count, and they’re not exactly healthy people to begin with.

Mom still smokes a pack a day, and Dad has at least three beers a night, which isn’t good at his age.

I’m going to drive there tonight so that I can get there tomorrow morning. ”

“Mom, that’s dangerous. It’s a long drive. Just leave tomorrow morning.”

“No, they have doctor’s appointments that I made for them at ten. If I don’t get there in time to pick them up and take them there, they won’t go. You know how stubborn your grandparents are.”

“Yeah, I guess. But are you sure? Maybe you should take Juni with you.”

“I can’t. She has summer school.”

“She’s in summer school? Since when?”

“Since the summer, Jill,” her mom said. “It’s summer school.”

Jill rolled her eyes and asked, “ Why is she in summer school, Mom?”

“She failed science and math. They won’t let her into the fifth grade unless she passes her classes this summer.

I was going to have her repeat the grade, but she really doesn’t want to watch her friends move on ahead of her, so she promised me she’d pass the classes if she took them in the summer.

So far, she’s doing okay, but I’ll need you to take her and pick her up. ”

“Mom, I have work,” she said.

“You’re a tour guide, Jill,” her mom replied. “And you’re friends with your boss. I’m sure she can let you come in a little later or leave a little earlier to take care of your sister. I need to be with my parents right now, Jill.”

Jill sighed and asked, “How long will you be gone?”

“I don’t know. It depends on what’s wrong with them. If it’s just a bad cold, I’ll be back within the week, I imagine. If it’s something more, I’ll have to figure it out then. Oh, and I need you to stay at the house.”

“Why can’t she stay with me?”

“You have a one-bedroom apartment, Jill. I have a three-bedroom house. She has her room and her stuff at home.”

“Fine. Whatever,” Jill replied, giving in.

“Don’t sound so excited to spend time with your sister.”

“Mom, she’s ten years old. It’s not like we have anything to talk about.”

Juniper, or Juni as they called her, was technically Jill’s half-sister.

Her mother had remarried Jill’s stepdad, and Juni had been their little surprise.

Unfortunately, Juni’s dad had died almost a year ago in a car accident, and her mom had been on her own with Juni ever since.

Jill suspected that part of the reason Juni might have failed those classes was because she’d lost her father so unexpectedly.

Jill knew her mom had been having a difficult time, too, and she felt bad because she hadn’t been spending much time with her mom or her sister.

“She’s still your sister. You know she’s been struggling. She lost her father, and you’re not around much. This will be a chance for you two to finally bond. I’ll leave you enough cash for a week for food and gas to get her to and from school. If I need to send more later, I will.”

“What about your job?”

“I talked to my boss,” her mom said before she paused for some reason. “I’m taking a week off, and if I need to go on a leave of absence after, that’s an option.”

“Okay,” Jill said.

“Can you go pack a bag after work and get over here? I’ll order you and Juni a pizza before I hit the road.”

“I’ll need to talk to Melinda first. I was going to handle the office for a while after my tour.”

“Well, just get here as soon as you can, then. I’m going to finish packing and tell your sister to expect you.”

“Okay,” Jill replied. “Are Grandma and Grandpa really sick, Mom? Should I be worried?”

“I don’t think so, no. I think they’re both old and stubborn and just need someone to kick them in the ass.

I’d like to be on the road by six, Jill.

If you’re not here by then, I’ll still probably go.

Juni will be fine by herself for an hour or two.

She has homework I can have her work on while she waits for you. ”

“I should be able to be there by six or right after.”

“Okay. Good,” her mom replied.

There was another long pause, and Jill thought her mom had hung up until she heard her sniffle on the other side of the phone.

“I love you, Jilly Bean.”

“Mom, I’m not really Jilly Bean anymore.” Jill laughed.

“You’ll always be my Jilly Bean,” her mom replied.

Jill rolled her eyes and said, “I love you, too. I’ll get there as soon as I can tonight, okay?”

“Thank you, honey. I knew I could count on you.”

Jill hung up the phone and checked her calendar for the next week.

It would be hard, but she could make it work.

She would have to trade a few tours with Melinda and Rory and ask Melinda to have one of the part-timers cover her office shifts in order to pick Juni up from school.

She had no idea what time normal school let out and definitely didn’t know if summer school was any different, so she would have to ask her mom about the drop-off and pickup times before she asked Melinda for any adjustments, but it was only for about a week, so she thought she could make this work.

It had been strange for Jill, going from being an only child for the first sixteen years of her life to having an infant in the house, whom she had to babysit for her mom and stepdad all the time.

It was as if they thought Jill was a third parent when she was only a teenager who hadn’t wanted a sibling to begin with.

She had left the house at eighteen when Juni was only two, and other than holidays and the occasional family dinner, Jill hadn’t spent much time with her kid sister.

It was hard to believe that Juni was already ten years old and about to be a fifth grader, assuming she passed her classes this summer.

Jill stared down at her calendar for another minute, and her phone dinged with a message from Enid.

Enid Becker : Hey. Want to go out tonight? Care’s doing her street art thing, and I still owe you a night out to help you get laid.

Jill laughed, recalling how she’d said that in jest to Enid the night Enid had ended things, but if Enid was really going to go through with it, Jill wouldn’t oppose the idea.

Unfortunately, the one night Enid wasn’t spending with her new girlfriend happened to be the first night Jill would be taking care of her sister.

It reminded her a lot of the night she’d been seventeen and excited about her first date with a girl she’d liked forever.

Of course, her mother had thought they were only two girls hanging out and not that Jill had been hoping to get to at least feel some boobs that night, if not more, so when her mom and her stepdad decided that they’d wanted to go out for a date night themselves, they’d left Juni with Jill, thinking she could hang out with her friends anytime.

Three days later, the girl Jill had liked had gone out with another girl, and a week after that, they’d been walking down the halls holding hands, and Jill had had to go home and watch the baby again.

Jill hadn’t been one to complain. In fact, if her friends asked her about her family life, she’d sometimes embellished, and other times, just flat-out lied.

Maybe that was wrong, but it was easier than telling everyone that her mother had been much happier in her second marriage and with her second kid than she’d ever been with Jill.

Yes, her mother loved her. Jill knew that much.

But it was definitely different for Juni, and Jill didn’t like having to tell people that she was jealous of her little sister, who’d done nothing wrong.

It made her seem petty, and Jill didn’t like to be petty.

She liked to be the fun one, the life of the party, the one making the jokes.

All of that was easier than thinking about the fact that she hadn’t seen her sister in well over six months.